become

It seems to us that there are four lanwhich must soon guages universal over the globe-English, French, German, Russian. These are the languages in which the history of the future will, in all probability, be written; these are the languages with which every thinking man who sympathizes with the progress of his kind must court acquaintance. Greek and Latin are good; but if they are pursued with a prim, perverse pertinacity, as if a man had only one eye, and that on the back of his head, then we think truly it is time to apply the text of the gospel-let the dead bury their dead! German, in particular, we must study; for, like Goethe's magical apprentice, having set the imp a gog after waterbuckets, he threatens to swamp and drown us altogether, unless we get hold of the word which he will obey. Nor is it from Germany only by external importation that the deluge floods in; we have a sort of indwelling Germanism at home, which is very powerful, and has many names. Undeniably Coleridge was a German, and that not only in the grand healthy speculative and imaginative excellencies of the German mind, but in the excess and the disease of these, and in that he once

"Soared to eulogize an Ass," as Byron, with his true British instinct, did not fail to note. Wordsworth, also, in his calm architectural meditativeness is a German, braced, however, with a British atmosphere, and girt round with British strength; so that there is no danger of his dissolving into clouds and melting into mere tears, as the Germans sometimes do. A German of the Germans was Percy Bysshe Shelley; German in his pure incorporeal idealism; German in his pantheizing poetry and poetical pantheism; British only in his pride. Southey is a German, not only in the main character of his mind, but in the whole style of his life; in his singlehearted devotedness to the priesthood of literature; in the systematic com

prehensiveness of his studies-in the wide grasp of his erudition-in his pure idealism-in his grand architectural constructiveness: thoroughly English, however, in the historical definitiveness and decision of his religious convictions. Finally, Thomas Carlyle: who will doubt that he is a German? more than Coleridge-more thau Shelley; a German both by perfect nature and perfect inoculation; a mind grand in all the virtues, equally grand in all the vices, of Germanism. In this man, we wish the reader may see a living epitome of all that we have ramblingly discoursed on this subject-a breathing incarnation of the modern Teutonic spirit, as it is fast marching over to amalgamate with and complement the old Saxon stock isolated here, in this "snug little island," from some good as from much evil-though we must say, in justice, that he is at the same time something better than a German; his sturdiness, his raciness, his dramatic breadth of brush, seem thoroughly English. Carlyle is a man that, above all others, the German tyro should assay; if he finds nothing that he can sympathize with in the " Tailor re-tailored"-that most German of modern English books, then, most assuredly, German literature (the soul of it at least) is not for him. But let not the plain, straightforward English reader take offence hastily, at the first ungainly aspect either of Thomas Carlyle or of German literature. Why an ugly porter should be oftentimes placed at the gate of heaven, we cannot tell; but so it is. With Carlyle and the Germans, you must be content to wade a little while painfully at the bottom of a deep, heavy, sometimes gusty sea of smoke; but keep your breath till you reach a certain height, and you will see notable things-perchance encounter gods. In this outlandish region, as elsewhere in God's world, the good (when a good man holds the balance) is found immeasurably to outweigh the bad.

Two years have now elapsed since the restoration by British bayonets of our newly adopted protegé, Shah Shoojah al-mulk, to the hereditary throne of Affghanistan, from which thirty years before he had been driven by the chiefs of his own people, was hailed by the almost unanimous acclamations of the English and AngloIndian press, as effectually terminating all anxieties for the frontier of our eastern empire, and securing to us the services and alliance of a brave nation, inhabiting a country naturally almost impregnable, and easily to be rendered altogether so by the application of European military science. These satisfactory results, it was indeed admitted, could not be expected to be immediately evident :-time was to be allowed for the tranquillization of the hostile feelings naturally excited in the minds of the Affghans by the armed occupation of their territory, and the expulsion of the rulers, their preference for whom, over the monarch now imposed upon them, they had so unequivocally shown;-and a writer in the Asiatic Journal (vol. xxx. p. 161) even lays down, with commendable candour, as a necessary preliminary for the attainment of a good understanding, "the arduous but gratifying task of reconstructing the social edifice in that unsettled country, where, judg. ing from the description of their various tribes, their mutual animosities, and their joint antipathy to authority, given in Mr Elphinstone's admirable work, the task of government, even in quiet times, and under a ruler whose title is undisputed, requires almost superhuman powers"! The 'gratifying' task thus propounded as indispensable for the realization of the advantages derivable from our victories, would amount, we should think, to a very considerable deduction from their value, even if no further obstacles opposed themselves to its fulfilment-but the reconstruction' of the political edifice must in this case precede that of the social; and though we have at length pretty effectually succeeded in

overturning the order of things which we found existing, the foundation of the future fabric destined to replace the ruin has even yet been scarcely laid.

