"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٤‎٧‎٠] (٧١٤/٥٢٩)

PERSIA
The price of each of the above-mentioned journals is one hran
{ld\ a figure which is quite prohibitory as regards general circu
lation. Where the official impulse to subscribe does not exist,
self-interest has the same consequence; for the leading personages,
unless they are counted among the patrons of the organ, find them
selves roundly abused. A bribe is often found a wise preliminary
to a flattering notice.
CO I he 1 aihang. At Isfahan is published the ' Farhang,'
under the editorship "of the Zil-es-Sultan, or of an official employed
by him. It shares the characteristics already described.
Formerly a paper called the.'Akhter' (Star) was much read.
It was brought out by Persian refugees at Constantinople, but was
subsequently interdicted in Persia, when found to contain somewhat
too candid reflections upon the government of the Iving of Ivmgs.
A similar organ, named the " Kanun, has lately been started.
After the first European journey of the Shah, Mirza Husein
Khan, then Minister of loreign Affairs, fired by what he had seen
French i n Purope, proposed the foundation of a Pranco-Persian
paper. The requisite plant was procured; a European
was engaged as director; the promising title of ' La Patrie' was
selected; but on February 5, 1876, when the first, and solitary,
number appeared, the editorial with which it opened was found to
contain the following astounding statement:—
W ith regard to internal affairs, we shall speak of them with absolute
independence. We take, and we mean to take, no side ; we are bound
by no pledge ; we are under no official obligation. We desire to serve
our country by enlightening it upon its true needs. We shall support
progress, and encourage every manifestation of it. But we will never
be vile flatterers ; we shall offer no incense to power ; we shall defend
every just cause and blame every reprehensible act. We shall support
the power that represents the law to us ; but if its acts are contrary to
the law, we shall censure them all the more severely. War upon abuses
and those who are guilty of them, Progress, Justice, Equity—this is our
device, there is our programme. We shall devote our entire care to
meriting popular favour by constituting ourselves the universal cham
pions of the rights of the country and the people. 1
Such an announcement, which to Persian ears sounded like Sir
Peter Wentworth declaiming in the Parliament of Elizabeth, or
Caius Grracchus thundering in the Forum at Rome, was an insult to
The entire article is reproduced by M. Orsolle, Te Caucase et la Perse, p. 256.
•le Till