he is reminded that, in consideration of the subsidy he receives, he has undertaken to shape his external policy in consultation with us; and that "it is his interest as well as his duty to abstain from anything which would give his formidable neighbours on the North a pretext for resuming the offensive against him." He is to be told at the same time that

"his susceptibilities cannot be permitted to cover proceedings that would throw all our frontier policy into confusion."

In all this there seems a covert menace as to the action we should take, if our demands are not complied with, and as to the fatal consequences which might ensue for the Amir himself. This menace and the prominence given to the mission, cannot fail to awaken general interest and some anxiety regarding the result of this step now taken in the furtherance of "the forward policy." What we require of the Amir is, that he will consent to our occupying Afghan tribal territory and give us at least his moral support in the matter. Abdarrahman's position is described in the Times as "the ruler of a loosely organised State, peopled by tribes who have no love of the English name."

We know, moreover, that the tribes of Afghanistan are governed, each by its elected Chief and Council, but are all united by a faith which strictly enjoins the exclusion of a non-Mahomedan power from their land. Amir Yakub Khan in 1879 lost his influence the moment he consented to the permanent residence of a British Envoy at Kabul and to the temporary Occupation of the Kurrum Valley by British troops. The concessions he made in the treaty of Gandamak were at once repudiated by the Afghan tribes who rallied under the standard of Islam against the common enemy. While such conditions prevail in Afghanistan it seems vain to expect that Abdurrahman will comply with our present demands, or that his compliance, if obtained, would promote our policy. Shere Ali, when threatened and attacked by us for purposes precisely similar, retired beyond the HinduKush, and we were left to deal with the tribes, with results which it would be useful to remember at the present conjuncture.

HISTORICUS.

Our readers of a recent article on "the Kelám-i-pir" and on the Head of the Ismailian community will be pleased to hear that its present Chief, H.H. Aga Khan, has rendered excellent service to the cause of peace in connexion with the late Bombay riots by "directing all the Khojas to keep the peace and not to join the riots" as was prominently brought to notice at the Reception on the 29th August last by Lord Harris of the Muhammadans and Hindus who had assisted the police in suppressing the outbreak and in restoring order. Indeed, it is only by the co-operation of Government with the leaders of the religious communities in India that the Pax Britannica can be easily maintained.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS.

INDIA. Sir Henry W. Norman, G.C.B., K.C.I.E., at present Governor of Queensland and formerly a member of the Council first of the Supreme and then of the India Office Council, has been announced to succeed, as Viceroy of India, Lord Lansdowne whose term of Service expires in the beginning of next year. To say that this has been a surprise to all is to say little; nor shall we add a word on the subject beyond expressing the hope that his already advanced age may not be an impediment to his placing a worthy coping-stone on the edifice of his already acquired good reputation.* Major General C. E. Nairne, C.B., from Meerut has been nominated to the chief command in Bombay, and Major General C. Mansfield Clarke, C.B., to that of Madras. Sir A. P. MacDonnell succeeds Sir P. Hutchins in the Governor General's Council.

The closing of the Indian mints to free coinage of silver has not yet produced all the good results expected from it; for the long delay in the signing of the report of the Herschell commission had allowed India to be flooded with enough cheap silver to swamp indefinitely the effects of the closure: practically the mints are still open and have been coining at the rate of Rs. 600,000 per day. But when this flood has been absorbed and the export season necessitates larger remittances to India which India now will decline to take in silver, a steady rise must occur in the rate of exchange. Already there are signs of this. Exchange had touched 1.4d. at the proclamation of the Indian Government; and though forced back to 1.2 by abnormal dealings in Rupee paper backed by the suicidal policy of the India Office, with its Council Bills, the exchange is already again above 1.3. The India Office has caused severe loss to India in this matter, which we hope to see fully investigated. And here we must pointedly call attention to the important fact, that Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, M.P. for Finsbury, who poses as the representative in Parliament of India, has remained perfectly silent, while India has been thus treated. Silent, too, have been the committee of Members of Parliament-including Sir W. Lawson, Sir W. Wedderburn, Sir J. Pease, Messrs. Caine, Paul, and others -who have undertaken to interfere in Indian affairs. The mints in the Native States are closed to silver, or soon will be.

