relief, as it will enable them to tax lightly the
whole population, instead of emptying the treasuries of the great lamaseries, or monastic establishments. Another was to accept the assurance of the great Lamas that the signature of the " Regent " would be sufficient, because their religious chief in quitting Tibet must be held to have abdicated his throne, which must now be filled either by the Teshu Lama—who is friendly to the British, and will if elected remain so, in hope of our protection against his rival—or, as is perhaps more probable, by a recurrence to that earlier system of government which has only been abandoned for fifteen years, and under which the great Lamas were virtually Mayors of the Palace. The third was the winning over of the Chinese Amban, whose position for some years has been one of great humiliation, but who has been restored by the shattering of the Dalai Lama's power and prestige to his old position, which was that of a British Resident in a protected native State. The Lamas, who for nearly two hundred years have been accustomed to consult Pekin, are evidently, as appears from the proceedings at the final seance, quite willing to recognise him again as repre- sentative of the suzerain who alone could protect them if the Dalai Lama with a force from Mongolia should perchance regain his throne. At the eleventh hour, therefore, the Lamas yielded completely, promised to sign the Treaty in its entirety, admitted Colonel Younghusband, General Macdonald, and sixty British officers into the Potala—of itself an act of treason —and there in the sacred and mysterious palace, never before profaned by a white soldier's foot, a palace more than twice as high (9,600 ft.) in the clouds as Ben Nevis, listened with nods of placid assent to one of the strangest lectures ever delivered in this world. Just imagine the scene and the meaning of it all : the quiet British representative telling the great councillors of that ancient and secluded hierarchy—one of them, the Regent, a man who claims a semi-divine position—that they really must be good children henceforward, that they must respect the British, must abstain from other foreign alliances, must pay attention to the Chinese Emperor, or —the British soldiers who had already defeated them would reappear. And as they nodded assent the electric flashlight poured for a moment over them and they were all photographed, as physical evidence to Europe that the seclusion of Lhasa had been broken. The whole affair is only an incident in the marvellous history of British India, which is so full of strange incidents that a sentence of transportation on the last Great Mogul excited only passing remarks ; but what a picturesque one !
It is of little use to discuss the Treaty until its text is before us, more especially as we gather from the Simla telegram that it may have a secret clause or two ; but if we were to judge it by the light of Colonel Younghusband's address to the Lamas, and by that only, we should say that it covered rather more ground than has hitherto been anticipated. The only possible meaning, for instance, of the sentence about the " traditional policy " of Tibet is that foreign Powers are to be steadily kept out. " We have merely sought," says the calm Envoy, " that you should not depart from your traditional policy in regard to political relations with other countries "; but as that policy was one of complete seclusion, the adverb "merely" must be considered a little cool. You, the masters of Tibet, are not to make treaties with any foreign Powers except ourselves '—that is all ; but that, as the very object of the expedition, is surely a good deal. A clause of that kind, once signed, gives us a firm locus standi either for remonstrance or for action if we are ever threatened from that side ; while if it is not observed, it gives us a serious and adequate reason for armed interference. Nor do we see why the Envoy's utterance about the freedom enjoyed by Tibetans in India was pertinent to the occa- sion unless the Treaty secures to British subjects some freedom of locomotion and travel within the boundaries of Tibet. If that has really been secured, we shall gain much opportunity of trade, though the Indian Govern- ment, strong as it is, may have some trouble in keeping out the prospecting demon, whose ears are even now being lifted to reports that in the upper valleys of the Brahma- putra there is gold and copper, and possibly tin. It is assumed, no doubt•, that the Treaty will not be kept—we must plead guilty to that assumption ourselves—but it is Japanese seems able permanently to avoid. can or will be made by them to carry it in the next We wonder, though it is of little use wondering, whether Parliament. But it may be said : " Home-rule will revive the expedition will produce any unexpected consequences. after a Liberal victory." It will do nothing of the kind, A very small bullet will shatter a china bowl, and it if only because of the deep resentment felt by the Noncon- may happen that the impact of the expedition may have formists against the action of the Irish party in regard consequences larger than the flight of the Dalai Lama. to the English Education Act. The part played by the The news has hardly penetrated yet through the vast Nationalists in the autumn of 1902 has neither been area of Tibet, and as it slowly spreads it may shake the forgotten nor forgiven. But even if the Liberal party allegiance of tribes who have hitherto regarded the were by some miracle to be reconverted to Home-rule, ascendency of Lhasa as part of the order of the universe. and were to be coerced or persuaded into introducing a We know that it has so shaken those who are locally called Home-rule Bill, Unionist Free-traders would have nothing " the people of Kham," who, as brave men, were summoned to fear. A Liberal Ministry, even if we conceive it as by the Dalai Lama to guard his throne, who came up to capable of promising a Home-rule Bill, could not " give Lhasa, it is believed, in great numbers, but who, finding delivery of the goods." The House of Lords may safely the British invincible, mutinied for want of pay. Nothing be relied on to prevent that ; and no sane politician can is really known of the relation of the Lamas to their die- imagine a Liberal Ministry appealing to the country to taut subjects ; but they are evidently not gentle rulers, coerce the House of Lords into repealing the Union. In a there must be people in Tibet who hate them very hard, word, the fear that a Liberal Ministry, elected to prevent and it may well be that as the news of their defeat spreads our Free-trade Fiscal system being destroyed, may use its their authority may cease, and may be replaced by that of mandate, not to withstand Protection, but to destroy the secular chiefs ruling over more restricted areas. The Union, is entirely without foundation. Viceroy of Yunnan, who has sent " armies " into Tibet But though there is no danger of Home-rule being before, may see that his opportunity has arrived; or carried by the Liberals, we are by no means certain that some riding tribe from Mongolia may advance to Lhasa Mr. Chamberlain and the Protectionists might not in just to inquire into matters, and find it convenient certain eventualities be prepared to buy Nationalist support to stay there as rulers of the country. That tribe, re- for Protection by a promise of Home-rule, either under member, may be Mussulman instead of Lamaist. It is all some alias such as "Devolution," or " Provincial Councils," conjecture, and will remain conjecture until the termina- or even in plain terms. And here, unfortunately, the danger tion of the Russo-Japanese War once more sends explorers to the Union would be a real one, for Mr. Chamberlain and upon their travels ; but with the Dalai Lama in flight, the Protectionists might be able " to deliver the goods,"— and the heads of the great monasteries nodding assent to might, that is, be able to persuade the House of Lords to the revolutionary propositions of a foreign and white pass some form of Home-rule, instead of demanding a, invader, that cult of the usual which binds men together reference to the people at a General Election. Such an must have lost much of its cementing force in Tibet. A alliance between the Protectionists and the Nationalists— plateau of six hundred thousand square miles, with an who, remember, are personally Protectionists to a man average height of eleven thousand feet, does not seem at —is indeed a peril to the Union, and one against which it first sight a likely locality for a social explosion. But behoves all true Unionists to be on their guard. The reality such things have happened before now as a consequence of this peril has been recently set forth in an article of of war, and Colonel Younghusband may find that he has no little knowledge and ability contributed by Mr. Sydney been the effective cause of a revolution of which he Brooks to an American newspaper, Harper's Weekly. Mr.
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