Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/479

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THE TREATY RATIFIED. 459 ghanistan should be secured, and that suitable apology should be made for the affronts which had been offered to the representative of the Queen at the Persian court. The terms demanded from Persia were so light that they might have been secured at a less cost than that in- volved in the capture of Bushire and of Mohamra. It is probable that the seizure and retention of the island of Karrack, and the blockade of Bushire would have had the effect of producing the evacuation of Herat by the troops of the Shah, and of bringing the Persian court to apologize for its conduct previously to the suspension of diplomatic relations at Tehran. As it was, the cap- ture of Mohamra and the defeat of the Shah's troops at Khushab had no effect whatever on the negotiations for peace at Paris ; for it was immediately after the capture of Bushire that the Sedr-Azem had sent instructions to Ferrukh Khan to conclude peace upon any terms what- soever. The success which had attended the British arms at Khushab on the 8th of February was not known at Paris on the 4th of March, and it was not until long after peace had been made that Mohamra fell. The Sedr-Azem, on listening to the paragraphs of the treaty, which a secretary had brought from Paris, exclaimed, when he came to a pause, " Is that all ?" and on being told that there was nothing more, he uttered a fervent " Alhamdulillah ! "Praise be to God ! for he had fully expected that one of the clauses insisted on by England would contain a demand for his own dismissal from office. But, although Persia lay at the mercy of Great Britain, and would have been obliged to accept any terms offered to her, it very soon became a cause of sincere