offensive despatch (inclosure in my despatch of the 21st of November), and to withdraw it; as also to retract whatever charges he had made either here or in writing to foreign Governments calumniating myself and the Mission in respect to improper relations with Meerza Hashem Khan's wife. 3. One of three high officers whom I named to call at the Mission on the part of the Shah to apologize for that most offensive sentence contained in the Royal autograph letter (Inclosure No. 8 in my despatch of the 28th of November), and to withdraw the letter itself. 4. As the Moollahs have been induced by the Sadr Azim to affix the seals of many of them to a document containing similar charges against myself and the Mission, directly tending to bring the Mission and Her Majesty's Government into contempt and odium among the Persian people, the chiefs of that body to call at the Mission to express to me their utter disbelief of the above-named calumnies, and to give me their assurance that they would contradict them wheresoever they might hear them repeated. I think that your Lordship will admit that, considering the repeated and unjustifiable insults that have been offered to myself and the Mission in this matter, and the obstinate pertinacity with which they have been maintained, it would have been impossible for me to have rehoisted the flag with honour, with a less amount of reparation than is herein stated; and I warned the Persian Government that if by refusing it they compelled me to leave Tehran, I would then no longer be bound by the same terms, but should place the matter in the hands of Her Majesty's Government, who would decide what further reparation might be necessary for the vindication of the honour of their Representative and of their flag. I may mention, that yesterday they were prepared to add one crowning insult to those which they have already offered. It is the custom here, when a foreign Minister arrives or departs, that he is attended for some distance out of the town by all persons directly or indirectly connected with his Mission, as well as by the members of other Missions. The Persian Government supposing that, agreeably to this custom, Meerza Hashem Khan would yesterday form a part of my exit suite, posted a certain number of Government ferrashes in the Bazaar and at the gate through which I had to pass, with orders to seize him before my eyes and carry him off. I received intimation of this project, and had it been my object to excite the indignation of Her Majesty's Government by proving to them the wishes and intention of the Persian Government to carry its insults to the degree of outrage, I had only to allow the Meerza to take his place yesterday among the other employés of the Mission, and the object would have been attained; but when I reflected on the number of persons in my cortège, and that some of them, especially among the Gholams, would not allow one of my suite to be dragged off his horse without repelling violence by violence, I thought that we might be involved in a very disagreeable and undignified street-broil, and that blood would probably be shed; so I thought it more advisable to order the Meerza to remain quietly in the Mission. If the Government choose to use force to drag him from thence, they may do so; and that insult to Her Majesty's Government will be as flagrant, perhaps more so, than if they had seized him when riding in my suite. The Earl of Clarendon. CH. A. MURRAY. No. 61.-Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl of Clarendon. (Received January 29.) MY LORD, Constantinople January 12, 1856. WITH reference to my despatch of the 3rd instant, I have the honour to forward herewith a translation of an instruction of the Prime Minister of Persia to the Shah's Chargé d'Affaires at Constantinople. The translation was made by the Honourable Percy Smythe, and, in my estimation, does much credit to that gentleman. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. (Inclosure.) The Persian Prime Minister to the Persian Chargé d'Affaires at Constantinople. (Translation.) 18 Rebi-ul-evvel, 1272. (November 29, 1855.) You have doubtless received my former instruction relative to the conduct of Mr. Murray, the British Representative, and have, in obedience to the directions therein contained, brought the subject fully under the notice of his Excellency the British Ambassador at Constantinople, who is in reality and in the firm conviction of the Government of this country the sincere well-wisher of Persia, and who, deeply acquainted with the springs of affairs, is aware of the degree in which the Persian Government and people are convinced of the friendship of Great Britain towards them. You have also, no doubt, as you were requested, impressed upon his Excellency this point, that the conviction entertained by him that upon the arrival of Mr. Murray in Persia, affairs would take an amicable turn, and no cause of interruption of friendly relations would in future be given to the Persian Government, is directly contradicted by the result. Now, indeed, there is occasion for us to say, "Praise be to God for the first state of things." Indeed, it amounts to this, that Colonel Sheil, for his part, stands separately; that his successor, Mr. Thomson, though hard and unyielding, and though in the time of his remaining in charge he vexed us with unfounded and useless affairs like that of Hajee Abdul Kerim and others, and changed the friendly relations subsisting between the 2 countries in a manner little to be anticipated by this Government, and, in short, conducted himself in such a manner that I had to instruct you to trouble his Excellency the Ambassador with the particulars, yet he never brought affairs to such a pitch as not to leave the path clear for ultimate accommodation. The present Minister, however, raises his hand as one who had never been connected with foreign affairs, and had never recognized the preservation of friendship between the two nations: heedless of the efforts and trouble undergone by England for the maintenance of that friendship, he persevered in a course which no man of sense would ever adopt, more especially in the face of the turn which events have recently taken, and the consequent change with which the policy of nations is affected. The Persian Government, after all the hardness which they sustained at the hands of Mr. Thomson, heard with favourable anticipation that a new Minister had been appointed to this Court, and entertained the idea that the British Government, appreciating the importance of confirming its friendship with us, and that Mr. Murray, enjoying its confidence, was in possession of instructions and authority to act and come to some resolution with that view and to mutual national advantage. These anticipations were confirmed by certain statements relative to Mr. Murray's appointment