be able, by a proper defence of her present
frontier and by the proper government of her peoples, to look
after herself. If the latter is wanting, no advance of frontier
will aid her.

"I am not anxious about Russia; but, were I so, I would care much
more to see precautions taken for the defence of our Eastern
colonies, now that Russia has moved her Black Sea naval
establishment to the China Sea, than to push forward an
outstretched arm to Candahar. The interests of the Empire claim
as much attention as India, and one cannot help seeing that they
are much more imperilled by this last move of Russia than by
anything she can do in Central Asia.

"Politically, militarily, and morally, Candahar ought not to be
retained. It would oblige us to keep up an interference with the
internal affairs of Afghanistan, would increase the expenditure
of impoverished India, and expose us chronically to the reception
of those painfully sensational telegrams of which we have had a
surfeit of late."

During these few months Gordon wrote on several other subjects--the
Abyssinian question, in connection with which he curiously enough
styled "the Abyssinians the best of mountaineers," a fact not
appreciated until their success over the Italians many years later,
the registration of slaves in Egypt, and the best way of carrying on
irregular warfare in difficult country and against brave and active
races. His remarks on the last subject were called forth by our
experiences in the field against the Zulus in the first place, and the
Boers in the second, and quite exceptional force was given to them by
the occurrence of the defeat at Majuba Hill one day after they
appeared in the _Army and Navy Gazette_. For this reason I quote the
article in its entirety:--

"The individual man of any country in which active outdoor life,
abstinence, hunting of wild game, and exposure to all weathers
are the habits of life, is more than a match for the private
soldier of a regular army, who is taken from the plough or from
cities, and this is the case doubly as much when the field of
operations is a difficult country, and when the former is, and
the latter is not, acclimatised. On the one hand, the former is
accustomed to the climate, knows the country, and is trained to
long marches and difficulties of all sorts inseparable from h