INDIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.*

MR. ANDREW, the originator of the Indus Valley Railway system, the long time zealous and consistent advocate of an overland communication with India by way of Turkey in Asia, and the chairman of the Euphrates Valley Railway Company, has taken high ground in this—the latest of his numerous publications.

We have no longer "The Indus and its Provinces," "The Scinde Railway, ""Indian Railways," "The Euphrates Valley Route,' and the same "in connection with the Central Asian Question;" we have a remarkably ably-written and statesman-like view of India, more especially in relation to its neighbours, a work which, whilst of the highest interest in a historical, geographical, and economical point of view-presenting, indeed, one of the ablest summaries of what now constitutes our Indian Empire-deals with what has been hitherto too much overlooked, except in especial works, and, as if detached from India Proper, the peculiar and complex relations of that empire with neighbouring states and powers. Information of such a character, having reference to countries like Russia, Turkistan, Persia, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan, or Biluchistan, hitherto scattered through books of travel, a few especial works and pamphlets, often difficult to procure, but now condensed into a well-considered, comprehensive, and judicious summary, cannot but at the present moment be of the very greatest interest and value.

It is quite out of our power, with the limited space at command, to follow the author through such erudite chapters as those which refer to the physical features, climate, Flora and Fauna, minerals, people, races, languages, religions, and history-the latter entered into in a brief yet detailed and satisfactory manner-it must suffice if we say that for clearness of statement, carefulness of style, and general literary perfection, combined with brevity, no other work can compare with the present one. An additional and peculiar charm is imparted to the work by no less than six chapters upon the "Remarkable Women of India." Here, indeed, is something quite new, adapted for all classes of readers, even for the most desultory and fastidious-perhaps we might have said the most idle and untea hable.

. We must pluck a rose (for it has its briars) from the truly

"India and Her Neighbours," by W. P. Andrew, with Maps and Appendix. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co.

oriental bouquet. It is brief, but characteristic, and will also serve as a specimen : "Among the numerous female captives of Scinde were two beautiful princesses, who were reserved for the harem of the Commander of the Faithful, Walid, the sixth caliph of the house of Ommeia. When the elder was introduced to her future lord, she burst into tears, and declared that she was now unworthy of his notice, having been already dishonoured by his nephew, Casim, before she was sent out of her country. Enraged at the insult offered to him by his inferior, and inflamed by the sight of her beauty and distress, the caliph sent orders that Casim should be sewed up in a raw hide and sent to Damascus. When he produced the body to the princess, she was so overjoyed at the sight that she exultingly declared Casim had been innocent, but that she had now avenged her father's death and the ruin of her family! This heroic lady and her sister met with a cruel and ignominious death."

Some will fancy there was as much barbarous revengefulness as of heroism in this lady. Speaking of the new sect that has arisen in India, in which an attempt has been made to graft Christianity upon Brahminism, Mr. Andrew says: "Under the guise adopted by the Brahma Samaj, the new eclectic school of Rámohan Roy and Keshâb Chunder Sen, with a lofty conception of the all-pervading power of the Deity, it emulates the beneficent spirit of Christianity, but the seal is wanting-the belief in the great Atonement."

But it is not so much in regard to those portions of the work, which will have a permanent claim on the reader, as to those which apply to the state of things now before us, that we should have wished to have called attention at length. Happily, we find the best summary of these views given by Mr. Andrew himself in his opening pages :

"All eyes in the east, as in the west, have long expected the struggle for supremacy between England and Russia. That struggle, if for a season deferred, still appears to be inevitable."

Every act in the great drama of war between Russia and Turkey has most powerfully affected the nations of Central Asia and agitated our north-west frontier in India. While in our peaceable and well-ordered possessions the call to arms against the Czar excited the utmost enthusiasm.

The Seikh and the Gourka, the fiercest soldiers in Asia, to whom the din of battle is as the breath of their nostrils, vie in ardour with the Mussulman, who burns to avenge the wrongs of the Head of his faith. Even the Hindostanee, forgetting his caste, restraints, and prejudices, longs to strike a blow for those whose salt he and his fathers have eaten in contentment and peace.

In Northern India, the Punjaub, and the border lands beyond, we have an inexhaustible field for recruiting men of fine physique whose trade is war, and accustomed to arms from childhood.

