The brother of the intended governor, whose name was Mahomed Jaffer, was in the town; and, after some commotions, he was appointed to the chief command, till MahomedNebee should arrive. Another chief, however, in the meantime obtained possession of power, seized Mahomed Jaffer, threw him into prison, and fastened him to the wall by a chain. Mahomed Nebee was stung with the disgrace that was thus inflicted on his family: he swore that he would not rest till the head of his brother's enemy was cut off; and his influence was sufficiently great to procure the appointment of Jaffer to the government of Bushire. Mr. Morier here observes:

'I must not omit, as a specimen of Persian character, the mode of communication which notified this change at Bushire. The prince's messenger that brought the intelligence from Shiraz of the disgrace of the Nasakchee Bashee, came into the presence of Mahomed Jaffer, and told him, "Come, now is the time to open your purse-strings; you are now no longer a merchant or in prison; you are now no longer to sell dungaree, (a species of coarse linen;) you are a governor; come, you must be liberal; I bring you good intelligence; if I had been ordered to cut off your head, I would have done it with the greatest pleasure; but now, as I bring you good news, I must have some money." The man that said this was a servant, and the man that bore it was the new governor of Bushire.

In a few days Mahomed Jaffer paid us a visit, in appearance perfectly unconscious of the indignities which he had suffered. But the habitual despotism which the people are born to witness, familiarizes them so much to every act of violence which may be inflicted on themselves, or on others, that they view all events with equal indifference, and go in and out of prison, are bastinadoed, fined, and exposed to every ignominy, with an apathy which nothing but custom and fatalism could produce.'

Nothing is more remarkable in these countries than the extreme familiarity that exists between the weak and the powerful, notwithstanding the abject submission with which the cruelty and oppression of the latter are endured; and this, in fact, operates, as a species of compensation to the miserable. Little of that humiliation is there felt which the pride of rank produces in the bosoms of the poor, in countries in which hereditary distinctions exist, and the people are considered as constituting one cast and those who possess wealth and distinction as another. In Persia, the man who now domineers was lately oppressed; and the man who is now in the meanest of stations may quickly be lord over the lives. and fortunes of thousands. All are of one rank; and the

servant regards the master as no more than a man of the same class with himself, but by accident (or rather by fate) armed with a power to which it is necessary for him to submit.

Mr. Morier's account of the mode of raising the revenue is highly instructive; both because it expresses so much respecting the condition and happiness of the people, and because it resembles so nearly the mode of levying the revenue which the English found established in India, and which under certain modifications they have continued:

The different ranks of civil governors are-1st, the beglerbeg, who generally resides in the large cities, and controls the province around: 2d, the hakim; aud third, the thaubet, who severally govern a city or a town: 4th, the kelounter, who, besides the real governor, resides in every city, town, and village, and superintends the collection of the tribute: 5th, the ket khoda, who is the chief of a village: 6th, the pak-kar, who is servant, or hommes d'affaires to the ket khoda, and transacts the business with the rayat or peasant. The pak-kar accounts with the ket khoda, and he again with the kelounter.

The kelounter is a man of consequence wherever he presides; he is an officer of the crown, and once a-year appears before the royal presence, an honour which is not permitted to the ket khoda. He also receives wages from the king's treasury, which the ket khoda does not. The kelounter is the medium through which the wishes and wants of the people are made known to the king. He is their chief and representative on all occasions, and brings forward the complaints of the rayats whenever they feel oppressed. He also knows the riches of every rayat, and his means of rendering the annual tribute: he therefore regulates the quota that every man must pay; and if his seal be not affixed to the documents which the rayat brings forward in the time of the levy, the assessment is not valid, and the sum cannot be received.

"The three principal branches of the tribute which the people pay are, 1st, maleeat; 2d, sader; and 3d, peish-kesh.

The maleeat is the hereditary original right of the crown, and consists in produce and money The king gets in kind one fifth of the produce of the land, that is of wheat, barley, silk, tobacco, indigo, &c. and articles of that description; and one fifth in money of all the vegetables, fruit, and lesser produce of the earth, which the proprietor may sell. Though the proportion be paid in kind, yet it is assessed, not by the actual levy of every fifth sheaf, &c. but by an indirect criterion of produce, deduced from the number of oxen kept by the landholder; and this part of the revenue is collected accordingly by a corresponding rate imposed upon the growth of the land. Thus the possessor of twelve oxen is supposed to possess also an extent of land, the cultivation of which may require that number, and is therefore assessed to pay a quantity of corn proportioned to the assumed amount of his gross receipt.

The king collects one fifth also in money of all the vegetables, fruits, and lesser produce of the earth which the proprietor may sell. Formerly these tributes, either in kind or in money, were only one tenth: but their amount has been doubled by the present king.

'The inhabitants of towns pay according to an assessment imposed on the place, and founded on the number of houses which it may contain, and not according to their individual means. And this levy on any particular town is but a part only of that charged on the district which contains it: thus Ispahan, which, for instance, has Koom and Kashan within its administration, is requi red to furnish a specified sum, of which it pays part, and divides the rest among the second rate towns, which again subdivide their own proportions among the villages around; and collect, each in their gradations, the appointed amount of the tribute, and transfer the whole to the royal treasury. The government requires that the collector of any given district should supply a stated sum, but it permits him likewise to add, as his own profit, whatever he can further exact. Most of these offices are bought and sold. By the amount therefore of the purchase is regulated the rate of oppression. The scale descends. Every minor agent is expected to accomplish an appointed task; but is left to choose his own means, and to have no other control but his own conscience. This is the practice, whatever may be the theory of the administration of the

revenue.

