addressed a letter to lord Auckland, which conveyed his desire to secure the friendship of the British government. The Governor-General in 1837 despatched Captain Alexander Burnes as an envoy to Cabul. He was received with great courtesy, but soon after his arrival, a Russian envoy also arrived, and Burnes carried back with him a belief that Russia was meditating an attack upon British India, having established her influence in Persia; that Dost Mahomed was treacherous; and that the true way to raise a barrier against the ambition of Russia, was to place the dethroned Shah Soojah upon the throne of Cabul, as he had numerous friends in the country. The alarm-which had risen to a general panic -of the possible danger of a Russian invasion through Persia and Afghanistan, led to the declaration of war against Dost Mahomed in the autumn of 1838.

On the 14th of February, 1839, the Bengal division of the army under sir Willoughby Cotton crossed the Indus at Bukkur. The passage of eight thousand men with a vast camp-train and sixteen thousand camels, over a river nearly five hundred yards in breadth, was effected without a single casualty. The Bengal army was preceded by a small body of troops under the orders of Shah Soojah, and it was followed by the Bombay division under the command of sir John Keane. Into an almost unknown and untrodden country the troops had to enter by the formidable Bolan Pass, nearly sixty miles in length, with precipitous and sterile mountains on every side. There being no sustenance for the camels, unless it were carried for their support, along the whole route their putrefying carcases added to the obstacles to the advance of the army. The Bombay army sustained considerable loss from freebooters in their passage through the Bolan Pass, but the two columns were enabled to unite at Candahar, and to proceed under the command of sir John Keane to the siege of Ghuznee, the stronghold of Mohammedanism, where the tomb of sultan Mahmoud, the conqueror of Hindustan, was still preserved. Ghuznee was regarded by the Afghan nation as impregnable. It had a garrison of three thousand five hundred Afghan soldiers, with a commanding number of guns, and abundance of ammunition and other stores. The Cabul gate was blown open by a terrific explosion; the storming party entered the gate; and in two hours from the commencement of the attack Ghuznee was in the hands of the British forces. There were great doubts, almost universal doubts, at home as to the policy of this Afghan war. There could be no doubt as to the brilliancy of this exploit, nor as to the general conduct of the war. The British army entered Cabul in triumph on the 7th of August. Shah Soojah was restored to his sovereignty. Dost Mahomed had fled beyond the Indian Caucasus. The country appeared not only subjected to the new government, but tranquil and satisfied. The first division of Bengal infantry with the 13th queen's regiment remained in Cabul and Candahar, and Ghuznee and Jellalabad were occupied by native regiments. As the spring and summer advanced insurrections began to break out in the surrounding country. Dost Mahomed had again made his appearance, and had fought a gallant battle with the British cavalry, in which he obtained a partial victory. Despairing, however, of his power effectually to resist the British arms, he delivered himself up to the envoy at Cabul. He was sent to India, where a place of

A.D. 1841.

DISASTROUS RETREAT FROM CABUL.

891

residence was assigned to him on the North-West frontier, with three lacs of rupees (about 30,0001.) as a revenue.

In September and October, 1841, the direction of affairs at Cabul was almost wholly in the hands of sir William MacNaghten, the envoy. Sir Alexander Burnes was also there, but without any official appointment. The chief command of the army was committed to major-general Elphinstone, an almost superannuated Peninsular officer. The army was in cantonments, extensive, ill-defended, overawed on every side. Within these indefensible cantonments English ladies, amongst whom were lady MacNaghten and lady Sale, were domesticated in comfortable houses. On the night of the 1st of November there was a meeting of Afghan chiefs, who were banded together to make common cause against the Feringhees (foreigners). One of these, Abdoollah Khan, proposed that at the contemplated rising the next day the first overt act should be an attack on the house of Burnes, with whom he had an especial quarrel. Burnes was warned by a friendly Afghan, but in vain. Early in the morning his house was surrounded by an infuriated multitude, and he, his brother, and his secretary were murdered. From that day the position of the British at Cabul became more and more perilous. There were four thousand five hundred good troops in the cantonments, but there was no one effectually to lead them against the rebels in the city. There were about six hundred British troops in Shah Soojah's palace. General Sale and general Nott were expected with reinforcements, but they were themselves hemmed in by enemies. In the first week of December the troops in cantonments were threatened by the near approach of starvation. Negotiations were going on with the Afghan chiefs for the safe retreat of the army, and for a supply of provisions. The Afghans requiring as a first condition that the forts in the neighbourhood of the cantonments should be given up, they were evacuated; and then the enemy looked down with triumphant derision upon those who, within their defenceless walls, were perishing, whilst the supplies which had been promised them were intercepted by a rabble from the city. Every day added to the expected difficulties of the retreat. MacNaghten, wearied and almost desperate amidst the bad faith and insulting demands of the chiefs, consented to go out, with three friends, about six hundred yards from the cantonment, to a conference with Akbar Khan, the son of Dost Mahomed. The envoy and one of his companions were murdered. The other two, who had suspected treachery, contrived to escape. At a Council of War on the 26th a treaty was ratified, which contained the humiliating conditions that all the guns should be left behind except six; that all the treasure should be given up, and forty thousand rupees paid in bills, to be negotiated upon the spot; and that four officers as hostages should be detained to ensure the evacuation of Jellalabad by general Sale. On the 6th of January, 1842, on a morning of intense cold, the army, consisting of four thousand five hundred fighting men and twelve thousand followers, began to move out of the cantonments in a confused mass. Akbar Khan came up with a body of six hundred horsemen to demand other hostages, and Pottinger, Lawrence, and Mackenzie were placed in his hands. Akbar Khan's authority appears to have been exerted with all sincerity to protect the British and Hindoos from the attacks of the

