216 
TEHERAN. 
to Persian etiquette, I ought to have worn it for the three days following 
the investiture. 
In the evening we went to the Prime Minister's, and were shewn the 
Treaty with France, signed and ratified at Finkenstein , by Buona¬ 
parte, in May 1807- It was written on vellum, in a beautiful French 
hand, and inserted in a cover of black velvet, curiously and elegantly 
wrought with a spread eagle at each corner, and the initial N in the 
centre, in a wreath of gold embroidery. The Great Seal was pendant 
from it, inserted in a plain gold box. The treaty was countersigned 
by Talleyrand; and by Maret, the Plenipotentiary appointed to 
treat with Mirza Reza, the Persian Plenipotentiary. I copied this 
document (consisting of fourteen articles) in the room, a d as we went 
away, the Minister sent the Envoy the Commercial Treaty, which con¬ 
tained twenty-eight articles. 
The 6th was observed as a holiday among the Persians, as the 
commemoration of that, when Hossein's head, which had been severed 
from his body by Yezid at Kerbelai, was buried, after an interval of 
forty days. 
The affairs of Persia are conducted with a publicity which would ill 
accord with the diplomacy of Europe. As that stipulation, which 
was the surest evidence of the permanent dispositions of the Court, re¬ 
mained unfulfilled; the Envoy on the 9th of April dispatched, by 
Jaffer Ali Khan and myself, an official note on the subject to the 
Ministers, which he desired them to lay before the King. We carried 
it to the Dev a Khoneh Shah , or gate of the King's palace, where there 
are offices for the Ministers and Secretaries to transact the business of 
the state; and where they assemble every day to be ready whenever 
the King may call them. Here we seated ourselves in the public room 
among all the officers of the court, waiting for Mirza Sheffeea, 
and the Ameen-ed-Doulah , who were then before the King. In a 
back room were men counting money; in that, in which we sat, were 
the Chief Secretary, Mirza Reza, and Ismael Beg Damgaunee, 
(the King's favourite, and commander of the body-guard) and several 
