in the great work of extending the religion, civilization, and
education of India; for the wishes of the good are with you--go
on in your great work, for the sake of India, and Great
Britain itself."

What must _now_ be the feelings of Sir John Hobhouse and his brother
ex-Ministers on this paragraph catching his eyes; when they reflect on
the frightful sacrifice of life, British and Affghan--the defeat of our
arms while engaged in a shameful and wicked cause--with its perilous
effects upon the stability of our tenure of India--which have directly
resulted from the measures thus vaingloriously vaunted of! A thousand
reflections here occur to us upon the subject of the insane (or guilty)
conduct of the late Government in India; but the extent to which this
article has already reached, compels us to suppress them. We the less
regret this circumstance, however, because there really seems but one
opinion upon this topic among well-informed persons. After the last
intelligence from India, it is idle, it is needless, to attempt
reasoning on the subject; to ask how we should have strengthened
ourselves by the destruction of a powerful and (according to authentic
intelligence) a really friendly chief in Dost Mahommed; how we could
even have _occupied_ Affghanistan without a ruinous expenditure,
continual alarm and danger from a perpetual series of treachery and
insurrection; and to what purpose, after all, of solid advantage! The
whole policy of Lord Auckland was incontestably one of mad encroachment,
conquest, and aggrandizement, in utter ignorance of the character and
exigencies of the times; the Duke of Wellington's memorable prediction
is now far more than fulfilled! "_It will not be till Lord Auckland's
policy has reached the zenith of apparent success, that its difficulties
will begin to develope themselves._" Begin to develope themselves! What
would have become of us, had the councils originating that policy still