"He

Abdur Rahman, in whom personal courage was never wanting. was never a fighting man," he wrote of him, " and there is no room for a ruler in Afghanistan who has no military merits whatever." He spoke from the bitter experience of his own defeats, and he had full grounds for dismissing Ishak Khan as a serious pretender for the future. Turkestan is not likely to support its quondam leader who turned coward and ran away in the hour of victory as he did in 1888. Ishak Khan has had twelve years to meditate over his cowardice; and though still a factor in Afghan politics, seated as he is across the border in Russian territory, he counts for little more than a discredited pretender without a following. Russia looms large in the background, but it is late now to make use of Ishak Khan.

An apparently more serious foe to the peaceful succession of Habibullah is Ayub Khan, brother of Yakoob Khan, who was once Amir. Ayub Khan has shown much of the fighting quality which Abdur Rahman regarded as so essential in a pretender to the guddi. The defeat of the British force at Maiwand stands to his account and is not the only one of his military achievements. But Ayub Khan is getting an old man too; and in the recent years of inaction he has spent as semi-pensioner of the Government at Rawalpindi, there have been no signs that he meditated a coup d'état.

Other possible rivals at Kabul or inside the five provinces there may be, but rumour points to none other than Habibullah as the man of the hour. This was what the late Amir intended and the desired result of his lifelong policy. That that policy entailed a ruthless weeding out of the old order of men who aspired to be nothing less than Viceroys beside the throne, rather than Ministers beneath it; that under it has grown up a new race of men, who have not seen with their eyes, nor heard with their ears, save only as the Amir directed; that individuality, to a great extent, has been crushed in the process, and there is a real danger that when the strong hand is relaxed the whole machinery may stop through lack of the one motive power all these things are but the unavoidable results of the only possible policy. And even with these the Amir has done his best to cope. The days of great Ministers are over, but he attempted to supply their place by competent officials. It takes more than the life of one man, and a country with a less conspicuous geographical position than Afghanistan to establish the mechanism of officialdom in such perfection that the wheels run smoothly, though the hand that set them going is withdrawn.

Still Abdur Rahman looked into the future, above all things, and what man could do to ensure peace after his death, he did. The chapter on the succession in his Autobiography is of special interest to-day, and "those who are gifted with wisdom, diplomacy, and common sense," as he himself put it in another connection, will read between

the lines the motive power that has guided his policy throughout. He told no one, he said, not even his relatives and friends, whom he intended to designate as his successor. But those who read can have no doubt whom he had chosen. He himself shows how little tradition points out the heir, by relating the reports that mentioned each of his sons in turn as his successor.

"Some people conjecture that my eldest son, Habibullah Khan, whom they consider the rightful heir, will be the fortunate person; others mention Nasrullah Khan, my second son, because he was chosen by me to go to England to visit her Majesty, the Queen Victoria; this, they say, is a clear sign that I shall appoint him to succeed me. Others, again, held the opinion, before the death of Hafizullah, my dearest and most beloved son, who was so handsome and such a favourite, that he was the heir in my mind. Others say, No, Mahomed Omar, whose mother is one of my most influential wives, will be the heir."

His reasons for not publicly declaring whom he chose to succeed him are stated at length, even unto "sixthly," and each one is a model of worldly wisdom and political sagacity in itself, though the theories of government they contain read oddly side by side. The first two are personal and family reasons. He would not endanger the life of his heir by publicly proclaiming him heir, or set his other sons against himself by nominating one of them, as Shere Ali had done. Thirdly, is a curious mixture of justification by works and divine right that would have delighted the hearts of the Georgian Tories.

"Of course the throne is the property of the Almighty King of Kings, our Creator, who appoints kings as shepherds to guard His flock, and into whose care he confides the creatures of His hands. I therefore leave it unto Him to elect that one of my sons to be the future Amir who proves by his merits to be the most worthy of the honour."

Fourthly jumps unexpectedly from any idea of divine right to the diametrically opposite one of popular election. Afghanistan "is ruled on constitutional principles, namely, the people have full authority to choose their king; and kings who have been forced on the people against their wish have lost not only the kingdom, but their heads as well! It would therefore be ridiculous to force one of my sons upon them against their wish; it is better to leave it to the people to decide who shall be their ruler."

Fifthly and sixthly return to personal reasons again, where he is on surer ground. "Examples are not wanting in history where heirs, after being nominated as such by the reigning monarch, have tried to put an end to the lives of their own fathers to hasten on their own time for ruling." Lastly, he finishes up with good fatherly advice to his sons to stick to one of their number and remain "united and one-hearted."

But although he has given all these reasons at length for not VOL. 157.-No. I.

