From Berlin, probably through St. Petersburg, we learn that the
Shah of Persia, who left Resht, on the Caspian Sea, on the 12th, in a Russian steamer, has brought, first, his whole Cabinet
to Europe with him—though elsewhere we read that the has been left behind. Happy the land which can dispense with its Sovereign and very nearly its whole Government for six months ! But at the end may not even Persians, like Spaniards and Com- munists, be tempted to ask, could they not continue to get on without them altogether ? Secondly, the Shah brings with him three of his wives. It will be a nice question for, we presume, the Cabinet to decide which of their Majesties shall be invited to Windsor, which to Balmoral, and which to Osborne. In the third place, he comes like Crcesus, with all Pactolus for pocket-money. The telegram announces that he has set apart five millions sterl- ing for his European journey. How the hearts of the jewellers of all Europe must flutter at such an announcement ! Nor can upholsterers and gun makers, perfumers and horse-dealers well be -without emotion. Possibly, however, and probably, the sum is only one of those easy exaggerations to which the telegraph is prone. With £500,000 the Shah might make his European progress in ample magnificence. We should be sorry to think that he had five millions to spare for expenditure in mere splendour so soon after the famine.
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