THE OPINION OF KING GEORGE IIL 19 



events in Asia are actuated by motives diametrically 

 opposed. The policy of the one has for its object the 

 opening of fields to the commerce of the world, and 

 political and strategic supremacy in such parts as are 

 of vital importance to the safeguarding of her exist- 

 ing dominions and those lines of communication which 

 stretch from one part of the empire to another ; that 

 of the other territorial aggrandisement, closed markets, 

 and political prestige. 



It may be perfectly true that a century ago his 

 most gracious Majesty King George III. remarked, on 

 bidding farewell to the E^ussian ambassador Count 

 Worontzoff, that it would be necessary to take leave 

 of common - sense, and to enter into the world of 

 chimeras, to suppose that there could exist any 

 alliance in the world more natural or more solid 

 than that between Russia and Great Britain ; that as 

 their geographical position, which was the basis of 

 their union, could not change, their union should be 

 eternal. But if so, it is equally true that in this 

 instance, at any rate, his Majesty showed a serious 

 deficiency of foresight, for the very thing which he 

 supposed impossible has come to pass — their geo- 

 graphical position has changed. Great Britain in 

 India has become a Continental nation. Russia has 

 since that day annexed a whole series of territories, 

 which may without exaggeration be described as the 

 heart of a continent. A whole congeries of independ- 

 ent states have one after another been absorbed, until 

 at the present time the thousands of square miles 

 which, in the days of King George, separated Russian 

 and British dominion have been reduced to a mere 

 strip in comparison, comprising the kingdoms of 

 Persia and Afghanistan and the Chinese dependency 

 of Tibet. At one point, indeed, in the shadowy 



