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

cuaP.v.] THE PARST LAW ASSOCIATION. 253

besides the heads of the community, many of its most influential members. The whole assemblage numbered upwards of 3,000 persons.

The object of the meeting was fully explained by Mr. Naorozji Fardunji, who recounted at some length the history of the previous efforts of the Parsis to obtain for themselves a uniform system of laws. The Parsi Law Association was then formed. The meeting having declared that it was deeply impressed with the necessity of procuring for the community the enactment of laws adapted to their race, and such as might be recognised and enforced by the local authorities and by courts of justice, a managing committee of one hundred and fifty gentlemen was appointed. These again selected by ballot twenty from among themselves to form a sub-committee, to which was entrusted the task of preparing a draft code of laws, and of petitioning the Legislative Council of India for their due and formal enactment. The late Mr. Manakji Nasarvanji Petit was the first chairman, and after him Mr. Framji Nasarvanji Patel acted in that capacity, while Messrs. Naorozji Fardunji and Sorabji Shapurji Bengali were the joint honorary secretaries.

The committee set earnestly to work in the business which had been entrusted to it by the voice of the whole community, and, after much labour, careful investigation, and exhaustive inquiry, 1t prepared a