1888 to be 40,000 Asiatic aliens; in the Ussuri district 14,000. The Russian Governor-General in his last report included these words: The Manchurians form an element which is dangerous to the interests of our Russian colonists, as by their intelligence, industry, endurance, and frugality, competition of any foreign labour system whatever with theirs is prevented.' To restrict this influx and the consequent fall in prices, it was proposed that the Russian Government should lay a special capitation or income tax upon all Chinese and Koreans in Russian territory, and in the scheme of universal taxation should allow an exemption to naturalised Russian subjects and Russian traders.

These incidents will show that Russian colonisation in Central Asia is not such smooth sailing as might be expected; and that projects, however brave, may be widely removed from reality. General Annenkoff in his lecture recommended the following steps as the prelude to more successful ventures: improved and extended irrigation; the circulation of maps with spots adapted to settlement distinguished upon them; the institution of model farms and agricultural schools in order to create a supply of competent managers and overseers; and the collection of models of appliances used in America for the cultivation of cotton. Nevertheless there do not exist in Central Asia the insuperable obstacles of climate and surroundings that have rendered British colonies in India an impossibility, and have thereby deprived the English of this most potent instrument of assimilation;

Attitude of Great Britain

and the Amu Daria fringe may one day be peopled with untidy long-haired Moujiks, and dotted over with pine-log huts.

Such, so far as I have been able to ascertain them,1 are Russia's position and prospects, her virtues and failings, in her recently acquired Central Asian dominions. Englishmen may regard her presence there with equanimity and watch her progress with friendly interest. They may compare her doings north of the Hindu Kush and Himalayas with their own to the south, and may perhaps derive some lessons, or imbibe some warnings from the contrast. They need grudge Russia none of her triumphs, nor be led, either by national jealousy or by possible antagonism in the future, into competition with her in a field which their own hands are too full to enter. Let no Englishman be found repeating the infatuated nonsense that has sometimes found its way into print in magazine articles, about turning Russia out of Central Asia, or sweeping her from the Khanates. She is not to be evicted; and of all peoples we are the last to supply the crowbar brigade. The limits to British dominions in Central Asia are fixed by natural conditions, which we should be insane to ignore or overleap, and which sever us, as by oceans, from Tartar prairies or Turkoman steppes. The inheritance of these lands, with their historic past, their sordid present,

1 I have made repeated applications to Russian official quarters for further information, both in figures and in facts; but entirely without uccess. If the Russians are anywhere misrepresented or misunder

in foreign countries, it is commonly their own fault; for they lly refuse the sole means of correction or substantiation.

and the mysterious possibilities of their future, has devolved upon a race yet young among nations, endowed with surpassing vitality, and destined to greatness. At least let us wish her God-speed in the undertaking.

bilities of

Let it be borne in mind, however, and by none Responsi more than the Russians themselves, that if the future Russia of these regions is in their own hands, upon their shoulders rests a proportionate responsibility. So far everything has been easy enough. Armies have collapsed; the conquered have been pacified; opposition has vanished; order has been assured. The scarcely formulated ambitions of Peter the Great have been realised, and have been multiplied a hundredfold in the process of realisation. A new continent has been usurped, and a mighty empire has been won. But, as the Duke of Wellington remarked to Lord Auckland in 1839, In Asia, where victories cease difficulties begin.' Demolition has been simple; but a call for constructive ability is now made. Russia is required to build a new edifice upon the old foundations, to lift a people from the sloth of centuries, and to teach them the worth of manhood. The inveterate walkers in darkness have seen a great light. They are entitled to share the warmth of its illumination. Means of regeneration exist in abundance. A railway built for purposes of war ought in proper hands to become a security for peace. A few crumbling Khanates alone remain as an expiring relic of the past, which, with all its pageantry and its horrors, is shrivelling up like a parchment scroll beneath the

action of fire, and will only leave its charred remains as a memento for another generation. The field is clear, and no rival threatens. If Russian brains can only estimate the sense of duty, or even of ulterior profit, at a little higher price than ephemeral vainglory, and if Russian hands can desist from flying at the least breath of suspicion to the hilts of their swords, there is no reason why a future of beneficence and even of splendour should not await the Central Asian dominions of the Czar.