THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For JANUARY, 1814. ART. I. A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1858 and 1809, in which is included some Account of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., K. C., to the Court of the King of Persia. By James Morier, Esq., His Majesty's Secretory of Embassy to the Court of Persia. With twenty-five Engravings from the Designs of the Author; a Plate of Inscriptions, and three Maps; one from the Observations of Captain James Sutherland; and two drawn by Mr. Morier, and Major Rennel. 4to. PP. 454 31. 138. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1812. HE empire of Persia acts so conspicuous a part in the history of the world, that it is at all times an object of liberal curiosity. Events have also recently conspired to connect with it rather strongly the interests of Englishmen: it is one of those kingdoms, the influence of which extends to our Indian dominions; and, by its condition and proceedings, our peace and prosperity in those distant regions are liable to be not slightly affected. THE As long as our principal acquisitions in India were confined to a few provinces on that side of it which is the farthest removed from Persia, and as long as we had powerful antagonists in India who occupied all our attention nearer home, Persia was to us a secondary consideration, and but feebly excited our curiosity. The number of English travellers, who selected that region as the scene of their explorations, was small; and even when the East-India Company had occasion to send their servants over-land, 'few of them regarded the objects which offered themselves to their eye in any part of Persia as worthy of being described, and still fewer took much pains to collect information for the use either of themselves or their countrymen. Lately, however, Persia has assumed in our minds a new station of importance. We have extended our dominion over so great a portion of India, that our boundaries now approach those of the Persian empire; and we have so few competitors for power and dominion remaining in India, that we are VOL. LXXIII. enabled B enabled to look abroad, and to find them at a greater dis tance. Bonaparte, likewise,-who during a considerable number of years has been the main spring of our national movements, and to whom, at the same time that in words we treated him and his power with sovereign contempt, in our actions we ascribed something like omnipotence,contributed to awaken our sensibility on the subject of Persia. He threatened India; and he threatened to avail himself, in some way, we could not tell how, of Persia, in his formidable attempts to wrest from us our eastern empire. It then appeared to be high time to have some communication, in good earnest, with the people and government of that kingdom. Among the circumstances by which we were or affected to be frightened, in the conduct of Tippoo Saib, was not only the sort of intercourse. which he maintained with the French, but that which he opened with the Persians; as if a power at the distance of Persia could avail a prince at the farthest extremity of India. Had Persia, indeed, been able to make a diversion in his favour by attacking the English dominions on the northern frontier, it might have favoured the schemes of Tippoo: but Persia was separated from the English frontier by two nations, the Afghans and the Seiks, who were perfectly able to resist its incursions; and with whom its coalition was not an event to be feared. Be this, however, as it may, Tippoo Saib had an embassy at the court of Fatteh Ali Shah, King of Persia; and the Marquis Wellesley, as Governor-General of India, thought it was necessary that his honourable masters should have a rival mission. It was confided, however, not to an Englishman, but to a Mohammedan of Persian extraction, named Mehede Ali Khan. After the death of Tippoo, the nation known by the name of Afghans, consisting of the race of mountaineers inhabiting the elevated districts on the eastern side of Persia, appeared to the Governor-General to entertain hostile designs. They had at various periods formed a part of the great Persian empire, and had been numbered among the subjects of Cyrus and Darius, as well as those of the Khalifs. From the decline, however, of the Khalifate, when the provinces of Persia successively as sumed independence, or submitted to foreign arms, Afghanis tan had most commonly maintained a sort of government of its own, and at times had risen to great strength and ascendancy. It accomplished the first Mohammedan conquest of India, and gave to that country its first Mohammedan dynasty. It yielded to the superiority of the Moguls: but it grew into importance again on the decline of the Mogul government, possessed itself of several of the upper provinces of India, and carried its ravages to the very capital, of which it was twice in possession. The power to which, during the same period, the Mahrattas had ascended, was alone able to oppose a check to the overwhelming armies of the Afghans. One of the most memorable battles that ever was fought in India took place on the plains of Paniput, in the year 1766, between the Afghans and the Mahrattas, in which the flower of each nation was destroyed; and which so diminished the forces of both, that a field was left open for the English to play with ease that splendid game of conquest of which the history is fresh in our minds. Some movements of Zemaun Shali, the King of the Afghans, about the year 1800, attracted the attention and jealousy of the Angloİndian government; and Captain Malcolm (now Sir John) was deputed, in considerable state, on a sort of diplomatic mission, to sollicit the alliance of Persia against a chief who was equally formidable to both governments. A treaty was not only concluded, but a Persian mission was sent to Calcutta; and the connection of the two countries remained on this complimentary footing, till, lo! a French interest was traced at the court of Persia. Mons. Jouannin, whom Mr. Morier flatters with the appellation of an intelligent Frenchman,' not only gained the ear of Fatteh Ali Shah and his ministers, but actually prevailed on them to send a mission in 1806 to Bonaparte, between whom and Persia a treaty was concluded at Finkinstein, in May 1807. Immediately afterward, a formal embassy, with General Gardanne at its head, was dispatched from France to Persia. The imitative faculty of the English government was now summoned to action: it behoved them also to appoint an embassy to Persia; and Sir Harford