Tashkend in 1865, Prince Gortschakoff had skilfully prepared the Liberal Cabinet for the reduction of Bokhara and the annexation of Samarcand and the Zerafshan valley. In August of that year Baron Brunnow informed Earl Russell of the alleged grievances against the Khan of Bokhara, and intimated the intention which Russia had of punishing him; and Earl Russell, in a despatch to Sir A. Buchanan, dated September 16th of that year, practically accepts the situation, and declares that her Majesty's Government "are quite ready to believe that legitimate desires for the extension of commerce and the security of the Russian frontiers, and no wish for territorial aggrandisement, guide the proceedings of the Government of Russia." Hence, in face of the fact that Earl Russell had been taken into Prince Gortschakoffs confidence, we had no right to complain of her seizure of Samarcand. It is important, however, to note that although in point of time this conquest corresponded with the term in office of a Conservative Ministry, the Bokhara expedition was planned and partially carried out while their predecessors were in power.
Mr Disraeli's Government were fully alive to the effects which the appearance of the Russians on the Oxus would produce upon Afghanistan and India. Through the Government of India new and more cordial approaches were made to the Ameer, – with considerable reluctance by Lord Lawrence, with great zeal and cordiality by Lord Mayo, who soon after became Viceroy. Lord Mayo succeeded in inspiring Shere Ali with confidence; and had he been left unfettered, he would in all probability have knit Afghanistan and India so closely together, that not only the melancholy termination of the Ameer's career, but all our subsequent troubles in Afghanistan, might have been evaded. But with the advent of Mr Gladstone's Ministry to office, Lord Mayo found all his efforts to exert a favourable influence on Central Asian affairs neutralised. The Duke of Argyll, who took over the India Office from Sir Stafford Northcote, carried the Liberal dogma of non-interference to its extreme limits. He vetoed both the eager wish of the Ameer and the disposition of Lord Mayo and his Council to have a new treaty concluded, and to have our mutual offensive and defensive obligations much more sharply defined than the general agreement to be "friend of the friends and enemy of the enemies" of each other, as had been covenanted between us and Dost Mohammed. A great opportunity was thus thrown away, and we soon had cause to regret it, for shortly afterwards General Kauffmann began to make direct overtures to Afghanistan, which the Ameer, however, loyally discovered to Lord Mayo's Government.
With the arrival of Lord Northbrook in India, we lost our power of touch upon Central Asian affairs. Out of charity for his lordship's capacity, we are forced to conclude that he honestly believed it to be his duty to alienate Shere Ali from British-Indian interests, and to drive him into the arms of Russian intriguers, who, as the Calcutta Foreign Office had abundant evidence to show, were sedulously endeavouring to gain the ear of the Ameer.
From 1870, when, under cover of orders to intimate to all the Central Asian Powers that a perfect understanding existed between Britain and Russia, General Kauffmann sought to open up intimate relations with the Ameer, down to
