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lO^h. I before informed Your Lordship under date the 17th of November,
that I insisted on a Porson being vested with Powers to Treat with mo
Hanjee Ibrahim Khan, the Prime minister, was accordingly appointed by a
Fumaun, copy of which, with a translation, I enclose. After I had sottlod with
that minister the different articles of the Treaties, two points of magnitude in
respeot to Form obtruded. One relative to the king’s ratifying the Treatios in
the manner I wished by putting his seal at the bottom, and the other to having
an English Translation adjoined. The Fumaun appointing Hanjoe'Ibraheom
Khan, to treat with mo was, the ministers of the Persian Court contended,
sufficient to make the Treaties valid, and as to the king's putting his seal below
mine or.of his own ministers which ho must, if ho ratified the Treaties at the
bottom, it wa9, they urged, at variance with tho habits of the Persian
monarchy from the earliest ages, and on the present occasion was more improper,
as Your Lordship with whom tho alliance was contracted, though the
acknowledged Ruler of a great Empire, yet still you were only, as it appeared
from my credentials, the delegati of a sovereign. As to the English Translation
they argued that it w.as a point in itself immaterial ; that it was evident no
person at tho Court of Persia understood that Language, and it would therefore
appear extraordinary if such was inserted in a Treaty given to me for Your
Lordship, but there could be no objeotion to the Treaties that were returned
from India for the king of Persia being written in both Languages, if it was a
point to which consequence was attached.
20th. After a dispute that continued several days, I at last agreed to
:
dispense with the English Translations, and also with the king’s placing his
seal at the bottom, on condition that a Firmaun of His Majesty directed to-
His officers should be affixed to each of the Treaties, concluded between Banjee
Ibraheem Khaun mo, informing them of these Treaties being contract­
ed by his desire, and authority, and requiring obedience and conformity to
such throughout his Dominions, and that the Treaties sent from India to the
king should be notified by Your Lordship in a similar manner having an order
requiring submission to what was concluded with the Honorable Company’3
seal affixed. This expedient which appeared to me to render the Treaties
perfectly valid, without sacrificing the dignity of either party was after much
disoussion adopted.
21st. There are lesser irregularities in tho Treaties, such as the very long
and unnecessary preambles, and the mode of expressing the Honorable Com­
pany’s Government, which is always termed tho Government of the king of
England, which I could not avoid without entering into disputes that I did
th not think the points inserted, and in fact (for such is the attachment of the
cd
Persians to their own Forms) incurring some risk of defeating the whole nego­
tiation.
22nd. In concluding this letter, which is, I fear already too prolix, I cannot
avoid expressing the state of anxiety in which I shall remain till I learn Your
Lordsbip’s sentiments on the conduct I have observed in the progress and ter­
mination of this mission.

Humajdatjn; JOHN MALCOLM,
}
20th of February 1801. Envoy.

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