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nuate, that the least blame can reasonably attach to Sir Harford Jones, on account of the marks of respect which he thought proper to show towards the firman or letter, which was addressed to him on his route by the king of Persia: (see p. 95.) But we think it a base compliance with the worst prejudices of the Persians, to adopt their usages on similar occasions of our own, and that too in such a manner as to lead them to assimilate in their own minds the king of England, a constitutional and limited sovereign, to the one who tramples upon every thing that is dear and sacred among themselves.

The speech which. Sir Harford Jones made to the king of Persia at his first audience, comes next under our consideration; the first paragraph of it is devoted to the affairs of the king, his master, and the succeeding one to his own. To have been charged with such a commision,' he says, I shall always consider as the most distinguished and honourable event of my life.' No doubt it was so; but did Sir Harford Jones mean by this declaration to inform his Persian majesty of the immense height to which he had been raised; from the civil service of the East-India Company to the rank of his majesty's envoy? We appre hend he did not; and we rather suppose that the king of Persia understood by it, that the highest honour which his Britannic Majesty could confer on any of his subjects, was to send them with a petition to approach the dust of his feet,' and consequently, that the individual, who was then standing before him barefooted on a wet brickpavement, had actually reached the highest possible pitch of grandeur, which even the king of England can

conceive.

If Sir Harford Jones had previously formed a just estimate of oriental honours, he would, instead of disputing for marks of distinction with the governor of every petty village on his route, have disregarded every thing besides the manner of his being received at court. Mr. Morier indeed says, p. 185, that it was agreed in a conference with the ministers, that the audience should be exactly 'the same as that given to ambassadors at Constantinople;' and yet, in the very next sentence, (although the Persians, he says, have learned to esteem uniforms and swords as the dress of ceremony among Europeans) he tells us, that the mission appeared in green slippers with high heels and red cloth stockings, an arrangement which has no Counterpart whatever in the ceremonial practised at Com

stantinople. He says, indeed, that this is the courtdress always worn before the king of Persia, though, somewhat in contradiction to it, he adds in p.. 189, that they took off their slippers before they went into the royal presence.

On a former occasion, when Sir Harford Jones was admitted to an audience with the Prince of Shiraz, the son of the king, he and his suite were desired by the prince to sit down; accordingly they took their stations in order and though the prince desired them to sit at their ease, they chose to remain in the posture of Asiatics rather than not appear respectful; a posture as inconvenient as it is degrading; which Mr. Morier himself describes, p. 40, by saying, that it was necessary to sit upon the heels, as they are tucked up under the hams after the fashion of a camel; or, as we understand it, that the English mission continued kneeling in the presence of the Persian prince.

It may perhaps be objected to us, that these compliances with Persian etiquette, which to us carry with them an air of mean submission, were useful in ensuring success to the negociation, and that Sir Harford Jones's conduct is completely justified by his having carried his great object, and, according to Mr. Morier,

having concluded a treaty with Persia, (where the French influence had already baffled and driven away one English agent,) by which the French, in their turns, were expelled, and our influence was restored; at a time when, instead of co-operation, he experienced only counteraction from the British government in India, and encountered all the rivalry of the active and able emissaries of France.'

Far indeed be it from us to withhold from Sir Harford Jones the praise which is justly his due. We, however, learn from Mr. Morier himself, that the court of Persia was already disgusted with its French allies, and was previously disposed to adopt the measures which Sir Harford Jones went to recommend. Of this there can be no doubt, unless we suppose in the Persian court a duplicity more shamelessly avowed than is usual in any other court; for the king himself, in a letter which he wrote to the envoy, styles the French, with more rancour than meaning, the common enemy.' (see p. 183.)

* An ambassador at Constantinople indeed puts on a pelisse before be is admitted to the presence of the sultan; but a pelisse barmonizes as well with the European as with the Turkish costume; and it is besides, in the opinion of the Turks themselves, the most distinguished mark of he nour which the sovereign can bestow either on a native or a foreigner.

The emptiness of all the popular honours for which Sir Harford Jones so strenuously contended, and the insignificance of the people themselves, in a political point of view, are strongly exemplified in their conduct towards General Gardanne, when, in consequence of the envoy's successful representations,' he had lost the favour of the

court.

The French embassador,' says Mr. M. 220, was already dismissed and in a few days the king sent an order to the remainder of the legation to quit Teheran immediately. The people were then as inveterate against the French as they had before been disposed to court them. When Messrs. Jouannin and Nerciat prepared to obey this order, and were leaving the city, the mule-drivers (hired by the king for the conveyance of their baggage, and sent forwards in the usual form), stopped at the gate, and cutting the lading from their beasts, threw every thing upon the ground and ran off.'

The progress of the negociation is pleasantly and characteristically detailed. It was begun at Bushire, whence the envoy dispatched letters to the prince of Shiraz and to the prime minister of Teheran,

'containing the simple statement, that the writer had arrived as envoy extraordinary from the king of Great Britain to the king of Persia, in order to confirm and augment the amity which had so long existed between the two countries.' p. 29.

