With Cashmere, too, relations were not altogether pleasant. The sufferings of the people during the year of famine had roused Indian opinion to a sense of the misrule of the Maharaja, and of the attractive nature of his country. The old cry for annexation, or at any rate interference, was raised in most of the papers of Northern India. He was accused of disloyalty: for the papers found by General Roberts at Cabul were said (and the assertion has been countenanced by official statements and official silence) to show that he had been in treasonable communication with the Russian officers and the Amir. It was believed that Lord Lytton intended to do something definite. But if so it was not done. The Maharaja came to Lahore to meet Lord Ripon at the festivities there. But he refused (on some question of precedence) to take part in the procession. While he was still in the sulks, news came of an outbreak at Gilgit, the station on the western frontier of Cashmere, close to the route over the Hindu Kush, from the Oxus valley to Afghanistan and India. It was said at first to be a revolt, but it was, in fact, an attack by the men of Yassin, the mountain region beyond the frontier. Major Biddulph, the English resident, held Gilgit successfully against the invaders, with a detachment of the Maharaja's Sikh soldiers, and the Yassinis were subsequently punished by a Chitral chief, who overran their country.

At the beginning of the cold weather Lord Ripon, leaving Simla, came to Lahore, where he held a great durbar and a review of the troops, among them some of the victorious regiments which had just come from Candahar. His speech to the assembled feudatories was noticeable chiefly by the absence of distinct reference to future policy in Afghanistan, and by its insistance on the need India had of peace and good government. But to the troops the Viceroy spoke with warm recognition of their valour. From Lahore Lord Ripon travelled hurriedly to Bombay, visiting the railway works in the Bolan, and the port of Karachi en route. Everywhere he had to receive deputations and do the harassing round of sight-seeing and ceremonial. The Indian climate is proverbially trying to those who face it in middle age. At Puna Lord Ripon was not well. At Allahabad he was prostrated with fever, which lasted for weeks. Not till the year was over was he really convalescent. The expressions of sympathy and respect were general, and beyond question, sincere. For in his public acts he had been singularly fortunate in avoiding offence even to those whose views he was not able to adopt.

The death of the Maharaja of Jaipur, a Rajput prince, who, without abandoning his native faith or manners, was in character and culture and aims thoroughly European, was deplored alike by natives and by Englishmen. He left no son, but the person he had nominated to be his successor was at once recognised and installed.

The son of the Raja of Chota Udaipur, one of the numerous petty states of the Bombay Presidency, was accused of having cruelly tortured and murdered his wife on suspicion or rather

An

proof-that she had carried on an intrigue with a servant. inquiry was held by an officer appointed for the purpose by Government. The proceedings were watched with keen interest by native society, but as the accused person was released from surveillance after the report of the inquiry had been submitted to Government, there was no occasion for any further display of feeling.

The visit to India of a party of American and Russian spiritualists is worth notice, because for a time they secured the sympathy and powerfully affected the belief of a large number of natives. Their professed object was to inquire rather than to teach, and the sacred writings of the Hindus, they trusted, would give them a key to the supra-sensuous universe. Calling themselves Theosophists, they established societies and published a journal in which Sanscrit scholarship was associated with the most recondite subtleties of spiritualism. At first they were regarded with some suspicion, and followed by detectives. But by degrees, even English officials received then with a certain courteous curiosity. At Simla, they became the sensation of the hour. The manifestations in the houses of some of the highest officials were published from day to day in the papers, and to prevent misconception it was found necessary to publish a quasi-official notification that the reception of the leader of the party at Government House did not imply official approval of the propaganda. The phenomena which created so much interest were of the kind familiar enough in séances and conjuring entertainments.

