their young, beautiful daughters to the Pashas
of Constantinople, permanent order has been everywhere established and
many abuses suppressed; in Siberia, which was little better than a
wilderness, there are now thousands of prosperous farmers, railways and
river steamboats have been constructed, and the mineral resources are
being rapidly developed; thanks to the improvement of communications in
that part of the empire, Peking is now well within a fortnight of
Petrograd. Even in Central Asia there is evidence of improvement; the
Russian military administration, with all its defects, is better than
the native rule which preceded it. Such was, at least, the impression
which I received in semi-Russianized territories like Bokhara and
Samarcand. Thus, while we may be justly proud of our achievements in
imperial consolidation and progress, we may well regard with sympathy
the efforts of our rival in the same direction.

Apologizing for this little digression, I proceed now to consider very
briefly the danger of future conflict between the two great empires
which have come within striking distance of each other.

This danger, as it seems to me, though serious enough, is not so great
as is commonly supposed. We have many interests in common, as our
present alliance proves, and there are only two localities in which a
future conflict is to be apprehended. These are Constantinople and our
Indian frontier.

Napoleon is reported to have said that the nation which occupies
Constantinople must dominate the world. The present occupants have
proved that this dictum is, to say the least, an exaggeration, but there
is no doubt that if Russia possessed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, her
power, for defensive and offensive purposes, would be greatly increased,
and she might seriously threaten our line of communications with India
through the Suez Canal. This danger, however, is very remote. So many
great powers are interested in preventing her from obtaining such a
commanding position in the Mediterranean, that if she made any
aggressive movement in that direction she would certainly find herself
confronted by a very formidable European coalition.

An attack on our Indian frontier is likewise, I venture to think, a very
improbable contingency. There may possibly be in Russia some political
dreamers who imagine, in their idle hours, that it would be a grand
thing to conquer India, with its teeming millions of inhabitants, and
appropriat