200 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.
of the manner in which Persia was becoming regarded by English statesmen at this time is to be found in the fact that we paid a considerable sum of money to be absolved from our obligations under some of the clauses of the treaty of 1814. It is true that it is asserted on good authority that the abrogation of these clauses was a benefit to each country, but this may be doubted, for the very value of the two clauses abrogated consisted in the fact that they were tantamount to a guarantee of the integrity of Persia — the point which of all others is perhaps the most important towards the attainment of a definitive solution of the Central Asian Question. The Treaty of Turkomanchai as a great triumph for Russia and a severe blow to this country, and after its ratification Russia commenced those intrigues at Teheran which, carried on during the next ten years, made the Shah a tool of the Czar, and produced a rupture between England and Persia ; and, among other incidents, occasioned the siege of Herat and the occupation of the island of Kharrack. The disorders which prevailed during this period in Afghanistan, and the independent government which was established by Shah Kamran, Sudosye, at Herat, gave those facilities for intrigue to Persia, of which the Shah Mahomed, acting on the instigation of Count Simonitch, the Russian Minister at his Court, was not slow to avail himself. Russia did not owe her predominance in the council chamber of the Shah to the superior abilities of her representative over our own, for no one could have taken a clearer or a broader view of the question than Mr. Ellis during the earlier
