The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-12 00:00:00

grasp

LITERATURE.

THREE YEARS IN PERSIA. 2 Vols.
Colburn, London, 1841.
Though these volumes cannot be said to add
much to the stock of useful and entertaining in-
formation respecting Persia and the adjacent
provinces, with which Fraser, Morier, and other
recent travellers have supplied us, yet they will
be read with pleasure, penned as they are, in a
light, easy, familiar style, by one who has not
wandered through the country deafand blindfold,
but made good use of all his faculties. Though
Mr. Fowler's accounts of Persian manners,
tastes, scenery, &c. amount to little more
than sketches, which are strung together
in the loosest possible fashion, they are
superior in interest to many more formal and
elaborate details, if only for their evident truth
and freshness, and the general vivacity of their
character. The work is one of those rambling,
desultory ones, which it is not necessary to read
regularly chapter by chapter, for, strictly speak-
ing, it has neither beginning, middle, nor end,
but is merely an unconnected series of personal
reminiscences, jotted down, apparently, just as
they occurred to the author's memory. Per-
haps the most important, if not the most amus-
ing, portion of them is that which is devoted
to a consideration of the present political re=
lations between Great Britain and Persia, which
Mr. Fowler assures us are far from being of an
amicable character. "Of the British residents,"
he says, " only three remain; of the British com-
merce r am not aware
_that there are any re-
mains. Where our name formerly was exalted;
it is now degraded; where our influence
was predominant, now it is null. We are

held by the Persians in contempt.; nay,
onr military prowess is derided, in consequence
of some paltry rencontreslately.with the natives
at Bushire, in which they were successful." The
author adds that Russia, a subtle, sapcious Power,
which, unless we keep I our energies on the alert,
seems destined ere long to circumvent our in-
fluence in the East—is looked up to by Persia
as its natural protectress, and, as such, treated
with a deference denied to every other foreign
State :—" Men of rank," continues Mr. Fowler,
" fed by Russian bribes, attack the vitals of
Persia, betray her interests, and they accelerate
her downfal. They make no secret of
being in the Russia pay; her merchants
engross the commerce, and exercise a
tyranny in the bazaars which the native
merchants cannot exercise. Greek establish-
ments are formed under Russian protection.
Thus Russia in every way insinuates herself,
which it might have been imagined to be
British policy as far as possible to coun-
teract." In the second volume—which by the
by, is by far the most interesting of the two—
occur some curious particulars respecting the late
Shah of Persia, who, it appears, was the richest
man in the world, as respects family ties, having
not less than one hundred and fifty sons and
about as many daughters ! The work is embel-
lished with several characteristic lithographic
plates.

ANCIENT AND MODERN YORK.
Linney, York, 1841.
An instructive little volume, which antiqua-
rians of the Britton school may consult with ad-
vantage, inasmuch as it contains minute details
respecting the Roman, Saxon, and Anglo-Nor-
man antiquities of the city of York, and exhibits,
besides, a statistical survey of the city as it now
exists.