Accounts have reached London of another massacre of Bitbis in
Persia, the tenth or twelfth within the writer's recollection. This time " it is the mob of Yezd which has broken out and killed every BIM accessible without dis- tinction of sex. The Governor tried at first to protect the unhappy sectaries, but finding this dangerous, he sentenced one to be blown away from a cannon and another to have his throat cut. It is not stated that he washed his hands. The outbreaks, which occurred on June 27th and 28th, seem to have had no special cause; but a Persian mob is always Toady to kill Bitbis, who, though they profess to be Mahomnieiaso, replace the "Sultan of the Sky" by a Pantheistic system, teach a Puritan code of morals under which polygamy, concubinage, and the seclusion of women are abolished, and are rigidly teetotal. The Bait; are said to number a million of adherents throughout Persia, besides a multitude of followers who dare not avow their faith; but they are regarded by the dynasty and by the 'priesthood as incorrigible rebels. They have unquestionably been persecuted into disaffection; but though their chief pleads a divine commission to reform the faith, he does not claim a right to supersede the civil authority. It is probable, nevertheless, that the sectaries. who are Quite ready to use the sword, would support any
Government which promised them full toleration and kept its word.
