were addressed in menacing language to the comparatively innocent Ameer.

On August 14 M. de Giers, while claiming a right on the part of Russia to take both military and diplomatic precautions against our importation of Indian troops to Malta, assured at the same time our Chargé d'Affaires at St. Petersburg that 'the political as well as the military precautions had been

stopped.' 1

On September 8 M. de Giers wrote from Livadia to inform Mr. Plunkett that the Mission to Cabul, which had been avowedly sent in prospect of a war with England, was now, in consequence of the pacific result of the Congress at Berlin, of a provisional nature, and one of simple courtesy.' 2

6

On September 27 Lord A. Loftus wrote from St. Petersburg that on his passage through Baden-Baden five days previously he had had an interview with Prince Gortchakoff, who had given him the same explanation, in exactly the same terms as those used by M. de Giers in his note to Mr. Plunkett,' quoted above.3 Prince Gortchakoff added that the Emperor could never forego his right of sending complimentary missions to any foreign sovereigns or neighbouring princes.'

On September 20 Lord Salisbury forwarded M. de Giers' note to Lord Cranbrook, with the observation

Lord Salisbury infers from M. de Giers' note that his Excellency acknowledges that all the former assurances of the Russian Government in regard to Afghanistan have now resumed their former validity.4

On the same day Lord Salisbury addressed the following despatch to Mr. Plunkett, at St. Petersburg: 5

September 8,

In the note from M. de Giers of ster, of which copy is inclosed in your despatch of the 13th instant, reference is made to explanations which the Russian Charge d'Affaires in 2 Ibid., p. 164. 5 Ibid.

1 Central Asia, No. 1 (1878), p. 147. 3 Ibid., No. 2, p. 7.

Ibid., No. 1, p. 165.

London had been instructed to offer in regard to the recent proceedings of the Russian authorities in Central Asia.

The communications made by M. Bartholomei have been generally to the same effect as what has been stated by M. de Giers. He has stated that the military and political measures adopted in Turkistan were actuated by the necessities of the situation caused by the state of affairs in regard to Turkey, and were called forth especially by the attitude of Great Britain towards Russia. General Kaufmann's proceedings, he said, must therefore be regarded as the result of a course imposed upon him by the force of circumstances.

As I had spoken to M. Bartholomei of a letter from the Emperor which was supposed to have been transmitted to Shere Ali Khan, he asked the Russian Government for information on the point, and subsequently said that he was authorised to state that there had never been any question of sending such a letter.

The Russian Government, therefore, asserted its right to do two things: (1) to send political Missions to Cabul whenever the relations between the Russians and British Governments were of an unfriendly character; (2) to send 'complimentary Missions' to the Ruler of Afghanistan at all times. In this twofold claim Her Majesty's Government, as represented in the Parliamentary Papers on Central Asia, tacitly acquiesced. Lord Beaconsfield, moreover, declared in his speech in the House of Lords on the 10th of last December that Russia was justified, under the circumstances, in all that she had done. Where, then, is the justification of the war against Shere Ali? He tried to stop a Mission which the British Government has admitted that Russia had a right to send. Failing in this, he made friendly overtures to the British Government, and expressed his willingness to make amends for any offence which he may have given, provided the Viceroy met him in a similar spirit. The Viceroy, on the contrary, treated him as an enemy, and ordered him to receive a Mission attended by a much larger military escort than that of the Russian Mission. The Mission started before the Ameer had time to reply, and was courteously stopped

on the frontier by the officer in command, who, however, offered to despatch a messenger at once to the Ameer for instructions. The offer was rejected. The Viceroy treated the incident as in 'insult,' and dispersed the Mission. Forced against his will to send an Ultimatum to the Ameer before declaring war against him, the Viceroy gave him just barely time to send an answer within the period of grace allowed him. The Ultimatum, moreover, was not despatched with the usual forms of diplomatic courtesy. Instead of a messenger being sent with it to Cabul, one copy was dropped into a letter-box at Jumrood, and another left at the fort of Ali Musjid. In his answer to the Ultimatum the Ameer offered to receive a British Mission of the same dimensions as the Russian. But hostilities had been already commenced against him.

As regards Russia, if we ever had a case against her our Government has abandoned it. They have admitted that Russia was justified by the importation of Indian troops to Malta in making a counter-move towards Afghanistan. They have required no assurance from her that she will discontinue her Embassies of courtesy to Cabul. They have, in fact, fallen back upon the old understandings, and have even admitted, as appears from the papers published on February 20, that our obligation to recognise Afghanistan as an independent State under British protection is once again in full force.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE PRESENT SITUATION.

ANY examination of the causes of the Afghan war would be incomplete which omitted to notice the justification of that war offered on two separate occasions by the Prime Minister. The first occasion was the banquet on last Lord Mayor's Day. It is seldom that a Prime Minister's speech is looked forward to with so much curiosity and anxiety as was Lord Beaconsfield's that evening. He knew, therefore, when he rose to speak, surrounded by the leading members of his Government, that his speech would be read by the whole nation as a grave statement of Ministerial policy. And, knowing this, Lord Beaconsfield explained as follows the motive and purpose of the war against the Ameer of Afghanistan :

My Lord Mayor,-The attention of Viceroys and Governments in India and in England has for a long time been attracted to that question of the North-Western Frontier of our Indian Empire. So far as the invasion of India in that quarter is concerned, it is the opinion of Her Majesty's Government that it is hardly practicable. The base of operations of any possible foe is so remote, the communications are so difficult, the aspect of the country so forbidding, that we have long arrived at an opinion that an invasion of our Empire by passing the mountains which form our North-Western Frontier is one which we need not dread. But it is a fact that that frontier is a haphazard, and not a scientific, frontier; and it is possible that it is in the power of any foe so to embarrass and disturb our dominion that we should, under the circumstances, be obliged to maintain a great military force in that quarter, and consequently entail upon this country and upon

India a greatly increased expenditure. These are evils not to be despised, and, as I venture to observe, they have for some time, under various Viceroys and under different Administrations, occupied the attention of our statesmen. But, my Lord Mayor, while our attention was naturally drawn also to this subject, some peculiar circumstances occurred in that part of the world which rendered it absolutely necessary that we should give our immediate and earnest attention to the subject, and see whether it was not possible to terminate that absolute inconvenience and possible injury which must or would accrue if the present state of affairs were not touched and considered by the Government of the Queen. With these views, we have taken such measures as we think will effect the object we require. When these arrangements are made—and I cannot suppose that any considerable time will elapse before they are consummated- our North-Western Frontier will no longer be a source of anxiety to the English people. We shall live, I hope, on good terms with our immediate neighbours, and perhaps not on bad terms with some neighbours that are more remote. But, my Lord, in making these remarks, I should be sorry if your Lordship believed that it was the opinion of Her Majesty's Government that an invasion of India was impossible or impracticable. On the contrary, my Lord Mayor, if Asia Minor and the Valley of the Euphrates were in the possession of a very weak or of a very powerful State, an adequate force might march through the passes of the Asian mountains, through Persia, and absolutely menace the Empire of the Queen. Well, my Lord Mayor, we have foreseen that possibility, and provided for what we believe will secure its non-occurrence; and the chief mode by which we have provided for that result is that Convention with Turkey of which you have heard so much.

This is an exposition of policy as remarkable as it is authoritative. Let us take it to pieces and see what it comes to when stripped of the oratorical drapery in which it is shrouded.

The frontier of our Indian Empire, says the Premier, is practically vulnerable through Persia only. In that direction 'an adequate force' from Asia Minor 'might march through the Asian mountains' and 'absolutely menace the Empire of the Queen.' The