The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

THE WAR WITH PERSIA.

THE sudden announcement of a Persian war
has taken the country by surprise. For a
long time our political relations with Persia
have been most unsatisfactory, and a pas-
sing paragraph in Mr. Vernon Smith's In-
dian Budget speech at the close of the
session, with reference to the march of the
Persians upon Herat, was the first and only
indication this country received of the proba-
bility of a war with Persia. Mr. Vernon
Smith observed that the Affghans, assisted by
Post Mohammed, would, in the opinion of her
Majesty's Government, be able to resist the
attack, that the Persians were bound by treaty
not to interfere with Herat, and he hoped
that when this was represented to them they
would retire. "If not," concluded Mr. Vernon
Smith, " it will be necessary to defend British
honour and preserve inviolate the key of India."
It would appear that such representations
have failed in effect, a result somewhat antici-
pated by the early preparation for the expo-

SATURDAY,

dition, and that her Majesty's Government
has resolved—upon its sole responsibility—to
despatch an expedition at once to the Persian
Gulf. _

The assumed ground of quarrel between the
Esa Khan and the Shah arises from the per-
secution by the Khan of certain resident
Mahomedans professing the Persian faith.
The Shah claims the right to protect his co-
religionists from persecution, and besieges
Herat. The defences of Ilerat consist of a
broad, deep fosse, which can be filled and emp-
tied at pleasure, and a vast mound, ninety feet
high, surrounding the town as a redoubt. At
each angle are built strong towers, mounting
heavy guns. Within the town a powerful
citadel stands upon an impregnable height,
commanding the road from Meshed. The soil
around the town is light and sandy, and diffi-
cult for a besieging force to work. In the
famous siege of 1838, Herat, although almost
destroyed by the bombardment of the Persians
was heroically and successfully defended for
nine months by Yar Mohamed and Eldred
Pottinger, against a Persian army of 40,000
men with 80 guns, directed by French and
Russian artillery and engineer officers.
Conflicting accounts of the progress of the pre-
sent siege continue to be received. The reports
from Teheran are in general highly favorable
to the Persians, and even announce the posi-
tive fall of the town. The Journal de
Constantinople of the 21st gives a different
version of the state of affairs, and announces
the arrival in the city of Dost Mohammed's
sonlwith a strong body of Affghan troops :

The latest news which we have received from Per-
sia, and which comes to us from a reliable source,
contains some facts of the highest importance._

Prince Mnrad Mirza, the general commander in-
chief of the Persian expedition against Herat, had
written to Teheran that he finds it utterly impossible
to make himself master of the city with an army of
25,000 men. The father of the reigning Shah, Mo-
hammed Shah, was not able to succeed in doing so
when he attacked Herat with a force of 80,000 men.

The arrival at Herat of the Emir Serdar, the son
of Dost Mohammed Khan, with a reinforcement of
numerous columns of Aff;han troops, belonging to
the warlike tribes of the Tadiks, of Kisilbach, and
others, had resulted in the re-establishment at Herat
of the lines of communication with Affghanistan.

The army of the Shah was concentrated towards
the north-west, and was awaiting succour from Te-
heran.

The Emir Serdar, upon his arrival at Herat, an•
nounced to the inhabitants that he had been sent
by his father,',Dost Mohammed, as a precursor of his
formidable army, whic'a was at that time concen-
trated at Candahar, and ready to march against the
Persians.

The Times this week published the following
leading article upon the question :

It's always as well to be " posted up " with events,
and even prepared for them with some knowledge of
places and persons. When anything very startling
comes to pass no one likes to be going about asking
privately and confidentially, " Who's he ? Where's
this ? What's that ?" So a word to all who are con-
cerned in the education of children. Open the map
of Asia ; it is Asia,—that much is known with cer•
tainty,—and point out Herat. If you eannot find it,
consult the index. Make your children learn the
position of Herat ; at least, its whereabouts within a
few hundred miles. We are sorry to say that, in the
present state of geographical knowledge in this
country, you will not be able to learn whether Herat
is in Persia or Affghanistan, but of that hereafter.
It is important, however, that you should familiarise
your children with the name, for perhaps ten or
twenty years hence they will see the place, or per-
haps they will be killed there, or their fathers will,
or their sons, or their grandsons. Perhaps ten
years hence everybody will be in mourning, and the
theatres will be empty, and Mr. Charles Kean will be
obliged to give up his theatre, and county balls will
be countermanded, and a gloom worse than the worst
November fog will hang over the metropolis, because,
having captured Herat, and stationed a large army
there, and put a club-house general, labouring under
old age, the gout, and several other disorders, in
command, the army has been driven out in the
snows of winter, or the heat of summer, and has dis-
appeared. Or perhaps an expedition will have beent
sent from the coast, and never arrived anywhere ; i
will simply have gone into space, leaving no more
record to all future time than poor Sir John Franklin
and his crew, if so much, indeed. So let all chil-
dren, high and low, learn this important name,—
from the scion of episcopacy, who, in spite of good
livings and canonries, is resolved to go into the
army, down to the ragged boy who, under the uni-