Ghilzyes, one of the most fanatic of the Mussulman tribes of Afghanistan, but it was exerted in vain. In the Pass of Khoord-Cabul, which for five miles is shut in by precipitous mountains, the unrelenting Ghilzyes shot down the fugitives without a chance of their being resisted or restrained. In this Pass three thousand men are stated to have fallen. Akbar Khan then proposed "that all the married men, with their families, should come over and put themselves under his protection, he guaranteeing them honourable treatment, and safe escort to Peshawur.* There were ten women, and thirteen or more children; six married men went with them, with two wounded officers. The small remnant of the force that had left Cabul continued its march towards Jellalabad. There was now not a single Sepoy left. The European officers and soldiers scarcely numbered five hundred. On the 11th, Akbar Khan invited general Elphinstone and two English officers to a conference, and detained them as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad. On the evening of the 12th the march was resumed. At the summit of the Jugdulluck Pass the relentless enemy was in waiting, behind a barricade of bushes and branches of trees. A general massacre ensued. Only twenty officers and forty-five European soldiers were able to clear the barricade. The next morning they were surrounded by an infuriated multitude. They all perished, except one captain and a few privates, who were taken prisoners. Out of some who had been in advance of the column in the Pass, six reached Futtehabad, within sixteen miles of Jellalabad. Five of them were slain before the sixteen miles were traversed. On the 13th of January a sentry on the ramparts of Jellalabad saw a solitary horseman struggling on towards the fort. He was brought in, wounded and exhausted. The one man who was left to tell the frightful tale of the retreat from Cabul was doctor Brydon.

General Sale's brigade had held possession of Jellalabad from the 18th of November, when they took the place from the Afghans by surprise. A letter had arrived from Elphinstone and Pottinger, stating that an agreement had taken place for the evacuation of Cabul. The Afghan chief who bore the letter had been appointed governor of Jellalabad. Sale, and the political agent, MacGregor, refused to surrender the fort which they had made secure against the attack of an army without cannon. An earthquake to a great extent rendered the labour vain which had been so long employed in the repairs of the works; but by the end of the month the parapets were restored, the breaches built up, and every battery re-established. Akbar Khan with a large body of horse was hovering around to prevent the admission of supplies. At the close of March, being at the last extremity for provisions, the garrison made a sortie, and carried off five hundred sheep and goats. It was known to sir Robert Sale that general Pollock was advancing to his relief. On the morning of the 7th of April three columns of infantry, with some field artillery and a small cavalry force, issued from the walls of Jellalabad to attack Akbar Khan, who with six thousand men was strongly posted in the adjacent plain. Every point attacked was carried, and the victory was completed by a general assault upon the Afghan camp. Two days before, general Pollock

Lady Sale's "Journal."

