History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. II.] PERSIAN ADMINISTRATION. 69°

Koran. The Parsis were the first victims of this popular fury, and many of them were killed, including, we may assume, the particular object of the “mulla’s” hatred.

Such mstances are of frequent occurrence. It is said that the present Shah and his ministers are not wilfully guilty of injustice. There is merely, as must be the case in all half-civilised despotic states, no uniform system of law under their government for the guidance and regulation of the conduct of officers entrusted with the administration of justice and charged with the security of the lives and property of the subjects. The principal check upon these officers is the dread of superiors to whom the injured can always appeal. They regulate their actions according to the disposition of the despot of the day, and are active and just, or corrupt and cruel, as he happens to be vigilant and virtuous, or avaricious and tyrannical. That the majority of the sovereigns who have sat on the throne of Persia have belonged to the latter class is not to be disputed; and we hope that the present Shah, who has often proved himself a humane and enlightened monarch, will long be spared to make his crown renowned for clemency and justice to his subjects of every creed.

The physical and moral condition of the Parsis in Persia has remained little changed since the time when they called the country their own. Centuries