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

254 FAIISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. V.

code of inheritance, succession, and other matters, and sent itin to Government. It wasthen submitted to the Legislative Council of India by the late Mr. LeGeyt, who was at the time the Bombay member in the Supreme Council. The subject was carefully considered by a select committee, and on the 19th of May 1860 the Legislative Council directed the institution of certain inquiries by the Government of Bombay with a view to ascertain the general feelings and wishes of the Parsi community with respect to the several provisions proposed in the draft code. The result was that many adverse opinions were received in regard to several of its provisions from the Parsis of Surat, Broach, Thana, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Poona, and other places in the Bombay Presidency.

The further information thus obtained together with the opinion expressed upon it by the managing committee of the Parsi Law Association was duly forwarded by the Government of Bombay to the Legislative Council, and the select committee in presenting its report recommended that Government should be requested to appoint a Commission to make a preliminary inquiry into the usages recognised as laws by the Parsi community of India, and the necessity of special leoislation in connection with them. The principles on which the inquiry ought to be conducted were intimated in the report. “The

Commission,’ it was suggested, “if assembled in