Tax announcement that peace had been ratified between Great Britain and the now Ameer of Afghanistan is one that will have been heard with satisfaction in all quarters, and is the best defence of the action of the British Government in taking prompt mosures to put an end to a state of affairs which would certainly not have ended with.the disaffection of Afghanistan. It was indeed evident that, with the exception of a few dangerous enthusiasts, the opposition to the action of the Government was really got up on party grounds, but it says little for the patriotism of the Libersl party that they were willing, simply for the sake of seeing themselves in-power, to effect public demonstration of principles which they knew and felt to be contrary to the best interests of the nation. The strife between classes in England got up some sixty years ago has been steadily fanned by two generations of would-be statesmen since; so that, in the words of Macaulay, Englishman is to English. man "more hateful than a foe," and the best interests of the nation are complacently strangled in the inter. necine contests of party. The straggle in Afghanistan was not for territory nor even for a frontier capable of scientific defence, and the objects of the war may be as readily attained by attaching the interests of the State to our own as by extending our outposts. In the possession of the Khyber and Bolan Passes, we hold a security against any sudden inroad into our Indian territory and the opportunity, should we find the necessity of 80 doing, of converting @ defensive into an offensive campaign. If the Gov. ernment has succeeded in doing this without offending the pride or prejadices of our Afghan neighbours, it deserves well of the country; and this the more so that the conduct of the war has been marked by an anxious desire to spare life, and with the exception of the snd' accident to the 10th Hussars has been carried on with careful deliberation and an almost entire absence of military blunders. The event -has proved in every way the wisdom of beginning a straggle with sufficient force to render opposition useless, and so to avoid the useless loss of life on both sides which has marked the half. ted and ill-planned operations in Zuloland, It is @ pleasant termination of a campaign that no avoidable injuries remain to be revenged on either side, that towns have not been destroyed nor populations sacrificed, and that beyond the probability of more frequent com. munications between the countries, the visitor will be unable in a few months to discover anything of what, badly managed, would have proved for. both sides a disastrous war. It is well said by Gibbon of the wars of the Em. peror Justinian, that hie victories) equally with his reverses bastened on the final rain of the Roman Empire, and that the result of both was equally the exhaustion and depopulation of the. territories. The Afghan campaign of 1878 has by its good management been spared this reproach, while it has undoubtedly tended to the re-establishment of pleasant relations along the frontier. The lesson of the war is, however, one that is in danger of being forgotten, and that is the extreme impolicy of allowing barriers to be made of frontier States against ourselves. It was unwillingness to adopt any definite course of action, and the continual dread of responsibility stising from the keeping open of regular communication with Cabul, which finally drove Shore Ah into the arms of Russia; and it needed the trial of the date campaign to show how utterly unreliable were the threats and promises held out by the latter.
Now, east of Afghanistan we observe signs of a similar desire to more effectually close the frontier to intercourse. The Peking Gasette of the 8th April, contains a memo. tial from the Viceroy of Szechuen regarding the arrival of a fresh Envoy from Nepaul. The Envoy, we ate told, beat his head on the ground with exclamations of joy at the treatment he bad received, and presented petition from his master, the style of which contrasts curiously with what the Indian Government is in the habit of receiving, "A dweller in a remote corner of the earth, in a distant and barren land, the King turns with longing towards the civilisation of (Chins.) Tt hasbeen his practice to gain glory to himself by the despatch of an Envoy, who was admitted to the Presence, and he has been entirely dependent upon the rays of His august Majesty's awe-inspiring influence and prosperity for securing peace and tranquillity on his borders." Although the greater part of the fulsome phrases in the " petition " are doubtless to be pat down to the humour of the Chinese scribe employed, to pub it in Celestial characters, there still remains the fact that while the King of Nepaul is per mitted to keep his frontier closed British India, -he seeks to cultivate relations with the Ohinese Government, Now that.the latter has become practically.our frontier from the Kura. Korum Pass to Burma, to foster this state of insulation is little better than political suicide, The results of encouraging it in Afghaniatan have been auarrow escape of embroilment with Russia, and its effects from the Bast are sure before long to be not dis. similar. Indeed, in Burma we have already a forecast of its impolicy. It is probable that the measures taken by the Government in British Parma may ward off for the moment the coming disturbance; but the elements of danger are still there, and will continue 80 long as we leave the frontier States open to intrigue from the rear, while we permit in front an impassable barrier to be placed between us,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.