angry with me, sir. I your old friend, sir. God know, I your very good friend to you, sir. But now you must write other book, and praise Persian peoples very much. king you never write Hajji Baba.

I swear very much to the

I not understand flatter

"I hope you will forgive me, sir. peoples, you know very well. I plain man, sir-speak always plain, sir; but I always very good friend to you. But why you write 'bout me? God know, I your old friend.

"P.S.-I got very good house now, and very good garden, sir-much better as you saw here, sir. English gentlemans tell me Mexico all silver and gold. You very rich man now, I hope. I like English flowers in my garden-great many; and King take my china and glass. As you write so many things 'bout Mirza Firouz, I think you send me some seeds and roots not bad; and because I defend you to the king, and swear so much, little china and glass for me very good."- Vol. i. p. xvii.

all

That so hopeful a correspondence might not fall to the ground, the author of Hajji Baba returned an answer of a kind most likely to have weight with a Persian, and which we can all observe is, like Don Pedro's answer to Dogberry, "rightly reasoned; and in his own division." Like the letter to which it is an answer, it is a chef-d'œuvre in its way; but we have not room to quote it.

The author contends that irritation will lead to reflection, reflection to amendment. The Persians, he observes, are, in talent and natural capacity, - equal to any nation in the world, and would be no less on a level with them in feeling, honesty, and the higher moral qualities, were their education favourable. To fix, therefore, the attention of the leading men of the nation on the leading faults of the national character, may have on them so powerful an effect, that the name of Morier may be remembered as the first who led the way to the

illumination of Persia by the introduction of English literature into the pavilions of Tehraun. We proceed to give some account of the present work.

Hajji, a man of consequence as being supposed to understand the manners of the Franks, and secretary to Mirza Firouz, the Persian Elchee or Ambassador to England, commences by collecting, in the most arbitrary manner, and by the most summary means, whatever he judges would be most acceptable at the court of Saint James's, as articles to be presented to the King of England. Being invested with plenary powers, he fails not to make a sweep of all he can find which is rich and rare, not failing to obtain a ransom from those whom he spares, and to detain, for his own private purse, a handsome per centage of the pillage which he accumulates. His collection of rarely-gifted slaves is edifying. Among them there is a guardian of the haram designed for the service of King George III., who is termed Mûrwari, or the pearl, as being the most vindictive, spiteful, and inexorable wretch of his species, watchful as a lynx, wary as a jackal. To this treasure is added a negro prize-fighter, who can carry a jackass, devour a sheep whole, eat fire, and make a fountain of his inside. But the British ambassador at the court of Persia, being taken into their counsel, explains why neither the pearl nor the spoutman, nor even the property an Ethiopian woman, whose constitution could dispense with sleep, and who was therefore destined to watch the royal couch of Britain, would be

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acceptable to the venerable sovereign for whom they were intended, the discussions on which topics are stated with much liveliness. Upon the same occasion was prepared and placed in the hands of the ambassador, that celebrated letter to her Majesty Queen Charlotte from the King of Persia's chief wife, assuredly one of the most extravagant morsels of Oriental bombast that ever astonished European ears. Here is a modest sample.

"It is necessary that the sweet-singing nightingales of the pen of correspondence should warble some notes in the garden of affection, and open the buds of our design in performing the pleasing duty of acknowledging, with thanks, the receipt of the acceptable present of our beloved sister, which we have hung upon the neck of accomplishment. May your house, the dwelling of kindness and friendship, ever flourish. The duties of friendship point out the necessity of occasionally sprinkling drops from the cloud of the pen, to increase the verdure of the meadow of affection."- Vol. i. p. 43.

Before the Persians can profit a great deal from British literature, the extirpating hoes of criticism, to use their own figurative language, must root out a great variety of many-coloured flowers from the garden of eloquence, and they must learn to call the spade of the aforesaid, or any other, garden, by its proper name of spade. Their present eloquence is a debauched style of exaggeration, which communicates its character to thought and action, and is no more consistent with an improvement in taste, than cotton in the ears, or musk crammed into the nose, is compatible with the accurate exercise of these organs. On the other hand, there is some fancy and even wit in some

verses of the Persian poet-laureate, for the inscription of a small casket, which, on being opened, was found to contain on one side a miniature picture of the Shah, and on the other a mirror, in which the King of England, for whom it was designed, might see the reflection of his own face.

“Go, envied glass, to where thy destiny calls thee;

Go, thou leavest the presence of one Cæsar, to receive that of another.

Still thou bearest within thee thy sovereign's form;

And when thou'rt opened again by Britain's king,
Thoul't reflect not one Cæsar, but two Cæsars;
Not one brother, but two brothers;

Not one Jemsheed, but two Jemsheeds;

Not one Darab, but two Darabs."—Vol. i. p. 55.

We have no doubt that the mouth of Aster Khan, "the prince of poets," was crammed, upon this occasion, with sugarcandy, which is his usual and appropriate reward. We have few sweetmeats, as our readers are well aware, to spare for the use of any author, and the prince of poets must be pretty well satiated with them. We shall therefore only say that ingenuity and wit often find a ready alliance with affectation and absurdity elsewhere than in Eastern poetry.

The train of the ambassador to the Court of Saint James's has its divided interests and its intrigues. Mirza Firouz, though compelled to receive his high charge as a distinguished favour, is at the bottom convinced that it is designed as an honourable exile, conferred upon him at the instance of the grand vizier, who had become jealous of his influence with the sovereign; and with the same

strain of feeling he regards Hajji Baba, even while he finds himself obliged to treat him with some respect, as a spy over his conduct placed there by the prime minister. Hajji endeavours, by flattering attention and assentation of every description, to blunt the suspicion, and disarm the ill-will of his chief; but, though he occasionally seems to succeed, he is, au fonde, only tolerated.

At Erzeroum, one of the ambassador's retinue commits a theft, and deserts. He is seized and brought back, and his master orders his ears to be cropped. This comes to the ear of a personage who considers the proceeding as derogatory to his own authority, the embassy being now in the Ottoman territories. The pasha, in short, sends his principal chaoush, an old grave Turk with a white beard, to remonstrate with the ambassador in all civility; and the scene which followed is admirably descriptive of the composure of the formal, solemn, taciturn Osmanli, contrasted with the petulant fury of the vivacious Persian.

"The ambassador was surrounded by all his servants when the chaoush entered, and was still in the height of his fury at the delinquency of his running footman. He was pouring out a torrent of words, cursing first the day he had set out on this expedition, then the vizier who sent him, then the Turks and their country, when the solemn son of Osman interposed his selam aleikum, peace be with you! and took his seat with all due reverence.- What has happened?' exclaimed the ambassador to his visiter. Nothing,' answered the chaoush.-' Have you seen what abomination that rascally countryman of ours has been committing?' said the ambassador. 'Please heaven, his father shall burn ere long. We are not such asses to let him escape gratis. Until have got his ears into my pocket, not a