o threaten him, either from Russia, Afghanistan, or the Tungani,
he would devote considerable sums to the construction of forts in the
line of the menaced position. But his chief expenditure was confined to
his army, and the maintenance of his dynasty by his police system. The
administration of justice required a certain sum of money, and the
Church for its support came in for a fair share of the good things that
were going. It is clear that his expenditure, if not very great in our
eyes, would severely tax a population of 1,000,000 people in no very
high state of prosperity. The chief source of wealth in the past had
always been the trade with China, and when that was broken off, the
slight increase in intercourse with Russia and India was not a
sufficient compensation. In fact, the country was very poor, without the
ingenuity and commercial instincts of the Khitay. During the days of the
war under Buzurg Khan, the only means of obtaining the necessary revenue
was by despoliation and enforced levies on the occupied portion of the
territory. When the western portion of Kashgaria was subdued, Yakoob Beg
found himself without any money in his exchequer, and no easy means of
filling it presented itself to him. In these straits he had recourse to
an expedient that, if not very novel, was at all events very effective.
He issued a proclamation to his faithful subjects to the effect that as
conqueror he was landowner of the whole state; but that he was
willing--eager would have been the more correct expression--to sell it
to them at a cheap rate. He, however, exempted from this the old
possessions of the Chinese Wangs and Ambans, and distributed their
extensive domains among the more prominent of his followers, who in
return acknowledged their liability to military service. The system was
an exact copy of the old feudal regime, and Yakoob Beg was vested with
all the rights and authority of the feudal lord of the Middle Ages. The
parallel is still further maintained by the large reward that the Church
received for its aid to the new ruler. The old revenues, devoted to the
support of the temples and religious seminaries in the past, and which
had miscarried during the troublous period of the war for the possession
of Turkestan, were restored, and fresh possessions were added thereto,
to demonstrate the generosity of the sovereign and his veneration for
the religion of Mahomed. His old friend the Sheikh-ul-Islam was still
more fort