trymen of the Cæsars. To the more ordinary view a Russian does not present the same attractive or striking appearance that he evidently does to his panegyrist and compatriot; and some are found to maintain that he is only a Tartar of the same race as those whom, by the aid of Western science, he has subdued, and who may yet, in future times, drive back the Muscovite, by the same means that he himself has employed, to the walls of Moscow and the shores of the Euxine.

The formation of the governorship of Turkestan was not unopposed. It may even be said that it was carried out despite the opposition of many influential persons and the adverse opinion of at least one State inquiry. The Steppe Commission, which had been appointed to the task of exploring the steppe early in the year 1867, had done good service, and the principal and permanent result of its labours had been that a definite scheme was placed before the Russian Government for the prosecution of military enterprises in Central Asia on a settled plan. Once for all, the old hap-hazard way of attempting to achieve what had been foreshadowed in the mythical programme called Peter the Great's Will, was to give place to a logical and clearly defined method, which would enable a settled government to carry on systematic encroachments in Turkestan, beyond the Oxus, and at last in Cabul, and thus bring Russian bayonets in triumph to the Hindoo Koosh and Persia, and perhaps ultimately, in some weak hour of confidence on the part of a British Government, to the passes of the

Suleiman and the banks of the Indus. That was the object which loomed far ahead as the out-come of their task, and the Steppe Commission-of which M. de Giers, Head of the Asiatic Department of the Foreign Office, was a prominent member-more than any other person, or any other body of persons, laid the seeds from which in ten years has sprung the formidable aggressive power of Russia in Central Asia.

But there was a powerful opposition to its proposals, which were at one moment withdrawn. The GovernorGeneral of Orenburg, under whose supervision all the previous military operations had been carried out along the Syr Darya and against the Kirghiz, was naturally loth that his old authority should be taken from him. General Krjihanoffsky was unable to turn the opinion of the Government against the changes advocated by the Steppe Commission, and-although his opinion, in so far as it protested against submitting the Kirghiz tribes to two different forms of government, has been proved accurate by later experience those who take a larger view of the question must admit that the transfer of the central authority from Orenburg to Tashkent gave a vitality and impetus to Russia's progress towards India, that it is impossible as yet accurately to With the installation of a Russian governor, and a settled administration at Tashkent, it became only a question of time when the neighbouring effete and tyrannical rulers should either sink into a state of subjection, or disappear altogether before the destroying influence of the Russian presence. The advance to Tashkent made a further progress also absolutely

measure.

necessary. That city, strategically speaking, might be considered to be untenable so long as Samarcand was in hostile hands and Khokand occupied a flank position of great vantage. To render it as secure as a capital should be, and to dissipate the last vestige of resistance on the part of the Usbegs and the Kipchaks, those wars were undertaken which secured Samarcand as a possession for the Czar, and which ultimately laid Khokand at his feet. With Tashkent as the centre of a new power thrust into the heart of Turkestan, there was nothing strange or unexpected in those events; but had the report of the Steppe Commission been disregarded, and Tashkent remained only an advanced post of the Russian Empire, and not a new capital, it is very probable that the progress of Russian arms in a southerly direction would have been less precipitate, and less full of menace to India.

The Steppe Commission also was not content with the formation of a new government in Turkestan whose destiny would lie in the hands of a magnate only imperfectly under the control of the Imperial authorities. It was necessary to add to its dimensions before these had been rendered formidable by successful conquest; and with that object an immense tract of country was severed from the governorship of Semipalatinsk, and included in the new administration of Turkestan. This region was known as Semiretchinsk,* and may be roughly defined as all that country lying between Semipalatinsk and the Irtish on the one hand, and the

*Semiretchinsk means "the country of the seven rivers."

frontiers of Khokand on the other. It is divided into the following sub-districts :-Sergiopol, Kopal, Vernoe, Issik Kul, Tokmak, and Priilinsk (Kuldja). Therefore the Russian frontier from the neighbourhood of Chuguchak to the Aral Sea and the river Oxus is under the same head, the Governor-General at Tashkent. That authority is, it must be remembered, a military authority acting in conjunction with the War Office, and in obedience to, if to anyone at all, the Commander-in-Chief. In fact the official title of his jurisdiction is "The Turkestan Military District." There can be no doubt that whatever disadvantages there may be in regard to the management of internal affairs, and perhaps also as towards Russia's relations with China, in severing Semiretchinsk from Siberia, that change facilitated the adoption of a clearly defined and consistent policy towards those Mahomedan states which lay immediately beyond the actual Russian dominions. M. de Giers protested against this transfer in particular, but the military authorities over-ruled his opinion and advice. One effect of this change has certainly been that Russia in Central Asia has not pursued that successful policy of tact and gentle pressure towards China which she had always so skilfully followed in Siberia. At Tashkent there is evidently not such an intimate knowledge of Chinese character as there has been shown at Semipalatinsk and Kiachta.

The Governor-General of this extensive province, which since its creation has been increased by annexations in Bokhara, Khokand, Kuldja, and Khiva, is appointed by the Czar, and within the limits of his

authority he exercises supreme power without control of any kind whatever. The military governors of Semiretchinsk, Syr Darya, Ferghana, and Amou Darya, are all equally subordinate to him, and although the appointment to these posts is vested in the hands of the War Minister, they possess no independent authority. The salary of the Governor-General is supposed to amount to only seven thousand pounds a year, but there appears to be an indiscriminate custom of setting down against the State revenue all expenditure. By this means General Kaufmann's salary becomes pocket-money.

The principal points to be considered in the Russian administration are the sources, and the amount, of the revenue; the expenditure; the dispensation of justice; the means of education that are placed at the disposal of the natives; and, lastly, what the effect of these various circumstances is upon the relations between the ruler and the subjected. Let us consider these in detail, and in the order given. When Russia advanced into Central Asia it was supposed that the khanates were naturally rich countries, and that they only required a very moderate amount of labour to become highly productive provinces, which would not only be self-supporting but would also contribute a handsome surplus either directly or indirectly to the State coffers. When it was found that the reality was of a completely different hue, and that the agricultural, commercial, and mineral resources of the country were all at their lowest ebb, the Russians, disappointed as they were, loudly proclaimed those