We have lately been so accustomed to read.of battles where hundreds of thousands of men have beau engaged, and to follow the vicissitudes of campaigns conducted on the gigantic scale with which modern warfare has familiarized us, that a little war-has no interest, especially when the theatre of the conflict is remote and the actors in it are barbarous and obscure. Still, it is not by any means impossible that very serious consequences may arise from a quarrel with the Jowaki Afreedee tribes, who subsist chiefly by robbery in the hill-country on the North-west frontier of the Punjab. For some time, as is well known, considerable uneasiness has been: apparent in our relations with these troublesome mountaineers. These disturbers of the border number some 20,000 or 25,000 fighting men, and of course occupy strong positions; but the force sent against them, amounting to a couple of thousand native infantry and six field pieces, has in all probability by this time settled the business. Matters, however, are not likely to stop here. There have been for a long-time rest~ less stirrings on this frontier. The tribes are always more or less difficult to restrain, and lately there has appeared to be, according to one theory, a certain method in their movements which looks as if they had a strong backer, or, at least, hopes of being assisted in their irritating opposition to British authority. On the other hand, it is the fashion to say roundly that our Government is making the giants in order that it may kill them, and that we are only seizing ona pretext, and magnifying a foray of cattle-lifters into an indication of a Russian movement which will necessitate the occupation of Afghanistan, The same public writers who disclaimed any aggressive intentions on the part of Russia until she had crossed the Danube and commenced the holy war for the deliverance of the oppressed and orthodox Slavs, are busy in assur. ing us that we are guilty of the greatest immorality if we fancy for a moment that there is any desire to move a finger against India; and, according to the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Times, Omar Pacha, now a prisoner at Tiflis, has discovered that Great Britain is the persistent foo of Turkey, and that at any moment the Sultan oan excite the whole Mussulman population of India against us.
We know that the Indian Press is nothing unless it is attacking the Government. It is the normal state of a large majority of the newspapers published in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to find fault with the Viceroy, and to fix every doubt upon the darker side, when official action is in question. Therefore we are not surprised to find very strong language used against those who even hint at the possibility of an Affghan war, Certainly, when we recall the disasters of 1842, we are not disposed to look with favourable eyes upon a campaign in so difficult a country; bat it is surely a mistake to brand the policy of the Government as "insane" because we are putting pressure on Shore Ah, and because we recognize the fact that tribal move. ments may be guided by an unseen but powerful band. The first aot of the tremendous War Drama ended with the fall of Plevna, The scene, when the second act ends, will -be in all
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.