reorganisation; whilst the
military party had turned their attention to making new acquisitions
of territory and influence in Asia. In like manner, after the Turkish
campaign of 1877-78, Alexander III., turning his back on the Slav
brethren, inaugurated an era of peace in Europe and of territorial
expansion in the east. In this direction the expansive force was
not affected by religious feeling, or Panslavist sentiment, and
was controlled and guided by purely political considerations. It is
consequently much easier to determine in this field of action what the
political aims really are.

In Asia, as in Europe, the dominant factor in the policy of the
Government has been the desire to reach the sea-coast; and in both
continents the ports first acquired were in northern latitudes where
the coasts are free from ice during only a part of the year. In this
respect, Nikolaefsk and Vladivostok in the Far East correspond to
Archangel and St. Petersburg in Europe. Such ports could not fulfil
all the requirements, and consequently the expansive tendency turned
southwards--in Europe towards the Black Sea and the Mediterranean,
and in Asia towards the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of
Pechili.

In Persia the Russian Government pursues the policy of pacific
infiltration, and already the northern half of the Shah's dominions is
pretty well permeated with Russian influence, commercial and political.
In the southern half the infiltration is to some extent checked by
physical obstacles and British influence, but it is steadily advancing,
and the idea of obtaining a port on the Persian Gulf is coming within
the range of practical politics.

In Afghanistan also the pressure is felt, and here too the expansive
tendency meets with opposition from England. More than once the two
great Powers have come dangerously near to war--notably in 1885, at
the moment of the Penjdeh incident, when the British Parliament voted
11,000,000 pounds for military preparations. Fortunately on that
occasion the problem was solved by diplomacy. The northern frontier of
Afghanistan was demarcated by a joint commission, and an agreement was
come to by which this line should form the boundary of the British
and Russian spheres of influence. For some years Russia scrupulously
respected this agreement, but during our South African difficulties
she showed symptoms of departing from it, and at one moment orders were
issued from St. Petersburg for a mil