not perhaps be entirely unreasonable to think, ti 
the possession of a belt of cultivated and inhabit 
territory, extending directly from the Caspian 
 
nullify the need now felt by Russia, of re-establishing 
the old Seric commercial route from the lower Attrek 
along the northern frontiers of Khorassan. Thus 
the question of Russian boundaries on the Perso- 
Affghan frontier might be ultimately solved in a 
satisfactory way to both Powers. 
The opportunity moreover which would be 
afforded by the reclamation of the Khwarezmian 
dIeserts for the settlement of the most barbarous of 
the Turkoman tribes, would remove one great cause 
of uneasiness which is common to the statesmen both 
of England and of Russia; while the civilising current 
passing through the reclaimed country would infallibly 
act upon neighbouring countries, whose geographical 
position renders them inaccessible to peaceful in- 
fluences from Hindustan. Nor is it improbable that 
 
national unity and sympathy with progress which 
 
British statesmen are endeavouring to realise among 
the chiefs and tribes on the north-west frontier of 
India, would receive a felicitous impulse from the 
enormous material benefits which promise to accrue to