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police on the frontiers was every where rendered more strict: by a special ordinance, all persons, whatsoever, entering the kingdom, whether suspected or not, were ordered to be arrested, till their conduct should be examined, and the purpose of their journey ascer tained. It was particularly added, "the king's pleasure is, that this measure be extended even to all persons who have returned with lawful permission." At the same time ministerial circulars were ⚫ issued, rousing the vigilance of the public officers not only to watch all books to be imported, but again to set to work, and examine all books already imported, calling upon the clergy to make use of the pulpit and the confessional to enforce the giving up of prohibited works; and (as if to remove every shadow of social confidence, and hold out premiums for the gratification of lying and malicious informers), to enforce, by these mighty engines of a superstitious creed, "the duty of informing, with the greatest scoresy" against persons who shall not give up such books. The confessor was to compel a man, by threats of eternal perdition, to deliver up to the Inquisition a relation or a friend who was guilty of the enormity of possessing a Bible, or a volume of Voltaire. Nothing could better illustrate the fears and jealousies of the government than the instructions given to the police after the promulgation of the constitutional charter in Portugal. By these instructions, the subaltern intendants of police were to make lists of all persons who came upl under the descriptions of being attached to the constitutional sys tem, having been national volunteers of infantry or cavalry, members of sacred battalions or com

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panies, reputed free-masons, known for communeros, considered liberal, exaltados, or moderates, and purchasers of national or secularized property. These lists were likewise to specify, whether any individual had been a member of the Supreme Junta of the government of Madrid, a minister, a member of any tribunal or court of justice, a deputy from any province to the Cortes, or a secretary, a political chief, or employed on any other service, a member or curator of any political society, or a political writer. Any other thing, which might give a correct idea of the true opinions held by such individual during the prevalence of the constitution, was to be added; as well as an explanation of his conduct from the downfall of the constitution, and of the influence which he had possessed, and might have in the government, in consequence of his fortune. When any person, contained in these infamous lists, or any of his children, or servants, applied for a passport to leave the district, the general intendant was immediately to be informed of the fact, and of the suspicions to which the journey might give rise. No passport was to be given to a person marked as attached to the constitutional system," without satisfying the police that he had good reasons for travelling. His passport, if he received one, was to specify places through which he was to pass, and at which he was to stop in going or returning; and this specification was to serve & as a notice to the authorities in these places to have an eye upon his conduct." As if false informers could never be too numerous, or be too highly bribed, a reward of thousand reals was promised to every police officer who should denounce

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any meeting of persons whose
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But these, and similar measures, tyrannical as they were, could not enable the government to sleep soundly; they were in constant dread of insurrection, and public functionaries seemed to vie with each other in proving their loyalty by inventing or detecting plots. One object of terror was, the king's own brother, Don Carlos. A general rising in his favour all over the kingdom was daily dreaded; and the wonderful thing was, that the dislike of his adherents to the sway of Ferdinand was founded on their having discovered that the government of the latter was too liberal and moderate. Several ecclesiastics were removed from Madrid in consequence of being suspected of Carlism, and rigorous inquisitions were instituted even into families to discover these disloyal and ultra-royal inclinations. The appetite of the priesthood for revenge and power must have been, indeed, insatiable, when even the executions and proscriptions, and ordinances, of Ferdinand were insufficient to glut it. Proclamations in favour of Don Carlos were circulated throughout the kingdom; and in the province of La Mancha; circulars were addressed to the commanders of the royalist volunteers, setting forth his pretensions, and calling on them to proclaim him. The numerous bands of robbers that infested the country were suspected to be in reality under the direction of his adhe

