January last, and are excerptions from my notes on "The British Empire in India." In thus anticipating myself I am guided by the wish to gratify public curiosity, and in the attempt to be explicit and comprehensive I trust my labours may not be found deficient in utility.

With the submissive resignation of a mind prepared to receive the decrees of incontestable destiny I recur to the maxim "The calamities of England are blessings to America”—and here let us deplore with the sanctity of filial piety the afflictions of our race. We breathe the requiem of our affiliated attachments, and say with the French, "Le roi est mort, vive le roi ;" and as the Te Deum and gloria in excelsis mournfully ascend to heaven, let the voice float softly over the ashes of ten thousand dead.

Earl Auckland, Baron of Ghuznee,* and ye, innumerable host of subordinate moths whose "fire

* Lord Auckland was created an Earl, and General Sir J. Keane was made Baron of Ghuznee; the first for planning the policy which, it was said, would confirm the integrity of the British Empire, and preserve India to England, by the conquest of Avghanistaun; and the other for the glorious campaign with the army of the Indus, that performed feats of valour rivalling the victories of Alexander, and exceeding the celebrity of his most illustrious adventures. Honours of knighthood, ribands, and brevets were showered upon the conquerors of the miserable Avghans with the unsparing liberality of royal munificence, which the breathless solicitude of imminent hazard wrought into existence.

new stamp of honour is scarce yet current," called into existence by the extinction of a free and, therefore, not ignoble nation, "will all the multitudinous seas" wash out the remembrance of your bloody deeds, or would ye, like Pilate, cleanse your hands after relinquishing your victims to the mercy of infuriated enemies. Englishmen, what says the award of conscience?

If the destruction of the British army involved no other consideration than the dreadful annihilation of so many wretched human beings, the soul would revolt from the view, and recoil within itself to avoid the contemplation of inhuman scenes so abhorrent to philanthropy. It is with feelings of profound regret that we mourn the departed; with unaffected sympathy we commiserate the afflicted and affiliated survivors of that fierce retributive visitation of Providence upon a sinning and incorrigible host; and as we implore the mercy of an offended Deity for the redemption of the doomed, we draw before our yearning faculties the veil of hopeless beneficence, trusting for all things in the mercy of heaven.

We turn now to the world, and with philosophy at our right hand, let us look at the balance which the inexorable "fiat justitia" has placed in the grasp of expediency, and behold the descent of power in the scale to whom hereditary right, and the force of circumstances, and command of position, all tend to establish and confirm a claim to supremacy. On this subject those who read the

following sheets will readily form a just decision. Circumstances are displayed as they exist, and the power that Russia could exert, and the results, of tremendous import to the civilization of the human race, that must follow from the exercise of that power, are plain; but whether Russia has or will participate in the instigation of measures so prolific of benefit to man, the will of Providence alone can direct.

The English Tories believe that the Emperor Nicholas, like themselves, is and ever has been averse to the extension of dominion in the far East, which the principle of self-defence has heretofore forced upon these powers. "Whatever may have been the policy of Russian diplomacy," say they, "since the reign of Peter the Great, experience proves that the Emperor Nicholas not only avoids all cause of jealousy to England, but is even indifferent to the affairs of Central Asia."

The British in India are in the midst of danger without the interference of Russia. "God is great," but I cannot distinctly comprehend how the English, should they be forcibly dislodged, can either relinquish their hold on Avghanistaun with safety to their empire in the East, or recover their late position without incurring an expense of treasure and waste of blood which even the colossal resources of her government could not sustain. Their own experience in the American revolutionary war; that of the French in Switzerland; the Russians in

Circassia, and themselves again in Cabul, proves the utter folly of attempting to hold in subjection a hostile population. To conquer a dominion by controlling the political parties of a state is a feasible policy, or to reform by gradual means without annihilating the institutions of a subjugated country may be the effect of time and perseverance, but to subdue and crush the masses of a nation by military force, when all are unanimous in the determination to be free, is to attempt the imprisonment of a whole people: all such projects must be temporary and transient, and terminate in a catastrophe that force has ever to dread from the vigorous, ardent, concentrated vengeance of a nation outraged, oppressed, and insulted, and desperate with the blind fury of a determined and unanimous will.

Many are surprised at the apparent ease with which the English took possession of Cabul. This seeming phenomenon may be readily explained. The government of Cabul under Dost Mahomed was of an oligarchical form; he ruled as the paramount of many chiefs. When the British invaded Cabul, they were nominally led by Shah Shujah Ul Moolk, the representative of the ancient regime, who was to the Avghans what Louis XVIII. was to the French, but more popular than the Bourbon: he was surrounded by English officers, and sustained by a British army, who preceded all their movements by the alluring fascination of gold. Awakening the cupidity of the Cabul chiefs, they advanced

to take possession, as resistance dissolved before the magic charm of Plutus, and each chief was literally purchased by coin and profuse promises to abandon the interests and fellowship of the ameer, and induced to embrace the service of the king. Nay, in their audacity they offered to purchase Dost Mahomed himself, by tending that prince a bribe to relinquish his sovereignty, and enter a prison prepared for himself and his adherents in the uncongenial climate of Hindostan !* The merits and demerits of the policy which suggested the invasion of Cabul, the march of the army, and their general mismanagement whilst there, have been much discussed. Their policy was opposed by the Duke of Wellington and the Tories, but this party, labouring under the curse of Whig measures, has been obliged to sustain the honour of the country and integrity of the empire, to carry out the mistaken and vicious views of their predecessors. They believe the motives of the Whig ministry were erroneous; that the pretext to remove the pestilence of Russian councils and intrigues from the frontier of India was founded in error, and that the object of the conquest, to con

*The English proposed to the Ameer that he should accept a pension of £10,000 per annum, and retire into Hindostan. The prince, disdaining the ignominy of self-degradation, preferred exile, and he fled to Tartary. Subsequently he fought two unsuccessful battles with the English, and ultimately rendered himself a prisoner to the enemies of his dynasty. He was sent into India, and, I believe, allowed £20,000 per annum.