The prayer

of the Indian

peoples.

her power in Asia into the most beneficent empire which the world has ever known.

Whether the internal and external dangers which are now beginning to threaten the peace of that empire will be resolutely met and removed, or allowed to grow in force and volume until disruption becomes imminent, is in the hands of the British democracy. If they insist that India shall have rest and security, they must make their will clear to their parliamentary representatives, who are accustomed to spend weeks in debating in full strength some nice point in home government, but habitually leave the Imperial concerns of India to be disposed of "in a thin House," "as summarily and as light-heartedly as if the proceedings were those of the debating club of a college rather than the senate of a great empire," and thus sometimes undo "in a couple of hours the work of

years.

Were the dumb masses of India capable of voicing their feelings and desires, they would address the democracy of Great Britain in some such language as follows: "We number one-fifth of the human race, and are divided into many clashing nationalities and castes, speaking different tongues and cherishing different sentiments and prejudicesall foolish, perhaps, in your eyes, yet each held by us as a most precious inheritance handed down from an antiquity unknown in European history. Of late years the tendency in governing us has been to ignore our past and to treat us as one

1 See extract from Lord Lansdowne's warning to England, p. 41.

united people ripe for institutions such as yours. You have assumed that what may be good for Englishmen must be good for Asiatics, except when their respective interests diverge. But it is not so. What may be suitable for your free, enlightened, compact, and homogeneous nation, is often intolerable for the ignorant, superstitious medley of peoples who inhabit our continent. If you are sincere in asserting that you would rule us for our own welfare alone, we pray you to give effect to your wishes. See that our interests be no longer subordinated to those of party or commerce in England; that our customs and even weaknesses be duly respected and protected; that the land and its fruits be not alienated from the agriculturists; that our industries be encouraged; and that if more money is wanted, it be raised by indirect and not direct taxation. Further, as it is true that the nearer approach of Russia to our Indus frontier would unsettle our minds, weaken your authority, and increase expenditure, we wish all concerned to know that if your administration gives us rest and contentment, we shall, under all circumstances, be loyal to our Queen-Empress, and fight faithfully in conjunction with your soldiers to keep Russia at her present distance from India. Finally, we would impress upon all of you that, like most Asiatics, we regard representative government as impracticable for India, and are happiest under a firm, benevolent, and conservative despotism.”

APPENDIX.

PUBLICATIONS READ OR CONSULTED.

BESIDES works of reference, such as Chambers's Encyclopædia, Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer of India, The Statesman's Year-Book, Whittaker's Almanack, Hand-book of the Russian Troops in Asia, I looked up Magazine and Review articles, Parliamentary BlueBooks, Proceedings Royal and Scottish Geographical Societies, Panjab Administration Reports, and back files of leading journals. known to be authorities on Indo-Afghan subjects-e.g., The Times, The Pioneer (Allahabad), The Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore), The Englishman (Calcutta).

Of books read or consulted by me, the following are short descriptions of the most useful, in order of year of publication :Turkey (Story of the Nations Series). By Stanley Lane Poole. 1861. (T. Fisher Unwin.)

Russo-Indian Question. By F. Trench. 1869. (Macmillan & Co.) External Policy of India. By J. W. Wyllie. 1875. (Smith,

Elder, & Co.)

England and Russia in the East. By Sir Henry Rawlinson. 1875.

(John Murray.)

Russian Turkestan, &c. By E. Schuyler. 2 vols. 1876. (Sampson

Low & Co.)

Russia. By Mackenzie Wallace. 1877. (Cassell & Co.)

History of Afghanistan. By G. B. Malleson. 1878.

Allen & Co.)

(W. H.

Invasions of India from Central Asia. Anonymous. 1879. (Richard

Bentley & Son.)

1879.

(Sampson Low & Co.)

Afghanistan. By H. W. Bellew.
By H. W. Bellew.

Races of Afghanistan. By H. W. Bellew. 1880. (Trübner & Co.) Russian Campaigns against the Akhal Tekke Turkomans.

Charles Marvin. 1880. (Allen & Co.)

By

Merv and the Man-stealing Turkomans. By Charles Marvin. 1881. Afghan War of 1879-80. By H. Hensman. 1881. (Allen & Co.) Life of Lord Lawrence. By R. Bosworth Smith. 2 vols. 1883. (Smith, Elder, & Co.)

History of Russia (translated). By Alfred Rambaud. 3 vols. (Sampson Low & Co.)

Russia in Central Asia (translated). By Hugo Stumm. 1885. (Harrison & Sons.)

Coming Struggle for India. By A. Vámbéry. 1885. (Cassell & Co.) Russian Central Asia. By H. Landsell. 2 vols. 1885. Musalmans and Moneylenders. By S. S. Thorburn. 1886. (W. Blackwood & Sons.)

Afghan Boundary Commission.
Blackwood & Sons.)

By A. C. Yate.

1887. (W.

Russia in Central Asia. By G. Curzon. 1889. (Longmans & Co.) Impressions of Russia. By Georg Brandes. 1889. (Walter Scott.) Expansion of England. By J. R. Seeley. 1890. (Macmillan & Co.) Russia (Story of the Nations Series). By W. R. Morfill. 1890.

(T. Fisher Unwin.)

Foreign Policy of Europe. By Lewis Appleton. 1891. (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.)

Russian Characteristics. By E. B. Lanin. 1892. (Chapman & Hall.) Imperial Defence. By Sir C. Dilke and Spenser Wilkinson. 1892. (Macmillan & Co.)

Persia. By G. Curzon.

2 vols. 1892. (Longmans & Co.) Rival Powers (translated). By J. Popowski. 1893. (A. Constable & Co.)

British Dominion in India. By Sir Alfred Lyall. 1894. (John Murray.)

Great Alternative. By Spenser Wilkinson. 1894. (Sonnenschein.)

For a comprehensive and carefully arranged list of books on Central Asian subjects, complete up to 1889, see Appendix VII. of Mr George Curzon's Russia in Central Asia.

INDE X.

Alexander the Great, 114, 140, Caucasus, the conquest of the, 149,

Anglo-Russian agreement of 1873, Conservative action, 155, 160-163,