sufficient to give the Russian Government claims to any general admiration, for the safety of her dominions in Asia depends, more than upon anything else, upon the preservation of order within them and in their immediate neighbourhood.

Something has also been done in the improvement of the roads, and there are several grand routes in different directions connecting the various dependencies of the State with each other, as well as with Europe. The telegraph has been laid down along all the principal roads, and Tashkent is in telegraphic communication with the most advanced out-post on the Naryn, as it is with that on the frontier of Bokhara.

It is by no means certain whether at this moment Russia is not in possession of a wire to the Oxus, for the Ameer of Bokhara not only consented to one being laid down, but even promised to supply the necessary poles. Kerkhi, or Khoja Salih, were named as the most likely places to which it would be laid down, but it is more than probable that the Russians would make an effort to induce the Ameer to permit it to pass through his capital to Charjui. Charjui is Russia's main object on the Oxus, and in considering the chief roads to India the importance of this position. will be described. It would not be difficult to continue the wire along the banks of the Oxus to Kerkhi, and ultimately to Khoja Salih. The Ameer's offer, whether wholly voluntary or not, is of double importance, for it shows that he is entirely subservient to Russia, and also that he is not disposed to throw any serious opposition in the way of an army marching through

his dominions. His interviews with the late M. Weinberg, one of the most skilled of all the Russian negotiators, apparently left him in a still more friendly mood, for it was after them that he made these suggestions concerning the construction of a telegraph wire to the Oxus.

The few irrigation works which have been commenced have been signal failures; but in the bridging of innumerable small rivers there has been greater success. The Syr Darya has been bridged in several places in Khokand, but below the town of Khodjent there has been no attempt to do so, although at Chinaz a bridge is much needed. At Khodjent, however, a wooden bridge has been erected by a M. Flavitsky within the last few years, and the tolls have been made over to him for a period of thirty years. That is consequently a private and not a public undertaking, for which the credit belongs to M. Flavitsky alone. Between Orenburg and Tashkent there are caravanserais and stations for post-horses at frequent intervals; and in Semiretchinsk there are equal facilities for State travelling. The old Chinese roads in Naryn and Kuldja have been repaired, and Mr. Schuyler speaks of these as being far superior to any others he had travelled by within the Russian dominions. In Europe it is well known that the roads are execrable. These improvements in means of locomotion are regarded simply as military necessaries, and are carried out as such. The distances are so great, and the time required to transport merchandise from one point to another so long, that there has been scarcely any increase in the trade

carried on between Central Asia and Russia, although there has of course been a considerable development in the export of Russian goods into the khanates and Central Asia generally. When the railway which is at present in working order as far as Orenburg, and which is sanctioned as far as Orsk, has been continued up to Kazala, near the mouth of the Syr Darya, there will, in all probability, be a larger mutual trade between Russia and her Asiatic dependencies than there is at present. But as things are, Russia, despite the energy of her merchants—who are in many ways her most creditable representatives in Central Asia— does not possess an extensive trade in Turkestan. Such as it is, too, it is one-sided; for the Imperial Government derives no benefit from the latent resources of territory that should be most productive, and no assistance from races who are famed for their ingenuity and talent.

We have only to consider, in conclusion, what the effect of Russia's mode of government in Asia is upon the relations between herself and the subject races. Mr. Schuyler is evidently of opinion that the races will speedily assimilate, and that the rule of Russia, which is at present tolerated, will before long become popular. The great recommendation, in the eyes of a semi-civilised people such as those of Turkestan, that belongs to the Russian system of administration is that it leaves them mostly to their own devices. There is no fussiness; and the virtue of this want of public spirit for such it actually is-is in no instance more clearly demonstrated than in the matter of religion.

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT IN TURKESTAN.

83

The old state of things has not given place unto the new, but is rather becoming consolidated under the stolidity of the Russian Government. But Russia's success in dealing with the religious question is not very difficult of comprehension. She has only one religion to deal with. It is true that it is the fanatical creed of Mahomedanism, the religion which of all others has been most hostile to Russia; but in these apathetic times it seems to be possible to blunt the edge of that zeal when it is directed against the Czar. We have found the chief supporters of Islam in Central Asia, the Ameers of Bokhara and Afghanistan, become in turns the puppets of Russian schemers, and vent their spleen either in threats or in acts against England, who is the ostensible buttress of Turkey in Asia as well as on the Bosphorus.

At a first glance this appears very strange, if not incomprehensible. But it is not difficult to explain the religious apathy of the people of Russian Turkestan. Russia's treatment of the Mahomedan religion in Central Asia has been most judicious, but it has also been facilitated by the fact that Russia had only to observe one law towards all her Asiatic subjects. They were all Mahomedans. In India England can never achieve a similar result. The Mahomedans there are a minority, and an alien minority. They are dangerous, and they always will be dangerous. It may even be said that further precautions might be taken against the possibility of their combining, as they may combine so long as they are knit together by the ties of one faith, and so long as

6*

Wahabeeism is only scotched and not killed. Russia's tolerance in religious matters has, therefore, had a practical result. It has enabled her to keep races, naturally turbulent, in a state of tranquillity; and it has given her some claim to general consideration in Central Asia. At the present moment, mainly through this wise indifference* in religion, the relations of Russia and her Central Asian subjects must be characterised as friendly and harmonious.

It would be wrong to leave out of sight that there are reasons why these should not always remain so. There are political factors as well as religious in the internal development of the Central Asian Question. There are deposed rulers, and exiled princes; powerful military castes which have lost their privileges and their supremacy; large nomadic confederacies which have been deprived of their freedom; and an administrative hierarchy which has been ousted from that career which lay open to it in the time of the old khans. All these discordant elements are present. No religious toleration will suffice to remove them, and until they are removed Russia's relations with her subjects in Central Asia cannot be held to be otherwise than insecure and uncertain. Russia's domination rests on the claim given it by the sword alone, and it will have to be maintained by that means, and no other.

* Mr. Schuyler mentions that General Kaufmann had sent back to Russia missionaries who had come to Tashkent with propagandist intentions.