' As we s upposed, Lord Granville has really submitted a
proposal about Russia in Asia to the Go vernment of St. Petersburg. It seems certain that the Note proposed the establishment of a line of demarcation between the Empires, but no information as to its tone has yet transpired. We have an idea, never- theless, that it was more peremptory than English Notes usually are, that it took the Russian statesmen by sur- prise, and that their amazing offer to allow British officers to accompany their columns is intended as a measure of concilia- tion. If this is accurate, and we only put it forward as the view which best reconciles otherwise contradictory facts, some- thing has occurred—possibly in Kashgar—which the British Government thinks of immediate consequence. As the Americans say, there is a "hard pan" in Lord Granville's mind somewhere, though it takes time to get down to it.
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