It-appears at last to be certain that Khiva has fallen.
General Kaufmann, with three columns which had effected a junction, presented himself before the city on 9th June, and received a letter from the Khan offering to surrender the capital and the entire Khanate to the Czar. The General accepting the offer, the gates were thrown open ; but the Khan had fled with his cavalry, and if anything goes wrong with the Russians, may be heard of again. The surrender involves about eighty small towns, and proves, as we have elsewhere tried to show, that the Khanates lie at the mercy of Russia, their fighting classes having utterly lost heart, either from dislike to their Governments, or fear of the new weapons—needle-guns and rockets —that General Kaufmann has brought into the field. It is rumoured that the T a tsurance given to Lord Granville has been repeated, but we should like to see the orders issued for the return movement, and an explanation of the extraordinary rumours current in Con- stantinople. There they are talking of a large loan and an attack -on Persia, both statements, of course, sedulously denied. Every- thing, however, is possible to a Sultan who has declared the Khedive a foreign Prince entitled to enter by their separate gate.
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