never rise, and disputes found now incapable of peaceful set-
tlement, would be settled very easily indeed.

Auckland wearied me with its valiant talk. We had an
officer there--an excellent fellow in his way--who had fought
in our own Afghanistan wars, who knew the ground, and had
maps, and passed as an authority. He proved to us, by argu-
ments completely satisfactory to himself, that unless we seized
Russia by the throat and hurled her back upon the Caspian
we were a ruined nation. Everybody seemed to agree with
him, and I was in a minority of one. I was relieved, there-
fore, when a message came from Sir George Grey that he
was at his island and was expecting us to go to him without
delay.

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