politicians were of opinion that the expedition, Sir Henry Fane declining to put himself though it might be attended at the outset with at the head of the reduced force now condelusive success, would close in disaster and sidered sufficient to drive out Dost Madisgrace. Among those who most emphatically hommed and set up Shah Soojah, the comdisapproved of the movement, and predicted its

failure, were the Duke of Wellington, Lord mand devolved upon Sir John Keane, ComWellesley, Mr. Edmondstone, and Sir Charles mander-in-Chief at Bombay, who, advancMetcalfe.-Ibid. p. 363.

ing with a division from his own presidency, met the Bengal column in Upper Sinde, and To these weighty names our author might thence led the united army up the Bolan have added more among others that of the pass to Candahur. Our choice of a line of late Mr. St. George Tucker, whose minute march did not escape the malicious sarcasms as chairman of the Court of Directors against of our Mahommedan subjects, who used our whole trans-Indus policy is said to have sneeringly to ask why the English gentlebeen a masterly production. Indeed, it will men went by so roundabout a route, while be found that from first to last the Court of the straight road to Cabool, across the terDirectors acted up to the spirit of their own ritory of their ally Runjeet Sing, lay open warning, sent to the Governor-General in a before them? despatch dated 20th September, 1839, 'to In Candahar Shah Soojah met with a welhave no political connexion with any state come calculated to confirm him, and his or party in those regions to take no part friends among ourselves, in the belief of his in their quarrels-but to maintain, so far as still retaining some hold on the affections of possible, a friendly connexion with all of his country men. It was, however, the last them.' (p. 364.) But we must conclude gleam of popularity that shone upon the this topic by citing some remarks of the poor puppet king, whom the Afghans even very highest of all authorities on Indian matters-the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone-as conveyed in a private letterwhich Mr. Kaye, we are to presume, has had proper leave for producing in his book :

then began to say that the English carried about with them like a corpse in a coffin.

Sir John Keane again advanced, and the fortress of Ghiznee, which, strange to say, he wanted the means to reduce by any ordinary process of siege, fell before the bold plan of blowing open one of its gates, sug

You will guess what I think of affairs in Cabool you remember when I used to dispute with you against having even an agent in Ca-gested and executed by Major George bool; and now we have assumed the protection Thompson, of the Bengal Engineers. Dost of the state as much as if it were one of the Mahommed, who had been hovering near, subsidiary allies in India. If you send 27,000 drew off in dismay at the sudden fall of the men up the Durra-i-Bolan to Candahar (as we citadel of the Afghan race, and allowed our hear is intended), and can feed them, I have army to march into Cabool without further no doubt you will take Candahar and Cabool, opposition. Into that city, the goal of all and set up Soojah; but for maintaining him in his hopes, Shah Soojah entered on the 7th a poor, cold, strong, and remote country, among a turbulent people like the Afghans, I own it of August, 1839, escorted by our troops, seems to me to be hopeless. If you succeed I and uncheered by the slightest semblance fear you will weaken the position against Russia. of a greeting from the inhabitants :--The Afghans were neutral, and would have received your aid against invaders; they will now No man cried, God save him; be disaffected, and glad to join any invader to No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home. drive you out. I never knew a close alliance between a civilized and an uncivilized state that did not end in mutual hatred in three years. If the restraint of a close connexion with us cisely as predicted by Mr. Elphinstone in were not enough to make us unpopular, the that powerful though simply worded note connexion with Runjeet and our guarantee of which our readers have just perused. But his conquests must make us detested. These

Thus far everything had happened pre

opinions, formed at a distance, may seem absurd now began a course of delusion, such as not on the spot, but I still retain them notwith- only he could not have anticipated, but such standing all I have yet heard.'-vol. i. p. 363. as is, we believe, unparalleled in the history

of the follies of the wise. It spread like a While these gloomy forebodings, shared moral epidemic-affecting often the brightby many though expressed by few, were est and the clearest intellects. It was weakdepressing the spirits of the thoughtful, our est in the lowly and most virulent with the army moved off, undisturbed by any feel- lofty. It affected the envoy on the spot, ing save one of regret at the diminished the Governor-General and his attendant saimportance of the expedition, in consequence tellites in India, spreading from them across of the retrogression of the worthier foe with the ocean to Cannon Row and Downing whom they had hoped to grapple at Herat. Street, but passing innocuously over the