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rents; some of them allowed travellers to pass unspoiled of any thing but their horses; the men of Corona, a bandit who kept An÷/ dalusia in alarm, sometimes used as their watch-word, Don Carlos and the Inquisition;" and government offered a pardon to any mem ber of his band who would deliver up this rebel, or point out the place of his retreat. Every new)suspicion led to new acts of seve rity, and vexatious police regu lations. The governor of Almeira, on the authority of an anonymous letter, prohibited the inhabitants from being out of doors after ter o'clock at night without a lanthorn, and forbade more than three per sons to meet in public or private, by night or day. In its own troops the government reposed little confidence, for it could not pay them ; and anxious precautions were taken to prevent them from forming any { lasting connection with the popu lation. The captains-general of the provinces reported regularly to the government all the movements and marches made by the men under their command: they were told in their instructions, that they, must "avoid too great a dissemi-} nation, which is always insufficient, compared with the extent of the country, and often useless; but when this dissemination is indispensable, it is essentially requisite to change the regiments with each other, in order that this kind of service may not injure discipline, and cause the corruption of the soldier." The king havinggone to visit | the barracks of a regiment of pro- · vincial militia quartered at Aranjuez, arrived while the men were at dinner. "You dine late," said the king" Yes Sire," answered a soldier; "we dine late, and we dine on credit, too.” bate

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solved for war, and the troops were ordered to march to the frontier.

These resolutions had been adopted, while prince Menzikov was on his journey to Sultania. On the road he had been passed by Abbas Mirza returning in great haste from Tauris to the camp; and, when he arrived at Sultania, he experienced a striking change from the deference and respect with which he had been received on the frontier. At his first audience, when he presented the emperor's letter to the Schah, the latter, instead of taking it in his own hand, the usual mark of respect to a foreign potentate, and which, in the course of the previous arrange ment of the ceremonial of presentation, he had twice positively promised to do, made a sign to the prince to lay it upon a cushion, a mark of contempt and insult to his master.* War had been already resolved upon, but decency required that a reason should be given. The Persian minister accordingly made a peremptory demand to prince Menzikoff, that Russia should immediately give up possession of the country which she occupied on the lake of Goktcha. Prince Menzikoff answered by referring to the letter of Abbas Mirza to general Yermoloff, in which his royal highness had consented to yield that district in exchange for the tract between the Kapan and Kapanatchy; but Alaiar Khan replied, that such an exchange had never received the sanction of the Schah, and was totally inadmissible. The Russian envoy, whose instructions had been framed on the supposition of that exchange being a point already fixed by the nego

Prince Menzikov's Despatches.

tiations, stated that he would immediately apply to his government for further orders; but he was informed that he would be furnished with the means of returning to Teflis, and that, although the negotiations might be resumed in a frontier town, it would only be on the footing of the treaty of Gulistan, that was, upon Russia, as a preliminary, retiring instantly from the disputed territory. On the interposition of the English Chargé d'Affaires, prince Menzikoff agreed to take with him to Teflis a Persian negociator, whose efforts he might second, and who should endeavour to procure from general Yermolov the evacuation of the coast of the Goktcha during the ensuing winter, which could be employed in arranging the points in dispute regarding the frontiers. The Schah assented to this proposal, and named an envoy to proceed to Teflis; but the portion of territory in dispute were not the object or motive of the war party, and such an arrangement did any thing but suit their views. The Khan of Talyche, a district subject to Russia, chose this moment to revolt; he put the Russian garrison of Arkevan to the sword, and de manded of Persia, what he instantly received, assistance against the infidel. Abbas Mirza and his adherents took advantage of this occurrence to decide the king for war. The king and the army which had been in the camp at Sultania, marched to the frontier of Georgia, and prince Menzikov ́ ́ set out on his return to Teflis. On his journey he was subjected to manifold species of insult, and bad treatment. His dragoman was put under arrest; the couriers coming to him as well as those sent by him, were stopped, and

the despatches taken from them. At Erivan he was detained for three weeks by orders of the Persian minister, notwithstanding all his remonstrances against this breach of the law of nations; and he at last made his escape, and reached Teflis in safety, only by causing it to be represented to that minister, that, as his numerous enemies would assuredly make use of the first unsuccessful or even doubtful battle, to destroy his credit, it would be good policy for him to think beforehand of concluding a peace on advantageous terms, and that such a peace was most likely to be obtained by allowing the departure of the Russian ambassador, who would have a personal interest to incline his go vernment to an accommodation.

