The accounts of the famine in Persia are becoming terrible.
At a public meeting held at the Mansion House on Wednesday, it was stated that water, always the difficulty of Persia, owing to the almost total denudation of the country, had for nearly three years almost entirely failed ; that the flocks and herds of the pas- toral tribes, half the population, had perished ; and that even in the cities the people were perishing by thousands. Sir H. Raw- linson, perhaps the best living authority, called Persia " a doomed land," and evidently believed that a total desolation was settling over it ; and Major-General G-oldstnid narrated his personal experi- ence. He had seen fearful struggles among the people for the doles of rice, bad been in one village where 800 persons had died, had been followed for 50 miles by beggars in hope of getting one handful of rice a day. Even the Persian Minister, who formerly deprecated relief, could now only hope that Persia " had not been singled out for the special wrath of the Almighty." We have else- where tried to explain the magnitude of this tremendous calamity, which, as we believe, may yet disorganize a State, and to show that it can be arrested only by the Government of India. Whether that Government is bound to act we cannot decide—we fear not —but a London subscription is child's-play. Let us either save the tribes of the South, which we can do, or give our money where it will be of use.
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