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64 make things pleasant for all of its members rather than, by any self-denying ordinance, to maintain the efficiency of the service at its highest point. There is undoubtedly an esprit de corps, but it exists at the expense of patriotism. Some travellers have said that there is a laxity of morals among Russian officers and officials, which greatly detracts from their claims to be considered representatives of a civilised nation. Without pressing this charge home against them, there is abundant evidence on other points to prove that the Russian who seeks a career in Central Asia does so in a desperate mood, and never aspires to display any higher purpose than that of a somewhat reckless adventurer. He leaves the pleasures and luxuries of Moscow, or the capital, to find beyond the steppe that place of refuge which his folly or his crime in Europe has compelled him to seek. By such men as these is the vast dominion of Russia in Central Asia adminis- tered, and how can it be expected that such a governing body could be respectable, or respected by the sedate and dignified Mussulmans of Khokand and Samarcand ? There is nothing in the ordinary Russian to attract sympathy or to command respect. Some affirm that under certain conditions he makes an amusing and gay companion ; but if he be, as Professor Gregorieff asserts, the modern representative of the all-conquering Roman, it must be allowed that he has lost those personal attributes which were the mark of the coun- Even Major Wood, wlio cannot be called an anti-Eussian writer, supports this accusation. -.