drawn up for
the political and commercial relations of the two countries in the
future.

The chief objects the Russians had in view when they sent Baron Kaulbars
to Kashgar were three. In the first place they wanted to acquire general
information about that state, and to discover whether Yakoob Beg was as
powerful as report had asserted. In the second, they wished to put their
relations on such a recognized basis with him that they might know what
policy he was disposed to adopt in Turkestan and Kuldja; and in the
third they desired to secure the monopoly of the trade of his state, so
that they might forestall British enterprise, already beginning to
direct its attention to this quarter, since the journeys of Messrs. Shaw
and Forsyth. The last of these was the easiest to obtain, and the
Athalik Ghazi considered all the Russian proposals with regard to trade
in a very amicable spirit; but with regard to the second _desideratum_
nothing but the vaguest generalities could all the tact and ingenuity of
Kaulbars succeed in obtaining from his host. The first object was amply
secured, in so far as geographical and scientific information was
concerned; but the precautions taken by the Athalik Ghazi to deceive the
Russians as to his power and hold on the country appear to have been
successful. Baron Kaulbars certainly confirmed much that had previously
rested on mere hearsay; the question is rather, did he not vouch for
more than his experience justified him in doing? The result of his
mission was, that the Athalik Ghazi was elevated to a position on a
level with the Ameer of Cabul, and there is no doubt whatever that such
a comparison was not warranted by the facts. A treaty was signed by the
Athalik Ghazi and Baron Kaulbars, on the 2nd of June, 1872, but
according to the Old Style, still adopted by the Russians, this was the
21st of May, St. Constantine's day. There are two stories with respect
to this coincidence, and there is as much evidence for one version as
there is for the other.

It was said at the time that Yakoob Beg was so desirous of showing his
goodwill to the Russians that he had insisted on signing it on that day
in honour of the Grand Duke Constantine. Now there were two or three
improbabilities in this statement that struck several observers. In the
first place it was extremely improbable that Yakoob Beg knew it was St.
Constantine's day at all; and again, in the second place he was quite as
probably ignora