PERSIA. 



sia may be taken at abottt 4,000,000 viz., 2.500,- 

 000 imports and 1,500,000 exports. The latter 

 have diminished by nearly 1,000.000 in the last 

 three years, owing to the failure of the silk produce 

 of Ghilan. Silk is the most valuable article which 

 Persia has to contribute to the European market. A 

 large quantity of eggs has been brought this year 

 from Japan, and these, with the produce of eggs 

 brought trom the east of Persia, will, it is hoped, for 

 the present at least, extricate the country from the 

 serious difficulties caused by the heavy loss in the 

 export of trade. 



A writer in Frazer's Magazine (August, 

 1868), thus refers to a practice which is pecu- 

 liar to Persia : 



Among the Persians, the principle of " temporaiy 

 unions " has been organized into religion, and the 

 ceremonial is performed by the Mohammedan priests. 

 Merchants, who come from a distant city suppose 

 to Ispahan often reside there for two or three 

 months, while waiting for goods. Finding it rather 

 tedious, they beguile the time by marrying a wife for 

 a number of months specified in the marriage con- 

 tract. The process is straightforward and business- 

 like. The merchant calls in the priest, and tells 

 what he wants. The priest examines his book, and 

 finds therein registered the names of women who 

 are willing, for a consideration, to enter into tempo- 

 rary marriage ; and ascertains how many of them 

 are disengaged. What further is done we do not 

 know, but, we believe, he assembles them veiled, and 

 lets the merchant pick out one ; however, it ends 

 with his drawing out a regular marriage certificate, 

 and pocketing his fee. An estimable Scotch military 

 officer, who had for some years the charge of the 

 Persian arsenal at Tabreez, under the treaty of the 

 East India Company with the King of Persia, as- 

 sured the writer of these lines that he had seen and 

 read such marriage contracts, and could testify as 

 eye-witness that a single day was not too short a dura- 

 tion of marriage to receive the priest's blessing and 

 license ! Of course those who first authorized this 

 wonderful system, had no foresight of the monstros- 

 ity into which it would run. They; must have be- 

 lieved that they would lessen existing evil, and act 

 against the loathsome system of prostitution. But 

 when once the fatal idea is admitted that a union 

 which is intended to last some time shorter than life 

 is marriage at all, and deserves honorable recognition, 

 instead of curing the evil which exists, it does but 

 degrade and pollute the ministers of the new system. 



A company of English capitalists received 

 from the Shah a concession giving them, for 

 twenty years, the exclusive right to construct 

 railways in the country, and an agent of the 

 concessionnaires proceeded to Teheran to break 

 ground at once with a short six-mile line from 

 the capital to the suburban village of Eey 

 (Shah Abd-ul Azmi), a famous weekly resort 

 of pious Teheranees. The ground was sur- 

 veyed, and the report of the engineer employed 

 estimates that the line may be constructed and 

 stocked for a sum considerably under 100,- 

 000, on which the passenger traffic of some 

 forty thousand devotees a week would, he 

 reckons, yield a remunerative dividend exclu- 

 sive of an eight per cent, guarantee. 



Early in 1868, the Persian Government 

 published a " Green Book," containing a. col- 

 lection of diplomatic documents relating to the 

 difficulties which have for some time existed 

 between Persia and Turkey. The injuries 

 which Persia alleges to have received are four : 

 in the first place, the government of Teheran 



PERU. 



623 



complains of a violation of the frontiers, of 

 which the Ottoman General, Chibli Pascha, 

 has^ rendered himself guilty, at the head of an 

 entire brigade; next, outrages committed by 

 the Turkish Governor of Bagdad, against Per- 

 sian farmers of Fao ; thirdly, an attack against 

 the Persian village of Sendjahi, by Turkish 

 subjects, who killed thirty inhabitants. The 

 Persians, lastly, complained of a chief of Turk- 

 ish banditti, Hamaza Aga, who is continually 

 raiding on their territory, and had lately burned 

 the village of Seedach, and had not been pur- 

 sued by the Turkish authorities. The " Green 

 Book " then contains a note from Fuad Pascha 

 to the Persian Ambassador at the Court of 

 Constantinople, in which he formally promises 

 that a severe investigation shall take place on 

 the subject of the events at Bagdad. It seems 

 that a committee was, at one time, appointed 

 and that it occupied itself with the question, 

 but, in a note of the 24th November, 1867, the 

 Persian Ambassador complains, that this inves- 

 tigation has not produced a satisfactory result, 

 as the Governor of Bagdad, Namik Pascha, had 

 not yet been dismissed. 



PERSOZ, JEAN FBANC;OIS, a distinguished 

 chemist, born in Switzerland, of French par- 

 ents, June 9, 1805; died August, 1868. He 

 succeeded Thenrard as professor in the College 

 of France in 1832 ; soon after he was professor 

 of chemistry at Strasburg, and in 1835 he took 

 charge of the school of medicine in the same 

 city. In 1852 a professorship was created in 

 the " Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers " at 

 Paris, of the dyeing and printing of cloths, 

 which he retained till his death. Two years 

 previous he had supplied the place of M. 

 Dumas in a course of chemistry at Sorbonne. 

 M. Persoz published a great number of sci- 

 entific works, both by himself and associated 

 with other so/cants. Of the first are "Intro- 

 duction 1'Etude de la Chimie moMculaire " 

 (1839), and " Traite* thSorique et pratique de 

 1'impression des tissus " (1846). 



PERU, a republic in South America. Pres- 

 ident, elected in 1868, Colonel Jose* Balta. 

 Minister of the United States, General Alvin 

 P. Hovey (appointed in May, 1866). Area, 

 510,107 square miles; population, estimated at 

 2,500,000. All the inhabitants belong to the 

 Roman Catholic Church, which has an arch- 

 bishop at Lima, and bishops at Arequipa, Cha- 

 chapoyas or Maynas, Cuzco, Guamangay Aya- 

 cucho, Huanuco, Puno, and Trujillo. There is 

 only one Protestant missionary at Callao. The 

 revenue, in 1862, was $21,245,832 (three- 

 fourths of which was from the sale of guano) ; 

 the expenses were $21,446,466. In 1868 the 

 ministers of Government, Justice, and Foreign 

 Affairs presented to Congress the following 

 budget for the next year : Government, $9,- 

 083,772.10; Justice, $4,414,121.70; Foreign 

 Affairs, $1,468,932.92. As the guano of the 

 Chinchas will soon give out, the Govern- 

 ment tried to make the necessary arrange- 

 ments with respect to the northern deposits, 



