A more serious question for the ruler was, how did it affect his own position with regard to his subjects? Did Yakoob Beg appear in the eyes of the Kashgari as an exacting and oppressive tyrant on account of these heavy impositions? It is impossible to speak on this point with any degree of certainty, but it is only natural to expect that such was the case. No tiller of the ground can feel grateful to a sovereign who required him to hand over almost one-third of his receipts before he made use of one penny of them, even for the payment of his rent. It is scarcely probable that Yakoob Beg approved of such enormous profits going to his officials; but, that having tolerated petty exactions in his earlier days, he found himself unable to attempt the task of coping with the evil when it had assumed such alarming proportions. It is impossible to believe that he remained in ignorance of what was occurring under his very eyes, and there is some evident foundation for the accusation that he participated in the division of the profits of his tax-gatherers. We should be loth to admit the accuracy of such a charge, and yet the arguments in its favour are too plausible to admit of a very confident contradiction. It would not speak well for the efficiency of his secret police if he had remained in ignorance of a fact which was losing him the sympathy of his subjects. The gold mines at Khoten were worked after the fall of that city in 1868, and continued productive down to the present time. There is no information on the quantities of the precious metal that are there turned out in the year, but it is probable that they are not very great. The coal mines near Aksu and Kucha are no longer made use of, except by a few individuals, and the copper mines in that district have, since the departure of the Chinese, only been very partially explored. The jade that used to come in great quantities from Aksu and Khoten, is still to be found throughout Kashgar; but although it is probable that it still nearly all comes from those cities, the Kashgari themselves tell a hesitating tale as to its place of production. A visitor to Kashgar, on going the round of the bazaars, soon found that the people's tongues were tied by the presence, in his train, of a number of the secret police, who had been specially told off to prevent the Feringhee obtaining any troublesome information on the state of the people, or the resources of the state. A striking instance was given him of the close attention paid by these guardians of order to the veriest trifles. The traveller inquired in one stall where the jade, which was the chief commodity of the merchant in question, came from, and received the reply, Aksu. Proceeding to another shop in the street, he repeated the question, when he was informed that it was imported from Khokand. But the traveller said, your neighbour told me it came from Aksu. The shopkeeper, taken aback by this abrupt remark, became confused, and