pon the energies and happiness of the people. As one of them
expressed it, in pathetic language, "During the Chinese rule there was
everything; there is nothing now." The speaker of that sentence was no
merchant, who might have been expected to be depressed by the
falling-off in trade, but a warrior and a chieftain's son and heir. If
to him the military system of Yakoob Beg seemed unsatisfactory and
irksome, what must it have appeared to those more peaceful subjects to
whom merchandise and barter were as the breath of their nostrils? All
the advantages of a perfect police system, heavily weighted by the
incumbrance of a costly addition of spies and tale-bearers, would seem
as nothing compared with the loss incurred by the fetters placed on
individual motion and enterprise. Considered by itself, the police
organization of Kashgar was, perhaps, the most perfect design achieved
by Yakoob Beg, and his community of spies will rank with anything in
effectiveness that has ever been accomplished by any potentate. But as a
permanent addition to his strength it is permissible to doubt whether he
really secured his rule by employing the latter, or obtained much more
by the formation of the former than the services of a trained body of
trustworthy, courageous men. The restrictions imposed on trade by the
severance of all communications with the East by the Tungan wars and by
the limited amount of liberty granted the native Kashgari, proved most
deterrent to all mercantile adventure, and placed in the hands of
Khokandians or Russians on the north, and of Cashmerians and Punjabis on
the south, most of the trade still carried on with Eastern Turkestan.

The trade carried on by the Athalik Ghazi's state, if we are to judge
solely by amount, with foreign countries, was greatest with Russia and
her dependencies; but if we investigate the matter more closely we find
that the result is a little more satisfactory to ourselves. The direct
trade that was carried on by way of Leh with Khoten and Sanju was
steadily increasing, while that of Russia by Khokand had for some time
remained stationary, if it had not even decreased. And then much of the
Russian trade has to be scored to this country, for in the marts of
Kashgar, underneath Russian exteriors, were very often to be found
English interiors, and the brand of well-known Manchester and Liverpool
makers was discovered beneath some gaudy and brilliant-looking cover
hailing from Moscow or Nishn