The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-28 00:00:00

Two Decisions of the Bombay Court.

Two striking cases have lately been decided in
the law courts of Bombay. When Mr. Calm()Lm
ANSTEY sat as Judge, it fell to his lot to try some
cases of " Limited Liability" Swindles, which then
in Bombay, even more than now in England, brought
disgrace on the commercial character of the country.
It was the hard fate of some unfortunate directors
to be brought before one of the most stern and un-
compromising Judges ever educated to the English
bar. Native ingenuity, subtle lying, and tor-
tuous legal devices were of no avail to the
gang who had taken to that fashionable
means of plundering. They were convicted
of fraud, and sentenced to penal servitude. After
Mr. ANSTEY left India an appeal was made against
this sentence, but in vain ; no cause could be
shown, against the judgment awarded. We venture
to say that the lesson taught by this decree will
remain implanted in the native mind for a genera-
tion to come, and will teach her Majesty's Indian
subjects the danger of adding the European
practices of swindling, to their own modes of
extortion and deceit. The history of a most extra-
ordinary case just decided by Sir JOSEPH ARNOLD,
judge of the Supreme Court, is given in an admir-
able article in last week's Spectator. AGA KHAN,
once a leader of Persian rebels, now a resident at
Bombay, appealed to this tribunal against a split in
the Order over which he presided as Hereditary
Grand Master. The sect he ruled are the Assassins,
and the Chief claims to be the lineal heir of the
"Old Man of the Mountain." In the year, 1090,
HASSAN BEN SABA, a Persian Sheeah, settled him-
self at Alimut, a crag of the El Burz Mountain,
where lie organised a sect which has maintained
istclf through every vicissitude, though not in
the same locality, to the present day. To
establish his CWID, AGA KHAN had to furnish
documentary proof that he was the rightful heir of
this adventurer. The sect of the Assassins held
the doctaine that the heirs of ALI, through
ISHMAIL, the Seventh descendant of MAHOMET,
are by hereditary right Imaun, or supreme
pontiffs of all true believers, with spiritual
powers almost, if not quite, divine, and therefore
obedience to their command is the first law. The
founder enforced obedience so strongly as to declare
asswination, if ordered by himself, a virtue en-
titling the murderer to instant beatification, and
thus made the name of his sect a European equiva-
lent for a secret murderer. The fourth Itnaun ex-
tended the latitude of the sect ia a direction ab-
horrent to Mahommedans, authorising the eating of
swine's flesh and the drinking of wine to excess.
The Califfs, after threatening the sect with annihi-
lation, at last destroyed Alimut in 1258. From
this period the sect was compelled to adopt the
mode of concealment of assuming in every country
the external forms of that country's faith. The
succession, however, of the Imauns was unbroken,
the Lnaun being reverenced almost as a god. By

the aid of missionaries the sect was constantly re-
cruited, and though it ceased to take a prominent
place, its chief continued to be regarded as a great
and dangerous noble, to whom Shahs gave their
daughters in marriage. About the year 1460 PIE.
SCEDORDIN was sent as a missionary to Scinda by
the fourteenth Imaun, where he converted some
thousands of Ilindoo families. The sect, keeping
up its habit of secresy, multiplied, grew rich, and
on the establishment of British power emigrated
in great numbers to Bombay. Exclusive of
the Persian and Arab Ishmailees, there are
now 1,400 Assassin families in Bombay, 2,000 in
Sciude, 5,000 in Cutch, 400 in Zanzibar, smaller
communities throughout Western India, and as far
east as Dacca, who for ages have paid and do pay
tribute to the hereditary Imams, reverence his
orders as divine, and hold that he is the incarnation
of the ALINIVIIITY. They are accused, the Spectator
says, with probable justice, of disbelieving i❑ any
morality whatever superior to the will of the linaun,
in any law save their own interest and that of the
Order of Assassins. It is difficult for Europeans to
understand the influences that move the Asiatic
mind. AGA KIIAN was well known iu India as a
native gentleman fond of horse-racing. He Was
to be seen at all the great meetings, and took an
active part in the sport. Nobody thought of in-
quiring who he was. Little credit would have been
given to the statement, had it been made, that he
was the chief of the sect of the Assassins, and the
lineal descendant of the " Old Man of the Mona-
" taro," who is believed to have ordered the assas-
sination of RICHARD C(EUR DE LION. In 1838
AGA KIIAN was residing in the Persian province of
Kerman, the acknowledged Imaun of the Ishmailees.
The Shah, having failed in the siege of Herat, the
opportunity was given to the Khan of seizing Ker-
man and openly proclaiming his tenets and autho-
rity. After two years' war he was defeated and fled
into Licinde. He there found 3,000 families ready to
receive him, and by their contributions and aid he
organised a body of Light Noes-, joined Gener.:l
NOTT in the Affghan war, and received for his ser-
vices a pension from the British Government. From
1845 he resided in Bombay, carrying on the intrigues
which the native mind delights in. He administered
the entire property of the sect, and in 1861 he again
considered himself strong enough to order his people
—at least throughout India—to abandon their prac-
tice of secrecy, and profess openly the faith of Ish-
mail. All obeyed except 400 families in Bombay,
who mutinied, and demanded that the property of
the order should be managed by a lay committee.
These British notions in a British province could
not summarily be disposed of as might have suited
the inclination of the King of Assassins—so the
Imaun appealed to the Supreme Court, and hence
this extraordinary trial. After crowds of witnesses
had been heard, many of whom professed blind obe-
dience, and documents studied, many of which
reached back into the Middle Ages, it was solemnly
determined that the Khojahs were part of the
Ishmailee sect—that the first tenet of that sect is
obedience to the Hereditary Grand Master of the
Order of Assassins—that'AGAKJlAN was that Grand
Master; i.e., was the lineal representative of AM)
wilo died before ROLLO conquered Normandy, and
that as such he was entitled to absolute control over
the whole property of the order.

We tell this story from facts given by the Spectator,
as it furnishes a curious illustration of the difficul-
ties of the British Government in India. We can-
not understand the charm which secret societies
have for the Asiatic mind. Few people had an idea
that the Chief and a large part of the Order of
Assassins were established in the British dominions.
The Government did know, ftr it was compelled to
exercise some control over AGA KHAN'S intrigues 111
Persia. A revolt, led by the descendant of the
" Old Man of the Mountain," would have taken
the British public, by surprise. AGA KHAN, hOW-
ever, has been wise in his generation. lie has ob-
tained a legal decision, by which he has been recog-
nised and established by British law._ A 71010-Ana"
ric a n 7 imes.