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

236 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. v.

members having on their deaths been usurped by their sons, worthily or unworthily, or by others whose sole recommendation was their influence or connection with the surviving members. A Panchayet thus constituted could not and did not act with the fearless independence of the body elected in 1818. It therefore fell into contempt. The Parsi community at this time had also considerably increased in numbers, and when an influential or wealthy man committed a breach of the social laws enacted by the old Panchayet, he relied on the support of his friends and adherents: and the existing members of their body had not the moral courage to deal with such offenders in the same manner as their predecessors had been in the habit of domg. The fact was soon made clear that they had one law for the rich and another for the poor. When a rich man committed bigamy he not only escaped punishment, but members of the Panchayet itself held free intercourse with him. The terrors of its law were reserved for the needy! A body acting on this principle deserved to die, and it passed away without regret in the year 1836.

Common sense suggests that an assembly profess-

any offence at what had occurred, he highly approved of and applauded the act of his colleague, and consented to the assembly of the Panchayet, which accordingly met the next day, when in the midst of that body he expressed his displeasure at what his sister had done, and caused one of her sons (Ardeshir Framji Wadia) to pay on her behalf the doty fine to the Panchayet.”