long, reveal its formidable reality. The wise policy, therefore, would be an alliance between England and Russia; the Government of India should aid Russia cordially and openly in effecting, as soon as possible, the disarmament of Afghanistan and of the Mohammedan populations of all the States intervening between India and the Russian possessions in Central Asia, and the division of those territories between the two powers. The knowledge that there existed between Russia and England a complete understanding, for this avowed purpose, would suffice to render powerless the known disaffection of our Mohammedan subjects in India, and should they afterwards give us any trouble we should, at least, have close at hand, upon our North-Western Frontier, a powerful and friendly Christian empire, upon whose prompt co-operation we could at all times rely for the suppression of revolt. Unfortunately, instead of embracing the opportunities still open to it for the prosecution of this great defensive policy, the Government of India had hitherto been endeavouring in an underhand way to exclude Russian influence from the frontier States, and to strengthen those States against what was called Russian aggression. The fear of such aggression was caused by a misconception of the whole situation, which direct communications between Tashkend and Calcutta would, General Kaufmann trusted, suffice to rectify. Animated by these convictions, he had already prepared a complimentary letter to the new Viceroy, which he proposed to despatch through Afghanistan to the care of Sher Ali Khan, with instructions to the Amir of Kabul to forward it immediately to Peshawur, so that Lord Lytton might find it at Calcutta on his arrival. But he refrained from sending the letter

until he had ascertained, through the Russian ambassador in London, how it would be received by the Viceroy.

This letter from General Kaufmann was written in Russian, and Count Shouvalow translated it into French as he read it to Lord Lytton, without apparently suppressing any part of it. After hearing the letter, Lord Lytton asked what were the means at the disposal of General Kaufmann for sending a letter to Sher Ali Khan, and what were his guarantees for the Amir's obedience to his instructions. The ambassador, who seemed a little embarrassed by the question, replied: "I suppose that we must have, just as you have, safe and easy means of private communication with Sher Ali. But I don't know what they are. That is Kaufmann's affair.'

Count Shouvalow then admitted that there was no foundation for the statement that military support had been given by the Government of India to Yakub Beg, and he laid great stress upon the fact that this absurd fiction had been seriously believed at St. Petersburg as proving the importance of the proposal for establishing direct communication between General Kaufmann and the Viceroy. In replying to these communications, Lord Lytton said that as the ambassador wished for a frank statement of his views he would state frankly that the British Government would tolerate no attempt on the part of General Kaufmann to obtain an influence in Afghanistan or in any of our frontier States, and that we should absolutely refuse to co-operate with Russia in any anti-Mohammedan crusade such as that which had been suggested. We regarded, he said, Afghanistan and Beloochistan as the porches of British India; we should defend them with all our power

against aggression by any foreign State; we would never knowingly allow Russia to enter into any relations with those States which might have the effect of undermining our influence over their rulers or their people, and would never become a party to any injury to our Mohammedan allies or subjects. General Kaufmann's proposed communications with the Viceroy of India could only be carried on through Afghanistan, a territory with which Russia had no right to interfere, and they were therefore inadmissible and unwarrantable. To this Count Shouvalow replied that General Kaufmann was no politician, that he was an honest soldier without political ideas, whose views must not be taken au sérieux, or confounded with those of the Russian Government, and that he accepted without reserve, in regard to Afghanistan, the position as Lord Lytton had defined it.

Although the ambassador thus disclaimed sympathy with the policy advocated by General Kaufmann, and only gave, on behalf of his Government, approval to the suggestion that means of direct communication might with advantage be established between the Viceroy of India and the Russian authorities in Central Asia, this interview left on the mind of Lord Lytton the conviction that Russia was desirous of coming to an understanding with England which would have led to the absorption of the States intervening between the British and Russian possessions, to the partition of Afghanistan, and the establishment of a common frontier between the two empires. His belief was strengthened soon afterwards by the publication, doubtless with the authority or sanction of the Russian Government, of an article in the 'Golos' containing the substance of General

Kaufmann's letter to the Minister of War. There can now be no question that this opinion of Lord Lytton was correct. It had become a fixed idea with Russian statesmen that in the interests of their country the most satisfactory result that could be arrived at in Central Asia would be one which brought their borders into immediate contact with our own. Nor is this view confined to those who entertain ambitious expectations of future advances upon India; it is held equally by men who desire that all existing causes of difference between Russia and England should be removed. Lord Lytton's communications with Count Shouvalow completely satisfied him on another point, in regard to which his conclusion received afterwards ample confirmation. They were thus described by him in a confidential paper written immediately after his final interview with the ambassador:

The Russian Government has established those To Lord Salisbury, means of direct, convenient, and safe communication Feb. 26, 1876 which Sher Ali refuses to us, and which we are afraid of proposing to him, although we openly subsidise His Highness. At the same time the Russian Chancellor holds us responsible, as a matter of course, for the exercise of an authority over the Amir which we neither possess nor know how to acquire. The Russian General confidentially avows his object to be the disarmament of Afghanistan, yet he has acquired such influence at Kabul that he can not only communicate with Sher Ali Khan whenever he pleases, but also reckon with confidence upon the Amir's obedience to his instructions. England openly declares her object to be the prosperity and independence of Afghanistan, and for the furtherance of that object she subsidises its ruler; yet she has so little

The Viceroy leaves England

influence at Kabul that she cannot induce Sher Ali to receive an agent from her Viceroy, or tolerate the passage of a British officer through his territories. Comment on these facts is, I think, superfluous. I cannot conceive a situation more fundamentally false or more imminently perilous than the one which they reveal.'

Count Shouvalow had, as he stated to Lord Lytton, made to Lord Derby the proposal to establish direct means of correspondence between the Russian authorities in Central Asia and the Viceroy in India. The views of our Government agreed with those of Lord Lytton, and the proposal was declined. These communications were on both sides verbal only. They took no official form and were not officially recorded.

On March 1, 1876, Lord Lytton left England with Lady Lytton and their young daughters. Colonel (afterwards Sir Owen) Burne accompanied him as private secretary, an officer of well tried ability and Indian knowledge, who had served Lord Mayo in the same capacity. Colonel Colley, the brilliant and accomplished soldier who afterwards, as his countrymen bitterly remember, found in Africa an unhappy death, was his military secretary; and among the other officers of his suite was Sir Lewis Pelly, to whom Lord Lytton had determined to entrust the duty of conducting the negotiations which he hoped to open with the Amir of Afghanistan.

Egyptian affairs were at this time in a critical condition, the Khedive was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the French and English Governments were discussing the measures to be taken for preventing a probable catastrophe. Lord Lytton remained in Paris for a few days. He had numerous