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"that Shere Ali intended to demur to our reasonable request that our envoy should pass through Afghanistan with a communication from us to the Khan of Wakhan, we insisted upon compliance with our wishes; and we should insist upon a similar course under the same circumstances." To insist means, if necessary, to resort to force of arms, and this is what the noble earl who has been held up as the advocate of masterly inactivity was, on the occasion referred to, prepared to do, in the event of a passage being denied to his envoy through the Ameer's dominions. The step, we have taken is, therefore, not so very different from that which the noble earl was himself prepared to take in similar circumstances. We asked for the admission of a friendly mission. It was refused; and refused by force of arms and with threats. Sir N. Chamberlain, of all men, was the least disposed to interfere in the affairs of Afghanistan. "No man"—to use his own words—"was ever more anxious than I to preserve peace and secure friendly relations." Yet what does he add? That "it was plainly the Ameer's intention to drive us into a corner,and that we had either to obey all his behests or to stand upon our own rights. Nothing could have been more distinct, nothing more humiliating to the dignity of the British Crown and nation. But for the tact displayed by Major Cavagnari at one period of the interview, even the lives of the British officers and of their small escort would have been endangered," and "the mission failed because of the Ameer's indifference to any indignity imposed by him on the British Government, while he himself would not tolerate anything which could be strained to bear even the appearance of a slight to his kingly privileges." We then come to the time when everyone in India thought an actual declaration of war necessary. Her Majesty's Government at home, though they thought it justifiable, felt so keenly the importance of the occasion that they resolved to make one last attempt to bring the Ameer to a proper frame of mind, and shew him where his true interests lay. The ultimatum was accordingly sent. It was absolutely essential that at such a period we should inform the Ameer of the minimum we should insist upon. That minimum was an apology for the repulse of
