20 ACROSS A CONTINENT. 



region of the Pamirs, Kussian territory may be said 

 to be coterminous with our own, though here, thanks 

 to natural physical causes, we can afford to regard 

 with equanimity the presence even of so powerful a 

 neighbour as Russia, for, as Sir Thomas Holdich so 

 pertinently puts it, "an independent untouched Kafir- 

 stan is about as solid an obstacle between ourselves 

 and the Oxus basin as could well have been devised, 

 as indeed Tamerlane found and recorded for the 

 benefit of his successors." ^ 



If the policy as laid down by Tsar Nicholas I. had 

 been carried out, a policy which had for its object the 

 prevention of the possibility of conflict between two 

 Powers " who to remain united require to remain 

 separated," by scrupulously preserving the peaceful 

 condition of the intermediate countries, by consolidat- 

 ing the tranquillity of these countries, by confining the 

 rivalry to commerce, and by refraining from engag- 

 ing in a struggle for political influence, — above all, 

 by respecting the independence of the intervening 

 countries, then the whole question of Anglo-E-ussian 

 relations might have presented an entirely different 

 aspect to what it does to-day. But the policy was 

 doomed from the first. Russia, defeated in her 

 endeavour to become possessed of the keys of the 

 Bosphorus, turned her eyes eastward, for there, 

 through the little-considered kingdoms of the Near 

 East, might she not find a backway that would lead 

 to the goal upon which her heart was set? 



Incidentally a great field presented itself for the 

 civilising influence of a Christian Power ; law and 

 order were held in defiance in the countries which 

 bordered on her own, each step forward necessitated 

 another to teach a lesson to the wild peoples who 



1 The Indian Borderland. 



