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

CHAP. V.] AN ANOMALOUS POSITION. 247

of the law, to two different classes of evils—in the Mofussil to the fluctuation and uncertainty of decision necessarily arising from admitting proof of unwritten usage as evidence of what the law is, and to the consequent encouragement thus given to speculative litigation; and in the Presidency towns to the still graver inconvenience of being subjected, in matters of contract, inheritance, and succession, to a system of laws which were utterly unsuited to their social usages and requirements, while in matters matrimonial it is beyond all doubt that before 1865 they were practically without any law.

Tt was the consideration of the former class of evils that led, in 1828, to the letter and the queries of Mr. Borradaile, addressed to the Parsi communities of Surat and Bombay, in which he stated that, in consequence of their possessmg no regular code of laws to which all the men of their nation could pay obedience, great litigation had risen amongst them, and that, as they had no ancient book of laws which all their tribe accept, and no record of their ancient usages, it was the opinion of Government that they, the Parsis of Surat and Bombay, should assemble and consult together, commit their laws and customs to writing, and deliberately adopt a code of laws for their own government and guidance. Otherwise, the writer added that there would be no end to the

disputes and litigation among the body of their