MEERZA HASHEM KHAN. 419 Eefore the arrival at Tehran of the Hon. Charles A. Murray, who was the new representative in Persia of her Majesty's Government, some correspondence had taken place between the prime Minister and the English charge d'affaires regarding a meerza, or Persian writer, who had been employed in the Mission, and who was much disliked by the Sedr-Azem. The Persian Vizeer had not sought to conceal the antipathy which he felt towards Hash em Khan, and he had expressed a wish that this man might not be continued in his position in the Mission, in virtue of which he was the medium of communication between the Persian Government and the British Minister. The meerza in question belonged to one of the principal branches of the tribe of Noor; of another branch of which tribe the Sedr-Azem was the chief. He had at one period been in the Persian service, but had for a long time past been unemployed ; when in 1854 he was named Persian secretary to the English Mission at Tehran. The Persian Minister now asserted that Hashem Khan had never obtained a formal discharge from the Shah's service, and that he was consequently not eligible for employment under a foreign mission ; the English charge d'affaires was therefore requested not to press the question of his employment. The point of his removal from the post of Persian secretary to the Mission was yielded ; not in consequence of the truth of the assertion that he had not obtained a discharge from the Shah's service, but because it was manifestly contrary to the public interests that English business should be daily transacted through a subordinate who was avowedly disliked by the Persian prime minister. When the Sedr-Azem had at first requested that Hashem 272
