was at once perceived to be genuine Oriental, by such internal evidence as establishes the value of real old China-the gay and glowing descriptions of Eastern state and pageantry, the character of the poetry occasionally introduced-secured a merited welcome for the Persian picaroon. As a picture of Oriental manners, the work had, indeed, a severe trial to sustain by a comparison with the then recent romance of Anastasius. But the public found appetite for both; and indeed they differ as comedy and tragedy, the deep passion and gloomy interest of Mr Hope's work being of a kind entirely different from the light and lively turn of our friend Hajji's adventures. The latter, with his morals sitting easy about him, a rogue indeed, but not a malicious one, with as much wit and cunning as enable him to dupe others, and as much vanity as to afford them perpetual means of retaliation; a sparrow-hawk, who, while he floats through the air in quest of the smaller game, is himself perpetually exposed to be pounced on by some stronger bird of prey, interests and amuses us, while neither deserving nor expecting serious regard or esteem ;-and like Will Vizard of the hill, "the knave is our very good friend."

The rapid and various changes of individual fortune, which, in any other scene and country, might be thought improbable, are proper to, or rather inseparable from, the vicissitudes of a government at once barbaric and despotic, where an individual, especially if possessing talents, may rise and sink as often as a tennis-ball, and be subjected to the ex

traordinary variety of hazards in one life, which the other undergoes in the course of one game. But, were further apology necessary for the eccentricity of some of the events, than the caprice of an arbitrary monarch, and the convulsions of a waning empire, we have only to compare the reverses represented as experienced by this barber of Ispahan, with the mighty changes which we ourselves have been witness to, affecting thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. The mighty and overwhelming sway which seemed neither to have limits in elevation nor extent that power, the existence and terror of which led to the collision of European politics in the court of Ispahan-where is it now, or what vestiges remain of its influence? We might as well ask where are the columns of sand which at night whirl over the broad desert, in number and size sufficient to be the death and grave of armies, and in the morning, sunk with the breath which raised them, are only encumbering the steps of the pilgrim, as hillocks of unregarded dust.

The terrible hurricane of moral passions which had vent in the French Revolution, and the protracted tempest of war which ensued, have, like the storms of nature, led to good effects; and of these not the least remarkable has been the connecting, in intercourse of feeling and sentiments, of nations not only remote from each other in point of space, but so divided by opinions as to render it heretofore impossible that the less enlightened, wedded as they were to their own prejudices, should have derived the slightest improvement, either in arts,

government, or religion, from the precept or example of their more cultivated allies. The idea of a certain literary influence being exercised by the English press at the court of Ispahan, would, twenty years ago, have sounded as absurd as to have affirmed that Prester John had studied Sir John Mandeville's Travels, or that the report of the guns fired in St James's Park, was heard on the terrace of Persepolis. And yet such an influence to a certain extent now exists, since it appears, from the following admirable epistle, that the Persian court were interested in, and touched by the satirical account of their manners in Mr Morier's novel, and felt that pettish sort of displeasure which, like the irritation of a blister, precedes sanative effects. We refer to a letter addressed bonâ fide to the author of Hajji Baba, by a Persian minister of state.

"Tehran, 21st May, 1826.

"MY DEAR FRIEND-I am offended with you, and not without reason. What for you write Hajji Baba, sir? King very angry, sir. I swear him you never write lies; but he say, yes-write. All people very angry with you, sir. That very bad book, sir. All lies, sir. Who tell you all these lies, sir? What for you not speak to me? Very bad business, sir. Persian people very bad people, perhaps, but very good to you, sir. What for you abuse them so bad? I very angry. Sheikh Abdul Russool write, oh! very long letter to the king 'bout that book, sir. He say you tell king's wife one bad woman, and king kill her. I very angry, sir. But you are my friend, and I tell king, Sheikh write all lie. You call me Mirza Firouz, I know very well, and say I talk great deal nonsense. When I talk nonsense? Oh, you think yourself very clever man ; but this Hajji Baba very foolish business. I think you sorry for it some time. I do not know, but I think very foolish.

"English gentlemen say, Hajji Baba very clever book, but I think not clever at all-very foolish book. You must not be

angry with me, sir. I your old friend, sir.

God know, I your

very good friend to you, sir, But now you must write other book, and praise Persian peoples very much. I swear very much to the king you never write Hajji Baba.

"I hope you will forgive me, sir. I not understand flatter peoples, you know very well. I plain man, sir-speak always plain, sir; but I always very good friend to you. But why you write 'bout me? God know, I your old friend.

"P.S.-I got very good house now, and very good garden, sir-much better as you saw here, sir. English gentlemans tell me Mexico all silver and gold. You very rich man now, I hope. I like English flowers in my garden-great many; and King take all my china and glass. As you write so many things 'bout Mirza Firouz, I think you send me some seeds and roots not bad; and because I defend you to the king, and swear so much, little china and glass for me very good."-Vol. i. P. xvii.

That so hopeful a correspondence might not fall to the ground, the author of Hajji Baba returned an answer of a kind most likely to have weight with a Persian, and which we can all observe is, like Don Pedro's answer to Dogberry, "rightly reasoned; and in his own division." Like the letter to which it is an answer, it is a chef-d'œuvre in its way; but we have not room to quote it.

The author contends that irritation will lead to reflection, reflection to amendment. The Persians, he observes, are, in talent and natural capacity, equal to any nation in the world, and would be no less on a level with them in feeling, honesty, and the higher moral qualities, were their education favourable. To fix, therefore, the attention of the leading men of the nation on the leading faults of the national character, may have on them so powerful an effect, that the name of Morier may be remembered as the first who led the way to the

illumination of Persia by the introduction of English literature into the pavilions of Tehraun. We proceed to give some account of the present work.

Hajji, a man of consequence as being supposed to understand the manners of the Franks, and secretary to Mirza Firouz, the Persian Elchee or Ambassador to England, commences by collecting, in the most arbitrary manner, and by the most summary means, whatever he judges would be most acceptable at the court of Saint James's, as articles to be presented to the King of England. Being invested with plenary powers, he fails not to make a sweep of all he can find which is rich and rare, not failing to obtain a ransom from those whom he spares, and to detain, for his own private purse, a handsome per centage of the pillage which he accumulates. His collection of rarely-gifted slaves is edifying. Among them there is a guardian of the haram designed for the service of King George III., who is termed Mûrwari, or the pearl, as being the most vindictive, spiteful, and inexorable wretch of his species, watchful as a lynx, wary as a jackal. To this treasure is added a negro prize-fighter, who can carry a jackass, devour a sheep whole, eat fire, and make a fountain of his inside. But the British ambassador at the court of Persia, being taken into their counsel, explains why neither the pearl nor the spoutman, nor even the property of an Ethiopian woman, whose constitution could dispense with sleep, and who was therefore destined to watch the royal couch of Britain, would be