the words used here will be proved true, and the only effectual remedies against the evil are those bold measures from which timid spirits would shrink. The pith of the whole argument is to be found in the fact that we are now strong enough to solve the Central Asian Question wholly in our own favour. Are we to put off action until the tables are turned and Russia is more prepared than she is at present, while we may have grown less strong? or shall we finish the business out of hand?
Sir Henry Rawlinson has permitted the work to be dedicated to him, and the author is only too sensible of its deficiencies to make him feel confident of its having deserved the honour. But it will perhaps be conceded to the writer that, while endeavouring to throw as much light as possible upon the Central Asian Question, he has had the courage to define a line of political action, which, however open to criticism as aiming at too much, is consistent, and calculated to secure the object towards which it points. Much that is contained in these volumes has been told before, and the writer does not claim merit for originality in information. But the arrangement and mode of treatment are wholly different to those adopted in any other work on the subject, even to Von Helwald's, to whose it bears most affinity. The book seeks above all to apply the
