'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎406] (461/714)

40f)
PERSIA
Its condition is bad enough viewed from the standpoint of public
works, education, or internal development. But life and property
are fairly secure, brigandage is scarcely known, robbery and violence
(at any rate upon Europeans) are rarely attempted; revenue is
exacted even from the nomad and mountainous tribes ; the provincial
Governors are thoroughly under control and quake at the vibrations
of the telegraph wire from Teheran ; the Shah is supreme from the
( aspian to the fiulf, and from the Kurdish mountains to Seistan;
and there is not a single man in the kingdom who dare venture
either his voice or his position against the sovereign. Hitherto, again,
the death of the* monarch has almost invariably been the signal for
a general outbreak ; rival candidates for the throne have appeared in
arms; and there has been a horrid interval of anarchy and turbulence
until the superior genius or resources of one competitor have enabled
him to win the day. A\ hen Fath All Shah died in 183-1, there were
two claimants of the throne in the field in addition to the rightful heir,
Mohammed Shah ; and it was only owingto the inexhaustible energy
and influence of Sir John Campbell, then British Minister, and to the
assistance of the British officers in command of the Persian troops,
that he was able so soon to establish his legitimate claim. Simi-
larly, when Mohammed Shah died in 1848 rebellions broke out
in Khorasan, Kerman. Yezd, and Isfahan, and it was mainly to the
joint co-operation of the British and Russian Ministers that Nasr-
• ed-Din was indebted for his speedy recognition. Such has been
the experience of the last two accessions to the crown. If the
present Shah were to die to-morrow there might be isolated acts
of lawlessness or violence, but I do not credit the likelihood of any
general insurrection; I foresee no warring competition for the
throne; and I believe that the Heir Apparent would succeed with
out firing a musket or shedding a drop of blood.
Secondly, if we take the period covered by the present reign
and contrast the state of Persia at the beginning and end of this
Compari- epoch, we shall note a marked advance in many of the
between resources of civilisation, culture, comfort, and security.
1848 and In the year after Nasr-ed-Din Shah ascended the throne
the following sentences were penned by the greatest
living authority on the Persian question :—
In every quarter there is abundant cause for anxiety, and few, very
few, faint glimmerings of hope. The treasury has been drained of its
last ducat, and we see little chance of its being replenished. The