not much could be expected in the way of fortune; and although the legal dues on all merchandise were fixed at an _ad valorem_ rate of 2-1/2 per cent., it was soon discovered that if the ruler happened to be in want of cash he would not scruple to take what he could from the stranger. Both to the ruler, and to the foreign merchant, the new arrangement contained distasteful matter. The former perceived that he had surrendered some of his imperial rights, and that he was not to be recompensed by his receiving more money, and the latter knew that the treaty stipulation would not save him from having to pay excess fees. The _Zakat_, far from showing the expected disposition to increase, seemed rather inclined to remain stationary, if not to decrease; and the foreign merchant had obtained some promise on the part of the ruler of personal protection, and of assistance in the disposal of his wares. His discontent at the stagnation in the customs soon showed itself by his exacting excess dues, sometimes on British, sometimes on Russian, but more often on Khokandian and Afghan merchants. Instead of increasing his receipts, these strong measures only threw them back, and left him in a worse plight than he was in before. He had not the patience necessary to enable him to wait with confidence the fuller development of trade, nor had he the perseverance or tact to place fresh inducements in the path of merchants to renew their intercourse with him and his state. Many visited Kashgar with merchandise a first time; but few, indeed, repeated the visit. The ruler was off-handed in his reception of them. They were scarcely accorded any liberty in their movements, and the profit of their journey was greatly reduced by the payment of a due of 5 per cent. instead of the stipulated condition of 2-1/2 per cent. It is a pure fiction, therefore, to say that trade with Kashgar had increased during the rule of the Athalik Ghazi through his friendly inclination. If the amount of merchandise imported into his state had increased, it was owing only to the necessities of its inhabitants, and was a fact that must have taken place either by intercourse direct, or through native states, with the two great providers of Central Asia. The exaggerated enthusiasm that it was endeavoured to raise up in this country about this same mythical ruler of Yarkand never spread far, and there was always some scepticism, if there could be no disproof, of the reports of the formidableness of this new kingdom. Looking calmly at the real state of Yakoob Beg's position, even at the height of his power, we find him to have always been a pecuniarily embarrassed ruler, glad of the smallest windfall in the shape of the spoil of a single merchant. The _Zakat_, his advisers pointed out to him, might be made a most productive source of revenue, if foreign merchants could be induced to bring their wares into the country. The loss the people had felt in the