those who had intended to dispute with him the accession to the regal dignity, and, from the feeble health of the king, men were prepared soon to witness the miseries of civil war.
Prince Mahomed Meerza, now the acknowledged heir to the Persian throne, returned to Tabreez to undertake the government so long held by his father. This prince was at this time twenty-eight years of age, but, young as he was, he was already enfeebled in constitution, and he paid the penalty of his devotion to the pleasures of the table by having to submit to frequently-recurring attacks of gout. The province of Azerbaeejan had suffered greatly from the excessive peculation of his brothers, two of whom, Jehangeer and Kosroo, were now sent to well-merited confinement in the fortress of Ardabeel. Of these two young men their own mother is said to have declared that it was impossible to tell which was the worst; and we are therefore not surprised to read that Kosroo Meerza, who had been ambassador to the court of Russia, was afterwards condemned to be deprived of sight. But though Mahomed Meerza was the nominal governor of Azerbaeejan, the real authority over that province lay at this time in the hands of Meerza Abdul Kassim, the Kaim-Makam, who had long filled the important office of vizeer to Abbass Meerza, and who was subsequently called to the still higher post of Grand Vizeer of Persia. This nobleman stood unrivalled for talent in the estimation of his countrymen. He was an able financier, and was well acquainted with the condition of every province in the kingdom, and was moreover versed in the relations between Persia and the foreign States; but the quality in the possession of which he was chiefly pre-eminent,
