sion of interminable smoke, and such fun as there was of a local and not very lively or brilliant sort. But Arthur, though he had the bad taste to retire just as four fat men were struggling through the several parts of "In der Heimath ist es schön' for about the tenth time, interrupted by their conductor at every bar, did not retire to rest. He was young enough to practise the piece of sentiment, which has been repeated sufficiently often to have acquired enough of the character of a joke to call forth the approval of Dr. Werner, of going back to gaze at the house of the Herr Pastor, and to wonder which window-but there is no need to finish the sentence. There was a light in one of the windows, however, which led him to hope and he was not wrongthat the Rose of Tannenheim had not yet folded her leaves for the night.

It was late when he knocked up the sleepy porter at the Red Horse, and, as he went to his room, he heard his friend snoring most unromantically. But Werner found the reward of his unromantic slumbers when, rising with the sun, as was his constant summer habit when in the country, he enjoyed the morning air among the pines while gathering a forest-bouquet to present to Bertha on meeting her; and, had his heart been laid open, sentiment of a far truer, even more romantic kind would have been found therein than Arthur would ever be able to know or understand. His was of the morning: Arthur's of the night; and the latter lay awake with passionate thoughts until he fell into a feverish sleep, with the bright morning sun shining full upon his bed.

He was awoke by Werner coming rather noisily into his room. "I seem abominably unfortunate, said the latter; "I can never take a holiday without being sent for the very next day. Last time it was a fine lady with the vapours; now, it is a more serious case, I fear,

and I must be off as soon as I can. So I will say good-bye to you now, just run over to the Reinholds', and be off in an hour. You will stay where you are, of course, till you are tired of your quarters. Perhaps you may see me back again in a day or two. And I will tell you some news before I go I had some talk yesterday evening with the Herr Pastor, the result of which is that I shall probably be a married man in less than three months' time. Good-bye, old fellow, and enjoy yourself."

soon

They shook hands, and he hurried off. Arthur rose, pale and languid, dressed himself slowly, and afterwards strolled over to the Pastor's. He found Bertha in the garden. She received him exactly as Brandon, had he been present the evening before, would have prophesied on the principle of action and reaction-that is to say, stiffly and coldly.

"So Werner has left us, it seems," said Arthur.

"Yes," she answered carelessly, he left us about half an hour since."

"I saw him before he left. It seems that I have to congratulate you both." Arthur was one of those who rejoice in wounding where they love.

She threw her head compressed her lips. indeed! Why?

back, and "Thank you

"You are cruel to ask why," he answered, in a lower tone.

แ

"Cruel!" she exclaimed suddenly, the colour rushing into her face. "I wish-but I must go in, if you will excuse me; I have so many things to do this morning."

She moved towards the house, and he walked a few paces by her side in silence.

"And so it is true," he said at last, "that you are going to be married in three months' time. Well, I am glad to be the first to offer my congratulations, and to wish you all manner of happiness."

He had certainly succeeded in wounding her, if that was his object. She did not answer, but only increased her pace. Arthur began to feel that he had at least as much power over her as she over him; and though the power that is given by passion is not lasting, it is none the less real while it does last.

With the sense of power, even when produced by passion, come calmness and strength to resolve; and Arthur resolved, once for all, to yield to the influence that was upon him, now that the opportunity was his own. He was now the weak man, suddenly finding himself for once unnaturally strong; that is to say, he felt no scruples of conscience, no loyalty to his friend, no mercy for Bertha; all he felt was the unaccustomed excitement and the hitherto unknown delight of for once calling into action all the power of passionate self-will, reckless of all consequences whether to himself or to others.

They were now not far from the house, but were not visible from any part of it. Arthur chose his ground advantageously, and then suddenly stopped.

Bertha," he said, using her Christian name as if by accident, "I also return to Frankfort tomorrow, perhaps to-day; and then, no doubt, I shall return to England."

He looked at her steadily. She stood still, but made no answer. And before I say good-bye to you, I wish

This beginning was not quite in the programme, but he altered the turn of speech, and continued abruptly,—

"Bertha "- this time with no pretence of accident-" Bertha, you are about to marry a man whom you do not love."

Brandon could not have done it

better-no, nor so well, for this sudden way of going to work was not his line. It bad its full effect, for Bertha became really angry. "How dare you "she began,

but he interrupted her at once.

