which even the mildest of men occasionally give way. A peishlchidmet who may he unfortunate enough to arouse the royal anger is adjudged, without appeal, on the spot to the punishment of the bastinado, which, however, can generally be modified by a little adroit bribery.
The terms of flattery with which a king's ears are in Persia besieged from infancy, might be supposed sufficient to destroy much of the original goodness of a prince's disposition. The sons of the Shah are in their childhood surrounded by an establishment of ceremonious adulators, and the heir-apparent is usually named at a very early age to be the titular governor of the principal province of Persia. He goes to reside at Tabreez, and is thus removed from the guardianship of his mother, who is probably the only person in the world who cares sufficiently for his best interests to correct him when he ought to be corrected, and to check him when he ought to be checked. He receives thus an artificial education, and by being forced at so early an age to take a prominent part in public ceremonials, he becomes prematurely a man, when it would be better for him to be still a boy. At the age of fourteen or fifteen he is married to a wife, of whom, the chances are, he soon grows tired. He then marries another, and then a third, and his anderoon goes on increasing. Up to the present time no prince royal of Persia has ever had the good fortune to travel abroad. Were the king or the heir-apparent to do so, many of the arts of civilization might, to some extent, no doubt, be introduced into Persia on his return ; but the risk of finding his throne threatened by others is at all times too great to admit of the Shah venturing to leave Persia.
