May 1, 1S85.] 



SCIENCE 



359 



such conquests, has been quieted. May not, 

 however, the intentions of the Russians be 

 honest, and the cause of this apparent breach 

 of faith be easily explained ? 



All the country from the Don and the Volga 

 east to China and India, and from the Cau- 

 casus south to the Persian Gulf, and south- 

 west to the Mediterranean, has been occupied 

 on the one side by wandering tribes without 

 fixed habitation or permanent government, ma- 

 rauders, slave-dealers, and vagabonds ; while 

 on the south and south-west the countries 

 have been and. are ruled, by the Persians and 

 Turks, whose dominion is a constant curse to 

 the people over whom the % y rule, the tax-gath- 

 erers being the onlj r evidence to them of a 

 government. 



Wherever the Russians have established a 

 new eastern boundary, settlements have sprung 

 up. These settlements must be protected from 

 pillage by the wandering chiefs. It was not 

 sufficient to chastise the marauders and return 

 within the boundary, as the return was regarded 

 as a retreat, and proof of weakness . Experience 

 has taught the Russians, that, in order to keep 

 peace, these tribes must be brought under Rus- 

 sian rule : thus, by force of circumstances, they 

 have been compelled to extend their territory 

 from time to time. The conquered countries 

 have been governed by the ablest generals of 

 Russia, a Kaufmann and a Skobeleff. Their 

 authority was almost despotic ; and frequently 

 kingdoms have been annexed before either 

 Russia or Europe knew of the forward move- 

 ment. When once annexed, the government 

 could not recall its arnry, or refrain from gov- 

 erning the conquered country. 



The Russians are only carrying out the 

 policy adopted by the English in India a hun- 

 dred and fifty years ago. Her rule then ex- 

 tended only over a few tribes. Lord Clive 

 and Warren Hastings were forced to extend 

 her dominions north to the Himalayan Moun- 

 tains, and south to the Pacific Ocean, until the 

 whole peninsula of India became her empire ; 

 which, though not as extensive territorially as 

 Russia, yet in wealth and population far ex- 

 ceeds that of Russia in Asia. 



Wherever the Russian has gone, there he has 

 carried law and government, settled habita- 

 tions, and civilization. Though we may regard 

 the civilization as crude and the government 

 as bad. yet it is a vast improvement over the 

 former misrule. Robbery has been stopped, 

 slavery abolished, and the permanent cultiva- 

 tion of the land begun. With the exception 

 of one or two tribes in the Caucasus, there is 

 not a single nation or tribe that does not 



greatly prefer the rule of Russia to the misrule 

 of their former chiefs. 



After the capture of Merv by the Russians, 

 Afghan was the only country that separated 

 the Russian dominions from the English em- 

 pire. The western boundary of Afghan then 

 became a subject of great importance to Eng- 

 land. The capture of Merv was acquiesced 

 in by Great Britain on the agreement with 

 Russia that a joint commission should be ap- 

 pointed to " delimit the Afghan frontier from 

 Khoja Saleh on the Oxus, to Sarakhs " on 

 the Hari-Rud, or Tajand, — a distance of about 

 three hundred miles. 



The Russians claim that this boundary-line 

 runs south of Panj Deh, crossing the Hari-Rud 

 or Tajand about fifty miles below Herat, fol- 

 lowing a range of mountains that runs, or at 

 least was supposed to run, from the Oxus River 

 to the Tajand. 



The English claim that it crosses the river 

 about two hundred miles below Herat. The 

 line has never been fixed. In the article on 

 Afghanistan, in the last edition of the Encyclo- 

 paedia Britannica, two boundaries are given. 

 The first crosses the river about seventy miles 

 below Herat, and follows closely the line now 

 claimed by Russia. It says, " The half- 

 independent Hazara tribes stretch across the 

 branches of the river of Herat, and down into 

 the Oxus basin, so that it is difficult here to 

 assign a boundary." 



On two maps in my French atlas, the bound- 

 ary-line crosses the Tajand at different places. 

 On the large map of the Messrs. Johnson, 

 published in Edinburgh, two boundaries are 

 also given ; though the outer one, now claimed 

 by England, has greater prominence. At one 

 time the line was described as running along 

 a high mountain range which passed south of 

 the Murgh-ab River, and between that river 

 and the Tajand, — substantially the line now 

 claimed by Russia ; but when it was discov- 

 ered that this range existed only on the maps 

 and in accounts of early travellers, and that 

 there was no mountain barrier, the boundaiy- 

 line was moved farther west. 1 Until recently, 

 the western boundary had never been a subject 

 of interest to the amir of Afghan or to the 

 English or Russian governments. The land 

 within the disputed territory is of little value. 

 The population is sparse, with few affiliations 

 with the Afghans. The people belong to a 

 different race, having features of the Mongol 

 type, speaking a different language, and pay- 



1 The London Times says, " The limits have changed accord- 

 ing to the character and military resources of the chiefs ruling 

 at Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar." 



