OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF OUR

EASTERN RELATIONS.

The events which have recently taken place in Persia, to which we alluded in our last Number, are calculated to awaken the most painful reflections in the breast of every Englishman. We use a general expression, because we are convinced that there breathes not a man in the British dominions so destitute of public spirit, as to view with indifference the continued successes of a power, whose ambition, equally incompatible with the peace of the world and the well-being of mankind, is marked by the deadliest hostility to England, under the dangerous disguise of friendship, good-will, and alliance.

It was our painful duty during the last session of Parliament to expose the errors into which his Majesty's Government had been beguiled in the affairs of a country, hardly less important than Persia. We proved that during the last five years our funds, our marine, our diplomacy, and the whole of our moral influence, had been applied to the promotion of Russian ascendency in the Mediterranean, through our support of the Russian faction in Greece, and that the payment of the third series of the loan would only serve to arm that country against ourselves. We conjured the House of Commons to pause in this unfortunate affair, and our warning was re-echoed by almost all the leading organs of public opinion. His Majesty's Government thought it advisable, hereupon, to lay before Parliament additional information in support of its violation of all our international engagements with Greece, in order to uphold the usurpation of a foreigner, whose future prospects and pension in Bavaria 113

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are wholly dependent upon his subserviency in Greece to the Russian predilections of his Sovereign King Louis. Yet, no sooner had England pledged herself to the payment of £250,000, professedly to appease a state of anarchy brought about by the Arch-Chancellor to impose on our humanity, than the announcement is made of the approaching nuptials of King Otho with a Princess closely connected with the house of Romanow; and scarcely have we time to recover from this humiliating defeat, when our attention is called to the loss of Persia.

The laurels which Russia has reaped on this important field were planted no less than three-and-twenty years ago. By the treaty of Goolistan she guaranteed the succession of the Persian crown to Abbas Meerza, the eldest son of the late monarch. The latter died at the close of 1834, having been preceded to the grave, a few months previously, by Abbas Meerza, who left a son Mohammed. Russia immediately recognized this Prince as the legitimate sovereign; but it was reserved for England to follow in her path, to furnish the Prince with a subsidy, soldiers, and her whole diplomatic support, and to seat him on his throne by force of arms, whilst British officers reduced under his subjection the southern provinces of his kingdom, the attachment of whose nobles to the interests of England had hitherto been inviolate. In all these transactions the Russian Embassy judiciously represented to the Persian monarch that England was only following the impulse given to its Cabinet by the Emperor's command. To such an extent was Russian duplicity applied, that, on the dismissal of Lord Melbourne's administration, her emissaries were instructed to represent, throughout the whole of the Eastern world, that the change was effected through the Russian Ambassador in London; that the Emperor, disgusted with the subversive doctrines of the Radicals, had managed to place at the head of the Coun

cils of England a field-marshal of her own, in order to strike to the heart the revolutionists and demagogues of Ireland; and that thenceforth England would cordially act in concert with the Emperor in preserving order, from the German Ocean to the Pacific. Thus the hatred of millions against the Russian name was paralyzed through fear of displeasing England.

When a distinguished Oriental traveller, who had traced throughout the East the progress of Russian deceit, explained eighteen months ago to the Duke of Wellington the extent of Russian designs, he was looked upon and persecuted as an enthusiast, or an impostor; and yet the very event which has just taken place was distinctly predicted by him to the Duke. It was represented that, unless England put an end at once, by energetic action, to the system of imposture by which our interests and our honour were daily and hourly prostituted to the furtherance of Russian ambition, we should find at the fitting time Persia turned against us. The proposition appeared absurd, when it was considered that the monarch of that country owed his crown and security, the country its civil and military organization, and the people their repose, to British influence: and the very fact of Russia patiently contemplating the growing strength, union, and civilization of the country, was adduced as a proof that her influence had been entirely overthrown.

"But is not Russian complacency to be accounted for on other grounds?" was the traveller's reply. "Has Russia no interest in the strength, union, and military organization of Persia? Is not her present repose the test of her confidence in her own diplomatic influence? Does she not wish Persia to be powerful in her own hands against India?" The idea was startling. Events have proved its truth.

A brilliant Embassy, sent from England to compliment the Shah on his accession, has just terminated, after more

than a year's negotiation; and the result of our diplomacy is the supreme control of Russia over the counsels of the Shah, the retirement of our officers from his service, and the march of a Persian army to Herat, in defiance of the British Envoy.

The triumph of Russia in this instance cannot fail to be followed by the most disastrous effects on our influence throughout the whole of Asia. The independent Potentates of Tartary, the subsidiary Princes of India, the maritime populations of the Persian Gulf, the Mahometans of Hindostan, all aroused by the innumerable emissaries of the Emperor, will not fail to spread through the Oriental world the humiliation of the British name; whilst to the accumulated difficulties of the British Government will be added the natural consequences of their neglect of our diplomatic interests at Constantinople, which it required but a stroke of the pen to arrange, at least three months ago.

The following extract from that admirable pamphlet, "The Progress of Russia in the East," will serve to illustrate the importance of the question.

"The interest which Great Britain has in the preservation of Persia is more immediately with reference to her Indian empire, and her interest in Turkey is more immediately connected with the state of Europe; but the influence of each on the other is such, that the sacrifice of either would almost necessarily involve the fall of both. The resources of Persia in the hands of Russia would suffice to neutralize the whole remaining power of the Sultan in Asia; and the control of the resources of Turkey by Russia would lay Persia prostrate without a blow. The whole interest we have in both is, therefore, ultimately at stake in each, and that double interest taken in all its bearings, political and commercial, in Europe and in Asia, is perhaps as important as any we have to defend beyond the limits of these islands.”

[It is some consolation, amidst the realization of evils so clearly predicted, to record the labours of those who have made the East the field of their special inquiry; and we feel that the following Memoir of Lieutenant-Colonel Chesney, drawn up three years ago, may not be uninteresting to the generality of our readers.]

OBSERVATIONS ON PERSIA,

AS AN ALLY,

AND AS THE CHEAPEST AS WELL AS MOST IMPORTANT FRONTIER LINE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA.

BY LIEUT.-COLONEL CHESNEY.

DRAWN UP IN THE YEAR 1833.

The interests of Persia and of England are so closely connected and of such mutual importance, that the very existence of the former as a nation depends solely on its continued connection with England, and if ever this shall cease by the withdrawal of our fostering care, that enfeebled and powerless, but still capable, kingdom will become not only dependent upon, but tributary to, Russia; which power would then be possessed of a lever which must shake our moral strength in the East, and threaten directly the ultimate loss of the richest jewel in the British diadem.

As every step which encroaches on the power of Persia, or the provinces which once belonged to her (especially towards the Indus), tends directly towards this fatal result, it would seem to follow, as a natural consequence, that it becomes a para

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