The Daily Tcleyraplt of Saturday last published a most important
statement, in which its conductors evidently believed, but which has not received from the public the attention it deserved. According to this account the Emperor of Russia has behaved in a very gentlemanly, as well as "benevolent," way towards the British Government. The Russian Minister of War, General Kuropatkin, con- ceiving the time eminently favourable for a strategical advance in the direction of India, made every preparation for the seizure of Herat, and at length informed his Majesty that everything was ready, and that he only awaited a final order. The Emperor, however, informed him that it was contrary to his habit to take advantage of the embarrassments of another State, and that it was his intention, in spite of the popular sympathy for the Boers, to remain strictly neutral in the present war. We think that story extremely likely to be true. It accords at once with the Russian Emperor's desire for peace, and with his pre- occupation about the extreme East, and it should not be forgotten by the British public. It is they, rather than the statesmen, who keep up that sleepless suspicion of Russian " designs " which more than any other cause pre- vents an agreement with that Power that might ensure peace in Asia for a quarter of a century. Let the Mongolians fight Russia the beat way they can. It is not our business to protect them, nor, as we believe, our interest either.
