TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 157 



gained the Chinese ports on the Pacific, and southwards towards the mouths of the 

 Danube, the sunny ports of the Mediterranean, and the head of the Persian Gulf? 

 Until unfrozen rivers and ports could be reached, how could her people make any pro- 

 gress or develop their resources ? It not only was a natural tendency, — as natural 

 as the descent of the glacier to the valleys, forging downwards by a slow but irre- 

 sistible pressure, but as inevitable. Obstacles may retard the progress, but not 

 arrest it ; and Russia is but following the course of nature as well as history in 



f)ouring down nomade hordes and hardy Scythians on the cultivated territories 

 ying in a more genial climate. Railroads and telegTaphic wires supply her with 

 means of transport and quick transit over vast spaces never enjoyed by her great 

 predecessors in this line of march. Let us hope, too, that more civilizing influ- 

 ences will follow her track, through regions never highly favoured in this respect, 

 than marked the passage of a Genghis Khan or a Timor. ' The Times ' observed 

 recently that it was one of the happiest coincidences in history that, just at the 

 time when the natural course of commercial and political development brings 

 Central Asia into importance, there should still exist in the eastern border of 

 Europe an empire retaining suflaciently the character of a military absolutism to 

 render it especially adapted for the conquest .and control of these semibarbarous 

 communities. I am not altogether prepared to accept this high estimate of Russian 

 ability and peculiar fitness for its self-imposed task, without qualification. That 

 Russia, Asiatic in origin and type, autocratic, and armed with all the power 

 which military science and discipline give, has some special fitness for the mission 

 it seems to accept as a destinj', I am not inclined to deny. But whatever may be 

 the decision arrived at on this head, it seems quite certain that as her progress in 

 arms gives her control over Central Asia, so will be the exclusion, by protective 

 or prohibitive tariffs, of all commerce but her own. It is only necessary to follow 

 on the map, and in the history of the successive advances southwards, the progress 

 made and the trade-routes established or extended within the last twenty years, 

 to be convinced that trade and exclusive rights of commerce are among the prin- 

 cipal objects which dictate the present policy of the empire. And, whatever may 

 be the designs of Russia in her advances on Central Asia, it must be clear by this 

 time that it is with her, and not with the nominal rulers of the States her armies 

 have overrun, that we must count in any steps we may take for the peaceful 

 prosecution of commerce. Strange and unexpected as are the reverses of fortune 

 which have befallen nations and empires in all ages, and great and complete as has 

 been the fall of many, there are few more striking than the interchange of parts 

 between the Muscovite and the Mongol dynasties. The time was, as Colonel Yule 

 remarks, when in Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without 

 Mongol leave from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the Amoor 

 and the Yellow Sea. As late as the 13th century the Moguls ravaged Hungary 

 and conquered Russia, which they held in subjection for many generations. Sarai 

 on the Volga was the scene of Chaucer's half-told tale of Cambuscan, when 



" At Sarra in the Londe of Tartarie 

 There dwelt a King that werried Eussie." 



The times have changed indeed since then, and the successors and descendants of 

 those same Moguls and Tartars have another tale to tell now, at Khiva and Peking. 



Before I pass from this part of my subject, I would draw your attention to the 

 vast field which yet remains in Asia for geogTaphical research and exploration. 

 The intimate connexion between such labours and the development of our commerce 

 in the trans-Himalayan countries must have been made abundautly evident ; and 

 I would fain hope there will never be any want of competent volunteers (who may 

 rival ]\Ir. Shaw and Mr. Ney Elias, both distinguished and adventurous pioneers 

 taken from mercantile pursuits) to show the way for others. Notwithstanding all 

 difficulties and opposing influences, physical and political, there appears to be a 

 large field for our commerce, and one capable of almost infinite expansion, where 

 enterprise, skill, and industry may fairly count upon a good return. 



As regards costly efibrts in opening roads, it may perhaps seem doubtful to the 

 Indian as to the Imperial Government, how far either would be justified in any 

 large outlay. Nothing, however, is more to be regretted than doubt or hesitation 



