Hajee Mahomed Hoosein[146] is a man of great simplicity of manners, and neither has, nor pretends to, any of that wit, or brilliancy in conversation, for which many of the Persians are so distinguished. He is rather dull in company, and appears what he really is, a plain man of business. A friend of mine one day breakfasting with him, was surprised to hear him say to a poor man, who brought a pair of slippers to sell, "Sit down my honest friend, and take your breakfast; we will bargain about the slippers afterwards." This admission of inferiors to their society at meals is not, however, uncommon with men of rank in Persia. It arises out of a sense of the sacred duties of hospitality, and out of parade, if they have not the reality of that humility so strongly inculcated in the Koran. Besides, their character and condition often disposes them to relax with those beneath them, and even with menial servants, whom they admit to a familiarity which at first view appears contradictory to those impressions we have of their haughty character. I was one day almost reproached by Aga Meer, on account of the difference which he observed in our behaviour to those of our countrymen, who were below us in condition. "You speak of your consideration for inferiors," said he to me, "but you keep them at a much greater distance than we do. Is this your boasted freedom?" I told him that it was exactly our boasted freedom, which compelled us to the conduct we observed. "You are so classified in Persia," said I, "that you can descend from your condition as you like; a man below you will never presume on your familiarity so far as to think himself, for a moment, on the same level with those, who are so entirely distinct from his class in the community. In England we are all equal in the eye of the law, the rights of every man are the same; the differences which exist are merely those of fortune, which place us in the relation of master and servant; but where there is no other distinction, we are obliged to preserve that with care, or all forms and respects would soon be lost." The good Meerzâ admitted that there might be some truth in what I stated. "But yours is a strange country," he said; "I shall never quite understand its ways and usages." Meerzâ Sheffee,[147] who styles himself Premier, may be called the minister of the court; he is a veteran in all its arts, intrigues, and corruptions. Good-humoured, quick, and flexible, he has managed to steer his crooked course through a long life, and still retains his head and his eyes, though both have, no doubt, been often in danger. The king is attached to him, as an old servant of the family.