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418 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. in the war that was being waged, and the leading English journal took advantage of the appointment of a new English minister to the Persian court to give out that the said minister was going to Persia for the purpose of bringing the Shah to his knees. The passage in The Times newspaper to which I have alluded was of course translated and communicated to the Shah, and it is only natural to suppose that from the moment he read it he determined to preserve an attitude of firmness and inde- pendence in his dealings with the English envoy. Meanwhile the offers which Persia had made to join the allies against Eussia had been declined ; the allies being sensible that they would be unable to protect Persia against the vengeance of Kussia in the end, thinking it unfair to encourage a weak power to incur great risks without a reasonable hope of reaping any advantages. Their counsel to Persia was that she should remain neutral during the struggle ; but this counsel little suited the temper of the excitable court of the Shah a court which is not given to looking far into the future, and which is not too scrupulous as to the merits of the cause for which it may begin a war. The Persian king now no longer found in his minister a check upon his warlike inclinations. Several causes seem to have contributed to bring about a change in the senti- ments of the Sedr-Azem. Probably the most potent of these was a conviction that it was not safe for him to thwart the wishes of the Kussian party at the Persian court ; and he seems to have been completely brought over to the views of that party, by some angry discussions between himself and the English Minister on matters of trifling importance.