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

cHaP.11.] APPEAL TO BOMBAY PARSIS. 71

oppression and for the removal of the various disadvantages under which their brethren in Persia have so long been suffering. The author, in a work on the Parsis published a quarter of a century ago, after reciting the hardships to which they were subjected, expressed himself as follows :—“But can we ourselyes do nothing for our unfortunate coreligionists in Persia? Our community possesses considerable weight, and includes amongst its members names known all over the world for their exertions in the cause of humanity, and the amelioration of the condition of their countrymen generally. A deputation, therefore, of our race to the Persian Court, duly accredited by the English Government, and presented by the British Ambassador at Teheran, might, we believe, remonstrate with success against the cruelties now practised upon our Zoroastrian brethren in Persia. The amount raised by the capitation tax now levied upon them, and which is attended by circumstances of so much cruelty, must be to the imperial revenue insignificant in the extreme, and it is not improbable that a dignified representation on the subject made by a suitable embassy from the Parsis of India might succeed in abolishing it. Persian princes seldom know the true state of their subjects, and we cannot but think that our countrymen would reflect honour upon themselves by an adequate effort to relieve the miseries of our Zoroastrian brethren in the fatherland.”