our readers--that, about the opening of the present century, a rumour
went traversing all India of some great Indian expedition meditated by
the Affghans. It was too steadfast a rumour to have grown out of
nothing; and our own belief is--that, but for the intestine feuds then
prevailing amongst the Suddozye princes, (Shah Soojah and his brothers,)
the scheme would have been executed; in which case, falling in with our
own great Mahratta struggle under Lord Wellesley, such an inroad would
have given a chance, worth valuing, that the sceptre might have passed
from England--England at that time having neither steamers for the
Indus, nor improved artillery against Affghan jezails, besides having
her hands full of work. Between 1801 and 1838, it is true that things
had altered; for the better, we admit; but also for the worse. Much
stronger were we; but, on the other hand, much nearer were the Affghans.
Delhi and Agra, with their vast adjacencies, had become ours. Cutch was
ours, our outposts were pushed to the Sutlege; and beyond the Sutlege we
had stretched a network of political relations. We therefore were
vulnerable in a more exquisite sense. And on the other hand, as
respected the power of the Affghans to wound, _that_ had not essentially
declined. The Affghan power, it must be remembered, had never exposed a
showy front of regal pomp, such as oftentimes deceives both friend and
foe, masking a system of forces hollow and curious when probed by
foreign war, but had combined the popular energy arising from a rough
republican simplicity, and something even of republican freedom, with
the artificial energy for war of a despotism lodged in a few hands. Of
all oriental races, the Affghans had best resisted the effeminacy of
oriental usages, and in some respects we may say--of Mahometan
institutions. Their strength lay in their manly character; their
weakness in their inveterate disunion. But this, though quite incapable
of permanent remedy under Mahometan ideas, could be suspended under the
compression of a common warlike interest; and _that_ had been splendidly