When these proceedings first became known at Petersburgh and Moscow, the emperor Nicholas was disposed to ascribe them to the disobedience of some Persian commander, who had disregarded the intentions of his sovereign; and he demanded nothing more than the immediate removal and exemplary punishment of the Sirdar of Erivan, whom he considered to be the first aggressor. But when

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these orders arrived in Georgia, it was no longer possible to execute them, and the affair was decided. Abbas Mirza, having returned from the camp of Sultania, had taken, in person, the command of the Persian forces. He already occu pied a part of the province of Karabasch, belonging to Russia, and was exciting rebellion; his emissaries were encouraging the Mahommedan subjects of Russia in all the frontier provinces to revolt; and the Persian proclamations announced a religious war. Russia,

therefore, on the 28th September, issued a declaration of war against Persia, in which, after stating the facts, she concluded, that, as the treaty of Gulistan had been broken, she would not lay down her arms, "till she had obtained guarantees for perfect security for the future, and a just indemnity for the past, by a solid and honourable peace.'

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The folly, the precipitation, the fanaticism of Persia thus hurried her into an unnecessary war, for which she was not at all prepared, and that, too, with a power whose colossal strength, if directed towards schemes of conquest, could have wished for no better pretext to crush her. Even if Russia, by occupying the shore of the Goktcha, had extended her occupation bẹyond the limits prescribed by treaty, it was not an aggression of yesterday, calling for immediate action to repel it. The encroachment, if such it were, had been, and was at that moment, the subjeet of negotiation; that negotia tion had already come the length of an arrangement sanctioned by the prince royal; and if a refusal on the part of Persia to ratify it, rendered it necessary for the Russian envoy, necessarily uninstructed on an occurrence which had never been anticipated, to await the farther orders of his court, it could be no good reason for interrupting negotiation altogether by an unexpected appeal to arms. Persia rushed into war without a sufficient motive; and, as she brought to it neither adequate resources, nor sufficient preparation, she could not reasonably promise herself that the result would be favourable. The Persian army was trained by British officers; but when it

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marched to attack the Russian frontier, the British charge affaires forbade them to follow The Persian army consisted of between thirty and forty thousand men; and, as the invasion took place in the midst of peace, it peace, it found, when it crossed the Araxes, the frontiers of Georgia almost stripped of troops. The Georgian army of Russia was dispersed in its cantonments, and to collect them required time. At first, therefore, success was on the side of the Persians; the Russian posts on the frontiers fell back as the enemy advanced, being too weak to resist them, and, the country being open to them for a time, the Persians issued their manifestos calling on the delivered population to take up arms in the name of Mahomet, and in defence of their religion, a call which was not very generally answered. Their prosperity was of short duration. General Yermolov rapidly concentrated his troops at Teflis, and strengthened the different points which were threatened. In the middle of September, the Persians were first encountered by general Madatov, who attacked a body of them amounting to about ten thousand men under the command of a son of Abbas, and a brother of the Schah. After a severe contest, the Persian cavalry took to flight, and the infantry, being thus left unsupported, were broken by the Russian cavalry, and completely routed. The Persians lost two thousand men in killed and wounded. Amur Khan, the uncle of Abbas Mirza, was killed while endeavouring to rally his troops, and the young prince, son of Abbas, after having been taken prisoner by a Cossack, was rescued by the

devotion of one of his attendants. The Russians now advanced, and took possession, of Elizabethpol without opposition. Abbas Mirza, having been joined by Alaiar Khan, burning to avenge their defeat, advanced against Madatov, fena, who had prepared to meet him by effecting a junction with general Parkæwitch, and a second battle was fought on the 25th September, in the neighbourhood of Elizabethpol. According to the Russian accounts, the Persians, though amounting to no fewer than thirty-five thousand men, with twenty-six pieces of artillery, were, after a short combat, routed with the loss of twelve hundred men, while the killed and wounded in the Russian army did not amount to three hundred men. The Persians retreated across the Araxes in confusion, leaving behind them great part of their bag'gage, and fell back upon the frontiers of Persia. General Parkewitch sent detachments across the river to seize the enemy's magazines, clear the frontier, and recover the numerous families of Russian subjects, who had been carried off as plunder. In the course of these operations numerous skirmishes took place, all of which terminated to the advantage of the Russians. In the end of October, they returned to the left bank of the Araxes to go into winter quarters; and, at the same time, Abbas Mirza, who had retreated to Ardebil, retaining a small body of troops round his own person, dismissed the remainder till the spring. From the province of Erivan, the Serdar, and his brother Hassam Khan, made various predatory incursions into the Russian territory, striving to excite the in

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