893

A.D. 1841. BRITISH IN CAPTIVITY AT CABUL RESCUED. had forced the Khyber Pass, and on the 16th, his advanced guard was in sight of Jellalabad. The successes of Sale and Pollock had interrupted the hopes of those native Powers who believed that the rule of the Feringhees was coming to an end. Shah Soojah had been for some time able to maintain himself in the citadel of Cabul after he had been left to his own resources. He finally perished by assassination. Early in May, general England had joined his forces to those of general Nott at Candahar. Ghuznee, which was in the possession of the Afghans, was recaptured by him on the 6th of September. At the end of August, general Pollock fought his way through the Passes, and was joined by general Nott. On the 15th of September the British standard was flying on the royal palace of Cabul. The English ladies, children, and officers had been hurried towards Turkistan. General Elphinstone had died at Tezeen on the 23rd of April. The khan who had charge of the prisoners agreed that for the future payment of a sum of rupees and an annuity, he would assist them to regain their freedom. They had quitted the forts of the friendly khan, and were proceeding towards Cabul, when, on the 17th of September, they were met by a party of six hundred mounted Kuzzilbashes, under the command of sir Richmond Shakespear, who had been sent by general Pollock to rescue them from their perils. General Sale was close at hand with a brigade. The soldiers cheered; a royal salute from mountain-train guns welcomed them to the camp; the joy was proportioned to the terrible dangers that were overpast. On the 1st of October a proclamation was issued by the Governor-General which stated that the disasters in Afghanistan having been avenged upon every scene of past misfortune, the British army would be withdrawn to the Sutlej. On the 12th of October the army began its march back to India. Dost Mahomed was released, and returned to his sovereignty at Cabul.

Lord Ellenborough had arrived at Calcutta as Governor-General on the 25th of February. Lord Auckland's policy had been proved to be a mistake, and the close of his rule in India was clouded with misfortunes, which fell heavily upon a proud and sensitive man. The new Governor-General, appointed by a new Administration, had been amongst the most vehement denouncers of the Afghan war. Soon after the close of that war, lord Ellenborough committed an act which exposed him to the bitterest denunciations of his political enemies. He issued a proclamation, announcing that he had caused the sandal-wood gates of the tomb of Mahmoud at Ghuznee to be removed to the Hindoo temple of Somnauth, from whence they had been carried in 1805. To despoil the tomb of a worshipper of Mahomed, that honour might be done the worshipper of Vishnu, was to offer an outrage to those sensibilities which more than any other cause made and still make the British rule in India so like treading on beds of lava.

CHAPTER LXV.

WHEN the ministerial arrangements of sir Robert Peel were completed, he asked for the confidence of the House, whilst he considered the mode in which the great financial evil of the previous seven years could be removed. During the three weeks of continued debate till the prorogation on the 7th of October, from all the manufacturing districts came the most afflicting statements of the depression of trade and of the sufferings of the operative classes. But not a syllable could be extracted in either house of parliament from any member of the government, as to the course to be pursued, by which hope might be afforded to those who suffered. When the queen opened the Session of Parliament on the 3rd of February, 1842, after an acknowledgment of "gratitude to Almighty God on account of the birth of the prince, my son; an event which has completed the measure of my demestic happiness," her Majesty recommended to the immediate attention of Parliament the state of the finances and of the expenditure of the country. So also was recommended "the state of the laws which affect the importation of corn and of other articles the produce of foreign countries.” Sir Robert Peel announced that on the 9th he should move for a Committee of the whole House for the purpose of considering the Corn-Laws. When the day arrived great was the excitement in and around the House of Commons. Six hundred Anti-Corn-Law delegates had gone in procession to Palace Yard and had there taken their station, crying out from time to time as members passed them, "Total Repeal," "Fixed Duty," "No Sliding Scale." Sir Robert Peel's plan was to maintain the existing principle of the sliding scale of duties on the importation of foreign corn, but to lower the protection afforded, and to introduce a more liberal method of fixing the averages. To no party was the minister's scheme satisfactory. Like most compromises, it required something like a tone of apology both to his friends and his opponents. The debates upon each and all of the principles involved were carried on without intermission till the Bill passed the House of Commons on the 7th of April. The minister was on far safer ground when he came forward with his great financial measure. This was a tax upon all incomes above 1507. a year, not to exceed sevenpence in the pound, for the limited period of three years. Its object was to justify a large reduction of commercial taxation. Out of a tariff of twelve hundred articles sir Robert proposed to reduce the duty on seven hundred and fifty. "We have sought," he declared, "to remove all absolute prohibitions upon the import of foreign articles, and we have endeavoured to reduce duties which are so high as to be prohibitory, to such a scale as may admit of fair competition with domestic produce. . With respect to raw materials, which constitute the elements of our manufactures, our object, speaking generally, has been to reduce the duties on them to almost a nominal amount." The necessity for some bold measures for putting the finances of the country upon a solid foundation, bore down all opposition to the proposed income-tax. The new tariff could not be otherwise than