mansion in Leadenhall. There, it is evi-11816, and in that with Ava afterwards, of dent, from the following passages, as well the risk attending the permanent detachment as from that cited a few pages back, the of a small force, were urged against the prudelusion was stayed :-the intellects of its dence of leaving single battalions at such inmates were not to be bewildered even by places as Ghiznee and Charikar-it was reany casual gleam of success which shot across the troubled scene of our Afghan policy. On the 31st of December, 1840, the Court of Directors had written out to the supreme Government :—

plied that the wisdom of our administration was winning on the esteem of the Afghans, and that ordinary rules did not apply to a people over whom we were establishing an empire not of force but of kindliness.-Even "We pronounce our decided opinion that for in an election speech, between the harsh in England a taunting parallel was drawn, many years to come the restored monarchy will have need of a British force, in order to main- sway of the French in Algiers and our own tain peace in its own territory and prevent affectionate tenure of Afghanistan !—But aggression from without. We must add that there was a party, and that one by no means to attempt to accomplish this by a small force, the least interested, who, if our information or by the mere influence of British residents, be correct, as we believe it is, took a view will, in our opinion. be most unwise and frivo- of affairs infinitely less cheering than that lous, and that we prefer the entire abandonment of the country and a frank confession of adopted by the optimists of the East or the That party complete failure to any such policy.-To what- Hustings orators of the West. He is said to ever quarter we direct our attention, we behold was Shah Soojah himself. the restored monarchy menaced by dangers have ere long declared, after the fashion of which cannot possibly be encountered by the Asia, in a metaphor at once ludicrous and military means at the disposal of the minister pathetic, that unsupported by the British at the court of Shah Soojah, and we again de Government he was and could be nothing sire you seriously to consider which of the two but a radish-the least rooted of plants. alternatives (a speedy retreat from Afghanistan, or a considerable increase of the military The poor old King's own finger traced the force in that country) you may feel it your duty characters on the wall-but they were not to adopt. We are convinced that you have no regarded. middle course to pursue with safety or with honour."

At length, on the 2nd of November, 1841, the explosion came-and a clear narrative of what ensued occupies the second volume Six months afterwards the Court again of this book. The performance hardly adwrote (June 2, 1841:)—

"The surrender of Dost Mahommed does not alter the views contained in our late letter; and we hope that advantage will be taken of it to settle affairs in Afghanistan according to those views."-vol. ii. p. 256.

mits of being epitomised. Though many of the leading events have been already recounted in separate publications, still much will there be found that has only been brought to light through Mr. Kaye's research; while even the best known details acquire something of the freshness of novelty from the skill displayed in weaving them into one connected history.

The delusion we have spoken of consisted in a real sincere belief in the friendly feel ings towards Shah Soojah, and towards our- The two political authorities, Sir William selves as his supporters, of the majority of Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes,— the people of Afghanistan. So late as in the two military commanders, Generals the month of September, 1841, the country Elphinstone and Shelton,-and the two was stated, in letters from Cabool, to be most prominent among the Afghan chiefs, quiet from Dan to Beersheba; and on the Shah Soojah and Akbar Khan, are not very eve of the outbreak-as we are told merely made to sit for their portraits, but by Mr. Kaye (vol. ii. p. 3)—Burnes 'con- are exhibited before us in action with that gratulated Macnaghten on his approaching dramatic power which communicates so departure at a period of such profound tran- stirring an interest to the whole work. If quillity.' among those vivid portraitures there be any During the two years of our precarious one of which we would fain soften the outfooting in Afghanistan, the partisans of the line, it is that of the amiable and gallant policy pursued were wont to smile compas- officer whose greatest fault was his not havsionately at the weakness of those who sawing had the moral courage to disregard the danger to an army separated by nearly forty fancied professional obligation to accept a marches, by five broad rivers, and an inde- command for which he was physically dispendent state of a fickle character, from qualified. Our author, we think, goes too every means of support. If the instances far when he pronounces General Elphinstone which occurred in the war with Nepal in to have been fit only for the invalid esta

