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

252 AAISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. V.

of the Supreme Court of Bombay, than whom none among those who have sat upon the Bench of any of the supreme courts of this country has ever been a greater well-wisher to the natives of India, wrote in the year 1843 to a well-known member of the Parsi community in these words: “I have been so fully impressed for some time past with the necessity of a legislative enactment for the Parsis, that I had determined to draw up a report to Goyernment, pointing out what the subjects are on which legislation is required, and discussing the different provisions which it might be expedient to adopt.”

Acting upon such hints and advice, two or three efforts were made to devise a code for the Parsis, but they proved unsuccessful, owing to the want of unanimity among them. The last step, however, which the Parsi community took in this matter in the year 1855, aided by the wisdom and experience of its elder, and the vigour, activity, and industry of its younger and more educated members, met with the success it deserved.

In response to advertisements which appeared in all the Gujarati journals, a public meeting of the members of the community was held on the 20th August 1855, at Bombay, in the hall of one of their firetemples, for the purpose of adopting measures for declaring the laws binding upon the professors of the Zoroastrian faith. There were present on the occasion,