354 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. During the administration of Haji Meerza Aghassi some attention was paid to the development of the internal resources of the dominions of the Shah. The cultivation of the mulberry -tree, to supply food for the silkworm, was anxiously watched over in the province of Kerrnan ; and, amongst other projects, the prime minister entertained, and endeavoured to carry into execution, that of diverting into the plain of Tehran the broad river of Kerij, with a view to procure an abundant supply of water for the wants of the city. On the whole, the minister of Mahomed Shah showed himself, during the thirteen years of his administration, to be a man not altogether unqualified for the duty of ruling over an Oriental nation. He was not deaf to the claims of expe- diency, of justice and of mercy, and if his merits scarcely deserved the high opinion which he entertained of his own performances and his own capacity, he is at least entitled to the credit of having meant well to his country and his sovereign. That sovereign was now about to close a career the years of which had been evil as they had been few. In the autumn of 1848 he was overtaken by a combination of maladies which it was feared would speedily bring him to the grave. Gout and erysipelas had together effected the ruin of his constitution, and on the evening of the 4th of September, 1848, his Majesty, being then in his fortieth year, expired at the palace of Mahomediah in Shimran, without having at the last suffered pain. That palace, as well as the once splendid abode of the Vizeer hard by, has long since been stripped of its treasures ; in accordance with the Persian prejudice, which makes a son object to dwelling in the house in which his father has died. The marble baths and halls