Naini Tal is one of the prettiest of the stations on the lower ranges of the Himalayas, to which officials and their families escape in the hot weather from the heats and vapours of the plains. Here in September occurred a great landslip by which over forty Europeans perished. Early in the day a partial subsidence of the hill-slope at one end of the lake had covered up some outhouses of an hotel. To rescue, if possible, the natives who were buried there, and to prevent further loss a number of English officials and visitors and a working party from the barracks were soon at work. With hardly a moment's warning a huge mass of broken rock and earth descended on them: buried the hotel and all who were in it or near it swept across the road and over a hundred yards of level space to the margin of the lake, where it even covered the Assembly Rooms. It was hopeless to attempt to dig out the corpses. For a time there was a panic fear of further disaster, and the visitors streamed away to the plains. But when the extraordinary rainfall which had preceded and caused the landslip ceased, confidence returned. The Commission appointed to examine the station reported that an outlay on protective works and restrictive measures as to building would render the place secure. Government contributed liberally to the expense, and it was proposed to lay out the slope of débris beneath which so many Englishmen lay buried, as a memorial garden.

The approaching restoration of Mysore to the representative of the ancient line which had been set aside in 1832, led to much discussion. Under the long period of British rule the province had been administered chiefly by English officers. It was proposed, when the young Raja had attained his majority, to allow him to introduce a purely native régime; but to lessen the shock of the change it was decided before the transfer to substitute as far as possible native for British elements, in the administration. Already some natives had been advanced to the highest posts, and soon the remaining district officials were informed that they would be transferred from the province. Unfortunately the alterations proposed were not wholly pleasing to the people. For the native element introduced was not Mysorean, but Madrasi, and it was complained that an "alien" administration might quite as well be British as Madrasi. There was further the difficulty as to providing security for the protection of the private British interests -coffee-planting, for instance-which had grown up, and done so much for the development of the country. Bangalore, the British head-quarters, was the healthiest station in the Deccan for British troops, and a large amount of British money-Government money as well as private capital-had been spent in building and general improvements. The final arrangement was understood to be that Bangalore should remain British territory, the island of Seringapatam being ceded to the Maharaja as an equivalent.

The question of Eurasian education and the improvement of the condition of that large and neglected community occupied much attention, especially in Madras. In that presidency, the more fortunate members of the mixed race organised associations for promoting thrift and providing useful and suitable employment for their people-associations which it is admitted did much good. In Bengal, Archdeacon Baly's proposals for increasing the educational facilities on the lines approved by Lord Lytton were still under discussion.

We have already noted some important official changes. Sir Richard Temple hurried home from Bombay to be an unsuccessful candidate at the general election. He was succeeded by Sir James Fergusson. The Duke of Buckingham-his term of office having expired-left Madras, the Anglo-Indian papers indulging in by no means complimentary reviews of his administration, but the natives testifying, by repeated demonstrations, the respect and regard they had for him.

Other events just worth recording, and no more, are these. An attempt on the life of Lord Lytton was made by a Eurasian, whom investigation proved to be of unsound mind. Soon after the news of the disaster in Southern Afghanistan reached Karachi, there occurred among the Europeans of that large and flourishing part, a scare of a kind unhappily not unfamiliar in India. The arrival of some Pathan labourers gave rise to a report of an impending by Pathans; and, for a time, precautions indicat

ing panic were taken. There was a somewhat similar scare at Ootacamund.

At Madras there was a panic of an even more dangerous kind among the natives-an absurd report passing from ear to ear that Government intended a great human sacrifice.

CHAPTER VII.

ASIA-continued.

