CAPTAIN GROVER'S BOKHARA VICTIMS.
CAPTAIN GROVER is a friend of the late Colonel Stoddart, and of Dr. Wolff, whose return from his dangerous Bokhara expedition has just been matter of public gratulation. The gallant Captain is also Chairman of the Committee of the Stoddart and Conolly Fund, which body he was a main instrument in organizing; he has been engaged in extensive cor- respondence upon the subject of the " Bukhara Victims," especially with the Foreign Office ; he has travelled to St. Petersburg with a view to in- terest the Russian Government in their liberation; and in addition to all the trouble and expense incident to his self-imposed duties, he has been victimized by the Foreign Office to the tune of four hundred pounds and a pair of gloves. This result was brought about in the following manner.
Our Agent at Teheran, having an inkling that Dr. Wolff might draw upon him from Bokhara, wrote anxiously to know what he was to do about honouring the bills. The Foreign Office replied, that he might incur " any reasonable expenditure " to get the Doctor out of Bokhara ; after which, it seems, the excellent enthusiast might have been left to shift for himself in the heart of Persia, but that Captain Grover came forward with a guarantee for a sum not exCeeding 500/., by which means Dr. Wolff was enabled to obtain a supply. In course of time, a bill for 4004 endorsed by Mr. Bandinel of the Foreign Office, was presented to Captain Grover, accepted at sight, and honoured the next day, though drawn at a month. The Captain then wrote to Lord Aberdeen, requesting the return of his guarantee:, and Somewhat pluming himself upon hii four hundred pounds. The. Office, in a rather paltry mode of evasion, denied that the bill cum " officially" ; and a correspondence ensued, strong on the part of the Captain, or, in diplomatic style, " seeming, by the tone and language, to cast a slur upon the conduct of her Majesty's Govern- ment; which," continues the Under .Secretary, " has, in fact, been Iluoughout humane and consistent." The Captain, however, stuck to his text ; and Lord Aberdeen, seeming to get ashamed of the transaction, sent for Captain Grover, tried to talk him over and offered to pay him bin four hundred pounds if he would withdraw his two last letters. ' " The Lordship again warmly urged me to withdraw the letters, I positively ima firmly declined; telling his Lordship, that if he were as happy at saving the 4001. as I was in paying them and being the humble instrument of restoring Dr. Wolff to his country, then indeed we were two happy men. I felt too indignant at the insult that had been offered to me to hear his -Lordship's reply, and hastened as quickly as possible from his Lordship's presence."
In his haste and anger forgetting his gloves, which remain as a sort of - .
spa& ,opima for the Foreign Office. This was not the only occasion on-which the veteran was too hard for " this Office." A Lieutenant Wyburd is among the missing in Central -Asia : Captain Grover had learned that he had been appointed on a secret mission to Khiva by Sir John Campbell, in a despatch sent to the East India Company, but of which the Foreign Office had notice and a copy. Upon 'this private knowledge of the country, the old soldier laid an-am- bush, into which the unwary diplomatists fell. Saying nothing of his proof, the Chairman of the Stoddart and Conolly Committee wrote to call Lord Aberdeen's attention to the case of Wyburd in connexion with that of Dr. Wolff. The Office grandly, yet blandly, replied—" With respect to the statements in your letter that Lieutenant Wyburd was sent on a -secret mission to Rhiva in the year 1835, I am to inform you that THIS OFFICE is not aware that Lieutenant Wyburd was sent on any mission at all to Khiva." Captain Grover, in reply, gave particulars and dates ; when "this Office" had to explain its "error,"—somewhat after the fashion of Wotton's celebrated definition of an ambassador, substituting at home fbr "abroad," and this Office for " country." ; These things go to the morality of the Office. The following strange _feet will, we dare say, he felt-by efficials to be more discreditable than
any little official laxity. ' ' ' "
DOWNING STREET GEOGRAPHY.
In the case of my unfoitunate friend, [Stoddart,] no sooner did Saleh Mahon- reed's-lying lying statement the man is now a convicted scoundrel) reach Downing Street, When these . ernen, without even taking the trouble to send lo the Royal Geographical ety, to inquire in what part of the world Bokhara was situated, officialfranimanced that Colonel Stoddart had died at " Bokhara in Persia!" I can assure the reader that I am not „joking now; the above melan- choly fact will be found in the " Monthly Army List " for Maich 1843. Fcsiiue that this display of ignorance might be perpetuated in the "Annual Army List, I wrote to the Secretary-at-War a letter, in which I expressed to him my desire to avert such a misfortune, and respectfully informed him that Bokhara was an in- dependent nation, more than twice as big as England and Wales and that it had no more to do with Persia than with Russia or China.
