Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-25

FROM Naientlne Ch1roI, IN the tortnShtly Review.
''By the fruits thereof shall We judge of the
tree" And what fruit can such tree bep-
save fruits of ruin and deaths Let anyone
with eyes to see and to hear traverse
Persia, from end to end, and then point out
if he can, any single good result due to the
initiative of her present rulers, any single
enterprise undertaken by them for the bene.
fit of the community, any single measure
adopted by them to relieve distress, to arrest
decay, to stimulate the langishing vitality OF
the country. There is ministry of public
works at Teheran, but, except few badly
built and badly kept up roads in the vicinity
Of the capital, designed solely for the con-
venience of the court, except few gas lamps
and electric lights set up around the Shah's
palace for his majesty's amusement, there
are no public works. The few stone bridges
and handsome caravanserais on the chief
highways, even the mosques and palaces
which attract the travellers eye at IspahaR
and elsewhere, are almost without exception
the neglected relics of long forgotten pros
perity, legacies from the time of Shah Abbas,
whose name, after two centuries, is still a
household word throughout the country.
Still it must not be supposed that, from a
Persian point of view. this ministry of public
works is without its uses. It effectually
blocks every scheme put forward by foreign
governments for the development of the
country, such as the English scheme for the
opening of the Karoon river to steam navi-
CATION and the Russian scheme for construct
ing harbor at Enzeli, while it has the hap
of our sanguine European capitalists, who,
like the Buron Reuter-, can afford to pay
e25, 900 for the preliminaries of q concession
to regenerate Persia. There is ministry of
public instruction, but apart from the I'm
perial college at Teheran, which the sons of
high officials attend ''by special DESIRE" and
the High school at Ispahan, which has ac-
quired some notoriety as school of preco-
cious immortality, education is more neglect
ed to-day than it has ever been in the land
which once so largely contributed to the
wealth of Oriental literature. The minister
of finance ekes out the scanty resources of
his treasury by debasing the public currency,
with the alarming result that the exchange
for pound sterling has risen from the nor
NAL rate of twenty-five krans to thirty-two,
and would already have reached thirty six or
thirty-seven if it depended solely upon the
intrinsic value of the coin. The magic skill
which, assisted by the melting pot and lit
tie alloy, convert million of old krans
into million and half of new ones, has,
however, won his excellency golden opinions
at the palace. While the country teens with
mineral wealth. and coal, copper, iron, and
other valuable ores abound in the immediate
vicinity of the capital, the ministry of mines
exhausts itself in futile searches of gold,
which it apparently expects to find in the
bowels of the earth ready coined for the
Shah's ef6gy. The ministry of war absorbs
nearly seven-eighths of the public revenue
but although the raw material is good and
the physique Of the troops generally fine,
although English, French, and Austrian mill
tary missions have been successfully invited
to Persia to assist in the reorganization
of the army, it is practically worthless: With
the exception of the Zill-es-Sultan, the Prince
Governor of Ispahan, who devotes great
portion of his time to drilling and looking
after his troops, with a view to the scramble
for the throne which is expected to ensue
upon the Shah's death, every officer, from the
war minister downward, regards his Office or
command merely as source of more or less
Illicit profits. With an estimated peace es-
tablishment of 100000 men, it is doubtful
whether Persia can really muster 80, 900 men
under arms. Companies, battalions, brig
AIDES exist only on paper, while captains,
colonies, and generals live at home in ease,
drawing with more OF less regularity rations
and allowances for these visionary legions.
Expensive war materials are occasionally Or
dered from Europe with view rather to the
commission which the officials can make out
of the orders than to the real requirements
of the country, and after being perhaps once
submitted to the Shah's inspection are con-
tary arsenals I do not think there is yet a
ministry of marine at Teheran, but there are
two or three admirals of the fleet, though
neither on the Caspian nor on the Persian
have they one single ship on which to hoist
their pennants.