The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-10 00:00:00

THE SHAH'S DIARY IN ENGLAND.

The Academy publishes a letter from Teheran' dated
the 10th of August, giving some account of the Shah's
diary in England. It was published, the writer says,
a short time ago, and contains 208 quarto pages of bail
print. At times the book has the air of being a true
diary—jottings, that is, not meant for publication; at
others it becomes, however, evident that he wrote the
thing simply for the sake of having it published. The
style is throughout of the very poorest description • to
a Persian the book is on that account utterly unread-
able. A Persian, indeed, might think the book was
written by a foreigner, with but a scanty knowledge of
the language, and this is partly true, for the Shah hardly
knows the Persian language, having up to his 18th year
spoken nothing but Turkish. The Shah's descriptions
of some of the woriaers he saw are very amusing.
When there is anything which he failed fullyto compre-
hend, he says, " It was wonderful," or 'We cannot
write an explanation." Trivial occurrences he dilates
upon with a quiet remarkable eloquence, important
events he finishes off with a few words. Regarding
beautiful and high-born ladies, emperors, kings, and
queens, he says very little ; but on negresses, Japanese
jugglers, cafes chantants, and kindred subjects he is
quite communicative. The book is full of absurdities
and blunders which he might easily have avoided by
calling to his assistance any one of his interpreters ' • it
is, however, perhaps better that he did not do no, for
he might thus have spoiled for us a highly delightful
treat.

After taking farewell of the King of the Belgians,
the Shah embarks with " Lorenson Sahib" (Sir Henry
Rawlinson) on board the Vigilant, Captain M'Clintock,
"known through his several voyages to the Northpole
Islands." He admires the Vigilant, more especially
the good things to eat in the State cabin; there were
"peaches white grapes, black grapes, small very
sweet melons; the grapes were from hothouses, and
very dear, one bunch of them cost two francs." He
arrives at Dover, where the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince
Arthur, and others came to meet him. The Duke of
Edinburgh is a "very good-looking young man, with
small beard and blue eyes," in parentheses he adds that
he is very tall. " Prince Arthur is not so tall, has a
thinner face, and is smaller made than his brother." On
the road from Dover to London, noticing the fine fields
of Kent, his Majesty says, "It is not necessary to
write about England s agriculture, it is known all over
the world." They pass " Sheslhurst " (this, like most
other European names, in Roman character) ; a wheel
of a carriage catches tire, and "we are nearly all
burnt." The crowd at Charing-crosa was' endless,"
and calls forth the following :—" London has some
very handsome women; on the countenances of both
women and men are depicted nobility, greatness,
dignity, and strength ; it is evident England is a great
nation; the Almighty has to them especially given
power and ability, sense and understanding, and edu-
cation ; no wonder they have conquered a country
like India, and possess considerable Colonies in
America and in other parts of the world." Then
he admires the English Army, especially the
cavalry, but deplores the small number of the
latter. Next day he went to see Her Majesty at
Windsor Castle; he again sits on a chair, and "the
Lord Chamberlain having brought the Order of the
Jarretiere," it was given to him by Her Majesty's
"own hands." He in return "gave the Persian
Order of the Lion and Sun, with his portrait mounted
in diamonds." He sees Prince Leopold, "very young
and good-looking," attired in Scotch costume. This
he explains as a "costume in which the knees are bare."
"One daughter of the Queen, 16 years of age, is
always in the house and not yet married." The Shah
likes to eat well. Whenever the meals are good he
never fails to say so. Here "we ate a good breakfast;
there were some fine fruits." In the Castle grounds
he Kees soldiers. "Although the English Army is
small, it is very well clothed, well drilled, and consists
of young strong men," he remarks. After a description
of the Castle, he adds—it looks very much like an after-
thought— "llier Majesty's age is 50, but she looks only
40; she has a genial and pleasant countenance." In
the evening he goes to the City to the Guildhall enter-
tainment. He notices the policemen; "there are
8,0.0" The next piece of information is somewhat
startling, and ought to put the London police-defying
street boys at their ease "The people of London
think very much of their police ; anybody that shows
any disrespect to the police must be killed." The
Lord Mayor lives in " Cuid Hall." Wonderful to re-
late, the Shah on this occasion sat again on a chair, and
we see that in every succeeding chapter he takes care to
tell us the same thing—that is, whenever he does hap-
pen to sit on a chair. Then the Lord Mayor, the Shah
everybody drank Toe (toasts). He goes to sleep
again that night, and next morning goes to "Volvitch."
On the road he sees "working men of London, their
faces blackened by coal smoke ; " at Woolwich
"English guns, like the ancient ones ; they are loaded
by way of muzzle, and not, like Krupp's, from the
breech." In the evening lie is at the Opera. "There
was a, great crowd; Patti, one of the celebrated
European singers, had been expressly brought from
Paris; she sang very well; she is a very handsome
woman ; she took a long price to come to London.
There was also Albani, a Canadian, of Americo.,
who sang very well and performed well." On
the following day, en route to the Zoological Gardens,
he is received with the usual " Hurrahs," he feels
quite pleased, and says, "Really, they cordially
like me." The hippopotamus was a "wonderful
thing." On the day of the naval review he had
to wait a little at the railway station for the Prince
of Wales and the Czarevitch. At Portsmouth
he embarks on board the Victoria Albert, Captain
"Prince Linoge," and sits down to breakfast. Then
said his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, " Rise ;
let us go on deck to salute the ships; we rose, and
went on deck." Two sons of the Prince of Wales
were also there. Then the Shah went on board the
Azineourt, commanded by Fips Hurubi, then visited
the Sultan, commander Vansisart, and returned to
the Victoria Albert. "The boat got under the steam
wheel ; the steam wheerffieg,an to move, the wheel very
nearly touched our boat; if the wheel had touched our
boat, which was not the will of God, we should all
have been drowned; praise be to God the Almighty,
the wheel stopped; we got on deck without further
danger." In the evening in the Albert Hall he ad-
mires the entrance hall, the macaroni machine, and the
exhibition of pictures painted by officers and men of
the Navy. Regarding the latter, he says, "Nowhere
else have I seen such fine paintings." The great con-
cert, the many performers, and the great organ aston-
ished him much :—" Suzh a crowd nobody has as yet
seen from the beginning of the world till now; there
were 12,000 persons present, from no single one came a
sound, all listened and looked on; it lasted more than
an hour; when ltwas finished we went home and slept."
His Majesty has tried to enlighten his countrymen on
the subject of English party politics :—He went to see
Lord Russell, "whir, although so old, has still a
strong intellect, and belongs to the Vigh (Whig)
party." For the enlightenment of his Persian readers he
goes on "it is necessary that it should be explained
what Whig is. All the Ministers of the English Go-
vernment are divided into two parts. The party
which is now in office is that of the Whigs; at their
head are Lord Gladstone as Prime Minister, and Lord
Granville an Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other
Ministers. The other party, which thinks contrary to
the former, is called Tory ; at its head are Disraeli
and Lord Derby and others. Whenever the former
party gets removed from office, all the Ministers and
others are replaced by others of the second party."

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