CHAPTER X.

THE ONLY REASONABLE LINE OF DEFENCE.

Ir is just the consideration of the above-quoted vacillation of the politicians of Great Britain, which reminds us of the extraordinary fact, that in default of a constantly and uniformly ruling spirit, England has been unable to decide to this day the question whether the possession of India ought to be defended by the seemingly natural barrier in the mountains of the north-west, involving the immediate neighbourhood of Russia on the Indus; or whether it would be more judicious to erect outworks, to have a glacis of defence, and consequently not to allow the Cossack to approach either the Kheiber or the Bolan Passes. And strange to say, this highly serious and important question is even now left open for discussion in this country, called pre-eminently practical! Hannibal ante portas, and my English friends are continually quarrelling whether the Indus, the Hilmend, or the Heri-Rud ought to be made the line of defence! Certainly it is a most afflicting sight to see a man

who is attacked by a crafty enemy, pondering on the choice of arms at a moment when the hostile sword is at his throat.

It is not my intention to dwell here at any length on the views expressed by me with reference to this question, ten, fifteen, nay twenty years ago; for I suppose it is pretty well-known to the English reader, in general, that I always stood up in my writings for the erection of a bulwark for the defence of India which should be in due proportion to the object to be defended. I mean to say, I found it always evident-and I am glad to see myself sustained by the highest military authorities-that England absolutely needs outworks for a valid defence. of her north-western frontier; that the idea of having Russia in the immediate neighbourhood of Hindostan must be definitely dropped, and nobody must dream any more of accepting the phrase an English statesman used to me twelve years ago :-"Just as I prefer having a well-dressed, educated and polite neighbour, instead of a dirty-looking savage barbarian, so we prefer having Russia close at our frontier, instead of the unruly, unmanageable, and wild Afghans." Nowadays everybody is convinced that India, under the present circumstances, is still to be compared to a powder-mill, into the vicinity of which no man of sound mind would admit an enemy, with burning

tinder in his hand, ready to throw the incendiary spark into the powder of his neighbour, and anxious to turn to his advantage the ensuing explosion. Russia, indeed, has already tried, in 1878, to make such a stroke with her army collected on the Oxus, and she really planned what Skobeleff called :-"The means of a hard blow, struck in the front simultaneously with a mutiny fomented at the rear of the Indus.” At that time the Congress of Berlin restrained the Russian arm; nevertheless, it never ceased to be a favourite idea with her, carrying out the will of Skobeleff, who thus summed up this policy "It will be in the end our duty to organise masses of Asiatic cavalry, and to hurl them into India, under the banner of blood and pillage, as a vanguard, as it were, thus reviving the times of Tamerlane."

In considering the chance of Russian success in an attempt to foment a mutiny, and to cause a general or a partial rising, we must look solely to England's present situation in India, and, steadily keeping before our eyes the results of her policy so far, ask ourselves the pregnant question whether, during her rule of nearly a century, attended by the never-ceasing work of civilisation, she has so far succeeded in securing the sympathies of the 250,000,000 of foreign subjects under her sway, as to be justified in expecting that, at a critical moment, these subjects will not

countenance a change of masters, and that they would look upon England's enemy as the enemy of India, and make common cause with her against any external attack.

The answer to this question is the pivot-point upon which the chances of the great contest between. the two rival European colossi in Asia are turning; for England, even under most auspicious circumstances, strategically, would be hardly equal to the task of defending her gigantic empire against external attacks, if its inhabitants, averse to her sceptre, were to entertain at the same time, in hopes. of bettering their fortunes, a secret longing for a new master. This question has been inquired into and discussed numberless times, in every imaginable aspect, within the last twenty years, nay, during the whole of this century; and if, in spite of the considerable literature which has sprung up in connection with it, I venture to say a word or two on the subject, I do so for the sole reason that, owing to the neutral stand-point I occupy, and to my experience, both practical and theoretical, amongst Asiatics, extending over a score of years, I consider myself qualified to treat it with the fullest objectivity. I repeat, with some emphasis, " amongst Asiatics," for it is in India that we find the richest fountain of Asiatic views of life, and hence have emanated all those

peculiarities, prejudices, and superstitions, with which we constantly meet, in the shape of the most irreconcilable contrast with our own views of life, among the Turks, Arabs, Persians, Tartars, Afghans, etc., and which have occasioned such great difficulties in all efforts to diffuse the light of modern culture in the East. In India, where these contrasts make themselves oftener conspicuous, the work of transformation and modernisation has involved the greatest imaginable struggle; and we have only to thank the tenacity of Englishmen, and the degree of high culture incident to British civilisation, that any breaches have been effected in these ancient ramparts of Asiatic effeteness, and, where the extreme points of the two civilisations so diametrically opposed to each other have come in contact, that there, in some places, the ideas of the nineteenth century have already begun to force their way.

Upon a closer examination of the gigantic work of the British civilisers, we find that of the two chief elements in India, the Brahminic and the Moslem, the former offers less resistance and proves much more amenable to civilising influence than the Mohammedan. In spite of the merciless rigour of the system of castes and the ritualistic laws, according to which no Vishnu-worshipper is permitted to come into direct contact with a Christian,