Jones, whose long residence in that kingdom gave him a knowlege of the language and of the manners of the people, was chosen his Majesty's envoyextraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to its court. The post of secretary was filled by Mr. Morier. The embassy sailed from England in October 1807, and arrived in the April following at Bombay: where the Envoy learnt that Brigadier-General Malcolm (the gentleman just mentioned) had been already sent by the Governor-General to Persia. As the Brigadier, however, did not succeed, Sir Harford Jones continued his course; and, after having been detained by political arrangements at Bombay till September, he reached Bushire, in the Persian gulph, in the middle of October, proceeded towards the Persian capital in December, reached it on the 14th of February 1809, and signed a preliminary treaty on the 12th of March. Mr. Morier very properly does not pretend to have learned all that is worthy of being known respecting a great country, during a residence of six months, and professes only to tell us B 2 what what he saw and heard in a progress from Bushire, through Shiraz, Persepolis, Ispahan, Teheran, Tabriz, Arz-roum, and Amasia, to Constantinople. This route, which on his return he took in company with Mirza Abul-Hassan, the Persian envoy to England, afforded a tolerably complete specimen, at any rate, of the country; and, during the time which Mr. Morier enjoyed for making his remarks, his opportunities were in many respects better than those that are commonly afforded. Moreover, the powers of observation and reflection with which he is endowed are not of an inferior class; and we know not that, during the period which he spent in the country, it would be easy to collect the materials of a much more instructive book His faculties are ever on the alert; and, though perhaps his mind is not so stored and exercised as to see far below the surface of things, he allows not much to escape him that appears on that surface. It is remarkable that, after the general outline of an empire so little advanced in civilization as Persia, and governed by a despotism so rude and simple as that under which it groans, has once been given, all succeeding surveys and details add very little to our knowlege, and gratify in a very slight degree our curiosity. It is also surprising in how short a time, in such a region, the ground of inquiry becomes exhausted. The machinery and play of government are quickly understood, the condition of the people is every where the same, and the cause of their wretchedness is apparent. It exhibits few conditions in life and few characters: one sort of qualities pervades the nation the occupations are limited: the arts, both necessary and ornamental, are rude; and the whole presents at once a monotonous and a disgusting spectacle. The bounties of nature are lavished in vain. A government made for the benefit only of one, (and a government made for the benefit of a few comes under the same description,) in which the creatures that obey are treated as formed only for the benefit of those that rule, curses the very ground on which its hateful existence is placed; and fertility itself becomes barren, nourishes only the seeds of pestilence and disease. or Hence it arises that few books of travels, or even of history, relating to countries in a similar state of civilization and government with those of Asia, are agreeable to read. The picture of human misery and degradation is deplorable : and human nature, submitting patiently from age to age to the abuse which is poured on it, not only ceases to excite respect, but becomes the object of contempt. We take little interest in the pleasures or pains of such a people; since they seem to be a species of creatures for whom it is not worth our while to feel, because they are incapable of feeling for themselves, or at least of acting as their feelings ought to direct. If the reader be of a philanthrophic and compassionating temper, he grieves ; if he be of strong and ardent feelings, he is filled with indig■ation. In either case, the sensations are painful, and the book which produces them is an unpleasant companion. Social intercourse,-which in general affords the most engaging subjects of description to those who travel among a civilized people, and subjects that always excite our curiosity and affections because they awaken so many of our most delightful associations,—is entirely unknown in countries such as those of which we are speaking. No conversation can subsist among a people who are afraid to speak. Their entertainments are scenes of ceremony, unattended by feelings of sympathy, and yield trouble rather than delight. Among a civilized race, the ingenious products of their industry, the equally ingenious processes by which that industry accomplishes its ends, the animating spectacle of that industry itself, nursed by hope, and generating comfort and satisfaction,-present a most delightful field of observation; of which the delineation, if even tolerably well performed, never ceases to interest and instruct. In countries, however, in which no man has any thing that he can call his own, no industry exists: but a few live in a kind of barbarous splendour on the plunder of the many; they themselves being in perpetual terror of that catastrophe which seldom fails in a very short time to involve in one common ruin their fortune, families, and life. The great mass of the people, on the robbery of whom every man in authority subsists, seek only the means of the most wretched existence, and dread the thought of appearing to possess any thing beyond what is necessary to save them from punishment. In civilized states, that is to say, in states which have enjoyed some share at least of the advantages of good government, we find a variety of classes and of characters; the description of whom, of the shades by which they are diversified, of the contrasts and connections which they exhibit, and of the complicated and interesting whole which united they compose, excites our warmest curiosity, and rouses into action some of our most interesting affections. On the other hand, countries. in that unhappy state of civilization and government in which Persia and the Asiatic kingdoms in general are placed, present even in appearance only two classes; that of tyrants and that of slaves; with neither of whom can we sympathize, and of whose proceedings we hear only to suffer disgust and horror from the conception. The fact is, however, that such countries possess only one class; because it is the slave |