vites for their audacity. This speech was a boastful evasion; the truth being that the Kajar Shah could not afford to keep on a war footing, during the winter, an army amounting to nearly 70,000 men. Apart from this, his troops were in no condition to repulse those of Russia; had they come to close quarters, the Persians would have been compelled to give way before the veteran conquerors of Bender and of Ismaïl.
The above-mentioned traveller[1] was charged with a mission from the French Republic to the minister of Aga Mahomed. The object of this mission appears to have been twofold: in the first place, to ascertain whether or not a profitable interchange of commodities could be established between France and Persia; and, in the second place, to endeavour to unite the Persians with the Ottoman Porte in a combination against Russia. Satisfactory replies were given on both points by the prime minister, but the difficulties which lay in the way of the establishment of a trade between Persia and France appeared to be too great to be overcome. Two treaties had at an anterior period been concluded between the two countries; but it did not seem worth while to the French negotiator to propose to renew them, nor to obtain protection as formerly for French establishments at Ispahan and Sheeraz and on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The troubles through which Persia had passed had been of too long duration, and were too freshly imprinted on men's minds, to warrant the assumption that European merchants, or their trade, could meet with efficient protection in so unsettled a country. With
- ↑ M. Olivier.