"Yes, I dare tell you so, Bertha You must choose between us, now or not at all. You know that I love you"-this rather passionately than tenderly-"as well as I know it myself as well as I have known it from the first time I ever saw you. Bertha, you know that you are mine, as well as that I am yours, body and soul. See, I claim you as mine for ever."

He took her hand in his, and threw his arm round her. As for her, she made a momentary struggle, and then yielded-and Schneekopf looked down upon one more in the long list of broken Vows that he, like every other hill, has seen and laughed at in his time.

THE principal events of the viceregal career of Sir John Lawrence by no means represent the vast importance of that career alike to the governing and the governed. For in India the great, and perhaps altogether the most difficult, part devolving upon a Governor-Genetral, especially in matters of foreign policy, is not to incite but to restrain. This was emphatically the case during the five years which have just passed away. The great merit attaching to the administration of Sir John Lawrence appears to us to lie in the fact that he secured for the empire five years of prosperity and of nearly unbroken peace, and that he took full advantage of that peace and that prosperity to carry out the great works initiated by his predecessors, to initiate others of scarcely less magnitude, and to place the tenure of land in provinces, long subject to arbitrary and despotic rule, on a sound and satisfactory basis. But for the peace which he, with two slight exceptions, maintained, he could not have accomplished any of these great undertakings. His internal policy bears thus to his foreign policy the relation that effect bears to cause. It is the latter, then, that in the first instance we must be prepared to consider.

No clear or distinct view can be taken of the foreign policy of Sir John Lawrence unless we connect it with the reappearance of Russia as an Asiatic power. Whatever may be the merits or demerits of Sir John's policy, that policy has been decided upon and carried out with a full knowledge that Russia has been and is making rapid strides in the conquest of Central Asiathat she has occupied Samarkhand, and is marching by the route which

VOL. CV.-NO. DCXLIV.

Alexander followed when he aimed at the Indus. The policy adopted by Sir John Lawrence has been variously described according to the views and inclinations of those who have written or spoken of it. By those who believe that it is the destiny of England to move onwards

that a long continuance of the status quo will be the signal for the decline of her power-it has been stigmatised as a policy of inglorious and fatal inaction. By others, who believe in its wisdom, it has been spoken of alike as a policy of ". masterly inactivity," and as a policy of "defence and not defiance.' Now this is a most important question. It is not too much to say that the future of British India depends upon the policy we may adopt with reference to the action of Russia in the East. The system initiated by Sir John Lawrence has, it is true, given India already five years of peace and material prosperity. But if that system be a wrong system-if it be clogged with all those inherent vices to which its enemies are constantly drawing attention-if it be inglorious to the British name and fatal to British interests-if it has sunk us to the lowest depths in the estimation of the people of Central Asia and our own subjects and tributaries, as its opponents say it has-then it will be impossible to deny that those five years of prosperity have been dearly purchased, and that a continuance of the system must end in our ruin. It is thus, we repeat, a most important question-a question that demands the most careful consideration. Before, then, we pronounce an opinion on the policy adopted by Sir John Lawrence, we propose to review very briefly the progress made by the Russians. Proceeding,

3 B

then, upon the idea that the progress of Russia in Central Asia has for its ultimate object an attack upon British India, we shall proceed to inquire as to the courses we might have adopted, which we might adopt still, to check them; and to examine in some detail the system inaugurated and steadily pursued by Sir John Lawrence.

for their scanty success by alleging the dislike of their generals to bring to a speedy conclusion a war at once so profitable to themselves, and so fruitful in appointments to those concerned in it. Under the actual circumstances it was regarded by Europe without jealousy, being looked upon rather as a means of affording a convenient exerciseground for the Russian army, than as being likely to open out new fields of aggrandisement.

In 1854, the Emperor Nicholas, deceived by the aspect of affairs, and holding too cheaply the position acquired by the Emperor he regarded as a parvenu, struck his blow for Constantinople. It failed. But though it failed, the results of the war were not altogether disastrous to Russia. The capture of Kars more than balanced, in the minds of the people of Persia, Arabia, and Central Asia, the effect of the loss of Sebastopol. the peace negotiations the Russians drew still greater advantages. Whilst the representatives of the French Emperor exhausted courtesy and compliment to make of the enemy with whom they had been so lately contending a sure and fast friend, England, incapable of looking beyond Europe, abandoned the trans-Caucasian provinces to the mercy of Russia, and left to that power an unchecked and uncontested supremacy in the waters of the Caspian.

