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

92 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. II.

and breadth of this her extensive Indian empire; while a strong incentive will be created, which we are convinced will be generally felt, to emulate those good deeds for which you have been so distinguished.

“When we consider that but a few years ago, when it was proposed to render natives eligible to serve on the Grand Jury, and to hold commissions as Justices of the Peace, the measure was opposed at the India House by all the Directors except the late excellent Governor Sir James Carnac, our much-esteemed and lamented friend Mr. John Forbes, and the present chairman Mr. G. Lyall, and was at length carried only by the untiring and philanthropic exertion of the then president of the Board of Control, Lord Glenelg, aided by other tried and distinguished friends of India, and contrast this with (what we understand to be) the fact that the proposal to confer on you the honour of knighthood was unanimously supported by that honourable body, we cannot but rejoice at the change of feeling from that then evinced towards the natives of this country. We hail it as the harbinger of a brighter day for India, when Britain shall no longer view her dominion here as a means of aggrandisement for her own sons, but as a sacred trust, of which the paramount object is the welfare of the children of the soil, and the improvement and elevation of their moral and social condition.

“We shall not expatiate upon your princely donation of a lakh and Rs.50,000 towards a foundation of a hospital for all classes of the community ; your munificent offer to Government to contribute Rs.50,000 towards the ‘construction of a causeway or velard at Mahim to connect Bombay and Salsette ; the construction of a spacious building at Khandala, on the high road to the Deccan, for the accommodation of travellers ; nor upon the prompt and liberal relief which, from your own purse and through your personal exertions, has been afforded to your fellowcreatures in distress, especially on the two occasions on which the city of Surat was visited with extensive and calamitous fires, While in your private charities your hand has ever been ready to alleviate the sufferings of the widow and orphan, the unfortunate and the destitute, there are few public institutions at this Presidency which have not shared largely in your bounty.