526 
THE NEW SADDAR, OR PRIME MINISTER. 
recur without exciting a repetition of regret, that power so little 
understands its true interest, as to make it necessary to buy and 
sell what simple justice alone could command by a word. 
The high dignity of grand vizier, or saddar, which comprises 
the duties of war-minister, and minister for foreign affairs, being 
vacant by the death of Mirza Sheffy, the attentions of all cour¬ 
tiers on the spot were paid to the three most probable candidates; 
namely, Hadjee Mahomet Hossein Khan, the present Ameen-a- 
Dowlah; Mirza Bezoork, the Kyme Makaum; and Mirza Abdul 
Wa-ab, a man of great talent, and much in the royal favour. 
Mirza Bezoork was too essential to the ministry of Abbas Mirza, 
to be removed from the councils of Azerbijan; and the slender 
substance, and, consequently, no transferable property of the 
highly gifted Abdul Wa-ab, soon putting his promotion out of 
the question, the choice fell upon the Ameen-a-Dowlah ; a per¬ 
sonage, whose public-spirited erections have been frequently 
noticed by other travellers besides myself. The office was con¬ 
ferred on him by the Shah, in an assembly of some of the princes, 
with their ministers, in the royal camp at Sultania. 
The post of Ameen-a-Dowlah, or second minister, was then 
to be disposed of, and opinion instantly supposed the lot would 
fall on Abdulla Khan, the new Saddar’s eldest son ; he is a man 
of ability, and his father does not want the means in any way of 
helping him up the ladder of fortune. For more than thirty 
years the Saddar has governed the rich province of Ispahan, and 
the profits of his station may be guessed at, when I say from 
unquestionable authority, that the annual revenue he paid into 
the royal coffers at every Nowrooze, amounted to 500,000 to¬ 
rn au ns, 200,000 of which was his own personal present! Though 
I am correct in these sums, I cannot obtain any accurate es- 
