could not penetrate, that India and Persia could not be united in one kingdom; and contenting himself with exacting from the King of Delhi, when the Indian empire lay prostrate at his feet, as he stood upon the ruins of its plundered capital, the cession of Cabul, Kandhar, and all the provinces, as a part of Persia, west of the Indus,-which river is known to be the geographical though not always the political boundary of India,-he reseated the King of Delhi anew upon his throne, giving him much salutary advice, and retreated across the Indus, never leaving a soldier or retaining a fortified post in Hindoostan. Eight years after this event Nadir was assassinated at Meshud in Khorassaun, and an Avghan, named Ahmed Abdalhee, being joined by the Avghan troops in Nadir's service, hastily returned to Kandhar, where he seized a great treasure on the way from India to Persia, and was proclaimed King of Avghanistaun by the coalition of a few principal chiefs of his native country. Ahmed Shah was the first of the Dooraunee monarchs. In 1747 he invaded India, defeated the Mahrattas, who then overran the Moghul empire, and entered Delhi as a conqueror. "It was easy for the victorious Avghan to seat himself on the vacant throne of the Moghul, but he seems not to have felt any ambition for this high dignity. Perhaps he was sensible that amidst such a general agitation throughout Hindoostan as then prevailed, and with so many nations in arms, such an acquisition was too distant from Cabul, the centre of his dominions, to be retained with advantage. Contenting himself with the provinces west of the Indus, he quitted in a few months the seat of government, leaving there Alligohur, eldest son of Allumgeer the II., in possession of the empty, but still venerated title of Great Moghul, to be the tool or become the captive of the first daring chief who should seize the capital." After this period Hindoostan was relieved from foreign invasion. The preparations of Shah Zemaun, the grandson of Ahmed, in conjunction with Tippoo Sooltaun, for a simultaneous attack upon the English, the Avghans pouring down 100,000 cavalry from the north, whilst Tippoo, under the patronage of Napoleon's policy, advanced from the south, terminated prematurely. The King of Cabul was distracted by rebellions at home, and the invasion of the province of Bulkh, which formed a part of his dominion, by the King of Bocharah, drew off his attention from India, and released the English from the dread of this threatened formidable invasion, instigated by the intrigues of France and Tippoo. Shah Zemaun penetrated into Lahore on several expeditions to levy tribute upon that province, which was a reluctant dependency of his empire. Runjeet'h* Singh was then a young adventurer, just commencing life, with a thousand mounted retainers at his heels. For services rendered on one of these expeditions, probably the last, Shah Zemaun conferred upon Runjeet'h the gift of Lahore in feudal tenure. Lahore was then in the possession of Runjeet'h's enemies, who were too powerful to be immediately dislodged, and he was unable to enter into possession, but the document gave a claim which circumstances subsequently enabled him to enforce, and his conquest of the city of Lahore laid the foundations of his * Rannajeet'h, or King of Lions. } future fortunes. When Runjeet'h had partially consolidated the Panjab government by the union of many petty tribes, states, and principalities, he frequently made annual predatory demonstrations across the Sutledge as far as Sirhind, plundering the territories between the river and that frontier of the English. In 1809 Sir Charles Metcalfe, by order of the British government, made a treaty with Runjeet'h, which confined his military operations to the right bank of the river Sutledge, but left him at liberty to extend his ambitious projects towards the territories beyond the Sutledge. The late expedition of the English into Avghanistaun has again placed the Moghul empire under the dominion of one paramount power. These historical references indicate the accessible points of India, and they prove that every conqueror who directed the march of enterprise against India came from the north, established a military base at Bulkh, and advanced by Cabul. It is upon Bulkh that all the roads debouch, advancing from the south; and it is upon Cabul all the passes into India concentrate, advancing from the north. Heraut and Kandhar are upon the great caravan route from Central Asia to the Deccan or South of India. That route, though annually travelled by commercial adventurers, has less frequently been the channel of military operations. A part of this route is in the line of indirect communication between Persia and Cabul, the division of it from Heraut to Kandhar: from that city it branches off northeast towards Cabul. There is a great commercial highway of nations from Constantinople to Pekin, and from Moscow to Delhi. Bulkh is the central or intersecting point upon these routes, and has always been the military and political capital of Asia, whether swayed by Persian or Greek, by Parthian, Toork, or Moghul. Upon this position every strategical operation against India must be based to command a fair prospect of success and permanent results. CHAPTER VI. REFERENCES FROM ENGLISH AUTHORITIES ON THE THE present political condition of the neighbouring countries surrounding British India, viz.: Beloochistaun, Avghanistaun, Bulkh, Panjab, Nepaul, Birmah, and China, and also the foreign relations of the Indo-British government, may be readily gathered from the annexed copious extracts, the issue of the Indian press. The information thus elicited will, it is supposed, place in a strong light the dubious position of the English in India, and their uneasy tenure of the country. The anxious fears of the Indian government before the result of the expedition to Cabul transpired; the frantic exultation succeeding a state of despondency when the achievement of an uncontested victory gave a transient truce to those well-founded terrors; the thanks of Parliament after the campaign, strongly indicate the danger which threatened the empire, even from the far distant reverberations of the rumours of a Russian war. But the retreat of the Shah of Persia from Heraut reanimated the quailing English, and respited them from |