DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0095
chap. xiv. INTERVIEW WITH THE PRINCE. 79
but he has not the manners or dignity of his parent,
though he is also an agreeable person.
On the following morning we paid our respects
to the Prince Royal in his tents, and found him
transacting business with his minister, the Kaim
Mukam, and several other persons who were stand-
ing round him. There was no state or pomp to
mark so great a personage. When the Prince had
settled some matters on which he was engaged, he
gave us a dose of politics, and talked of the incom-
parable advantages to England of upholding Persia,
and begged I would explain in my own country his
present situation ; which, though at the head of a
successful army, was most embarrassing, since he
had no money to pay it. I told the Prince that I
regretted to hear such a detail of his difficulties,
and I could only hope that he would surmount them
all. I did not tell him, as I have ever felt, that I
consider the payment of money to such a cabinet
derogatory to the name and honour of Britain ; since
it has tended more to lower our reputation in Asia
than our most martial deeds in India have done to
raise it. There was not, however, wanting a share
of cant in the Prince's oration; for he gravely
assured me that he had now taken the field to
suppress the sale and capture of his subjects as
slaves by the Uzbeks. The motive was praise-
worthy; but mark the conclusion:—" I am entitled,
therefore, to the assistance of Britain : for if you
expend annually thousands of pounds in suppressing
the slave trade in Africa, I deserve your aid in this
quarter, where the same motives exist for the ex-
but he has not the manners or dignity of his parent,
though he is also an agreeable person.
On the following morning we paid our respects
to the Prince Royal in his tents, and found him
transacting business with his minister, the Kaim
Mukam, and several other persons who were stand-
ing round him. There was no state or pomp to
mark so great a personage. When the Prince had
settled some matters on which he was engaged, he
gave us a dose of politics, and talked of the incom-
parable advantages to England of upholding Persia,
and begged I would explain in my own country his
present situation ; which, though at the head of a
successful army, was most embarrassing, since he
had no money to pay it. I told the Prince that I
regretted to hear such a detail of his difficulties,
and I could only hope that he would surmount them
all. I did not tell him, as I have ever felt, that I
consider the payment of money to such a cabinet
derogatory to the name and honour of Britain ; since
it has tended more to lower our reputation in Asia
than our most martial deeds in India have done to
raise it. There was not, however, wanting a share
of cant in the Prince's oration; for he gravely
assured me that he had now taken the field to
suppress the sale and capture of his subjects as
slaves by the Uzbeks. The motive was praise-
worthy; but mark the conclusion:—" I am entitled,
therefore, to the assistance of Britain : for if you
expend annually thousands of pounds in suppressing
the slave trade in Africa, I deserve your aid in this
quarter, where the same motives exist for the ex-