blishment on the day of his arrival in India' weakness of his military associates. Sir (vol. ii. p. 44):-for we have understood William Macnaghten's real error may be that while at the head of the most impor- told in a very few words. While Secretary tant division in Upper India, that of Meerut, to the Governor-General, he had contributed he exhibited no want of talent for command, to create the delusion regarding the kingand was distinguished by his judicious firm- ship of Shah Soojah and the loyalty of the ness in maintaining the moral discipline of Afghans, in which, as Envoy, he afterwards the troops under his charge. The fact of so largely shared. This prevented his seehis being so afflicted with the gout as to ing or hearing aught that made against a render active movement in a hilly country policy originating in some measure with an impossibility was so notorious, that the himself, and subsequently adopted by the selection of him for the service of Afghan- head of the Government in India, and by istan is only to be accounted for from the the Governor-General's ministerial friends. delusion already spoken of as prevailing in Hence arose his disregard of the monitory the highest quarters. That Afghanistan was symptoms of the very danger with which, as tranquil as any province in our empire when it did come, he immediately showed was the main tenet of the then dominant how fitted he was to grapple. He perhaps creed; and in conformity with this suppo- clung too long to the cantonments, though, sition, the first upon the roster, be he who when forced to give up all hope of preservhe might, was to be preferred to Sir Harry ing that position, we have now the clearest Smith, Sir George Pollock, or any other of proof that he did his utmost to persuade― the hale and able generals who were at hand for unfortunately he could not compel-his for the duty. Of the fatality which gave to military coadjutors to move into the Balasuch a chief such a second as General Shelton, Hissar. we can only speak as we would of the inscrutable provisions of Heaven for the chastisement of erring rulers and nations. Their several qualities are contrasted with impartial severity in the following passage :—

Mr. Kaye describes with rare energy the last tragic hour of this accomplished gentleman's career. In conclusion he says:

'Thus perished William Hay Macnaghten, struck down by the hand of the favourite son 'They were both of them brave men. In any of Dost Mahommed. Thus perished as brave a other situation, though the physical infirmities gentleman as ever in the midst of fiery trials of the one, and the cankered vanity, the dog- struggled manfully to rescue from disgrace the matical perverseness of the other, might have reputation of a great country. Throughout in some measure detracted from their efficiency those seven weeks of unparalleled difficulty and as military commanders, I believe that they danger he had confronted with steadfast courwould have exhibited sufficient constancy and age every new peril and perplexity that had courage to rescue an army from utter destruc- risen up before him; and, a man of peace himtion and the British name from indelible re-self, had resisted the timid counsels of the warproach. But in the Cabool cantonments they riors, and striven to infuse, by his example, were miserably out of place. They seemed to some strength into their fainting hearts. Whathave been sent there by superhuman interven- ever may be the judgment of posterity on other tion to work out the utter ruin and prostration phases of his character and other incidents of of an unholy policy by ordinary human means. his career, the historian will ever dwell with Elphinstone knew nothing of the native army; pride upon the unfailing courage and constancy Shelton was violently prejudiced against it: of the man who, with everything to discourage Elphinstone, in a new and untried position, had and depress him, surrounded by all enervating no opinion of his own; Shelton, on the other influences, was ever eager to counsel the nobler hand, was proud of his experience, and obsti- and manlier course, ever ready to bear the burnately wedded to his own opinions. It would then of responsibility and face the assaults of have been impossible, indeed, to have brought danger. There was but one civilian at Cabool, together two men so individually disqualified and he was the truest soldier in the camp. for their positions, so inefficient in themselves, vol. ii. p. 155. and so doubly inefficient in combination. Each made the other worse. The only point on which they agreed was unhappily the one on which it would have been well if they had differed. They agreed in urging the envoy to capitulate.-vol. ii. p. 129.

The gloomy interval which followed the death of the Envoy-the re-appearance, and ever with additional claims upon our admiration, of Eldred Pottinger-the sad exode from the cantonment-the strange clinging of men in that hour of agony, even at the This last line by itself almost suffices to risk of life, to their household goods-the convey the correctest idea of the fearfully admirable conduct of our country womendifficult position of that high-minded man, the massacre of the unresisting mass-the whose memory some even in the senate undaunted but unavailing resistance of the have sought to load with the blame of all few-the gradually diminishing number of that happened through the incapacity and the fugitives, till at last one single man alone

escapes to carry to Julalabad the news of our author's able narrative. However pleasthe destruction of fifteen thousand of his ing too it might be to dwell upon the tale fellow-creatures with whom he had started of our reviving fortunes, it is from the rea few days before from Cabool;-all of cord of our disasters that the most useful these incidents have, it is true, been told lessons are to be drawn. already, but never we think with such effect as in this the first connected history of the

war.

