was no time for any man, high
or low, to leave his post. And as a seven-years' experience must needs
have rendered him more capable of immediate usefulness than any other,
though a far abler man, without such experience could possibly be,
he did not hesitate to offer the continued service which your Majesty
might most justly expect, and which he is proud to render cheerfully.

Your Majesty's remark on the absence of any letter from the
Governor-General of late would have disquieted him with apprehensions
that he had been thought neglectful, but that your Majesty at the same
time ascribed the silence to its real cause. Since the announcement
of the termination of the Burmese War there has, in truth, been no
occurrence which, of itself, seemed worthy of being made the subject
of a report to your Majesty. India has been tranquil in all her
borders. And although no event could well be more gratifying than this
continuous tranquillity was in itself, still the periodical report of
peace and quiet on all sides seemed likely to be as uninteresting
as the monotonous, though satisfactory, "All's well" of a ring of
sentries.

At Christmas the Governor-General anticipated having the honour of
narrating to your Majesty the events of a year which he hoped would,
before its close, have been fruitful of great results....

Very recently an interesting mission has arrived from the Khan of
Kokan, a state to the north of Bokhara, reporting the capture of their
fort of Ak Mussid by the Russians.

The fact was known before; but the mission is important from the
certainty it imparts to us that all the Turcomans, the people of
Kokan, of Khiva, and of Bokhara, all detest as much as they dread the
Muscovites, with whose approach they are threatened.

The Khan asks for aid. We can render him but little. The only real
bulwark which can be raised for these states of Central Asia--the only
real barrier to the progress of Russia which can be set up there--must
have their foundations in the Treaty, which may be framed by the
Allied Powers after the present war shall have brought the spirit of
Russia into temporary subjection.

The war in which your Majesty has engaged with that great Power has
not been directly felt in this part of your Majesty's dominions; but
its indirect influence is most sensibly apparent.

The notions entertained of Russia, and the estimate formed of her
powers, by the nations of India, are exaggerated in the extreme.
Al