I received in reply a letter of thanks, and an intimation that the word "Persia" nould be.left out in the "Annual Army Lid." And so it was! The blunder wilt appear more ridiculous if the reader reflect fw a moment it is like saying he died at England in France—not the mere misplacing of a city, but letting one oountrydrop down upon another. -
Before we leave the Offices, we add An instanoe of official prophecy against fact; remarking that our Author etilldoubts, notwithstanding Dr. Wolff's; statement, whether Stoddart and Cenelly have really teen err ecuted.
DEAD AS A STOCH-FHAI.
I extract the following from a printed report of what took place at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Societyt on the 11th October 184-i
" Mr. Murciuson, the President, in the Chair.
"At the close of the discussion on Dr. Beke's paper, the President, seeing Cal* taro Grover among them, called the attention of the meeting to the great probe. bility of the existence of Colonel Stoddart, a valued member of their Society: he (the President) recollected when Captain Ross had been above three years blocked up in the ice, going to the Admiralty with some scientific men; to urge the autho- rities to take measures to ascertain the fate of that officer and his gallant band': the reply he received was this=' It is well for you scientific gentlemen to form art opinion on a subject icith-which you are totaay unacquainted: we can tell you that Captain Boss is as dead as a stock-fish.' " It may be inferred from our account of The Bokhara Victims that it in some measure partakes of the character of grievance-mongery.. It is, however, an amusing book, from the active, straightforward, uncom= promising character of the author, which displays itself in every sentence; rendering weariness impossible. It is curious, and something more, for the insight it' gives into official doublings and trickery : yet we must say for the Foreign Office, that it has a better and more gentle.; manly tone about it than the Colonial. It stands forth externally platy= sible, though rather scurvy inwards. Its communications to Captain Grover are patient, zonsiderate, and full ; and we think that Lord Aberdeen was only moved by a sense of kindness towards Captain Grover at last, and at first by a mistaken feeling towards red-tape forms, touching the four hundred pounds and Dr. Wolff. The letters of the officials as well as their whole conduct are very clever ; and any one save an old campaigner, 'not to be done by words, would have gone away, doubtful perhaps, yet certainly tickled by diplomatic suavity. The subject of the book also is important, and there is a chance that its importance may be lost sight of in its oddities. Captain Gruver affirms, more especially as regards Stoddart, that the Victims were British Envoys, sent by public authority on public business, and then abandoned to their fate, without even an attempt at rescue. On the contrary, the Government seem to have totally cast them off, lest, if they admitted their character, they might be "embarrassed" in having to claim them. Upon this point the proof in the volume does not seem to be clear. The case of Stoddart rests upon the statement of Captain Grover; and Conolly, though an Envoy as far as Khiva, appears to have gone on to Bokhara sua sponte. Government, in a despatch by Lord Ellenborougb; called them travellers" ; and we suppose they are ready to maintain that view. Our own opinion is decided, that all these unfortunate gene tlemen were in the employ of Government; but we are not so clear that they were employed under circumstances that gave them a right to pro+ tection as envoys—that is, to a war on their account. The employment of secret agents who go on a mission understanding that they take their chance of disavowal, like the employment of spies or the encouragement of conspirators in war, may be a wrong thing abstractedly; but if it be had recourse to, the persons engaged must follow the laws of the basin* they engage in, and risk the consequences : for, in Napier's words, men cannot be ordered on such servioes,—they can only be tempted. 'We do.not say that such was the-case--we only think it was but we do-not see how the doubt is to be cleared up. Even were a Parliamentary ire -quirt' granted, we suspect the fact might not easily be established; for this kind of engagement implies secrecy, and the proofs of an adverse view; should such exist, would not be produced by the Foreign Office; though, if Captain Grover's information is correct, enough might be forthcoming to convict Lord Palmerston of neglect, and Colonel 6toddart of indiamaiii tion and of obstinacy in not departing with the Russian Embassy.
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