724 



PERSIA. 



tion, and then took up the study of the law, 

 reading in the office of Thomas J. Nevans of 

 Penn Yan, New York, and also with Henry 

 Willis, afterward a Judge of the New York 

 Supreme Court. At the age of twenty -five he 

 proceeded to the newly opened West, intending 

 to establish himself there. Starting for Indian- 

 apolis on foot, he found himself without money 

 in Kichinond, Indiana, where he remained, 

 reading in the office of Judge Borden and pass- 

 ing his examintion for the bar in the spring 

 of 1837. Opening an office in Richmond, he 

 supplemented his legal practice with writing 

 for " The Jeffersonian," a recently established 

 Democratic paper, of which he afterward be- 

 came editor and proprietor, conducting it dur- 

 ing the campaign of 1840, but not neglecting his 

 practice in the mean time. In 1843 he was ap- 

 pointed prosecuting attorney for the Wayne 

 Circuit. He was a Presidential elector on the 

 Democratic ticket in 1844. In the winter of 

 the same year he was appointed a Judge of the 

 Supreme Court by Governor Whitcomb, but was 

 not confirmed by the Legislature. After the ad- 

 journment of the Legislature, however, he was 

 placed on the bench for the term of one year by 

 the Governor. He made Indianapolis his resi- 

 dence from this period. He was continued on 

 the bench until 1864, when the Democratic tick- 

 et was defeated. Besides his judicial labors, he 

 compiled while serving as judge a digest of the 

 Indiana reports, and wrote a standard text- 

 book, " Perkins's Practice." He also taught as 

 Professor of Law in the Northwestern Christian 

 University. After his retirement from the Su- 

 preme bench he followed the practice of his 

 profession until 1873, when he was appointed 

 Judge of the Superior Court of Marion County, 

 to fill the unexpired term of Judge Rand. He 

 continued in this position, to which he was 

 elected by the people the following year, un- 

 til 1876, when he was again placed by the 

 popular vote upon the Supreme Court bench, 

 of which he was Chief Justice at the time of 

 his death. 



PERSIA, a country of Asia. Reigning sov- 

 ereign, the Shah Nasr-ed-Din, who was born 

 in 1831, and succeeded his father, Shah Mo- 

 hammed, September 10, 1848. The heir ap- 

 parent to the throne, Muzaffer-ed-Din, was 

 born in 1854, and has two sons. 



By the Treaty of Berlin Persia received from 

 Turkey the town and territory of Khotoor, 

 containing about 8,000 inhabitants. The total 

 area of Persia is about 637,000 square miles, 

 with a population of 7,000,000. At the end 

 of July, 1878, Persia had 2,490 miles of tele- 

 graph lines and 4,782 miles of telegraph wire 

 in operation. The number of telegraph offices 

 was 56, the number of dispatches 665,000. The 

 first regular postal service was opened in Jan- 

 uary, 1877. 



The affairs of Persia begin to attract greater 

 attention, not only on account of the reforms 

 which it has of late begun to introduce, but 

 especially on account of its relation to the 



Eastern question. Schemes of an alliance be- 

 tween England and Persia, involving proposals 

 for an annexation of Avestern Afghanistan to 

 Persia, were eagerly discussed in England, and 

 warmly advocated by several statesmen. An 

 important lecture on the subject was delivered 

 in London on March 7th by General Sir F. 

 Goldsmid. The lecturer maintained that Per- 

 sia, with all her misgovernment and short- 

 comings, had great resources for a powerful 

 army. Her army, numbering in bygone times 

 200,000, and now estimated to consist of 100,000 

 men, had been formed by British officers on 

 the European model, and was now in the hands 

 of an Austrian officer, a Russian colonel being 

 also there. Persia, as an ally of England, had 

 the elements of material usefulness, and it 

 surely came within the province of Englishmen 

 to impart to so old a kingdom, and one BO re- 

 plete with classical interest, some of the better 

 things of modern civilization. The lecturer 

 dwelt at length upon the importance of an alli- 

 ance between Persia and England, in case of 

 new difficulties between England and Russia. 

 Sir Henry Rawlinson, who presided, bore tes- 

 timony to the capacity for discipline which the 

 Persians displayed, and spoke warmly of their 

 powers of endurance and of their virtues of 

 temperance and courage. He thought that 

 a real, honest, and cordial alliance might be 

 formed with Persia by England. 



The reorganization of the Persian army un- 

 der the direction of Austrian officers is pro- 

 ceeding satisfactorily. With the exception of 

 the head-dress, the uniform of the troops is 

 very similar to that of the Austrian army. The 

 infantry wear blue coats or blouses with red 

 facings, and gray trousers ; the rifles, gray 

 coats with green facings ; while the dress of 

 the artillery and cavalry is exactly like that of 

 the same arms of the service in Austria. The 

 Shah in 1879 visited and inspected some of the 

 barracks the first time such an event has 

 taken place in the history of Persia and after- 

 ward reviewed the troops. 



The British Consul-General Abbott, in a re- 

 port on the trade of Tabreez in the year 1877 

 -'78, gives an unfavorable account of the com- 

 mercial situation of Persia. The war between 

 Russia and Turkey arrested the trade between 

 Tabreez and Trebizond, and rendered the route 

 from the Persian frontier of the Aras to the 

 Caucasus impracticable for the transit of mer- 

 chandise ; and, besides the great difficulties 

 thus thrown in the way of importers of Eng- 

 lish manufactured goods, the exchanges were 

 very much against them. The rates of trans- 

 port between Trebizond and Persia rose to 

 more than double what they had been before 

 the declaration of war. The consul observes 

 that the excess of imports over exports, in- 

 volving a continual drain of specie outward, 

 threatens to produce most serious consequences. 

 The Caspian provinces appear to yield less silk 

 every year; and when it is considered that 

 the prosperity of the foreign commerce of the 



