CHARACTER OF FUTTEH ALI SHAH. 
358 
sions to dam up the sources of their own revenues, this once 
great kingdom must remain comparatively poor and powerless. 
But should the true secret of government be ever fully under¬ 
stood here, — that it is founded on the people being protected by 
just laws, and as just rulers, from the power of oppressing each 
other ; then may Persia boast an empire, as little likely to be at 
the beck of others, as any of the states which deem its glories 
over. 
During this, my first visit to Teheran, I was honoured with 
many opportunities of judging for myself, with regard to the 
personal character of Futteh Ali Shah ; and the result always 
was, that I came away with renewed impressions of the amiable 
in the man ; one of the most essential qualities in the composi¬ 
tion of a sovereign, whose will is, virtually, the law. His as noble- 
minded son, Abbas Mirza, had prepared my way to these con¬ 
ferences with his royal parent; and one of the returns, which 
my sense of the high favour impelled me to make, was to com¬ 
ply with His Royal Highness’s earnest desire, that my pencil 
should at least attempt to give him a truer image of his father, 
than any we had commented on together, in the various pictures 
he had shewn to me. The wish had been imparted to the Shah ; 
and His Majesty, with that bienseance which as eminently be¬ 
longs to the Persian court as ever it did to that of Louis XIV., 
paying me a compliment, that might have elevated my pencil 
and the hand that held it, to a place amongst the stars, did me 
the honour to appoint a day when I was to transfer his image 
to paper. 
It happened to be on the morning of a review, that was to 
take place in the court of the citadel; and I went betimes to be a 
spectator of the evolutions. Abul Hassan Khan, my friend the 
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