Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-11-14

obviously afraid of overcharging the picture,
and alternating sympathy by apparent eXaggera
ton. Knowing Persia, too, he was, we imag-
inc from his speech at the Mansion house, en-
tirely unaware of a curious difficulty in his way
an intellectual severance between his knowledge
and that of his audience He thinks OF Persia
as an immense country OF mountain, and desert,
and prairie, unirrigated by man and INSULT
GENTLY watered by nature. With comparative
" few trees and no deltaS defended from drought
as it were by Heaven full of vast arid plains
which with water would yield like Lincolnshire,
but without it are about as culturable rs the
Place de la ConcOrde; the whoeloccupied by
about TWO millions of a brave and intellectual,
but idle and vicious, race of artisans and
cultivators, far below the Neapoitans, whom OF
all Europeans they most rescmble-Alohammed
ans penetrated at once with fataliSm and with
that dreadful Suriee inidehty, the iniidelity
which, recognizing alike God and good, holds
that neither has! any moral obligations;
and with about two millions of pastoral
nomads, socially on a level with the Bedouins,
morally we believe, below them. To most Of
Sir Henry'S audience at the Mansion house, on
the contrary, the word persia" calls up the idea
of grand oriental empire, full of semi-ciyized
people and of wealth, with a government deS-
potc and oppressive perhaps, but energetic,
efficient and full of resources, Il government in
all but probity not unlike that of India. In
reality, the feeble, scattered, and dec0ying pOpua
ation of weary yolUptuarieS, cowed peasants,
and savage herdsmen is ruled by perhaps the
worst government the one most inefficient for
| good which ever afflicted mankind-by clan
| of despotic satraps, who, because they are kins
| men of the royal house, are exempt even from
| the ordinary Asiatic check on misgovernment-
| assassination by an indignant monarch or an
outraged mob. There will come no help from
| them, even if they could give any and if Persia
has really been struck, as now seems certain, by
that most horrible of ScourgeS, eliminating
famine, famine increasing through three sue
ceSSiYe years, famine like that of 0riSsa, or of
RajpoOtana, or the great famine of North India,
a famine of forage as well as cereals, words will
not suffice 10 describe the extent of a calamity
which, if it lasts another year-and the time has
passed for rain-may almost blot Persia out of
the atiOns tinallyparalyze her for resistance to
the power always closing round her throat. Sir,
Henry ltawlinsOn states only what he knows
but what he states with reserve when carefully
read indicates a calamity worse than that which
crushed OriSsa. The Eelyat or BedOuin tribes
who make up so large Il portion of the pOpula-
ton of Persia, a population smaller than that
of Belgium, and more scattered and isolated in
many districts than that of Northern Sweden,
have been fighting for three years against cons
tinuous drought, until at last forage is unpro-
durable, and their stock has persisted 1t is
difficult to imagine under such circumstances
how they could he saved, even if the Persian
government were as strong as that Of india,
The clans cannot help each other, for all are
tile pastures, for the drought has deSolated
the whole pastoral country, and if they wander
beyond it they will be treated as enemies, even
if there exists means to feed them beyond the
frontier. Besides their means of locomoton-
that is, of travelling hundreds of miles through
dried-up panS-m must have failed them, and the
only course visible to themselves will be to prac-
tice the resignation which in extreme moments
never fails Mohammedan, to 1--we on less than
will keep him alive, and await calmly either re-
lief or death. They are doing this in known
places, and what their fate must be in the eucamp-
mentS whence news never reaches Europe or even
India, in the more arid plains and the dry val
leys in the hills, il is CHASTITY even TO conjecture
Help, if it now comes mt all, must come from
without and as Sir Henry Rawnson limited,
that help is, humanity speaking, nearly iMpOsSi-
bic. The Indian government, with its wealth
and organization, II stirred 10 desperate effort
IN effort like that required for the invasion OF
1S56-57-might save the tribes near the coast;
but the Indian government is not responsible
for Persia, is OYerburdened, and would be utter
ly distruSted by the statesmen Of Teheran.
These statesmen can do almost nothing Money
is worthless even if they had it, and they have
no supplies to send They have no granaries
stored for years, such as the Indian princes
used to keep before conn unication improved;
no means of transport such as nature and the
British cOnquerOrs have provided for India,
They have no storehOuse like Bengal, where the
only danger is flood, where when the rest of the
continent is trying Tor want Of water the lice ac-
cumulateS till the granaries burst, The convey
ance of forage TO the dying Redouns is simply
impossible, for the PACK animals, marching
through bli@hted provinces, would eat more
than they judiciary and except beasts of burden
there are no means OF conveyance. There are no
roads, no rivers, no railways, no canals, no means
of transporting caravans of food. An Eelyat
encampment with its horses dead must be like an
cnCampmcnt in ruined planet, isolated from the
helm of all SpQtipDf bpinuS The hpitiaS''
ray out supplies to certain limited distances;
but with one exception, city in Persia is col.
lection of houses tenanted by people with less
power to help than one Of our large northern
villages in extremity exhibit, with one years
store OF grain at most, and no accumulated
wealth whatever Besides, the famine must
have extended to the cities. The inhabitants of
the plains within any possible marching dis
lance will of course have poured into them, and
the worst stories OF suffering come from Them
from Teheran, and rabreez, and Bushre, the
last the richest and most accessible place in
Persia. Ii the people in Bushire are dying daily.
II IN lspahan, under the shadow of the court
1900 are known TO have persisted; if in Kaze-
room out of 10000 people only 1000 remain-and
all these statements can be surpassed from the
official records ofOrissa-there is yisibly no help
to he hoped for from within Persia it
self. The Persian minister, as in duty boun l.
says the Shah gives all he eau, but though, we
dare say, he orders food and is pundered to paw
| w IL sympathy is an undeVel0ped virtue in the
east, and the officials viii accept the famine
as they would food. and think they have
done much when they have remitted
| the state taxes. The famine, moreover
is not at an end. Not a hint is given in any
| of the speeches of Wednesday, not even in the
| optimlst one uttered by the minister, of any
| proXimate diminution of distress, nor do we
| perceive any immediate or indeed approaching
reason for hope. The forage may revive next
| year, but it will be three before the Gocks and
herds can be renewed aud one before much
| grain can be ready for consumption. For
months everything must be imported, and as
| there is nothing 10 return, no boarded wealth
and no means of transport on any adequate
| scale, the future looks black indeed. Whether
| Sir Henry RawlinsOn used the phrase "a
| doomed country advisedly we do not know,
| but that phrase conveys exactly the apprehen.
sion which the recent history of Persia and the
suggestions as to this famine leave upon our
minds. A government bad and effete, but too
| strong to be shaken off, cities ruined by tyran.
ny and taxation, people declining in number,
and soil devastated by droughts, Persia seems
10 us to be great and tempting prey to any
power with the inclination to terminate her in
dependence. -