DvaorlaßEß 6, 1856.

versal instinct, res.-L„ to his friend the best crossing
at Charing-cross. I of which, as is said of
Troy, " Troja fait," it may now .aid, "Herat crit,'
for it is all future, is in the vague aim inte•
rior of the most solid of continents. It is
tent from any port than Timbuctoo is from Sierra
Leone or Cape Coast Castle, not to speak of the
greater facilities offered by river navigation in the
case of the African city. Something, indeed, is
known about Herat, as there is also about Timbuctoo.
Herat is a strong natural position, commanding
some passes and some fertile plains, and from
ancient times it has been an object of contention,
which, perhaps, will be deemed by some authorities
quite reason enough for our joining in the scramble
Its remoteness and insulation are such that at this
moment we do not know—indeed, we are utterly un-
certain--whether Herat was in the possession of the
Persians or the Affghana three calendar months ago.
It has reached us in a circuitous way through Cabul,
and on the ford of various personages more or less
to be believed, that on the 29th of August, when our
early flight of tourists were just returning home, and
the second flight getting their passports, there was
treachery within the walls of Herat and hard fighting
without; and the balance of testimony is that on
that occasion the Persians did not get in. This
seems to establish the fact that there is a siege,
which has been doubted. But what has happened
during the mouths of September, October, and No-
vember Heaven only knows. Unless it be to the
Emperor of Russia, who is supposed to know every-
thing, the last three months of Herat is known to no
European, either in Europe or Asia. All is as much
blank as if the city had been swallowed up by an
earthquake, or burnt to the ground on the anniver-
sary of the great fire of London.
But, though this Herat has so little " objective "
existence to us, as the philosophers say, we are going
on in the old " subjective " way, for we are at war
with Persia about it. When the particulars of the
intended expedition were last stated in these columns
it was not quite certain things would come to this
pass, though they looked very like it. That doubt
has now been removed, and about the 10th of last
month between thirty and forty sailing vessels and
steamers, with an aggregate of 30,000 tonnage, with
5,000 men, and the proper complement of cavalry
and artillery, were to set sail for Bombay, with the
intention of assembling at Bassadore, moving up
the Persian Gulf, occupying the barren isle of Kar-
rack, and thence proceeding to attack and take pos-
session of Bushire. That we can do thus much
there appears to be no doubt, always excepting acci-
dents, which sometimes befriend the greatest bar-
barians and the worst cause. But supposing this to
be done, we are thereby to reduce the Shah to terms,
though to what terms is not known in this part of
the world. Leaving out for the present certain by-
conditions which this is thought a good opportunity
to negotiate, respecting railways and telegraphs, and
coming to the case of Herat, we are to demand that
Persia shall leave the Afghans in undisturbed pos-
session. At this point we are sorry to say that we
can give our readers no satisfactory clue as to the
matter of the negotiation, or its objects. And we
have said, no one knows here whether there are any
Affghans in Herat ; or, if there are not, who is there ;
or whether the Persian Government is itself in a
condition to make any promises ; or whether it is at
all likely to keep them, even if it can honestly make
them ; or whether our case is really bettered by the
Atighans or some other tribe being there instead of
the Persians. The only probability that looms
through the mist and the distance is, that Persia
will promise whatever we ask of her, but tell us all
manner of untruths, and break all her promises. If
the Shah does not come to terms,—or, indeed, in
any case,—our old enemy, Post Mahomed, with the
assistance of British money, is to conduct an expedi-
tion overland and in a common cause ; but at the
distance of more than a thousand miles, and at least
a month's journey, the British commander in the
Persian Gulf, and the Affghan chief in Central Asia,
are to fight and negotiate, for what terms let others
say. Meanwhile, whatever happens, we are in for it.
The game is begun. We have our foot once more
in Central Asia. We have once more embarked on
a policy which can never be complete without the
British occupation of Herat. Need we say more?
We might almost pray that we may nut live to see
the sequel of the story.
The very first intimation of any such event as that
which we are now to consider as come to pass was a
single doubtful sentence at the end of a long speech
on the Indian budget, delivered to about twenty
members a few nights before the close of the session.
That was the first "moving of the straw." There
was something about Persian treachery and the
honour of our own country, and means to be taken
to vindicate it, if necessary. There was not a word
about it in the Queens farewell speech, though
there was then no danger of a Parliamentary dis-
turbance. When we call attention to a point of this
sort, we are usually charged with captiousness and
getting up a row for the sake of one. But this is