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istics of Shere Ali, and one can imagine that to such an Eastern ruler there could not have been a more disagreeable thing than to to have a lecture read to him on that subject, and that too without any previous inquiry as to whether anything had occurred to change the circumstances under which a guarantee of safe conduct had been given to his son. That the affair has rankled in his breast is clear from the last communication of his which has reached this country. (Hear, hear.) It is quite possible that since the time that written message was sent to the Ameer many friendly letters have passed between Russian generals and Shere Ali. (Hear, hear.) Some of what has passed since then we may know; but I believe we do not know all. (Hear,) There is another thing on which the Ameer has laid great stress—the fact that the present and complimentary messages were sent to the Khan of Wakhan without having been sent through him as ruler over that Khan. Well, in 1874 the present Government came into office, and, my lords, about the policy of the present Government there is no concealment in these papers. They fully and freely state the truth, and there is no question about what that policy is. In 1874 my noble friend (the Marquis of Salisbury) was struck by the scantiness of information on what was passing in Afghanistan in the hands of the Indian Government; and no one can read the Cabul diaries without arriving at the same conclusion as my noble friend. In January, 1875, after a year's reading of these precious papers, which gave us all that we could get about Afghanistan, my noble friend, dissatisfied with the imperfect ideas which could be formed on such materials, wrote to the Viceroy that it was desirable we should have a resident British officer, not, my lords, at Cabul, but at Herat, who should furnish us with fuller information. I should have thought that nothing could be more advantageous to the Ameer as well as to ourselves. The time had come when Europeans were acquiring power and influence in those parts, and it was essential that the movements of Europeans should be watched by Europeans. (Hear, hear.) The duty of watching them is one which Asiatics are incapable of performing. It is essential that the duty should be performed by civilized Europeans. (Cheers.) I shall read on this subject of