In settling certain preliminaries,

'the envoy,' says Mr. M. p. 35, felt himself compelled to remark, that the correspondence during the negociation must be absolutely and in every view independant; and he desired the Khan accordingly to intimate this determination to the prince's minister.

We extract this last paragraph verbatim, in order that our readers may form a just estimate of the talents of Persians for carrying on negociations; for really if the Khan could possibly have guessed what was meant by this declaration on the part of the envoy, he must have been much more deeply versed in the mystic language of diplomacy than we can pretend to be.

The details of the subsequent progress of the negociation," says Mr. M. were daily minuted in my journal; but they involve so many personal considerations that they could not be fairly published, even if I had not acquired the information by confidential and official opportunities. I sacrifice, therefore, but with deep regret, the power of doing that justice to the merits of the British envoy which the simple narrative, without one comment, would have afforded.- -Ön another motive I regret the omission of these notes. They would have charagCRIT. REV. Vol. 1, January, 1812. G

terized, I believe with fidelity, the habits and modes of thinking of a Persian statesman, and added an amusing document to the annals of diplomacy. The conferences of the plenipotentiaries were carried on at times with the warmest contentions, at other times interrupted by the loudest laughter on the most indifferent subject. One night the parties had sat so long, and had talked so much without producing conviction on either side, that the plenipotentiaries by a sort of un-official compact, fell asleep. The prime minister and the Ameen-ed-Dowlah snored aloud in one place, and the envoy and I stretched ourselves along in another. Though on the very first night of the discussion, the parties had separated with a full conviction that every thing was settled; and though the prime minister himself, laying his hand on the envoy's shoulder, had said to him, "you have already completed what the king of England himself in person could not have done;" yet the very next conference, they came forwards with pretensions alike new and extravagant. At the close of that meeting however, the chief secretary was appointed to bring the treaty written fair to the envoy on the following morning. Instead of this, the prime minister sent a large citron, and inquired after the envoy's health. On another occasion, the Persian plenipotentiaries swore that every thing should be as the envoy wished, and instantly wrote out a corresponding form of treaty, to which (rather than start a difficulty about indifferent words) he assented. They were then so anxious that he should immediately attend them to the king's summer palace to sign, that they would not give him time to translate it into English: he however refused to sign a Persian treaty, till the English copy was ready. They so little expected this refusal, that they had already, by the king's desire, sent thirty mule-loads of fruits, sherbets, and sweetmeats to celebrate the event at the new palace; and were of course displeased and disappointed. At another time, in the middle of a very serious conversation, the prime minister stopped short, and asked the envoy very coolly to tell him the history of the world from the creation. This was intended as a joke upon one of the secretaries, who was then writing the annals of the reign of the present king. On another occasion, in which the same minister was deeply and personally interested, and in which he invoked every thing sacred to attest his veracity, and convince the envoy, (now, "by the head of the king;" then " by Mecca;" then, "by the salt of FATH ALI SHAH") he turned to me in a pause of his discourse, and asked if I were married, and begun (began) some absurd story.' p.

198-200.

As soon as the treaty was signed, Mr. Morier was appointed by Sir Harford Jones to accompany the envoy extraordinary from the court of Persia to England. This -gave him an opportunity of continuing the very interesting

journey which he had begun at Bushire on the Persian Gulf, through the heart of the kingdom of Persia, by Armenia and Asia Minor, as far as Constantinople. Part of it may be considered as new ground in European description; and even that which has before been trodden over, is not so well known as to depretiate, in any degree the remarks of so observant a traveller as our author. As far as we can judge of Mr. M. from his book, he appears to be admirably qualified for the station which he fills. He possesses spirit, activity and intelligence, together with an eager desire of acquiring information, and taste and judgment in directing his attention to the most deserving objects. What we further admire in him, is the manliness of his character. He is patient under the inconveniences of new habits, and extraordinary privations. We hear from him no whinings about scanty food and bad accommodations; no disgusting egotisms; no exaggerated representations of imaginary dangers, and no affectedly modest exhibitions of romantic bravery. If there be any thing which we rather dislike, it is the too frequent indulgence in what, in a more puritanical age than the present, would be called devout breathings, or pious ejaculations. Some of these, however, are pleasant enough.

Throughout the whole tract, indeed (he says, p. 263), every thing was in life and spring. The animals felt the influence of the season; and our horses in passing the herds around were scarcely manageable. One threw his rider, and after having given him a bite on the shoulder attacked his fellows, and fought with some fury.' Mr. M. next describes the joy of the larks, and thus concludes: the whole creation seemed to give praise to its great creator.' p. 263.

We do not learn whether this religious turn, which Mr. M. displays rather too ostentatiously, was an habit previously established, or whether it originated from the cir cumstance of his having been appointed by the envoy to officiate as chaplain to the mission. We should indeed have thought it very natural, even if we had not been told of this appointment, that English gentlemen, in a distant country, would occasionally have felt pleasure in reverting to national customs, and celebrating divine service according to the rites of the established church. But we are more than half inclined to believe, that the mission, in many of the instances here recorded, were not actuated altogether by the purest motives; and that all this parade of devotion was assumed only for the purpose of astonishing the weak minds of the natives. Mr. Morier observes, p. 47. that, G2

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