Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/311

 MR. ELLIS, THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR. 291 on his accession, and authorized to reopen negotiations for the conclusion of a commercial treaty. But still the prime minister of Persia objected to the establishment of English consuls in the Shah's dominions, and urged the British ambassador not to press the matter until such time as the Shah might feel himself sufficiently powerful to defy the anger with which the Russian Government would be filled, by a concession which could not fail to be to a certain extent injurious to the interests of Eussian traders. The period during which the matter was to rest unsettled was, as Mr. Ellis observed, indeed indefinite.* At the period when the first mission had been sent from India to the Persian court, the British authorities in the East were under considerable apprehension lest the sovereign of the Affghans should invade Hindostan ; and the British envoy was accordingly instructed to en- deavour to induce the Shah to march upon Afghanistan. But a change had in the course of time taken place in the policy of Great Britain with reference to the dealings of the Persians towards the Affghans, and the English Minister at the Persian court was instructed to use all his influence for the purpose of restraining the Shah from the prosecution of any scheme for the conquest of Aff- ghanistan. The successes of Abbass Meerza in his last campaigns had filled the Persians with an exalted idea of their own superiority in arms over other Oriental nations, and the Shah, who was himself an experienced soldier, had no sooner put into order the internal affairs of his kingdom, than he prepared to march towards Khorassan, at the head of a numerous army destined for the reduc- 19-2
 * Published despatches of Sir H. Ellis.