Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/92

 not exactly an abode of bliss, or in any way coming up to the standard of an English prison, is not by any means the noisome dungeon which one might naturally expect to see.

The Amir of Bokhara, whose acquaintance M. Klemm did not seem to wish us to make, is a young man of about thirty, who is allowed by the Russians to manage the internal affairs of his country as an independent sovereign, on condition of leaving his foreign relations, and, if necessary, placing his small, and not particularly efficient, army entirely in Russian hands. Wedged in between the Russian dominions of Turkestan on one side, and Transcaspia on the other, and traversed by a military railway, which, as a great concession on the part of Russia, does not pass within ten miles of 'Bokhara the Noble,' the Amir is nothing but a humble vassal and servant of Russia, which does not occupy the country, because she derives all the benefits from it, which she can wish to obtain, without incurring the expense of its administration. The capital, which is about twelve miles in circumference, is still a great city, for it contains