The Cabul expedition of 1839-41 had been undertaken to act as a counterpoise to the supposed aggressive designs of Russia upon that country. Although that expedition resulted in defeat, disgrace, and loss of prestige to us-a loss of prestige which the occupation of Cabul by Generals Pollock and Nott in 1841 did not entirely remove-yet for many years after its conclusion but little was heard of the designs of Russia in the East. There can now be no doubt that, whatever hopes may have been entertained by the Emperor Nicholas prior to 1839 on the subject of an eastward extension of his empire, he abandoned suspended them subsequently to that period, deeming, possibly, either that the time had not arrived when a blow for the possession of Hindustan could be struck with success, or that the previous possession of Constantinople would increase tenfold the resources at his disposal for striking such a blow, and would in itself be more easily attainable. His efforts in an easterly direction were confined, therefore, to breaking down the barrier presented by the heights of the Caucasus, by the subjugation of the race of warriors by whom those heights had till then been held and defended.

These efforts were continued with greater or less vigour till the breaking out of the Crimean war.

the whole the Russian attacks were not very successful. The strongholds of the Caucasus were held by the mountaineers, and in many a sharp contest the illustrious Schamyl could boast that he had put the Russian legions to flight. The Russians, on their part, accounted

and the mot d'ordre had been passed from St. Petersburgh that there was to be no playing at soldiers. Under such circumstances the result was never for a moment doubtful. Less than three years after the conclusion of the peace of Paris, Schamyl was a prisoner, the strongholds of the Caucasus had been stormed, and the mountaineers who had so long bidden defiance to Russia, to avoid submission to the conqueror, had fled from their native homes and sought refuge in the dominions of the Sultan.

All this time Russia had been gradually, almost impalpably, working her way across those low undulating plains which lie between the Alatan range and the river Syr or Jaxartes. Creeping up gradually to the banks of this river, she prepared in 1863, or, as Prince Gortschakoff declares, she was forced by circumstances, to make a spring beyond it. The Khanate of Khokand, with a population of three millions, was the first object of her attack. The capture of the important city of Cheurkend brought her into collision with the troops of Bokhara a collision which resulted in the defeat of the latter and the capture of Tashkend. For the moment Russia was satisfied with these conquests; but in 1866 the war was renewed, the town of Khojend, the key of the Jaxartes, captured, and the Khanate of Khokand entirely subdued one half of the conquered country being at once incorporated by the conqueror, the remaining moiety placed under the administration of a native chief, dependent upon Russia.

That country had now become the nearest neighbour to Bokhara. Under the pretext of protecting his recently acquired territories, the newly-appointed commander, General Kaufmann, established a fortified post at a point almost within reach of Samarkhand. This constituted a challenge which the Amir of Bokhara could not refuse without sacrificing his independence. He

accepted it and was beaten. The consequence has been, the occupation of both Samarkhand and Bokhara by the Russian troops. By the latest accounts the Russian outposts were within two hundred and sixty miles of Balkh. The distance by road from Balkh to Peshawur vid Cabul, is less than four hundred miles. The events of the last few years, the aggressive Russian policy which has for the moment culminated in the capture of Bokhara, has reduced the distance between the British and Russian outposts to less than seven hundred miles.

This, at least, is the actual numerical distance, but practically it is much less. For the districts of Balkh and Kunduz, which lie between Bokhara and the frontier of Affghanistan, would follow without a struggle the fortunes of Bokhara. The invader who possessed Bokhara would have little difficulty in establishing himself in all the countries which were tributary to, or dependent on, that kingdom. Practically, then, the only country between the Russian outposts and the British frontier which would offer opposition to the foreign invader is the country bounded on the north by the Hindoo Koosh, on the east by the Suliman range, on the west by Khorassan and Persia, on the south by Beloochistan-and that is the country known as Affghanistan.

This consideration invests Affghanistan with very great importance, and imposes upon us the necessity of reviewing the affairs of that country during the past four years, with special reference to the action taken by the late Viceroy of India in dealing therewith.

Six months before Sir John Lawrence assumed the government of India, Dost Mahomed, the able. ruler whose firm and energetic character had imposed his will on the people of Affghanistan, and whose stern justice had gained their confidence, died at Herat. He was succeeded by his third surviving