Illustrations of the harshness of the law abound in Kabul itself. It is a common spectacle to see prisoners, their ankles encircled by steel bands, which are connected by a rod to a chain round their waists, sitting by the wayside asking alms of passers-by. Under the conditions which prevail in the Kabul prisons, unless the inmates have money or friends who will interest themselves in their plight, they are thrown upon the charity of the public for their means of subsistence. Government provides nothing for them but bread and prison quarters, where, chained and under close observation, they lead a life of endless misery. Justice, too, is very slow-footed and expedition is impossible until the officers of the Court, whose duty it is to bring cases-in-waiting to the notice of the judge, have first been bribed. Heavy tolls are levied by all officials for this service and, if the payments are not forthcoming, the trial may never take place or it may be protracted through several years. Even then, when prisoners have been tried, their sentences pronounced and they are at the conclusion of their terms of imprisonment, the rental charges for their use of the prisons have still to be met. The system is iniquitous and imposes upon poor captives the alternative of perpetual slavery, or the necessity to cry for alms in the streets as they go to and from their work. Employment in the workshops, the ordnance yards and upon the Government buildings is the only description of labour with which the prisoners are furnished. In a measure such work is popular among them, as it affords opportunities for discussion with their friends and gives them for a brief space somewhat greater liberty of movement. Their tasks are of the hardest and roughest description, but they have a chance to wash their clothes--even to take a bath in the canal which runs through the factories. Sometimes, too, regular workmen distribute their food among the prisoners or even present them with a few _pice_. But at all times their fate is terrible and their existence in prison accompanied by extreme privations. Again, if death is the order of their lot, it is impossible to say whether it will be short, sharp and sudden, or something a little lingering like the ends which befel a robber, and an over-zealous student of political affairs, of whom Abdur Rahman made such terrible examples.