, 1868-07-07

Ii IL were HUt. GtC utIlul Wull0 iOtOS
employed in Asia, less, we believe, than
$4,000 in all, could not hold down half a
world, nor could desert tribes be turned
by two or three officers into effective
Russian cavalry. 1t is no business of
ours to interrupt a movement which,
among other momentous results, guaran-
tees the weak and wealthy South OF Asia,
with its 500 millions of inhabitants-the
half, at least, Of mankind-from ever
again being conquered by barbarian hordes.
We have no moral duty in the matter,
unless it he to come 10 such an arrange
ment with Russia as shall enable her and
US to govern lenienlly, to do our destined
work without overmuch either of suspi-
ciousne<s or oppression. Had the offer
of he Emperor Nicholas to Sir Hamilton
Seymour been accepted, an arrangement
might have been made which would have
given Europe centuries of quiet supre-
macy in Asia, and even yet that splendid
result is not wholly beyond the range OF
possibilities. Arrangemint with Russia,
not struggle against Russia, ought, if she
will consent, to be the British policy in
Asia, and the nearer she comes TO our
frontier the more clearly will that ar
rangement seem possible to the Indian
Government. If it is not, if the division
of Asia without The division of her reve-
nue. seems to Russian statesmen unendur-
able, the great contest can still be fought
out most easily in the Punjah, where our
armies have the wall of the Himalaya for
a frontier, The sea for a thanking fortress,
and an entire system Of Railways for a
base. If any one desired to assign US the
worst position conceivable for that bait
lie of Armageddon, it would be Afghan
i~Stan, with the IIimalaya between US and
our resources, with no clear road to the
sea, and with all India quiverlng with ex-
element in our rear. Let the Russians
drag themselves over the desert, but 1t
is not for US to impose that task upon
ourselves. The AngIo-Indians say the
natives will rise, and that is OF course the
most terrible of the contingencies in the
future but they can rise behind US just
as well as around US, and are far more
likely to do it. Why Hindostanee Mo-
hammedans should love an invader who
is the sworn foe of the Moslem faith, who
is menacing it in Constantlnople and
crushing it in Central Asia, we have yet
to learn; but granting the improbable.
the worst possible way to fight a tiger IS
TO stand with your back TO his mouth.
On the question of subsidies or the
"medium policy" as it is called, Sir John
Lawrence, we imagine, will be compelled
to yield, and we do not feel strongly Inn
PEELED to object. Half a million goes a
great way north of the Indus, and it the
Anglo-Indians like to vase 100000. d
year in enabling a son of Dost Moham-
med to keep up a decent army. or few
thousands more in buying contradictory
information, there is no particular reason
why they should not be gratiied. We
would much rather spend the money IN
buying the fidelity of the door-keeper
tribes, the tribes of the passes, who are
only restless because they cannot eat
rocks but the Government OF Lahore IS
the proper authority to decide 4 polnt
like that. which at worst involves only
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