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

246 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. V.

to Parsis on the same principles as in the Mofussil. Thus in the case of the “Ghistas” Sir James Mackintosh, just before leaving India in 1811, was induced, on evidence that such was Parsi usage, to admit to the right of inheritance the illegitimate son of an intestate Parsi, because he had been invested with the sacred badge. This decision, which caused a great sensation among the Parsi community at the time, was reversed by Sir John Newbold (Sir James Mackintosh’s immediate acting successor), and it is by no means improbable that this and other instances of the difficulty and uncertainty introduced into the administration of law among Parsis, by the admission of such evidence of usage, had much to do with inducing the judges of the late Supreme Court to exclude Parsis from the benefit of that clause in the Charter of 1823 which provides: “That matters of contract, inheritance, and succession should be determined, in the case of Mahomedans, by the laws and usages of the Mahomedans, and in the case of the Gentoos by the laws and usages of the Gentoos.” The judges of the late Supreme Court declined to regard the Parsis as Gentoos, and from thenceforth the Parsis within the limits of the late Supreme Court were “in all matters of contract, inheritance, and succession ” subjected to English civil law.

Thus the Parsis of the Mofussil and of the Presidency towns were exposed, in the administration