this subject might be taken into the serious consideration of the Governor-General of India in Council. 14. I have requested the Kelat Government to ascertain and forward, as soon as possible, to the Political Superintendent on the frontier, for transmission to me, full particulars regarding the strength, constitution, proceedings, &c., of the Persian forces; which, on receipt, I will submit without delay for the information of his Lordship in Council. 15. A copy of this letter will be transmitted for the information of the Governor of Bombay in Council. The Secretary to the Government of India. SIR, I have, &c. JOHN JACOB. No. 137.-The Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Murray. Foreign Office, October 10, 1856. I TRANSMIT to you herewith, in an unsealed packet, a letter which I have addressed to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in reply to a letter from the Sadr Azim, of which I inclose an English translation for your information. I also inclose a copy of my letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I have to instruct you to cause an accurate translation of it to be made and placed in the same cover with the original, and then forwarded as soon as possible to Tehran. Mr. Consul Stevens will probably have left Tehran before my letter could arrive there, and it will be for you to determine how you can best ensure the letter reaching Tehran in safety, and the time at which it should do so, in order that no impediment may, in consequence of its contents, be opposed to the progress of Mr. Stevens and his family on his way out of Persia. C. A. Murray, Esq. I am, &c. CLARENDON. No. 138.-The Earl of Clarendon to the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs. Foreign Office, October 10, 1856. THE Undersigned, &c. had the honour to receive, on the 25th of September, the letter which the Sadr Azim, Prime Minister of His Majesty the Shah of Persia, addressed to him on the 17th of August, having reference to the letter which the Undersigned addressed to the Sadr Azim on the 11th of July, on the subject of the proceedings of the Persian Government in regard to Herat, but containing no answer to that letter. Her Majesty's Government had hoped that the letter of the Undersigned would have elicited from the Persian Government a distinct assurance that that Government would at once desist from the enterprise which it had undertaken against Herat, in violation of solemn engagements entered into with the British Government in former times, and in defiance of the often-expressed determination of the British Government not to tolerate any interference on the part of Persia with the States of Affghanistan, and not to allow the extension of the authority or the territory of Persia in that quarter. Her Majesty's Government had hoped that such assurance would have been given, and would have been followed up by the immediate withdrawal of the Persian armies from Affghan territory, and by complete reparation for the insults which had been offered to the British Government in the person of the Queen's Envoy, and which had led to the withdrawal of the British Mission from Persia. If all this had been done, Her Majesty's Government would have been enabled to replace, on a friendly footing, its relations with the Court of the Shah. Her Majesty's Government have been disappointed in these hopes and expectations. The redress demanded in the communication made by the British Ambassador at Constantinople to the Persian Chargé d'Affaires in that city, in the month of June last, for the insult offered to the British Mission, has not been afforded; the reparation required in the note of the Undersigned of July 11, for the disregard shown by Persia of her engagement as to Herat, has not been given; but instead of this, vain excuses and pretexts of delay have been put forward, and Her Majesty's Government have been told to expect satisfaction from the result of a negotiation, the conduct of which the Persian Government pretends to have confided to an Ambassador some time since appointed by the Shah to the Court of France. But, in the meanwhile, the Persian Government has not been content even to let the questions in dispute remain without further aggravation. The insults which occasioned the withdrawal of the Mission from Tehran have, since that period, been followed up by other insults to the British Government, which of themselves call for ample reparation. The insults to which the Undersigned here more particularly refers, are, the prohibition of intercourse by subjects of the Shah with Her Majesty's Consul at Tehran; the violation of the engagement to pay to Syed Abdoollah, a British subject, an allowance which he was to receive as a commutation for a portion of his claims on the Government of Persia; the attempt on the part of the Sadr Azitu to possess himself of the water long since assigned to the British Mission for its use at its summer encampment; the interdeption of the supplies of water ordinarily assigned to the British Mesion in Tehran; the refusal to enforce the punishment of parties who committed a violent assault on one of the servants of the British Consul; the refusal to recognize the right of property of Her Majesty's Government in the British Consular residence; the expulsion from Asterabad of a person in the employment of the British Mission; the publication, in the public paper under the control of the Government of Persia, of injurious statements as regards the British Government; and lastly, the direct incentive held out to fanaticism to imitate against British subjects the conduct pursued at a former time, when the city of Tehran witnessed the massacre of the Representative of a foreign State by an infuriated mob. All these transactions are publicly known throughout the Persian capital, and until the redress demanded for them shall have been given, and shall have been made as publicly known, it will be impossible for a British Mission to reside with security, still less with honour, at the Court of the Shah. But even these transactions are of less account than the wanton disregard by the Persian Government of its engagement to abstain from any interference in the internal affairs of Herat, and from any attempt to occupy, or take possession, or assume the sovereignty or government, of that province. There are indications, indeed, that before the British Mission retired from Tehran, intrigues were on foot to promote the views of aggrandizement which Persia has continually