The Grand Vizier of Persia has certainly cause to regret
English ignorance of etiquette. He was here treated as second to the Shah, though two of the monarch's brothers were in his suite. They vowed vengeance, and. on their return to Persia laid their complaint before the Shah. He might not have minded much: but he could not quarrel with the whole clan of relatives who fill all important posts in Persia, and Hussein Khan was accordingly degraded, as Reuter says, for " overbearingness while travelling ;" and at first it was determined to send him a prisoner to Koom, whence we should speedily have heard of his death or blindness. The Shah, however, must have had a personal liking for his minister, who was so much caressed in English society because, when intensely bored by the Shah, it found relief in Hussein Khan's droll and sometimes slightly salted stories. Indeed the man was an inimit- able mimic, and would have made his fortune on the French stage. His banishment to Koom is revoked, and he is- to go as governor to Begirt.
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