the reply do you expect patience from the hungry man, starving while he sees others snatching at his dinner?' And here is the great problem to be solved. In order to complete and secure their frontier and their prosperity, the Greeks feel they must be ever pushing their claims on the notice of Europe; otherwise they may see Austria or Bulgaria at Salonica, and Russia at Constantinople, monopolising their trade and commerce with both East and West, and crushing for ever their aspirations for a reunion of the Greekspeaking populations of the Mediterranean. What Italy has already done, Greece hopes some day to achieve; and the observant traveller who visits that hospitable country in the present day will find that he has not only forged for himself a new link between past and present in the chain of art and history, but he will experience a profound sympathy with a people who, with faults and weaknesses which cannot be disregarded, possess vitality, energy, and imagination worthy of their ancient glories and poetical surroundings.

M. A. A. GALLOWAY.

THE SCIENTIFIC FRONTIER'AN

ACCOMPLISHED Fact.
FACT.

IN the recent debate in the House of Commons (the 13th of March, 1888) on the North-West Indian frontier, the most curious ignorance was displayed as to the geography of the frontier itself. The House was asked to condemn a frontier policy as unwise by persons who required themselves to be informed as to where that frontier was. Mr. Slagg, for instance, who introduced the motion, repeatedly spoke of Kila Abdulla, the Khojak Range, and Chaman as being within the Afghan boundary, though they have been British possessions, assigned by treaty, for the last nine years; and complained of a policy as aggressive which has been strictly confined to the defence of our own outposts, which has not encroached one yard upon alien soil, and which has been conspicuously lacking in every element of offence. This is an ignorance, however, which is not confined to members of Parliament, but is shared by the public at large, and in which there is nothing so very surprising when we consider the difficulty of procuring accurate information about such distant parts, the secrecy most discreetly observed by the Government and the officials in their employ, and the mystery that commonly overhangs strategical operations in times of peace not less than in times of war. There are, nevertheless, certain broad facts and items of information with which the public has some title to be made familiar, and the diffusion of which may dissipate some unreasonable suspicions or satisfy some lingering doubts; facts not perhaps to be found in guide-books or histories, because they are posterior in time to the most recent guide-books, and constitute a chapter in a history as yet unwritten and incomplete, but which are perceptible to a traveller's gaze, even to the uninstructed eye of a civilian who has enjoyed the advantages of an eye-witness upon the spot. In the course of a recent visit to India I spent some time upon the North-West frontier, passing along it from north to south, and visiting its furthermost extension (that so recently impugned) in the direction of Quetta and Kandahar. It is because I believe that this frontier, lately fixed and now being fortified, is one the very situation of which is almost unknown at home, and that the spread of such knowledge will only VOL. XXIII.-No. 136. 3 Q

bring with it, not peril or alarm, but confidence and strength, that I venture to submit the results of my own observations in a public shape.

Upon the larger questions of policy that loom behind the frontier problem I do not desire to say much, being anxious, as far as possible, to avoid a partisan or polemical tone. That the one great external danger which India has to fear is invasion by Russia, is, however, a commonplace which all will admit; and that such a danger is no chimera, none who have watched recent events-the steadfast tramp of Russian armies from the Caspian to the Oxus, the discovery of the incriminating letters at Kabul, the absorption of Merv, and the seizure of Penjdeh-can reasonably deny. The theory of a mysterious centripetal force of a missionary or philanthropic character, irresistibly impelling the Russian arms in the direction of the Sufeid Koh and the Suleiman Range, has perished miserably amid the charge of Cossack lances and the outpouring of Turcoman blood. Geok Tepe shattered it; and the events of 1885 consigned it to the grave. The fool's paradise in which our Liberal statesmen once lived about the Indian frontier is now a deserted tenement; and the eminent author of the phrase about old woman's fears' has since done penance by the most faultless burst of Jingoism known to modern times. It is now fortunately an axiom with both political parties and with all statesmen that India is seriously menaced by Russian advance, that it must be defended at all hazards from that risk, and that every shilling wisely spent in promoting that security is an investment of imperial profit and importance.

The possible avenues of approach to India by which a Russian army might advance are, broadly speaking, three in number-(1) through Kashmir on the north; (2) through Afghanistan on the northwest or west; and (3) with the aid or after the subjugation of Persia from a more southerly direction. The first and third of these lines of attack have generally been recognised as improbable, if not impossible, although their infeasibility is not in the same ratio. The Persian route presupposes a condition of affairs which is not likely to arise for some time at least, and is confronted by physical obstacles believed to be insurmountable. On the other hand, the northern passes of Kashmir, of which little is at present known, might prove, in spite of their great altitude and the brief season of the year during which they are open, to be available; in which case steps would have to be taken to meet any danger arising in that quarter. It is sufficient for our present purpose that the obvious and easiest method of approach, utilised by every previous invader from Alexander to Nadir Shah, and indicated by every move that Russia has so far made, is through Afghanistan and by one of the various passes that pierce the mountain ranges into India; and that it is upon the defence of the parallel frontier that the attention of