'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎1] (32/714)

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Mi A
PEESIA
and
THE PEE SI AN QUESTION
CHAPTER I
introductory
The things to be seen and observed are the courts of princes, especially when
they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of justice, while they sit and hear
causes ; and so of consistories ecclesiastic ; the churches and monasteries, with
the monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities
and towns ; and so the havens and harbours, antiquities and ruins, libraries, col
leges, disputations and lectures, where any are ; shipping and navies; houses and
gardens of state and pleasure near great cities; armouries, arsenals, magazines,
exchanges, burses, warehouses, exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of
soldiers, and the like ; comedies such whereunto the better sort of persons do
resort; treasuries of jewels and robes ; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude,
whatsoever is memorable.— Bacon , Essay xviii. on ' Travel.'
In this introductory chapter, before proceeding to my narrative, I
wish to make clear to my readers the threefold object
which I have in view. Perhaps I shall best explain to
them the primary aim of this work if I quote the opening
words of mv first letter from Persia to the ' Times : ? —
Threefold
object of
this work
The visit of the Shah of Persia to England in 1889 and the official
and public reception accorded to him throughout the country have re
awakened that interest in Persia and the Persian question which the
remoteness of his dominions and the increasing indifference of the
English public to interests lying outside their immediate ken had
allowed in recent years to languish. The attentions paid to the dis
tinguished visitor by all ranks, from the Sovereign downwards, and
the efforts made to impress him both with the resources and with the
friendly consideration of Great Britain, were evidences that the Shah
was regarded as much more than an interesting Oriental potentate
afflicted with a taste for foreign travel, and deserving to be run after
vol. I. * B
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