RUSSIAN MISSION. 
509 
improvement of this country, perhaps no circumstance seems so 
calculated to influence both, as the near neighbourhood of 
Russia : in either character, whether as a friend or an enemy, 
she cannot fail to impart knowledge; contact with superior civi¬ 
lisation necessarily imbibing some of its improvements. But 
should the present amity subsist between the two nations, then 
the ameliorating influence must be four-fold; the constant com¬ 
munications of commerce, diplomacy, travellers, &c., spreading 
the arts and urbanities of men used to the civil and moral 
restraints of a Christian government. 
About six weeks after my return to Tabreez, Mr. Nazzarovitch 
and his suite, consisting of two secretaries, two interpreters, and 
several other gentlemen, reached this city in their way to Te¬ 
heran, forming the Russian mission to the court of the Shah. 
Mr. Nazzarovitch is appointed charge d’affaires, and I believe 
is the first resident accredited diplomatist ever sent by the great 
power of the north to this empire. He is a man of talent and 
observation, and acquitted himself so well in his situation at¬ 
tached to the late embassy to Persia under General Yarmolloff, 
that none appeared more worthy of the present trust. The in¬ 
creasing commercial relations between the Russian possessions 
on the frontiers of Persia, and Persia itself, renders the residence 
of an imperially accredited agent from the former power, ab¬ 
solutely necessary here. Disputes often arise between her 
Georgian subjects, and the Persian collectors of mercantile im¬ 
posts ; and for want of a competent authority to decide the 
difference, much imposition and loss to the honest trader have 
hitherto been the consequence. But on a fair examination of 
the advantages derived to both countries by the commercial 
intercourse between them, the balance on account of pecuniary 