A needless Commission has been appointed, at the outcry of a small knot of pretentious busy-bodies, to investigate the Opium question, and India is to be most unjustly saddled with half the expense-adding a grievous injury to the deliberate insult of a vexatious and uncalled-for interference with Indian administration and finance. This has already provoked adverse criticism in India, and done much to excite ill-feeling among the natives. Any attempt at suppressing the use of Opium will certainly and rightly be resisted by some of the best races of India-the Sikhs and the Rajputs. Apropos of this subject, the report of the Bombay

As we go to press, we learn that he has withdrawn his acceptance of the offer.

Lunatic Asylums gives 1 inmate from opium, against 21 from alcohol and 44 from Ganja and Bhang.

The British India Association have made a formal protest against it to the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, who in his carefully worded reply pointed out that if India had (as some of the most vehement supporters of this commission pretended to wish) any extended local or representative government, that Commission and its interference with Indian affairs would be an absolute impossibility. The Hemp Drugs Commission has been a failure, as not a single witness has come forward for examination.

Numerous and important meetings of the respectable natives continue to be held all over India against the resolution of the House of Commons regarding the Civil Service Examinations being held in India, as also against the Secretary of State's action in thwarting the effects of the closure of the India mints to free coinage.

The Committee on the Indian Cantonments Contagious Diseases system have reported that the previous resolution of the House of Commonsanother of its unwarranted interferences with the internal affairs of Indiahas not been carried into effect. Even its limited application keeps 4,000 British troops continually in hospital-a serious drain on the Indian treasury for absolutely unserviceable material, which is likely to be much increased by further interference.

Very serious riots, attended with loss of life have occurred, in Rangoon, the Azimgarh district and Bombay, between Hindus and Muhammadans, owing to the opposition of the former to the sacrifice of a cow by the latter on their Id-uz-zuhá. The mutual animosity, well known to be chronic in India between the two religions, has been lately accentuated by the circulation of incendiary pamphlets by Hindus and the persistence by Muhammadans in sacrificing a cow, when other animals would better answer their purpose. We doubt not that the Government will strenuously continue their traditional and wise policy of perfect religious freedom, limited by the prohibition to do anything offensive to the religious feelings of anyone; and that while the actual offenders are punished, their instigatorsthe writers, publishers and circulators of the incendiary literature-will not be allowed to escape with impunity. These riots do much to show the necessity of the strong and impartial hand of the British Government, to withhold the heterogeneous masses in India from mutual slaughter.

The crops in India have been generally good; out heavy floods have done damage in many places; and notably at Srinagar and in the Kashmir valley, where immense loss was caused, in Gilgit where two bridges on the lately made road were swept away, at the Mud Gorge where another slip occurred, at Hyderabad on the Nizam's Railway and several other lines.

In the native States, we have to chronicle the conferring of an honorary Colonelcy in the British Army, by an autograph letter of her most gracious Majesty the Queen-Empress, on His Highness the Maharaja of Mysore. This is a graceful act of recognition for the excellent government of that State, the character of its ruler and the ability of its Dewan. The Khan of Khelat has been allowed to abdicate, and has been succeeded by his

son; but to repress some disturbances that had arisen, a small force of our troops has been sent back to garrison Khelat itself. The grant by the Maharaja of Patiala of some land to a relative, the Rana of Dholepore, has had to be referred to the Government of India, as such grants are forbidden by treaty. Disturbances were reported from Mandi, owing to the compulsory extension of vaccination. The Sikhim-Tibet treaty is at last concluded: a mart is to be established near the frontier, where all Indian produce may be sold, except Indian Tea, which is excluded for 5 years.

The Samana range is to be occupied permanently by 400 troops, to be raised in summer to 1,000. Rs. 95,000 have been sanctioned for officers' quarters at Cherat; Rs. 14,000 for a general Hospital at Agra.

Pundit Mahesa Chandra Nyayaratna has established associations for encouraging Sanscrit study at Balasore, Puri and Cuttack. The Raja of Morbhanj gives Rs. 8,000 a year for the maintenance of two of them. Sir D. M. Petit of Bombay has given Rs. 25,000 towards the Bengal Veterinary Schools.

