an instance of detraction from the otherwise great and striking
characteristics of the ruler of Kashgar. His opposition to Russia was
most laudable; his maintenance of his privileges as an independent ruler
was prudent and worthy of our respect; but his petty insults to Russia
were neither wise nor dignified. He was clearly in the right in
checking the aggressive instincts of Russia, clothed in the specious
garb of commercial advantage; he commands not less our admiration for
the energetic and persistent manner in which he thwarted every endeavour
to introduce Russian espionage and intrigue into Kashgaria; but why
should he have weakened the effect of these splendid achievements, why
should he have risked all he had secured, by so senseless an insult as
the message to the Czar that has been just referred to?

The authorities in Tashkent, perceiving that it was doubtful whether
English public opinion was ripe yet for an active interference in
Central Asia, reverted, despite all orders from the home authorities to
the contrary, to their original intention of coercing the ruler of
Kashgar. In 1874, therefore, all preparations for commencing the
campaign in the approaching spring were made ready. Provisions and
munitions of war were despatched to Naryn, and an auxiliary division was
to make a flank movement by the Terek Pass on the west. It has been laid
to the charge of the Russian generals in Asia, that expeditions are
arranged for their mutual advantage, both in obtaining higher rank and
orders. So seriously bitten had every officer since Perovsky become by
the desire for promotion and distinction, that the disease became
generally known as the St. George or the St. Ann Cross fever. Now during
the seven years previous to the date at which we have arrived, if there
had been a fair share of distinction and spoil for the soldiers and the
lower ranks of the officers, some of those in higher posts considered
that they were aggrieved by the monopoly of supreme credit obtained by
General Kaufmann. This, indeed, had shown itself very clearly after the
fall of Khiva, a success for which Kaufmann obtained all the credit, and
yet towards which the division under his command contributed little or
nothing. The etiquette, too, maintained in the little court at Tashkent,
and the semi-regal state observed by the successful general, were
irksome to officers more accustomed to the licence of a camp than to the
punctilio of a palace. Nor we