entertained in the direction of Herat. Persian forces were collected on the frontier of that State; and, as if more distinctly to evince the hostility of Persia towards Great Britain, even at this early stage of these transactions, the Persian Government selected for the command of those forces an officer, high in rank and nearly connected with the Royal Family, who had then lately rendered himself notorious by grossly indecent language applied by him to the Sovereign of England at a public entertainment given to members of the Royal Family by the Vizier of Tehran. From that period, the operations of the Persian forces have been pushed forward with unabated perseverance against the city, and in various quarters of the territory, of Herat; language of defiance against Great Britain has been openly held by the Persian Government, and demonstrations have been made of the intention of the Persian Government rather to engage in conflict with Great Britain, than to concede the just demands of the British Government; the Persian Government appearing to wish to display to the Persian people its indifference for the friendship of England, and its conviction that Persia has nothing to fear from the just resentment of Great Britain. But the British Government can no longer passively submit to the insults and wrongs which it has received from the Government of Persia. An expedition, destined for Persia, is now about to leave the British territories, and whatever may result to Persia from this measure, which her Government has wantonly provoked, the responsibility thereof will rest on the evil counsellors of the Shah, who have led his Majesty to countenance insult and injury towards Great Britain, and to violate the solemn engagements of an international compact. The Undersigned, &c. CLARENDON. No. 139.-Consul Abbott to the Earl of Clarendon.-—(Rec. Oct. 16.) I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship of a circumstance which, if anything further were required to exhibit the Sadr Azim's unfriendly feelings towards Englishmen, would suffice for this purpose. The Sadr Azim has written to the Kaimakam that, a Russian subject having a small claim on a person named Koochook Khan, and the latter being supposed to be particularly well disposed towards. the English and their Government, the Kaimakam is to seize upon, chain, imprison, and put him to the torture until he pays; adding that, "we shall then see who of the English will deliver him from our hands." The Kaimakam, to his credit be it said, does not intend, I believe, to carry this order into effect, and Koochook Khan proposes to obtain permission to depart on a pilgrimage to Kerbella, to be out of the way of further molestation. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. KEITH EDWD. ABBOTT. No. 140.-Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl of Clarendon. (Received October 9.) (Telegram.) Therapia, October 18, 1856. A PERSIAN officer has just called on me with compliments from Ferokh Khan, the long-expected Persian Ambassador, who appears to have arrived here yesterday on his way to Paris. The Earl of Clarendon. STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. No. 141.-The Earl of Clarendon to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. (Extract.) Foreign Office, October 28, 1856. YOUR Excellency may inform the Persian Ambassador that you are prepared to receive, in writing, any communication he may have to make respecting reparation to England. If he makes such communication, you may then, in the manner you think most expedient, inform him that, we require, as a conditio sine quá non, the immediate withdrawal of the Persian troops from Herat and its territory, and the payment by Persia of compensation for all damages done by them therein; 2. That we further require that Persia shall enter into a Treaty with England, by which Persia shall renounce all attempts of any kind to interfere with Herat, or with any portion of Affghanistan; will engage not to receive at any time overtures from any party to interfere in their internal affairs; will recognize their absolute and entire independence, and will agree to refer to British mediation any differences which she may hereafter have with them; 3. That Persia shall agree to negotiate and conclude with England a new Treaty of Commerce, by which all questions which have hitherto given occasion for discussion between the two Governments shall be settled, and the right be conceded to Great Britain of appointing Consuls in any part of Persia; 4. That all debts due to British subjects shall forthwith be paid, and an understanding come to on disputed claims; 5. That Persia shall make an arrangement respecting Bender Abbas satisfactory to the Imaum of Muscat, the friend of England; 6. That, in consideration of the part taken by the Sadr Azim in the latest differences between the two countries, the Shah shall replace that Minister by some other person likely to promote a good understanding between England and Persia. Upon the conclusion and ratification by the Shah of these engagements as regards Herat and Affghanistan, and the withdrawal of the whole of the Persian troops within the frontier of Khorassan, and upon the solemn engagement, under the seal of His Majesty, that, the sixth condition having been complied with, the remainder of the conditions shall be carried into effect within six months after the return of the British Mission to Tehran, and that the return of the Mission shall be attended with all the apologies and ceremonies already specified, except in so far as the removal of the Sadr Azim render them impracticable, the British Mission will return to Tehran; and within six months after the return of the Mission the British force will be withdrawn from the Persian territory. The British Government reserves to itself the right to vary these conditions if not at once accepted, and especially to make the reestablishment of friendly relations with Persia dependent on the payment by Persia of the expenses of the measures of coercion now in progress. HI.E. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. CLARENDON. No. 142.-Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon-(Rec. Oct. 30.) (Extract.) Bagdad, September 29, 1856. I HAVE the honour to report, for your Lordship's information. that intelligence has reached me, from an unofficial quarter, that the Bender Abbas question, which has for so long been matter of dispute between the Imaum of Muscat and the Persian Government, |