We feel that we have quoted much-but cannot omit the following passage in the description of the terrible scene at Jugdulluck, happily expressive, as it appears to be, of our author's sympathy with that noble corps whose uniform he has had the honour to

In looking back upon the part of Mr. Kaye's work which we have most closely examined, we are struck with three conclusions as directly deducible from the vivid narrative. These are, firstly, the mischievous consequences to India of its affairs being in any way linked with the oscillations of party-struggles in England; secondly, the mischief which may flow from the secret and irresistible sway exercised by the Board of Control over the deliberations of the 'Here too fell Captain Nicholl, of the Horse Court of Directors; thirdly, the dangers atArtillery, who with his men, all through the tending the systematic separation of the dangers of the investment and the horrors of Governor-General from the other members the retreat, had borne themselves as gallantly

wear.

as the best of English soldiers in any place and of the Supreme Council in India. at any time. Ever in the midst of danger, now If it were but an idle vaunt once heard in charging on horse and now on foot, were these India, that it was to the authors of the Affew resolute artillery-men. With mingled ad-ghan war the Whigs owed their return to miration and awe the enemy marked the des- power in 1839, there is no doubt of this experate courage of the "red men," and shrank pedition having been regarded by many as the war-horse of their party-or that Lord Auckland, in disregarding the admonitions of the Court of Directors, and the warnings of the Commander-in-Chief on the perilous position of our force beyond the Indus, was greatly influenced by the fear lest, by withdrawing from the enterprise, he should da

from a close conflict with what seemed to be superhuman strength and endurance. There is not much in the events of the outbreak at Cabool, and the retreat to Julalabad, to be looked back upon with national pride; but the monumental column on which are inscribed the names of the brave men of Nicholl's troop who then fell only displays the language of simple unostentatious truth when it records that, "on occasions of unprecedented trial officers and mage his political friends in England. In men upheld in the most noble manner the char- regard to the sway exercised by the Board acter of the regiment to which they belonged." of Control over the Court of Directors, all And years hence, when it has become a mere tradition that Dum-Dum* was once the headquarter station of that distinguished corps, the young artilleryman standing in the shadow of the column will read how Nicholl's troop, the oldest in the regiment, was annihilated in the fearful passes of Afghanistan, will dwell on the heroic conduct which preceded their fall, and glow with pride at the recollection that those Brave men were a portion of the regiment which now bears his name upon its rolls."

we can gather from the history before us is, that it must in the instance of the Afghan war have operated to stifle or to render of no effect much sound and sensible counsel which the Directors were anxious to impart to their servants abroad. As concerns the separation of the Governor-General from his Council, we have shown at the beginning of this article what its effects are likely to be; and all the facts detailed in these volumes The Indian Artillery have indeed cause to tend to make good Mr. Kaye's assertion, look back with pride upon a war in the that, if Lord Auckland had not quitted Calcourse of which there issued from its ranks cutta, he would have followed a line of such men as Pottinger, D'Arcy Todd, Ab. policy more in accordance with his own feelbott, and Shakespear-all, as we haveings and opinions, and less destructive to shown, distinguished at Herat; George Macthe interests of the empire' (i. 304). gregor, the able political coadjutor of Sir will again have to decide upon the future The time draws near when Parliament Robert Sale at Julalabad; and lastly, Sir George Pollock, of whose skilful advance would in the interim acquire some knowgovernment of India; and to those who military character, and liberate our captive we can recommend no better study than ledge of the working of the present system, countrymen and country women, we would, that of the annals of the first great event but that our limits forbid, gladly follow out which has occurred since, by the power of steam, India has been brought nearer to England, and consequently more under the influence of home-bred politicians.

from Peshawur to Cabool to retrieve our

* The artillery-station about ten miles from Cal

cutta.

