At a Durbar held a few days ago, the Shah publicly spoke of extending his conquests beyond Herat so soon as it is occupied by his troops. Reported disturbances in Candahar, where, it is said, a strong party has risen against Dost Mahomed Khan, doubtless encourage the Persians in their designs against Affghanistan. Some of the regiments mentioned in my despatch to your Lordship of the 9th instant, have proceeded to their destination, and the others are to follow immediately. Nearly all these troops have been supplied with new muskets of English manufacture, obtained by the Persian Government a few years since. The Earl of Clarendon. RICH. W. STEVENS. No. 95.-Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl of Clarendon. (Received June 7.) (Extract.) Constantinople, May 26, 1856. HAVING to answer two letters addressed to me by the Persian Sadr Azim and already transmitted in copy to your Lordship, I make my reply the vehicle of communication to that Minister. A copy of my letter is inclosed herewith, as well as a copy of the letter by which I have requested Mr. Stevens to deliver it, accompanied with a Persian translation. The Earl of Clarendon. STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. (Inclosure 1.)-Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Sadr Azim. SIR, Constantinople, May 25, 1856. I HAVE received at different times the two letters which your Highness did me the honour of addressing to me. I should not have failed to reply to them sooner, had not circumstances, which I was bound to consider, restrained me from yielding to my perBonal inclination. I am not, however, insensible to the reliance which your Highness has placed in my goodwill, nor have I neglected to make known to my Government the friendly assurances given by the Court of Persia, and its earnest desire, as expressed by your Highness, to remove every cause of misunderstanding and dissatisfaction between the two countries. I had no authority to treat. I could only facilitate the return of confidence by listening to the words of your agents, and transmitting them faithfully to London. I am now in daily expectation of receiving the necessary instructions, and I shall hold myself honoured in being an instrument of reconciliation. Whether I shall be a successful one must chiefly depend on your Highness, the Minister and confidential adviser of His Majesty the Shah. Two conditions are manifestly indispensable; first, that the existing differences should be frankly and satisfactorily settled; secondly, that the negotiations for settling them should not be made useless by the Shah's occupation of Herat, which would occasion another and distinct cause of quarrel with England. I cannot afford a better proof of my sincerity than by hastening to bring these essential matters under your Highness's consideration, in order that fuller instructions and powers, if necessary, may be given to the Persian Chargé d'Affaires at this Court, and that every intention of occupying Herat by the forces of Persia may be relinquished. I have, &c. H.E. the Sadr Azim. STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. (Inclosure 2.)-Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to Consul Stevens. (Extract.) Constantinople, May 25, 1856. I HAVE to request that you will do me the honour of delivering the letter inclosed herewith, to his Highness the Persian Sadr Azim. Though the letter is sealed, an exact copy of it is forwarded for your information, and as it is written in English, I have further to request that you will accompany it with a literal translation in the Persian language. You will render the obligation complete by sending me a copy of the translation. R. W. Stevens, Esq. STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. No. 96.-Consul Stevens to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. June 12.) I am told that several influential persons, known to favour the Persian cause, have been seized and imprisoned, and one of them put to death by Mahomed Youssuf Meerza, the Chief of Herat. This intelligence has caused some disappointment to the Persian Government, which now apprehends increased resistance on the part of the besieged, although it entertains no doubt about the eventual fall of the place. All the troops reported in my recent despatches as being destined to reinforce the army of Herat, have left Tehran. Prince Sultan Moorad Meerza has been ordered, when those regiments join him, to detach 2,000 men and 4 field-pieces in the direction of Candahar, by the road through Seistan. The force will be joined en route by the Irregular Horse and Foot of Ghyne, and its command entrusted to a person named Meerza Rezah Khan, a native of Persia, who, as Meerza Rezah, was employed before the death of Kohendil Khan in drilling some regular troops in Candahar. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. RICH. W. STEVENS. No. 97.-Consul Stevens to the Earl of Clarendon.- (Rec. June 12.) (Extract.) Tehran, April 30, 1856. MR. MURRAY forwarded to your Lordship, in the month of January last, the translation of a long document, most offensive to Her Majesty's Government, which the Persian Government had drawn up for publication in foreign countries, and a copy of which I obtained soon after it was written. I have now the honour to inform your Lordship that this Government has just circulated, in Tehran, several numbers of a newspaper published in the Persian language, in Bombay, the "Ahsan ul Ikhbar," of the 22nd of February, containing the article in question, word for word, as I sent it to Mr. Murray; and the Sadr Azim, yesterday, issued orders for its reprint in the "Tehran Government Gazette." The Earl of Clarendon. RICH. W. STEVENS. No. 98.