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nominating his successor publicly by name, yet in all but so many words he nominated Habibullah. "I keep all my sons in my capital of Kabul," he wrote, "and they are all under the orders of my eldest son." All that training can do to fit Habibullah for the guddi has been done. Upon him during recent years gradually devolved more and more responsibility, as the Amir saw his experience grow and his conduct justify promotion. Latterly, even the durbar, never previously held without the presence of the Amir, has been presided over by Habibullah alone, and to him the same respect and dignity were paid as to the Amir himself. All his other sons the Amir placed in positions of direct subordination to him, and made them all submit reports of their offices to him. "Every official," he wrote, "is ordered to look upon my son as the person whose commands must be obeyed." That officials did so look upon him there can be no doubt, when the Amir goes on to relate that he had authority to appoint or dismiss all officers, civil and military, or increase or decrease their pay. "He is the supreme court of appeal; he is above all the ecclesiastical courts, the revenue and commercial courts, and the criminal courts; there is no court over him with the exception of my own durbar."

After that there is little more to be said. Abdur Rahman could scarcely have designated his successor more plainly; but not content with having spoken of the powers with which he had invested him, he even goes so far as to say:

"He scarcely requires a fresh nomination to the throne after my death, for at that moment he would be prepared to fulfil all the duties he has been practising under my instruction and guidance. He will not have to struggle and fight in order to establish his authority, nor are there any of his brothers in a position to oppose him, they being his servants, as are other officials in the kingdom. They are brothers by ties of blood, but servants in the administration of the kingdom."

Surely no King of the Romans ever had a greater hope of empire than Habibullah Khan. It only remains to be seen whether among those brothers who have been schooled to be his servants there is one capable of upsetting the carefully devised scheme of Abdur Rahman, and ousting Habibullah from the guddi.

In Habibullah himself, from all that is known, a pretender will have no mean antagonist. Abdur Rahman's sagacity can be trusted not to have wasted years in training him for a position he was not fitted to occupy. He was far too patriotic and ambitious for his country to sacrifice it for a mere whim on his part, and Habibullah, with so much power centred in his hands, must have long since shown the sharp-sighted Amir what he was worth.

Beyond the large part that he has played in the administration of the country in recent years but little is known of the new Amir. He is said to be very pro-English in his views, and as the pupil of

his father he will hardly be the reverse. He is now about thirty years of age, and Lord Curzon wrote of him six years ago that he was a young man of great charm of manner and popular throughout the country. Few Afghan rulers have been endowed with such qualifications of birth, training, and position when the opportunity came for them to succeed to the guddi. The future remains for Habibullah to show what manner of man he is. If he follows in his father's footsteps, the steady development of Afghanistan can be confidently predicted and peace assured. Abdur Rahman, with characteristic perspicacity, saw where his interests lay between the two great empires that hedged him in.. The British were content with alliance and had no desire to extend their borders to the Russian frontier. Abroad his scope might be limited, but he valued that which he had, and took the internal independence that the British Government gave, and he found the work of centralisation and consolidation that were the crying needs of his country a sufficient task even for his untiring energy and many-sided genius.

F. B. BRADLEY-BIRT, I.C.S.

THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACT:

WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT MIGHT BE.

THERE is no accusation more frequently brought against the Workmen's Compensation Act than that it has failed to provide for the injured workman, as it was intended to do, a prompt and indisputable means of support; and it must be admitted that the number of cases under it so far tried in the law courts lends at least a reasonable foundation for the charge.

It is true that all legislation closely touching on the personal life of the people will naturally give more or less employment to the lawyers before it can be got into complete working order, and that, as doubtful points are settled on appeal, the number of lawsuits may certainly be expected to decrease. But whilst such a reduction may mean a lessening in the need for legislation, it may very well also mean the exact opposite, or the growth of a conviction that it is useless for the poor man to try to assert his rights. In any case, it is clear that only prolonged experience can decisively settle whether any slackening in legal action that may come is a proper cause for satisfaction or not, and that at present our sole means of forming an opinion must be limited to an examination into the character of the Act as giving obviously needless opportunities for legal intervention.

Regarded from this point of view, it seems impossible to imagine any other than an unfavourable verdict. No one can pretend that the higher or lower rate of wages paid to a man at any given time; the average amount he may have earned per week with the same employer; the mistakes or carelessness of his foreman or comrades ; the chance of whether an accident kills or only injures; his position as a married or unmarried man, or as one with legal dependents; are any of them circumstances having directly or inevitably a visible connection with the chances of accident to the victim himself, or even with the comparative risks inherent to the pursuit of any particular industry; yet every one of these details have given rise to difficulties, often practically fatal, in the recovery of compensation which in strict equity should have been paid without question.

The fact of the matter is that, under the pressure of contending and irreconcilable political interests, the Act as it issued from