in the European newspapers, so that we expected his arrival here with the greatest satisfaction. After some expectation we received the news of his arrival on the frontier, and at once appointed Mustafa Khan, one of the most distinguished noblemen of this country, to take charge of him as Mehmandar with every possible preparation and honour, the details of which are doubtless known to the British Government as well as to his Excellency the Ambassador. On his arrival at Tehran he repeatedly expressed his satisfaction at this treatment both to the Shah and his Ministers, and nobles; in fact, he once said, “I had heard before my arrival in Persia that the men of Iran were ignorant of the proprieties of ceremony and society, and that their reputation on that score was quite unfounded, but I think they are better informed on these points than any other in Persia, or heard of another Minister being so well treated people, nor have I ever passed so pleasant a time as since my arrival elsewhere." We constantly expected some proposition from the Minister for no advances. Perhaps, thought we, he is waiting for the arrival of the French Minister, England and France being allies, and his object may be to confer previously with that gentleman. Yet he, too, arrived; time passed, and brought no result; and the affairs in which the British Minister was engaged were as worthless as those carried on by his predecessors, and the trouble and vexation caused us by them far greater. The first arrow shot from his quiver was the business of Ferhard Meerza, he having reopened that question, which annoyed us much, as did also the next one, relative to the claim of one Sadik, ferrash; and that was succeeded by the affair of André, the tailor, so that he never left us free from bitterness and trouble; then came the story of the Embassy Gholam, who had left the service of the Shah's mother; in fact, it would be necessary that you should read the whole correspondence for you to understand the details of this last affair. Every day we had a troublesome affair of the Minister's with which to occupy ourselves, to the detriment of public business, as regarded internal affairs. We had hoped that even if the Minister did not come forward with any proposition for consolidating the friendship of the two countries, he would at least abstain from anything to cause their collision, but now he has raised the question of Meerza Hashem Khan, the particulars of which are as follows: The Khan is son of the late Meerza, Mahomed Raheem Khan, and nephew, on the sister's side, to Ismail Khan. He was brought up in the harem of his late Majesty, as a page, and accompanied the present Shah to and from Azerbijan. His first accession of fortune was the receipt of 200 tomauns yearly, as Gholam pish-khidmet.* He afterwards requested to be admitted into the Nizam, or public service, was accepted, and placed in the Academy of Public Instruction (Dar ul Funoon). After some time, he accompanied the Royal cortége to the summer quarters, as usual, during the time that Mr. Thomson was Chargé d'Affaires. One day I saw a letter which had arrived from that gentleman, stating that he had made Hashem Khan First Moonshee, or Native Secretary, to the Mission. On being acquainted with this circumstance, as it was entirely at variance with Persian regulations that a born and salaried servant of our Government should be taken from that service and go elsewhere to obtain service, and as, moreover, such conduct might form a precedent for anybody else to do the same, we lost no time in informing Mr. Thomson that we considered the Khan a real servant of the Persian Government, and viewed him as a deserter from that Government, who had taken sanctuary in the Embassy ; that therefore we could not possibly recognize him as a servant of the Embassy, and we begged to decline accepting any official document in his writing. After much resistance on the part of Mr. Thomson, and much exchange of communication profitless business, conducted, on his part, with so much hardness * Confidential body-guards of the Sultan. + Regular army. upon this as to occasion us much annoyance, he acknowledged the irregularity of the proceeding and the groundlessness of his opposition to us, and, with justice, yielded the point that the Khan should have no employment as Moonshee; he accordingly replaced him in that post by Meerza Fezloollah, brother of the late Meerza Hussein Khoolee, a former Secretary to the Mission, and he notified his appointment officially. We accepted the letter containing the above announcement, and recognised the appointment. Feezloollah entered upon and discharged his duties until his dismissal on account of some opposition which he made to the Mission, when he was replaced by the present Moonshee, Suleiman Khan, the Affghan. When Fezloollah entered upon his post, Mr. Thomson turned Hashem Khan out of the tent which had been pitched in the summer camp for the First Moonshee, and placed the former as its occupant. The Persian Government now demanded of Mr. Thomson that Hashem Khan should be sent out of the Mission, in order that he might return to his former service. To this Mr. Thomson replied, by a request that a man might be sent to reassure the Khan, on account of his safety, and conduct him from the Mission, or that he might be allowed to send him, accompanied by a member of the Mission, to resume his service, he being reassured and satisfied. We could not accept this request, having so frequently experienced and been grieved by the interference of British Agents in our internal affairs, such as the case of Meer Ali Khan, Khan Baba, Khan Khonsari, and Ferhad Meerza; and I told Mr. Thomson that the Khan must leave the Mission without its intervention, when he would be well and kindly treated; precisely as in the case of Hussein Khan, the Nizam-ud-dowleh, of Abbas Koolee Khan, Larijani, of Koocheek Khan, and others, who, without reason, took sanctuary in the Mission, and left it without its intervention, beyond a friendly verbal request from Colonel Sheil that they might be kindly treated; they experienced the kindest treatment, not only then, but after Colonel Sheil's departure, and when they might have been exposed to enmity, in consequence of our engagement to treat them well. However, Meerza Hashem Khan would not leave the Mission, and Mr. Thomson also called upon me, before the arrival of Mr. Murray, and said "Although it is to my discredit, yet the British Government have approved my conduct in the dismissal of Hashem Khan, and I am grateful for their satisfaction." Although not customary or proper that the Mission should resume the matter from the beginning, and reopen the question, yet after the present Minister arrived, he determined I know not upon what grounds, to continue the protection of the Mission to the Khan; during all this |