It will be remembered that the originally declared objects, for the accomplishment of which the Indus was crossed for the first time by a British force, were twofold-to secure the fortress of Herat from the attacks directed against it, at the scarce-concealed instigation of Russia, by the Shah of Persia, the success of which would have converted it into an advanced post for the further prosecution of any designs which might be formed against India; and to acquire a controlling influence over the intervening country of Affghanistan Proper, by the substitution of the friendly dynasty of the Suddozyes for the rule of the Barukzye chiefs, whose policy was beginning to wear an aspect of decided opposition to British interests. The vast complication which the question has already assumed, renders this recapitulation, at the present day, far from unnecessary. From the relief of a border fortress, and the support of an allied prince, by the temporary aid of an auxiliary force, in the recovery of his rightful throne, has sprung the necessity of "either asserting a paramount right of interference within a vast circle, the circumference of which touches the Sutlej, Herat, the Gulf of Persia, and almost the Caspian Sea; or of pursuing a system of conquest and appropriation of territory, the very idea of which would have terrified the critics of Lord Wellesley's administration."-(As. Journ.) That such would be the probable, if not inevitable, consequences of the hasty policy which first led us to overstep the natural limits of our eastern empire, we have endeavoured on two former occasions* to demonstrate to the readers of this Magazine, by laying before them the past and present state of the populations and countries comprehended within this new sphere of action; we shall now proceed to

examine how far the events of the past year have verified our anticipations.

From the commencement to the close of the year 1840, our Affghan conquests presented an almost ceaseless succession of petty conflicts and guerilla inroads, from the Uzbek frontiers north of the Hindoo-Koosh to the Belooch tribes in the south, whose country almost touches the Indian Ocean; arising from the fierce but luckily uncombined struggles of the various tribes to shake off the foreign yoke, to which the rapidity of our march, and their own unprepared state, alone compelled them (as they consider) to submit at first almost without resistance. The results of this harassing and desultory warfare, if viewed in a merely military point of view, have unquestionably been, on the whole, favourable to the British arms, notwithstanding the severe but temporary checks received at Nufoosk and Khelat, from the valour of the Beloochees-a brave race who in the last century defied all the efforts of Ahmed Shah himself to reduce them to more than a nominal dependence on his crown. Tribe after tribe has been crushed into sullen submission to the authority exercised in the name of Shah Shoojah; and the throne of the reinstated dynasty has acquired additional stability from the removal of the competitor, Dost- Mohammed Khan. This exiled chief had again appeared in arms, early in the autumn, on the northern frontier, at the head of a considerable force, partly composed of such of his Affghan adherents as still followed his fortunes, and partly furnished by the Uzbek rulers in that quarter; but in attempting to penetrate through the passes of the Hindoo Koosh, he was opposed by a British division, and after several partial encounters, completely overthrown (Nov. 2.) in the defile of Purwan-Durrah, notwithstanding the shameful misconduct of one of our regiments of native cavalry, which abandoned its officers in the heat of the action. Thus deprived of all hopes of success in the field, the Affghan leader came to the resolution of throwing himself on the mercy of his victorious enemies; and crossing the country direct from the field of battle,

with only a single attendant, reached Cabul almost before the news of his defeat had arrived there, and at once surrendered himself to the English resident. He has since been sent into Hindostan, "leaving behind him,” in the words of the India Gazette, "the regrets of his own people, and carrying with him the sympathies of all the gallant British officers by whose agency he has been dethroned."

