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

CHAP, VI.] GOD BLESS THE QUEEN! 295

With regard to the present position of the Parsis, it may be said that they are well launched on the path of progress. With the advent of British power in India better and brighter days dawned for them. With the rise of that power have they risen from poverty and oppression to security and wealth. Upon that power they depend and implicitly rely. It has developed again in their race those high qualities which history attributes to their early ancestors. With its aid they have been able to help and relieve their oppressed brethren in a distant land. To it they owe everything, and from it they hope to gain still more, Can it then be wondered at that loyalty —consistent, deep, and abiding loyalty—coupled with a touching reverence and affection for the royal family, has become a part of the Parsi nature, almost a part of the Parsi religion ? so that with one consent the whole community daily prays “God bless the

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Queen !