THE POSITION OF RUSSIA. 21 



successively became her neighbours, and so Transcaspia, 

 Turkomania, Merve, Bokhara, Ferghana, and Zerafshan 

 — the countries whose independence was to be so 

 scrupulously respected — fell before the armies or the 

 diplomatists of the Great White Tsar. At the same 

 time there arose a man who breathed new life into the 

 dry bones of Russian expansion and colonisation in the 

 Far East, and from the day when Count Muravieff 

 pricked the bubble of Chinese greatness, which had 

 so dazzled the timid parties to the treaty of 

 Nertchinsk, the forward trend of her policy has con- 

 tinued unchecked, till now at the present day she 

 frowns haughtily across the waters of the China Seas, 

 and stands menacingly with fixed bayonet within 

 striking distance of Peking itself 



On whom lies the blame ? Hardly upon Russia, 

 whose chief crime is repeated success. Indeed I shall 

 be the first to pay tribute to the great work which she 

 has done in the interests of civilisation wherever she 

 has come in contact with the uncultured and barbarous 

 hordes of Central Asia. Rather, if we have allowed 

 another Power to acquire a position and a prestige which 

 is harmful to ourselves, or to usurp a preponderating 

 influence in the aff'airs of those States which still enjoy 

 a precarious independence as buflers between the two 

 nations, should we not look to our own inaction in the 

 past ? And if we do, we are bound to admit that it 

 is the fruits of the much-vaunted policy of masterly 

 inactivity, — a synonym for pitiable neglect, — which 

 held so long and so disastrous a term of power, that 

 we are reaping at the present day. 



There is little to be gained by indulging in useless 

 lamentation for the past. We cannot undo what is 

 already an accomplished fact, but we may learn wisdom 

 from the lessons of history, and benefit therefrom as we 



