apparent, to the Persian throne. The law of succession to the crown of Persia is not the same as that which regulates the inheritance of the royal and princely families of Turkey and Egypt. Of them the eldest male is chosen to be the reigning prince, but in Persia the selection of the heir-apparent depends upon the free-will of the sovereign on the throne. Mahomed Ali Meerza, however, by no means acquiesced in the choice which his father had made. On one occasion the Shah ordered that at the public reception which he was to hold on the following day no one of the princes excepting Abbass Meerza was to appear before him wearing a sword. The morrow came, and with it came the princes to attend upon their sovereign. All, save Mahomed Ali Meerza, appeared unarmed, but that Shahzadeh wore his sword as usual, and when he was asked by the Shah why he had not obeyed his command he replied that there was only one way of making him obey it, and that way was to take his sword from him by force. He further announced his readiness to fight with his brother Abbass then and there, and to abide by the event of the duel. After so open a display of discontent on the part of one who had a better right than Abbass Meerza to be selected to be the Shah's heir, it seems strange that Mahomed Ali Meerza should have been employed at the head of an armed force in the field; but while Abbass Meerza was being driven before the Russians his elder brother was once more overrunning the frontier province of Turkey; humbling the Pasha of Baghdad, and reestablishing the governor of Shehr-i-zoor in his office.
The second of the Shah's four elder sons was, as has been said, Abbass Meerza, the crown-prince, who
