The British political agents at Kabul are appointed by the Indian Foreign Office, who forward to the Amir for his approval the names of a few Mahommedan officials. One of these candidates is selected, the term of office being from three to five years. Upon returning to India he is usually rewarded with the title of Nawab. The Agency staff consists of two secretaries, one hospital assistant, and about two or three dozen private servants and bodyguard, all of which must be natives of India. The British agent attends the public audiences of the Amir; but, if he has any letters or communications from the British Government to convey to the Amir, he must ask for an appointment to deliver them. If there are any legal disputes or claims between members of the staff of the British agent, both plaintiff and defendant are referred by him to the Courts of Justice in India. If the British agent or any member of his staff has a dispute with the Afghan subjects of the Amir, such cases are usually decided in the Courts of Kabul, under the law of that country. Complications of a very serious political character are invariably referred to the Governments of India and Afghanistan for arrangement between themselves. The British agent puts his diary and also the private letters of the whole of his staff into one package, which he hands to the Amir’s Postmaster-General at Kabul, taking a receipt for their delivery under seal; from the Amir’s post-office they are sent down to Peshawar, where the Amir’s postmaster is given a discharge for their surrender to the political agent at Peshawar. In the same manner the packages of letters, which are delivered by the British political agent at Peshawar to the Amir’s postmaster at that place, are forwarded to the British agent at Kabul by the Amir’s Postmaster-General, who also takes a voucher for their safe and proper condition. The services and duties of the Amir’s political agent with the Viceroy of India, who, together with his staff, is a Mahommedan subject of the Amir, are nearly the same as those of the British agent at Kabul, except that the term and time of his office is not limited and depends entirely on the pleasure of the Amir. Besides the political agent, the Amir has various commercial agents in India as well as in England, the most important of these having been Sir Acquin Martin, Mr. T. B. Guthrie and Mr. E. T. Pack. Each of these industrious and excellent servants of the Amir has suffered the loss of large sums of money through a very pronounced defect in the Amirs of Afghanistan, which causes them to forget their obligations so long as there is a frontier lying between the Government of Kabul and those with whom its debts have been contracted. Representations remain unanswered and, apparently, no authority exists which can make the Amir of Afghanistan redeem his liabilities, although an obvious course awaits if the Government of India would assent to the attachment of the subsidy.