neutral region. Now that the danger is recognised in this country by all parties, England might be considered to be able to cope with whatever emergency there might arise; but it is, nevertheless, very questionable policy to sanction Russian conquests because they do not immediately jeopard our hold upon India. It is true that the Oxus forms an admirable limit to Russian progress, but it by no means follows that it should be made the Russian frontier.

Little need be said of the minor khanates which are to the west of Balkh. These are Andchui, Akche, Shiborgan, Saripul, and Maimene. The principal of these is Maimene. The population is a mixture of Usbeg and Turcoman, and the region is very productive and fairly prosperous. We possess absolutely no authentic account of what has taken place in this quarter of Asia during the last generation— nothing, in fact, since M. Ferrier visited it. All these khanates represent the Afghan possessions in Turkestan, and they have now evidently reached a crisis in their destiny. It is absolutely necessary for the safeguarding of our interests that none of these should pass into the hands either of Russia or of any of her nominees. Too great vigilance cannot be shown in checking the schemes that are already afoot for settling the future of these khanates, and of the province of which they form part.

APPENDIX A.

THE UKASE FOR THE FORMATION OF THE PROVINCE OF TURKESTAN.

WHEREAS We hold it to be expedient to modify the civil and military organization of the territories bordering on China and the Central Asian khanates which formed portions of the Governments of Orenburg and West Siberia, We ordain by these presents that:

1. A Governor-Generalship be forthwith established in Turkestan, which shall consist of the province of Turkestan, the circle of Tashkend, the districts lying beyond the Syr-Darya, which were occupied by us in the year 1866, and the portion of the province of Semipalatinsk that lies to the south of the Tarbagatai mountain range.

2. The boundaries of the Government of Turkestan shall henceforward be

(a.) With respect to the Government of West Siberia: the ridge of the Tarbagatai mountains, and their

offshoots as far as the present frontier line which divides the province of Semipalatinsk from the country inhabited by the Kirghiz of Siberia, shall form the frontier on that side, as far as the lake of Balkash, then extending farther in a curve drawn through the middle of that lake, and equidistant from its shores, and then in a straight line to the river Chu, thence following the course of that river till its confluence with the Syr-Darya.

(b.) With respect to the Government of Orenburg: the frontier line shall be drawn from the middle of the Gulf of Peroffsky in the Sea of Aral, over the Termembes mountain, the place called Terekli, over the Kalmas mountain, the place Muzbill, the Akkum and Chubar-Tubia mountains, the southern point of the sandy desert Myin-Kum, and the place Myin-Bulak, to the confluence of the rivers Saree-Su and Chu.

3. The new government shall be divided into two provinces, one the Syr-Darya, the other Semiretchinsk, and the river Kurogoty will form the boundary line between them.

4. The chief administrative power over the country thus constituted will be entrusted to a GovernorGeneral, and the provinces of the Syr-Darya and the Semiretchinsk to Military Governors; as regards the military administration and the military establishments, the two provinces shall form the military district of Turkestan, and the command of the whole of the troops stationed within the district shall be entrusted to the Governor-General, with the title, "Commander of the Forces of the District;" and the

Military Governors shall command the troops in their own provinces, with the title "Commander of the Forces" in their respective provinces.

5. On the establishment of the provinces of the Syr-Darya and the Semiretchinsk, the civil authorities therein employed shall remain at the disposition and under the control of the respective Military Governors until general regulations for the guidance of the administration of the whole district shall be promulgated.

Dated, July 11 (23 N.S.), in the year 1867.

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APPENDIX B.

RUSSIA'S PROGRAMME IN CENTRAL ASIA.

ONE of Prince Gortchakoff's earliest circulars, dated the 9th (N.S. 21st) of November, 1864, to the British Government, gives so clear an insight into the policy of Russia, more especially when studied by the light of recent events, that it is worth while to bring its principal passages prominently before the English reader.

The following give the pith and substance of this remarkable State Paper:

"The position of Russia in Central Asia is that of all civilised States which are brought into contact with half-savage, nomad populations, possessing no fixed social organization.

"In such cases it always happens that the more civilised State is forced, in the interest of the security of its frontier and its commercial relations, to exercise a certain ascendancy over those whom their turbulent