The

The fate of Dost-Mohammed, thus sacrificed to a policy, with the interests of which he had no natural connexion, must be admitted to be severe, even by the warmest partizans of the measures which have caused his fall; and both his frank and manly demeanour in prosperity, and the magnanimity with which he has borne his present reverses, derive additional lustre from the contrast afforded by the character of his triumphant rival, Shah Shoojah. In April 1840, we alluded to a report which had even then become prevalent, that this weak and vicious prince had already shown himself impatient of the restraint imposed upon him by the presence of the British auxiliary force, and was anxious to indulge (as he hoped) in the uncontrolled exercise of his despotic inclinations. combined folly and ingratitude implied in this alleged conduct on the part of, perhaps, the only individual to whom our march into Affghanistan has been productive of any substantial benefit at first threw discredit on these suspicions; but transactions have recently come to light which leave little doubt that our royal protégé was actually the prime mover in some of the late insurrectionary outbreaks ostensibly directed against his own authority, and that he is still engaged in endeavouring covertly to bring about a new revolution, which he hopes will at once ingratiate him with his subjects, by relieving them from the presence of the British, and leave him to the undisturbed enjoyment of the degrading sensuality in which he is sunk, and in the practice of which his sons are worthy emulators of their father. It is needless to say, that the evacuation of Affghanistan by our forces, by whatever means brought about, would be followed by the instant dethronement, and probably by the

death, of Shoojah and all his family; but the madness of the conduct attri buted to the restored king is no palliation of its perfidy: and even in the event of its becoming necessary to punish his machinations by again dismissing him to the obscurity from which we raised him, the position which we have assumed in Affghanistan must be maintained, by whatever means, or under whatever pretext. We have, in fact, whether justifiably or not, conquered the country for our• selves, and we cannot now give it up.

Still, though Affghanistan may be for the moment tranquil, our prospects there are far from cheering. Every day more clearly demonstrates the utter hopelessness of our being able so far to conciliate the natives, as to hold the country merely by the presence of a force sufficient to maintain order, as under an established government: we are hated both as strangers and infidels, and as the interested supporters of an unpopular dynasty; and any disaster which befell our arms, any material reduction of the army of occupation, would be followed by an instant and universal revolt of all the tribes from the Bolan Pass to Bameean, and from Peshawur to the Persian frontier. Even at present not a single rupee of revenue can be levied except by armed detachments; and as the whole country is studded with redoubts and hill-forts, which require to be taken and razed in detail, the collection can only be enforced by an amount of toil and loss to the troops employed, wholly disproportioned to the results: many of the Ghilji districts, and nearly all the strong tract called the Zemindawer, have hitherto refused altogether to acknowledge the authority of the intrusive king: nor have our commanders been able to spare troops for their subjugation. While thus a twofold spirit of disaffection, against the titular sovereign, and against the dominant allies by whom he is supported, prevails among the people, and the only point of concord between the king and his subjects is a common wish to rid themselves of their soidisans protectors, the ikbal, or good fortune, which is popularly believed in our eastern dominions to be inseparable from all the operations of the Company, will be severely taxed to maintain its reputation: and the con solidation of Affghanistan, if ever des

tined to take place, must be looked upon as a far distant event.

On the side of Herat, again, the state of affairs is even less satisfactory than in Cabul. The Persian invasion of this petty principality was the first provocation, causa teterrima belli, to repel which, and to insure the future inviolability of the fortress which commanded the high road to Hindostan, the British standard was first advanced beyond the river which forms the natural boundary of our eastern em. pire; and it might reasonably have been supposed that the cultivation of amicable relations with its ruler, who had so successfully withstood the tide of hostility, would have been our principal diplomatic care after the first triumph of our arms in Affghanistan. An envoy was, indeed, despatched to Herat soon after the conquest of Candahar, and a liberal subsidy assigned to the authorities for the maintenance of the defences of the place; but the reigning prince Kamran, and his powerful minister Yar- Mohammed Khan, (a man of extraordinary abilities, but of an unscrupulous and perfidious disposition,) showed themselves from the first averse to the intrusion of foreign interference, and indignant at the elevation of the rival branch of the Suddozye family to the throne of Cabul;-and early in last year it had become notorious, (as we stated in our April No. 1840,) that Yar-Mohammed had deserted the British party, and was lending a favourable ear to the propositions of Russia. The subsequent progress of events in this remote and isolated quarter cannot easily be traced with accuracy, as the accounts transmitted to England relative to the negotiations are remarkably vague, and even contradictory; but their result was, that early in the present year, Major Todd, our resident at Herat, precipitately quitted that city, and made the best of his way, with a few followers, to Candahar, having received what he considered authentic intelligence of the advance of a Persian force for the purpose of occupying the place as friends, at the invitation of Yar-Mohammed. It soon became known, however, that Todd had been duped by the crafty vizier, who was only anxious to rid himself of the surveillance of his presence: and that, so far from meditating a fresh attack, the Shah was at the moment agreeing to