brother at Kábul. Sháh Shujá's popularity existed mainly in his own assurances and the sanguine prophecies of credulous partisans.
Such were the salient features of a State paper in which — to quote from Sir Herbert Edwardes — 'the views and conduct of Dost Muhammad Khán were misrepresented with a hardihood which a Russian statesman might have envied[1].' The defence of our 'western frontier' and the libels on Dost Muhammad were mixed together so ingeniously, that it seemed as if the proposed campaign were directed rather to the restoration of Shujá than to the deliverance of Herát. It was easy therefore, when its apparent purpose had been forestalled by the Persian retreat, to fall back upon its real purpose, the overthrow of Bárnkzái rule in Afghánistán. From his own point of view Lord Auckland may have deemed himself bound in honour as well as policy to secure at all hazards the one great end for which the Tripaitite Treaty had been designed. If breaches of treaty on behalf of 'the national defence' did not greatly trouble him, he was still like Brutus, 'an honourable man,' ready to keep faith with his latest allies, the ruler of Lahore and the Ludhiána pensioner. And he knew that without the aid of a British army, the re-seating of Shujá on the throne of his ancestors was more than doubtful. Hence, no doubt, it happened that the General Order of November 8, which announced the safety of Herát and sang the well-earned praises
- ↑ Life of Sir Henry Lawrence, vol. i.
