as to show his subjects that he was worthy of being the absolute director of the policy of Persia. He wished for peace, but so great was his pride, that it had required all the efforts of the representative of the Indian Government to induce him to consent to the mission of an envoy to Tiflis; while, on the other hand, he could not be persuaded to devote a sufficient portion of his ample treasure for the purpose of equipping an army in such a manner as to enable his son to carry on the war with effect. His parsimonious disposition made it harder for him to part with his gold than to see his armies vanquished, and his territory invaded by the enemy. The following anecdote gives proof of the extent to which the unprincely vice of avarice had by this time gained possession of the mind of the Shah. Some boxes containing mirrors and lamps had been left in the royal camp by Prince Menchikoff, and Fetteh Ali caused them to be seized on the flimsy pretence that the Russian envoy had intimated that they were intended to be given as a present to the Persian monarch. It was feared by the peace party of his court, that if this act of spoliation should be repeated to the Russian authorities it would be likely to raise a personal feeling against the Shah, and so to retard the conclusion of peace. But the king fiercely refused to relinquish his prey, and at length Abbass Meerza had to purchase the mirrors and lamps from his father in order that they might be restored to Prince Menchikoff. In the same spirit the Shah insisted on throwing the expense and burden of the war upon the single province of Azerbaeejan, the revenues of which belonged to the crown-prince.
With the spring of the year 1827, both sides pre-
