May 1, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



369 



course with the Russians during the last five 

 years, he has gained a clear conception of 

 What is the real object of Russia's advance 

 across central Asia, and he is the first to ex- 

 plain it in the English language. It can be 

 summed up in the phrase of Gen. Skobeleff: 

 44 Russia does not want India, she wants the 

 Bosphorus." It is England that maintains 

 the Turk on the Bosphorus, and prevents 

 Russia from taking it : hence Russia seeks a 

 position from which she can threaten England 

 with disaster, if she continues her opposition ; 

 and this position is on the frontier of India. 

 To suppose that any body of Russians has 

 ever seriously contemplated the conquest of 

 India, is a mistake ; but it is a fact, that the 

 great mass of the Russian army firmly believes 

 that England holds India by a feeble tenure, 

 that a small force of Russian troops could 

 cause an uprising in India which would over- 

 throw the English rule, and that, when Russia 

 possesses certain points on the Indian frontier 

 from which it can injure the English, the latter 

 will come to terms about the Bosphorus. 

 These ideas first began to spread in Russia 

 after the Crimean war, but they received a 

 tremendous accession in consequence of the 

 action of England in 1878. Their chief advo- 

 cate was Skobeleff, who had taken part in 

 several of the campaigns in central Asia, and 

 was marvellously familiar with the Asiatic 

 question in all its bearings. 



In pursuing this advance to the borders of 

 India, Russia has acted on two lines ; and Mr. 

 Marvin dwells at length upon this fact, so as 

 to avoid the confusion which vague notions of 

 geograplvy have caused in England. The first 

 line, which was followed from 1863 to 1876, 

 was from Orenburg south-eastward across 

 Turkestan. This movement practically ceased 

 with the conquest of Khokand or Ferghana, 

 and the virtual subjugation of Bokhara in 

 1876. It gave Russia a territory about as 

 large as France, Germany, and Austria com- 

 bined, added something to her trade, and 

 brought^ her armies to the base of the lofty 

 mountains in the eastern part of Afghanistan, 

 and only 300 miles from the north-west prov- 

 inces of India. 



The second movement began in 1879. Its 

 starting-point was the eastern shore of the 

 Caspian (about a thousand miles south of 

 Orenburg), where Russia had gained a foot- 

 hold ten years before. It has progressed, 

 with extraordinary rapidity, eastward through 

 Turkmenia, or the country of the nomad 

 Turkomen, lying between Persia and the 

 desert on the north. It reached Merv, six 



hundred miles from the Caspian, in 1884 ; 

 and this 3 ear it was nearing Herat, when the 

 English took alarm, and endeavored to fix a 

 limit by marking the boundaiy of Afghanistan 

 as the line which could not be crossed except 

 as an act of war. 



These two movements have therefore attained 

 their full development ; and the object of them 

 is accomplished, for Russia is now practically 

 on the borders of India, ready to strike a 

 vigorous blow whenever the moment seems 

 propitious. She has a line of railway and 

 steamboat all the way from St. Petersburg and 

 Moscow to a short distance behind her advance 

 post at Panj Deh ; and she can move half a 

 million men against Herat with far more ease 

 and safety than she moved them into Turkey 

 in 1877. And from Herat there are no physi- 

 cal obstacles to prevent a march on India ; for, 

 according to Mr. Marvin, one can drive a coach 

 and four all the way. 



This is in brief the situation of affairs to-da}', 

 as delineated with the utmost lucidity in Mr. 

 Marvin's excellent little book. He accuses 

 Russia of bad faith in her movements : so have 

 France and other nations accused England 

 in the past, until ' perfidious Albion ' has come 

 to be a by-word. Such accusations, and the 

 arguments in support of them, count for little 

 with disinterested spectators. What they de- 

 sire to know are accomplished facts, and it is 

 in the presentation of these that the merit of 

 this book consists. Few people, even among 

 those who have tried to follow this trans- 

 Caspian movement, have realized what it has 

 already accomplished, and how pregnant it is 

 with great events for the near future. What 

 was scouted in parliament only four years ago 

 as an idle dream, is to-day a reality, an exist- 

 ing state of affairs. It finds the English un- 

 prepared, undecided, bewildered, as to their 

 proper course. In front of them is a nation 

 which they have succeeded in converting into 

 their inveterate enemy, patient, crafty, deter- 

 mined, with a clear understanding of its own 

 intentions, and a willingness to make any sac- 

 rifices in support of them. If England will 

 agree with her about the Bosphorus, Russia 

 will be at peace, and even retire from central 

 Asia : if not, a terrible war must ensue, not 

 necessarily now, but in the near future, — a 

 war in which all the advantages of position will 

 be on the side of Russia. The probable result 

 of such a war is a matter of the widest specula- 

 tion, and no one can foretell it. It is enough 

 now to know and understand the existing state 

 of affairs, and this Mr. Marvin has enabled 

 us to do. 



