had filled, I have had to exercise a certain tact and discretion in its compilation, and to engage in no controversial questions which could produce ill-will, or personal or international irritation. To prevent its being ponderous and wearying, I have avoided entering into details, confining my narrative to the incidents. recorded and to their results, and in doing so it has been my wish to maintain the interest of the work and not to overburthen the patience of my readers.

APPENDIX.

The Governor-General of India in Council to the Duke of Argyll.

Simla, May 20th, 1870.

1. MY LORD DUKE,-Since the receipt of your despatch of the 26th November, Mr. Forsyth has returned to India, and we have had much satisfaction in learning from him personally the. friendly assurances given by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, and by the Ministers of State, in respect of the policy of the Russian Government in Central Asia.

2. In the inclosures of your despatch of the 6th August, 1869, we were informed that, at an interview with Mr. Forsyth at Baden Baden, Prince Gortchakow "dilated with pleasure on the happy relations existing between Her Majesty's present Government and that of Russia, and expressed great satisfaction on hearing that the non-aggressive policy which had marked Sir J. Lawrence's viceroyalty was not likely to be departed from by Lord Mayo;" that he stated that "Russia had no intention of interfering with Herat, Cabul," etc.; that "if Shere Ali confined himself within his own dominions, he need fear no molestation from Russia; " and that "it was the determination of the Russian Government that there should be no quarrel between the two countries regarding the Asiatic boundaries."

3. In the conversation with Lord Clarendon at Heidelberg on 3rd September, of which we were informed in Mr. Kaye's letter of the 17th September, 1869, Prince Gortchakow assured his Lordship that we had no cause for apprehension" (of a difference between the two Governments in regard to Central

Asia) "as the Emperor considered, and he entirely shared His Majesty's opinion, that extension of territory was extension of weakness, and that Russia had no intention of going further south;" that the determination of the British Government (of which Lord Clarendon informed him) to restrain Shere Ali from aggression on his neighbours "was quite sufficient and most satisfactory, and that he should have great pleasure in forthwith reporting it to the Emperor."

4. These assurances have been repeated to Her Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who, in his despatch to Lord Clarendon of 2nd November, quotes the language of Prince Gortschakoff, which we extract in the margin. We learn also from Mr. Forsyth and from his letters, of which copies were transmitted to us with your despatch of 26th November, that General Miliutine, the Russian Minister of War, and M. Stremooukoff, Director of the Asiatic Department of the Russian Foreign Office, " concurred in opinion that we should accept as Afghanistan all the provinces which Shere Ali now holds; that beyond this limit he should not exercise any influence or interference; that the good offices of England should be exerted to restrain him from all thought of aggression; and that similarly Russia should exercise all her influence to restrain Bokhara from transgressing the limits of Afghan territory;" that His Majesty the Emperor himself remarked, "that there was no intention of extending the Russian dominions;" and assented to the remark of Mr. Forsyth, "that whilst on our side every effort would be made to induce Shere Ali to keep within his present dominions, we hoped that Bokhara would be restrained from aggression."

5. We learn with pleasure from the inclosures of your despatch of the 4th March, that the Russian Government have expressed

"Pray, therefore," he added, "tell Lord Clarendon that, as both Governments are free from all arrière-pensées, ambitious views or unfriendly feelings towards each other, the more fully and frankly all questions connected with Central Asia are discussed between them the more effectually will the mist be blown away, which, through the misrepresentations of over-zealous subordinate agents, may at any time hang over them."

their adherence to the above assurances, and that M. Stremooukoff describes the policy sketched in our despatch dated 7th December last, the substance of which was communicated to him by Sir A. Buchanan, as coinciding exactly with that which the Russian Government desire, and which they are endeavouring to establish.

6. We have great satisfaction in finding that the policy of Russia, thus frankly described, coincides so entirely with that laid down by us at Umballa, which was sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government, and to which we since consistently adhered; and we feel assured that so long as this policy is acted on by the two great Governments, who may be said to divide political influence in Central Asia, the peace and prosperity of those vast and important regions will be permanently secured.

7. M. Stremooukoff has suggested, with a view to the further development of this peaceful policy, that measures should be taken by the British Government and by Russia to ascertain the limits of the territories which acknowledged the sovereignty of Dost Mahomed, and are at present under the Government of Shere Ali Khan, in order that the frontier between those territories and the neighbouring States of Central Asia should be as nearly as possible defined.

8. In our telegram of 11th June, 1869, we have informed your Grace that, if the Ameer should show any disposition to extend his boundaries beyond the limits held by Dost Mahomed, we should remonstrate with him at once. The possessions of the present Ameer on the north and north-west appear to coincide almost exactly with those held by his father; and the limits of Dost Mahomed's kingdom may therefore be generally taken as the boundary which should divide the kingdom of Afghanistan from the other States of Central Asia to the north and north-west.

9. We do not think it necessary to enter on any elaborate review of the rule of Dost Mahomed. The extent of his conquests in Afghan-Turkestan is, we believe, not disputed. Save during very short and exceptional periods, the Oxus has been the recognised boundary between Bokhara and Afghanistan ;