'The dynasty of the Kajars translated from the original Persian manuscript presented by His Majesty Faty Aly Shah to Sir Harford Jones Brydges ... to which is prefixed a succinct account of the history of Persia previous to that period illustarted with plates and a map of Western Persia' [‎75] (96/684)

PRELIMINARY MATTER.
Ixxv
came on, and she declared she could not take the
liquid forbidden by the law, unless the king tasted
it first. Husain's religious scruples were overcome
by his grandmother quoting to him, " That the
" Kings of Persia were subject to no law, and there-
" fore could commit no sin." A maxim so commo
dious was not likely to be thrown away on a weak
mind. The king drank of the wine; from that
moment became an habitual drunkard ; and, after
wards, whenever occasion required, quieted his
conscience with a reference to his grandmother's
precious quotation.
The bonds of government, and the wisest regu
lations of the empire, no doubt were weakened and
infringed before Husain mounted the throne. A su
perstitious, weak, and drunken monarch, guided by
a corrupt and vindictive council of eunuchs, was not
very likely to re-invigorate the one, or re-establish
the other. When the Philosopher of Malmsbury as
serts, " Money is power," the truth of his observation
is no where better illustrated than in the monarchies
of Asia; for among the class of their subjects out of
which their armies are formed, patriotism is nothing,
and money every thing. Husain appears either not
to have been aware of, or not to have attended to,
this important fact; for he not only wasted all the
money he found in the treasury, but anticipated
the revenues of the state, in building costly and
luxurious palaces, convents for dervishes (one of
which was said to possess a gate of solid silver):
and, what was perhaps more ruinous to his finances
than all these, he undertook, accompanied by all
the women of his haram and their attendants, and