Persia and Turkey in Revolt Author:David Fraser General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1910 Original Publisher: W. Blackwood and sons Subjects: Great Britain Iran Turkey Eastern question (Central Asia) Middle East History / Middle East / General History / Military / Iraq War (2003-) Travel / Middle East / General Notes: This is a black and whi... more »te OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: 29 CHAPTER III. EARLY DAYS OF THE CONSTITUTION. No sooner had he signed the Constitution than Muzaffar-ed-Din lay down and died. The document was read out in Parliament on New Year's Day 1907, and, according to the three narratives which I have been following, was received with tremendous enthusiasm. It happened, however, that I was travelling in Persia at the time, and was privileged to be present upon this historic occasion, and I must say that I formed the opinion that the acclamations were pitched in a very moderate key.1 That, however, is a matter of taste, for enthusiasm is a relative thing, great or small, according as viewed from the standpoint of the strenuous West or of the phlegmatic East. Prior to the signing of the great document, however, the Mejliss had been assembled for three months, and had already achieved remarkable results. The extraction of the formal charter of its liberties from a reluctant Court was alone a notable performance ; besides which Anglo- Russian financial assistance was refused, the principle of founding a National Bank approved, and a strong anti-foreign feeling developed. How admirably, too, from the very beginning, the Persians had apprehendedthe Parliamentary idea will be realised from the words of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the new British Minister, who wrote1 to Sir Edward Grey, in reference to the Mejliss, that " any member may speak ...« less