Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/90

70 70 ENGLAND AND EUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. military advantages which neither the improvidence of rulers, nor the feuds of races, could take from lands which were barren of everything else. To bring prosperity back to these regions can only be accomplished by a very judicious, and also a very generous expenditure of money in the construction of roads and irrigation works ; when with a settled peace, and the spread of tranquillity, they would become fairly prosperous in the course of several generations. But this prospect is one that the grandchildren only of those who rule now could hope to benefit by. It is too slow a method for the Russian rulers and soldiers of to-day. Works of such a kind as this are not approved of at Tashkent. In the eyes of Russian officers they can all wait their day. They will come in good time, after — I was going to say, the Russians had returned with the spoils of India — but then that is utterly visionary and impossible. At all events, undertakings of this description are not at present appreciated at Russian head- quarters. The tide of conquest has also carried Russia so rapidly along that there has been no time for looking behind or around. The goal lies before, and there is no sign as yet that its attractions have faded in any degree. In Russia's revenue account there figures therefore no return from public works. These are not, like ours in many instances in India, as yet unremune- rative ; they do not exist. It is very strange to find that almost one-third of the revenue is contributed by Russians themselves in various ways, and that of the small sum collected in the gross only two-thirds actually proceed from