There never was put forward a greater fallacy, or an error more likely to be mischievous than that the Turkish question was of no importance in an Indian point of view. The grand problem now in course of solution in Turkey must affect in its results, whatever they may be, in the most immediate and powerful manner, our prestige and prosperity in India. Even during the Crimean campaign, the varying fortunes of the field elicited either the apprehension or the applause of the nations of the East, from the shepherd in his solitude to the warrior chief in his stronghold, while thousand of Moolahs prayed Allah to bless the arms of the "Sooltan of Room."

When the fall of Sebastopol was announced at Dera Ismael Khan, on the Upper Indus, the news was received with the greatest enthusiasm by all classes. The bazaars of the city were brilliantly illuminated, every wealthy shopkeeper displayed from 1000 to 1200 lamps.

The native soldiers of India have not only fought the battles of the empire in Persia, China, and Abyssinia, but the sepoy of Bengal and Madras crossed bayonets with honour with the French in the Mauritius, while their brethren of Bombay were sent under Sir David Baird to encounter the same gallant enemy in Egypt, by Lord Wellesley, a Governor-General of India, whose eagleeyed and bold conceptions were at the time at much decried and cavilled at by lesser men as now we see decried and maligned the manly and good old English policy of the present Government in upholding the honour of the country and in protecting the rights of nations confirmed by treaties.

The policy of the empire at this moment is resisted even by those whose experience and knowledge might have taught them that in the gravest crises of our time loyalty to the throne and love of country would be best evinced by a noble forbearance, if not a generous support, to Her Majesty's servants under such momentous circumstances.

It is in vain to say India is not threatened—that the Suez Canal is safe. The canal-glorious work as it is—can be easily injured, or even for a time destroyed. We want an alternative route to India, and, after having for years ignored the warnings of our leading statesmen and soldiers, are we to be told from Vienna that the best alternative route is not only threatened, but that, if Russia gets possession of Batum, which, in relation to the Upper Euphrates valley forms the first stage from a political, military, and commercial point of view down to Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, the

command of the best route to our Indian possessions would be in the hands of our rival for empire in the east?

It is certain if we decline to connect the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf, Russia will connect the Black Sea with the Persian Gulf. The nation desires peace, but the strong man must be armed to hold his goods in peace!

Is it too much to say that had the Persian Gulf been united with a port on the Mediterranean by the Euphrates Railway the Russo-Turkish war would not have occurred? When peace is restored, it is to be hoped that our Government will come to an agreement with the Porte as to the Euphrates Railway, on the basis recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons, presided over by Sir Stafford Northcote in 1872, and for the Euphrates telegraph, terms for which were arranged with Her Majesty's Government, in 1857. The Porte, however, preferred a line through Asia Minor.

I cannot refrain from again calling attention to the opinion of the Austrian War Minister, who after the battle of Sadowa, reorganised the army and brought it to its present state of efficiency.

So long ago as 1858, Field-Marshal Lieutenant Baron Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld predicted that Russia would in future probably try to satisfy her craving for an open sea-board by operating through Asia.

"She will not," says this distinguished authority, "reach the shores of the Persian Gulf in one stride, or by means of one great But taking advantage of Continental complications, when the attention and energy of European states are engaged in contests more nearly concerning them, she will endeavour to reach the Persian Gulf step by step, by annexing separate districts of Armenia... Whatever the commercial value of the Suez Canal to Central Europe, there is no doubt that it is secondary in importance to the Euphrates Railway, which affords the only means of stemming Russian advances in Central Asia, and which directly covers the Suez Canal."

At this moment when great events in Europe are being watched by our distant fellow-subjects in India, and by the tribes and nations which dwell between us; when the first Mahomedan power in the world is held in the deadly grasp of the Czar; when England, this time not "the unready," is slowly but resolutely putting her native legions in motion, and their dusky brothers in India are hurrying to arms at the call of their common sovereign,— at this moment, some account of the past and present history of India and her neighbours may not be deemed inopportune.

Among the more important considerations presented to the

reader of this volume, the following appear to merit special remark :

"That England is not only a great Eastern Power, but that she possesses more Mahomedan subjects than the Sultan and the Shah together.

"That the standing armies of the feudatory princes of India number over 300,000 men, with more than 5000 guns.

"And that it is urgent to have improved and additional means of communication between England and India."

Although much might be added to illustrate the position here taken up, and to show, in reply to those who argue that Russia will invade India by way of Persia, rather than by the Persian Gulf (as if the invasion of India was the one and sole object which Russia has in view), and that even granting this to be the case, she could not move eastwards in safety when opposed by an enemy in the rear or on her flanks, as well as in front,-still it would be impossible to give a clearer or more succinct statement of the facts of the case as they now stand.