28 • THE THIRTEENTH WAR : PERSIAN WAR. 



A hostile fleet, amounting to forty ships of the line and 6,000 

 fighting men, sailed for the Persian Gulf. Now what was it all about? 



In the beginning of the century, England made great efforts to 

 establish a predominant influence in Persia, in order to resist {not 

 Russia this time) but a French invasion of India. 



Sir John Malcolm was sent therefore, to form an alliance with 

 -the Persian Monarch, and he concluded two Treaties with the Shah, 

 one against the Ameer of Afghanistan, and the other against the 

 French, and by the first Treaty England was bound to aid Persia. to 

 recover Khorassan from Afghanistan. 



Up to 1828 Enghsh influence was paramount in Persia, but when 

 the Shah declared war against Russia in 1828, and was defeated by 

 Marshal Paskiewitch, the Russian General, from that moment 

 English influence steadily declined in Persia. 



• The English disasters in Afghanistan in 1842, and the defeat of 

 English policy, may also have influenced the Shah of Persia and his 

 Ministers to disregard and practically to reject the advice and inter- 

 ference of England, through its Minister at Teheran ; but, whatever 

 the cause, suffice it to say that, after having committed those 

 monstrous outrages upon Dost Mahommed, the Ameer of Afghanistan, 

 we took him suddenly in our favour and championed the Afghan 

 cause, and the plea put forward was the possession of Herat, which 

 had been for generations a Perso-Afghan quarrel. 

 ■ It was, however, alleged that an infraction of the Treaty of 1853, 

 entered into by England and Persia, was the pretext assigned for 

 this Persian war. 



But the plea of an infraction of this Treaty in regard to the 

 possession of Herat, was only a pretext on the part of England. 



The real object was to take violent possession of certain positions 

 on Persian soil, to give England command • of the navigation of the 

 Euphrates, and of the railway which was contemplated in the valley 

 of the Euphrates. 



The expedition was sent out to the Persian Gulf, and success 

 followed its operations ; Bushire was captured, and after a great loss 

 of life, and a great expenditure of money, the war was brought to a 

 close by a Treaty of Peace, negotiated at Paris, by which Persia with- 

 drew from Herat, and paid compensation for damages inflicted, and 

 gave assurances for her future good conduct, and finally the Prime 

 Minister of the Shah was dismissed from office. 



Thus, closed a war waged for objects which inight have been 

 .secured without war; a war that cost ;^i,865,435 ; a war, be it 