I. CENTRAL ASIA. II. CHINA. III. JAPAN.

I. CENTRAL ASIA.

DURING nearly the whole of the year the relations of Russia with China were strained almost to the verge of war. During the period when Chinese authority had been overturned in its western provinces (Kashgar, &c.) Russian officers stepping in had saved the province of Kulja from anarchy and administered it successfully. The Chinese army having crossed the desert and destroyed the kingdom which the Atalik Ghazi had created, the Pekin Government was naturally anxious to resume the occupation of the fertile province of Kulja. By the treaty arranged at Livadia in 1879, Russia agreed to restore it on certain conditions, among which we need name here only the retention by Russia of a strip of territory which would give the European Power great strategic advantages for the command of Kulja or Kashgar, the payment of an indemnity for the expenses of administration, and the concession of valuable commercial privileges. The Pekin Government refused to ratify the treaty to the draft of which their Envoy had agreed, and the luckless Ambassador was thrown into prison and sentenced to death. The great host which China had in Kashgar was distributed in threatening masses along the Kulja frontier, and in China troops were being drilled and disciplined. Great preparations were being made to defend the coast and rivers, guns were being cast, and gunboats and ironclads were being built in China or ordered from Europe. On the side of Russia there was no lack of demonstration. The fleet in the Pacific received immense accessions of strengthtroops were marched with great haste from Turkestan to Kulja, one detachment performing a marching feat worthy of General Roberts' men, and soon the province was said to be in a position to repel invasion. In spite, however, of frequent rumours of collision-of a Chinese invasion of the country north of the Amoor -and a successful advance into Khokand, there was, in fact, no fighting, though the Kulja border was harassed by robber raids and all friendly intercourse was stopped. Meanwhile, at St. Petersburg negotiations had dragged along. The Chinese Government, in deference to the Russian representations, released the disgraced Envoy, and the period for ratifying the treaty was prolonged from time to time by mutual agreement. Frequently it was announced that compromise was hopeless; the Russians it was said claimed

not only an enormous indemnity for the expenses of their defensive preparations, but also claimed the retention of part of the district in dispute as a refuge for the Dungans-a section of the population, which by its friendship to, and dependence on Russia, had become compromised with the Chinese, and would probably be the object of their barbarous resentment. Nevertheless, before the close of the year it was announced that a settlement had been effected, but, pending ratification in Pekin, the stipulations of the treaty were not announced. Among the incidents of the dispute was a visit paid by Colonel Gordon to his old friends, the Chinese. That distinguished officer having left the Egyptian service, was appointed private secretary to Lord Ripon. On arrival at Bombay he discovered that his "turbulent" disposition unfitted him for the discharge of the duties of that post. So he hurried off to China in the interests of peace. He bluntly told the Mandarins not to fight, to shun European methods, to give their immense army simple weapons and simple discipline, and act always on the defensive.

The expedition against the Tekke Turkomans was a further tax on the resources of Russia in Asia. Whatever the original justification of the attack on the Turcomans might have been, the disaster to Russian arms at Geok Tepe in the preceding year rendered it necessary to do something to restore Russian prestige. Posts had been maintained at Chatte (at the confluence of the Sambhar and Attrek), and at Dusolum (north of Chatte, at the confluence of the Chandir and the Sambhar). In March, 20,000 camels were collected, a regular transport service was organised on the Caspian, and a railway was commenced across the desert from Michael's Bay (near Krasnovodsk), on the Caspian towards Kizil Arvat, the head of the Tekke line of posts. This railway, we may here say, though pushed on with vigour, was not completed more than one-fourth of the distance within the year. Meanwhile General Skobeleff, the "young" commander, who had distinguished himself so much in former Turkestan and recent Turkish campaigns, was appointed to the chief command. Towards the end of May a small detachment started from Dusolum, and occupied Bami, a post beyond the mountain wall along the north of which lies the long strip which forms the Tekke oasis. Bami, situated as it is in a fertile country, soon became a strong Russian fort and depôt, drawing supplies first from Chikislar by the old (Chatte) route; then from Michael's Bay by the new (Kizil Arvat) route. In July a reconnaissance in force was made against Geok Tepe, but returned after an unsuccessful encounter with the Tekkes. Meanwhile, from the first the Turcomans had been organising a desperate resistance. Their old leader, Nur Verdi Khan, died inopportunely, but his son, Makdum Kuli Khan, inherited his spirit. He hung first with a great cloud of horsemen, threatening the Russians from a point between Kizil Arvat and Krasnovodsk. Early in the year, indeed, the Russians were almost besieged in Chikislar and Chatte. As the Russians established