3S .Votes .on Persia, [July 



dom make any demands till that season. If feavs are entertained of 

 their fidelity, hostages are taken from the heads of families, and sent 

 to the capital, or other remote towns. 



Regarding the invasion of India through Persia, I will only say a 

 very few words — the subject having already occupied the attention of 

 government and the diplomatic agents, for these last thirty years, and 

 the fullest details, in consequence, having been furnished. 



From all the experience I have had, in eighteen years residence in 

 Persia, I am perfectly persuaded that, if the government of that country 

 were sincerely to aid a Russian army, there is no obstacle to its advancing 

 as far as Herat or the Afghan dominions. In fact this space has been 

 passed many times during that period, by larger bodies of men than 

 the army ought to be composed of; under the circumstances above 

 mentioned, it is supposed that Persia will be in alliance with, and aid- 

 ing, Russia. All the troops it would be advisable to have as her con- 

 tingent, ought to, and might, be collected in the province of Khorasan. 

 To reach this, the best and shortest route, for the heavy part of the 

 force, is from Astrabad up the Goorgan, and, through the country of the 

 Khorasan Kurds, to Meshed. The next point to be gained is Herat, 

 which will not be a very difficult task. As far as this place the popu- 

 lation is favourable, being old subjects of Persia. From this they must 

 fight their way to the Indus, for it cannot be supposed that any thing 

 they can offer will induce the Afghans to part with their western pro- 

 vinces, the possession of which alone can be a supposed inducement 

 for Persia to enter heartily into such a war. The enterprise is practi- 

 cable, but difficult ; armies have passed three times by this route in the 

 last hundred years. Persia is not, at the present moment, in a condition 

 for any power to put confidence in her political relations. Though the 

 present king has certainly gained the throne with less difficulty, and in 

 a shorter period, than could have been expected, he cannot be said to 

 be firmly established, and in the event of any reverse, the people gene- 

 rally, who are far from being attached to the Kadgar dynasty, would 

 probably revolt. He has besides killed Mirza Abul Kassim, his able 

 prime minister, to whom he chiefly owed his success, who, with all his 

 faults, and they were both numerous and great, was, without doubt, the 

 ablest man in his court or in that of his father. The Azerdbijan 

 troops, by their conduct in the civil war, and in Khorasan, have shewn 

 of what excellent materials the Persian soldier is really made, and that 

 the trouble taken by the English in their organization, has not been 

 thrown away. If they failed in the war with Russia, it was from no 

 fault of theirs, but what results from all irregular government, when no 

 fixed system of war or policy can be depended on. 