-Consul Stevens to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. June 12.) (Extract.) Tehran, May 1, 1856. I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that a letter has just reached me from Meshed, dated the 21st April, from which I extract, for your Lordship's information, the most important items of its contents: "Yesterday afternoon a horseman of the Hezareh tribe arrived here from Sultan Moorad Meerza's camp; he reported that Mahomed Rezah Meerza, brother of Mahomed Youssuf Meerza, accompanied by Naib Essen Khan, Vizier, and 50 horsemen, rode out from Herat and waited upon Sultan Moorad Meerza, with whom they passed the night; and it was rumoured that they had come to arrange the terms of surrender. "People have arrived at Meshed from Candahar, passing through Herat, where, they say, provisions are dear and ammunition scarce. "Letters from Birzan mention the arrival there of Mahomed Sedeek Khan, with 8 battalions, which are to be joined by some troops of Ghyne, and then proceeded to Ferrah and Candahar. Grain, in the Prince's camp, is selling at 1 kerran per Tabreez maun (about 18. sterling per 64 lbs.); every villager has been ordered to convey 30 mauns (200 lbs. of grain) to the camp, but mules and camels for its transport are scarce." I may add, that corresponding intelligence has reached the Persian Government, and the Sadr Azim still leads the King to expect the news of the occupation of Herat by the 10th instant. Essan Khan was the leader and most influential of the anti * This is an exaggeration; there were only two battalions.-R. W. S. Persian party in Herat; if the report of his arrival in the Prince's camp be true, the place has ere this surrendered. The Earl of Clarendon. RICH. W. STEVENS. No. 99. The Earl of Clarendon to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. (Extract.) Foreign Office, June 15, 1856. ON condition that Herat is immediately evacuated by the Persians, your Excellency need not insist upon sending Meerza Hashem to Shiraz. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. CLARENDON. No. 100.-Consul Stevens to Mr. Murray.—(Received June 16.) Tehran, February 20, 1856. SIR, I HAVE the honour to inform your Excellency that Prince Sultan Moorad Meerza left Meshed on the 1st or 2nd instant, for the Herat frontier, and that the Persian Government has just forwarded to him a further sum of 10,000 tomauns. The Bahodooran regiment from Tabreez, 500 strong, was reviewed yesterday, by the King, and is to proceed immediately to Khorassan. This Government is looking with intense anxiety for intelligence from the East. It hopes that Sam Khan may have succeeded in the object of his mission. Scarcely any well-informed Persians, however, will believe that Mahomed Youssuf Meerza can admit the smallest Persian force into Herat without endangering his own position there. Gholaum Sedeek Khan, whose recal to Tehran I have reported to your Excellency, is employed here in raising horsemen for service in Seistan. I enclose, for your Excellency's information, copy of a despatch to me from Her Majesty's Consul-General at Bagdad, regarding the Persian military movements from Kermanshah. I am inclined to consider the number of troops as mentioned by that gentleman exaggerated, unless they are chiefly composed of irregulars, of which I can obtain no correct information. I have a letter from the agent at Kermanshah, dated the 17th instant, when the Prince Governor had not yet quitted that place. The regiment of the guards, 800 or 900 strong, left Tehran two days ago for Bushire. C. A. Murray, Esq. SIR, I have, &c. RICH. W. STEVENS. (Inclosure.)-Captain Kemball to Consul Stevens. British Consulate-General, Bagdad, February 8, 1856. I HAVE been informed by the agent at Kermanshah, and intelligence which I believe to be authentic has likewise reached me from Mohamrah, to the effect that the Persian Government has dispatched considerable reinforcements to those places, and collected there large quantities of munitions and warlike stores. At Kermanshah the aggregate force is estimated at 12,000 men, which would, it was said, march into Zohab, under the command of the Prince Governor in person, about the present date. These movements, though not uncommonly ascribed, especially at Mohamrah, to the fears entertained by the Persian Government of an invasion from the English operating from Turkish territory, are regarded with considerable uneasiness by Reshid Pasha, the Governor-General of Bagdad, who mistrusts the assurances given by the Shah's Ministers to Hyder Effendi, the Ottoman Chargé d'Affaires at Tehran and who despatches this day a special messenger to the capital to call for more full and satisfactory explanations. I have, &c. R. W. Stevens, Esq. A. B. KEMBALL. No. 101-Consul Stevens to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. June 26.) (Extract.) Camp near Tehran, May 19, 1856. I HAVE the honour to inclose a translation taken by myself from an original letter, from which your Lordship will perceive that the Ruler of Herat, Shahzadeh Mahomed Youssuf, had been sent a prisoner to the Persian camp by his Vizier, Essan Khan, who is represented as having sold himself to the Persians, and submitted, with other Heratee Chiefs to all the obligations constituting an allegiance to the Shah of Persia, barring, however, the admission of His Majesty's troops into Herat. From what I learn in Tehran, I am inclined to believe that Essan Khan has duped the Persians: that, pretending to espouse their cause, he induced the Prince Commander-in-chief to withdraw his army to Bernabad, about 25 miles this side of Herat. He probably took the money offered to him as a bribe, and then set the Persians at defiance, after getting rid of his master, Shahzadeh Mahomed Youssuf, who was supposed to be in secret correspondence with the enemy. I am told the King and Sadr Azim are greatly incensed at a letter addressed by Essan Khan to the Persian commander, stating that the Shahzadeh being of no utility in Herat, he was sent to the Persian camp, where, perhaps, he might be turned to account. The Persian losses in attempting to storm Herat were considerably greater than was stated in my last despatch, one regiment alone, the "Nishapooree," having bad, it was said, 700 men put hors de combat. Three days ago, a further reinforcement of two battalions of infantry, with a few pieces of siege artillery, were dispatched in great haste to Khorassan; 10 more battalions, now on furlough, were ordered to assemble in Tehran by the middle of next month, |