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1840.] all surrounding nations not of Uzbek race, similar to that formerly practised against the Christian powers of Europe by the Barbarypirates. If the imprison- ment of the Russian envoy, and the at- tack on the Orenburg caravan, had been promptly answered and avenged by the march of an army, the retaliation would have been well-timed and justi- fiable; but the ambitious views of Rus- sia in Central Asia were not then suf- ficiently matured or distinct to render the possession of Khiva necessary for their immediate furtherance. Persia, also, was then erect and independent, under the government of the crafty and sagacious Futteh-Ali, who would have viewed with distrust the approxi- mation of Russian arms and machina- tions to his turbulent and scarcely sub- dued province of Khorassan. The time, in short, was not yet come for developing the schemes, of which the countries east of the Caspian were the destined theatre ; and the insults offer- ed to the majesty of Russia were thus suffered to pass with impunity. But the events of 1838 and 1 839 have given a widely different aspect to Asiatic politics. The victorious entrance of an English army into Candahar and Cabul has rendered it essential for Russia, in accordance with her invariable policy^ to counteract by an instant demonstra- tion the moral influence thus accruing to England, and to acquire, by a step in advance of her present Siberian frontier, a counterpoise to the exten- sion of the Anglo-Indian dominion towards the north. Hence the con- quest of Khiva, (originally planned two years back, as the organs of Rus- sia admit, but postponed in conse- quence of the repulse of the Persians before Herat,) becomes an object of paramount importance to the cabinet of Petersburg ; and the marauding habits of the people, combined with their bygone infractions of diplomatic courtesies, furnish the same ready pre- text for invasion which was at hand to. France, when, by the capture of Algiers on similar grounds, she laid the foundation of a dominion which bids fair to extend, at no distant period, over the whole of Northern Africa. That the advantageous re- sults to be expected from the conver- sion of Khiva into an appendage to Asiatic Russia were long ago per ceived and pointed out, the following extract, given in the Quarterly Re,~ view from the work of Mouraviev. will, we think, sufficiently prove ; and though his prognostications were dis- missed with little ceremony by the writer in the Quarterly, which then held as an article of its creed that all danger from Russia to our Indian em- pire was chimerical and visionary, we suspect that few will be found in the present day to question their general correctness or practicability. " Even now, caravans from the coun- tries of the outh arrive at Khiva ; and if commerce does not acquire g greater degree of extension, it is because it is shackled by the frequent depredations of the nomade tribes. If we possessed Khiva, the conquest of which would not be diffi- cult, the nomades of Central Asia would dread our power, and a route for commerce would be established by the Sind (Indus) and Amoo-deria (Oxus) to Russia; all the riches of Asia would then flow into our country, and we should see the bril- liant projects of Peter the Great realized. Once masters of Khiva, many other states would become dependent upon us. In a word, Khiva is at this moment an ad- vanced post, opposed to the commerce of Russia with Bokhara and Northern India ; but if subject to us, the Khivan territory would become a stronghold, which would defend this commerce against the attacks of the tribes dispersed over Southern Asia. This oasis, situated in the midst of an ocean of sand, would become the point of re-union of all the commerce of Asia, and would shake, even to the centre of India, the enormous commercial preponder- ance of the dominators of the sea> The route from Khiva to Astrakhan might be greatly shortened, since it ia but seventeen days' march from Orgunj to the Bay of Krasnovodsk, whence, with a favourable wind, Astrakhan may be reached in a few days." MOURAVIEV, pp. 344-5. (Quart; Rev. vol. xxxvi. p. 127.) It could hardly be expected that Russia would tamely submit to see these brilliant prospects closed against her by the advance of the " dominators of the sea" beyond the Indus, an event of which no anticipation existed when the above lines were written j but the commercial value of Khiva canoot be duly estimated without a previous ex- planation of the change in political relations which will be induced by its conquest; and this point we shall first proceed to consider. Hitherto, con- tented with a line of southern frontier in Asia, which intersects that conti- nent through its entire length, and