Prince Paskewitch was about to march upon Teherán did Canning's Ministry make some effort to stay further bloodshed. By the Treaty of Turkmanchai, signed in 1828, the Sháh parted with another large slice of territory, conceded to Russia the sole right of keeping an armed fleet on the Caspian, and agreed to pay a war-fine of nearly four millions sterling.
The Persian Sháh had claimed our help under the treaty of 1814; and the claim was supported, notably by the Duke of Wellington and Sir John Malcolm. But after his late reverses the only help which Canning's Government would give him took the shape of a bribe. In return for the payment of 200,000 tománs — about £300,000 — the needy monarch consented to expunge from the treaty those articles which bound his English friends to aid him with subsidies in any defensive war[1].
The Government of a foreign country bordered by less civilized States, is always liable to recurring panics. While Lord William Bentinck was still in India, another of these commotions set in. About 1830 people were following with anxious eyes the rapid growth of that Muscovite power which had just dictated peace to Turkey under the ramparts of Adrianople, and was now carrying its arms or its influence eastward to the borders of Afghánistán. Under that influence a son of the Persian Sháh set forth in 1831 to reconquer Khorásán. Emboldened by success he was preparing for fresh conquests when
- ↑ Kaye's War in Afghanistan; Sir H. Rawlinson's England and Russia in the East.
