are committed against the Amir.'

These instructions were carried out, and on the 30th October the
ultimatum was despatched to Sher Ali, informing him that, unless his
acceptance of the conditions were received by the Viceroy not later
than the 20th November, he would be treated by the British Government
as a declared enemy.

[Footnote 1: On the 13th June, the day on which the Berlin Congress
held its first sitting, the news of the approach of General
Stolietoff's Mission reached Kabul. The Russians hoped that the
Mission might influence the decision of the Berlin Congress, and
although its despatch was repudiated by the Imperial Government at St.
Petersburg, it was subsequently ascertained on excellent authority
that the project of sending a Mission to Kabul was discussed three
times at the Council of Ministers, and, according to a statement in
the _Journal de St. Petersbourg_, orders were sent in April, 1878, to
General Kauffmann regarding its despatch. About the same time, the
Russian Minister of War proposed that the Army of the Caucasus should
be transferred bodily across the Caspian to Astrabad, whence the
troops would march in two columns on Herat; while three columns,
amounting in the aggregate to 14,000 men, were to move direct upon the
Oxus from Turkestan. The main part of this scheme was never carried
into effect, probably from its being found too great an undertaking at
a time when Russia had scarcely obtained a footing beyond the Caspian,
but the minor movement was partially carried out. The largest of the
three columns, under Kauffmann's own command, moved from Tashkent,
through Samarkand, to Jam, the most southern point of the Russian
possessions at that time, and within ten marches of Kilif, the main
ferry over the Oxus. There it remained for some weeks, when it
returned to Tashkent, the Afghan expedition being abandoned in
consequence of the Treaty of Berlin having been signed.]

[Footnote 2:

'SIMLA,
'14_th August,_ 1878.

'The authentic intelligence which I have lately received of the
course of recent events at Kabul and in the countries bordering on
Afghanistan has rendered it necessary that I should communicate
fully and without reserve with your Highness upon matters
of importance which concern the interests of India and of
Afghanistan. For this reason, I have considered it expedient to
depute a special and confidential British Envoy of high rank, wh