In AFGHANISTAN there has been desultory fighting in the Hazarajat, and the rebellion is not yet quite suppressed. The Khushh valley delimitation has been accomplished; and Col. Yate goes on to his post at Meshed; but from the fact that many subjects of the Amir are quitting the territory assigned to Russia it is evident that we have once more yielded to Russian aggression. The Amir has loyally accepted the award. He has also consented to receive a mission for arranging several matters which require settlement between him and the Indian Government. Sir Mortimer Durand, the Secretary of the Foreign Department, is the envoy chosen, who with his small staff will be the guest of the Amir till he quits Afghanistan on his return. The ease with which the Amir's consent was obtained and the promptitude with which he has made the preparations for receiving the embassy show, as we thought all along, that his former objections were not to the thing itself but to the person selected by the Viceroy. It speaks little for the tact of the Indian Foreign Office not to have foreseen the very natural objections which prevented the Amir from receiving Lord Roberts of Kandahar and this is one more proof of the present incapacity in high quarters in India. The mission has already been most hospitably and cordially received in Afghan territory, by General Ghulam Haidar Khan. Major Ellis, Lieutenants MacMahon and Manners-Smith, Dr. Fenn, and Mr. Donald accompany Sir Mortimer; and all go without escort except that of the Amir's troops.

The weak yielding of SIAM to the first unjust and arrogant demands of France has, as was foretold, led France to larger claims and greater pretensions. The first ultimatum being accepted was loyally executed by Siam ; but M. Myre de Vilers, late of Madagascar, now "asks for more still. It seems strange that the Indian and the Home Governments should continue to show such apathy in a matter which so intimately concerns both Indian and British interests.

At the STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, a committee has been formed to see what can and should be done in the matter of silver currency, a great difficulty being that the coining of the current Mexican dollars is beyond

Our control. The report of this committee* will be of all the more importance, because till it has been issued and discussed, Lord Herschell's Commission on Colonial Currency, lately sitting at the Colonial office, has adjourned its own action: this commission is composed of the Indian Currency Commission, except that Messrs. Meade and Fairfield have replaced Sir A. Godley and General Strachey. Ceylon and the Mauritius, using Rupees, will be dealt with by the action of India; the Straits and Hong Kong have to face the question of the irresponsible Mexican dollar : and the West Indies present difficulties of their own.

In JAPAN there have been renewed earthquakes and volcanic outbreaks in the Higo and Nasu districts. Two boat crews of emigrants for the Kurile Islands were wrecked. Hawaii has lately received 480 Japanese ; and the Imperial Government seem to favour an extensive exodus of their people to foreign countries. Corea has consented to pay the indemnity of 90,000 yen, demanded by Japan.

In CHINA two Swedish missionaries were murdered at Sung pu, about 100 miles north of Hankow. Two others trying to recover their bodies were sent back. The Chinese decline to pay compensation; and it is stated that some mandarins were implicated in the murders. The Italian Catholic Mission of Mien Yong, 90 miles S.W. of Hankow, was destroyed in a riot. An insurrection was reported from the Huaichih district, and was suppressed with a loss of 5,000. A great famine has occurred in Mongolia, when th of the people have either left their homes or have perished of hunger; and women and children have been sold as slaves to save them dying of starvation. It is stated that the Emperor on being informed of their dire distress, ordered that relief should be sent at once, and on the officials replying that the difficulty of doing so was great owing to the distance, said that railways should be used :—a most important utterance, likely to produce great results, if it be a fact. Our minister at Peking has visited Formosa and is gone to Corea also.

From Russian Asia we learn that 24 miles of Railway are opened from Vladivostock westwards, and the preliminary works are completed as far as the Amoor, across which a bridge is to be constructed over 1 mile 5 furlongs in length. For the Grafskoi-Kabaroska section, the rails are being conveyed via the Yennisee river. The boats employed in this service have been specially built in Scotland. Along the same route the pioneer effort chronicled by Mr. J. M. Price, whose book is reviewed in our October, 1893, number, is being followed out by both Russian and English enterprise. About the Pamirs, the Russians left Marghilan on 1st June, but the great part of the force is to remain in the Alai valley, while Col. Yonoff goes with reliefs for the troops which had been left last year in the Pamirs. Chinese troops also are said to be moving towards their part of the Pamirs.

In TURKEY, further disturbances are reported from Armenia. Of seventeen implicated at Angora, 2 were pardoned, 10 had their sentences of

This report has just been issued and is discordant. Some members advocate the use of the Indian Rupee, others the continuance of the Mexican Dollar, and others against the local coinage of a British Dollar.