The sader is an arbitrary tax; and is the most grievous to the rayat. It admits every species of extortion, and renders the situation of the peasant extremely precarious. This impost is levied on particular occasions, such as the passage of any great man through the country, the local expenses of a district, or on other opportunities, which are continually recurring; so that the rayat is never certain of a respite. It is assessed in the same manner upon the number of oxen which he may keep. Thus, if sheep are wanted, he who keeps one ox is obliged to give a sheep, and so on with every other demand which may be made.

The peish-kesh. This is called, indeed, a voluntary gift; but it must be offered every year at the festival of the Norooz; and, like the regular taxes, is required in the same proportion, according to the means of the people.

By these taxations the condition of the cultivators is rendered more particularly wretched. On the contrary, the merchants are less oppressed than any class in Persia. The shopkeeper, indeed, (dukianda) pays tribute; but the proper merchant, (sodager) a distinct order, pays nothing at all to the state, except the duties of the customs, which are comparatively very small, being about one tenth on the imports; and as they are not affected by any other imposition, they are the most wealthy part of the community.'

In all governments, it appears-both those which are the most rude and those which are the most refined-the revenue, and the mode of levying it, constitute the grand burthen or grievance of the body of the people This difference, indeed, subsists between despotisms and those governments which admit some securities to liberty, that the former can adopt other modes of oppression, while the latter cannot easily oppress through any but the ordinary channels of revenue. This is a most important truth, demanding the incessant attention of all those who live under governments in a certain degree free. It is through the channels of revenue that almost all which they have to dread can by possibility invade them. The lessons of wisdom, therefore, to them, are nearly summed up in the grand precept, to maintain a severe and vigilant watch over such channels: viz. that of receipt or collection, and that of disbursement. The people are liable to suffering both by the quantity and the mode, in the channel of receipt and collection; and they are exposed to the mighty dangers of having their rights and privileges bartered away to influence, by the quantity and mode in the channel of disbursement. It is through these media that a limited monarchy has a perpetual tendency to become unlimited; and that through the one of them the ruinous effects of an unlimited monarchy are chiefly introduced. The system of revenue is the most defective part of the fabric of English government in India; the main cause of the oppression which the people continue to feel; and the chief source of vexation and toil to those who are intrusted with the business of administration.-With regard to the population of Persia, we have in this volume a statement which cannot fail to excite some interesting reflections.

The aggregate of the population of Persia is divided into ribes, part of which live in fixed habitations, and others (the larger proportion, indeed, and all the Arabs,) live in tents. These tribes never emigrate from their own districts, but all have their winter and summer regions; in the former pitching their tents in the plain, in the latter on the summits and declivities of their mountains. To these districts they adhere strictly, as the line of demarcation for the pasturage of their flocks has been observed from ages the most remote. Each has its records, and can trace its genealogy to the first generation. The most considerable and renowned are the Baktiar, that spread themselves over the province of Irauk; the Failee, that live about the mountains of Shooster, or Susa, and extend their frontier to those of the Baktiars; the Affshars, that live near the lake of Shahee; the Lacs, that are near Casvin'

It is an important circumstance that, of the whole population of the kingdom of Persia, reduced as it is in limits compared with the extent which it has frequently known, the larger proportion' is still in the wandering state-still in the condi tion of houseless Tartars-still in the stage of society which is nearest to the savage-still deprived even of the benefit of the plough. If any thing were wanting to prove in the most striking manner, how unfavourably to human nature despotism operates, it is surely this. From the date of the earliest historical records, Persia has existed in the form of a monarchy, and so far advanced in civilization, as to compose a large community; yet so many revolving ages have beheld its barbarous, suffering, degraded population in the same condition, without improvement, without arts, industry, knowledge, or morality.

A passage in Mr. Morier's detail, which relates to the military character of the Persians, is worthy of notice; and indeed they have always been distinguished as among the most warlike of the people of the east. The prince here introduced was that son of the king to whom the government of the province of Aderbigian was intrusted, and the governor mentioned was the governor of the city of Tabriz, which the prince had made his capital:

The governor talked of his prince's horsemanship and skill in the chase, which were unequalled. He told me that at full gallop the prince could shoot a deer with a single ball, or, with the arrow from his bow, hit a bird on the wing. He combines, indeed, the three great qualities of the ancient Persians, which Xenophon enumerates, riding, shooting with the bow, and speaking truth. His countrymen, however, are, in general, less severe in their estimate of the requisites of a great character, and are content to omit the last trait of excellence; but they never praise any one without placing in the foremost of his virtues his horsemanship; in which alone, perhaps, they possess any national pride. I once, in fact, was in some danger of a serious dispute, by hazarding a doubt that the Turks rode better than the Persians. It is quite ridiculous to hear them boast of their own feats on horseback, and de. spise the cavalry of every other nation. They always said, " Perhaps your infantry may surpass ours; but our horsemen are the first in the world; nothing can stand before their activity and inpetuosity." In fact, they have courage, one of the first qualities of a horseman; they ride without the least apprehension over any country, climb the most dangerous steeps over rock and shrub; and keep their way in defiance of every obstacle of ground. They have also a firm seat, and that on a saddle which, among an hundred different sorts, would be called the least commodious. But