Sir Stafford Northcote, in reply, after admitting that up to
a very late period the Government thought the Mission would have been received and war avoided, defended Lord Cranbrook's de- spatch, which had been considered by the whole Cabinet, though it contained, no doubt, a suggestion which Lord Northbrook denied. That suggestion, however, was not, on the perusal of the whole correspondence, an unnatural one. He went rapidly over the principal transactions with the Ameer, and observed that communications had been opened with St. Petersburg, and had elicited friendly replies, but that the Government of Russia was frequently unable to control the proceedings of its own distant officers. It was necessary for us " to take some step to secure our proper position in Central Asia." He was as much opposed to a war of aggrandisement now as in 1867, but he was not opposed to measures of defence and security. It was impossible, while operations were going on, to define the limits of the war ; but its object was the security of the frontiers, and he hoped and believed the struggle would be short.
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