ART. III.—1. A Primer of the History of the the circumstances under which so many have Holy Catholic Church in Ireland, from the quitted the Church of Rome-the instruIntroduction of Christianity to the Forma- mentalities that have been at work-the tion of the Modern Irish Branch of the worth of the avowed proselytism. The AsChurch of Rome. Third Edition. By sociation over which Dr. Cullen presides the Rev. R. King, A.B. Dublin, 1851. maintains that unscrupulous zealots have 2. The Experiment of Three Hundred Years. abused the confidence and charities of EngA Statement of the Efforts made by the land to the base purpose of seducing starv English Government to make known the ing men into a simoniacal abandonment of Gospel to the Irish Nation. By the Rev. their religion. We quote the words of the H. B. Macartney, Vicar of Kilrock. Dub- Rev. James Maher, one of the most prominent speakers at the second meeting of this body:

lin. 1847.

3. A Report on the Books and Documents of the Papacy, deposited in the University Li brary, Cambridge, the Bodleian, and Trinity College, Dublin, in 1840. London. 1852.

'Missionaries have of late visited every part of England to raise a fund for the conversion of Ireland. The money was wanted to buy up converts to bribe men to abandon the faith of their fathers-in order to fill up the empty IF reports which have taken public attention churches of the Establishment. At first the by surprise are to be credited, elements of missionaries took so little trouble to conceal almost marvellous change are fermenting in their real object, proselytism by bribes, that Dr. Ireland :-Romanism is in process of break- Whately deemed it necessary, in an address to ing up-life and thought are stirring and his clergy in 1847, to reprove such practices. struggling within it; and not alone in some casion for urging any one to change his religion There cannot be (he said) a more unsuitable ocpeculiar locality, or in one passionate sally and adopt ours, than when we are proposing to reof secession, but in variously circumstanced lieve his physical necessities. We present ourselves districts, and in a continuous outpouring, to his mind as seeking to take an ungenerous advan which has deepened and widened until the tage of his misery-as converting our benefactions rivulet has swelled into a stream that prom--The charge of proselytism by bribes has been ises to become a flood. Multitudes upon established by the best evidence the case admits of." multitudes are represented as passing away Weekly Telegraph [a Popish organ], Jan. 31, from a Church, 'out of which,' they used to 1852. believe, there was no redemption '—and we, Protestants, that there was no deliver

ance.

into a bribe to induce him to violate his conscience."

But the charge against the Protestant missionaries was by no means left to the hazards of popular declamation, and permitted to evaporate as the effervescence of an excited meeting subsided. It was deposited in a form of more permanence than the priest's harangue, or at least in a statement for which the Catholic Defence Associa tion' rendered itself more directly responsible. We extract from the published Address of its Committee.

Leading organs of the Press, British and Irish, Protestant and Romanist, are agreed as to the fact. Strangers, prejudiced and unprejudiced, who have visited that country for the express purpose of exploring its religious condition, report to the same effect. Speakers at public meetings grow eloquent in praise or in censure of the New Reformation. A 'Catholic Defence Association,' under the presidency of Archbishop Cullenspecial nominee of the Pope-is employed England from Protestants of every class, and 'Meetings are held and money is collected in to put this Reformation down. A Society often at much sacrifice on the part of the givers, is established by the Lord Archbishop of who imagine that they are extending by lawful Dublin (Dr. Whately) to protect converts and honourable means the religion which they against Papist persecution. And, after am- have been taught and think to be true. ple consultation with the heads of the Es-are sure that many of the contributors to these tablished Church, the Lord Bishop of Tuam funds little know how they are expended. The (Dr. Plunkett) has announced his resolution have been raised from poverty to abundance by local agents. in many instances Catholics, who to dispense with the University testimonials the salaries which they receive as Protestant usually required of candidates for Holy Or- ministers, &c., have to earn those salaries by ders, that he may provide for Irish-speaking reporting lists of converts. attendants at Protes congregations, converted from Rome, min- taut congregations, and scholars at Protestant isters with whom they can hold converse in the language they best understand. No trivial movements could have led to such

We

schools; and, not content with grossly exaggerating those whom they have, they have been utterly unscrupulous as to the meals employed to obtain more. Bribery has been used with much effect among the starving peasantry; and The debate, in truth, is now limited to wherever the agents [of the landlords] are up

results as these.