"... I am made very melancholy these two days by the news from Afghanistan, not that anything comes to me as new: I have dreaded it all along, ever since I discerned that the Gladstone ministry would not_ act on the moral principles which Mr. Grant Duff definitely professed, which, indeed, Mr. Gladstone so emphatically avowed in his book on _Church and State_, and in every grave utterance. Ever since Sir Stafford Northcote so boldly taunted the (then) Opposition, in the words: 'You call our policy _crime_; but will you dare to pledge yourselves to reverse it if you come into power? No, you will not dare.' And none of the Opposition said frankly, 'We _will_ reverse it'; it was clear to me that they had not the moral courage. Accordingly I warned friends who asked my judgment, that it is _in the Russo-Turkish affairs_ the Liberals (so called) would reverse _the policy, but in Afghanistan and S. Africa_ they would act precisely as Lord Beaconsfield would act; would accept the positions which they had condemned; would appear to the natives as continuing the same course of wicked aggression; would do justice only _so far as compelled_, and _no sooner_; which is exactly what Lord Beaconsfield was sure to do.... We now see that a new war opens upon us both in Afghanistan and, it is to be feared, from the Basutos with the Liberal party in power, and their great leader to bear the main responsibility!! It is a frightful outlook.... We had only to say frankly to the Afghan chiefs: 'We always opposed the war as unjust: we bitterly lament it: we cannot restore the dead or heal the crippled, but _we will repay you whatever sum of money a Russian arbitrator may award to you against us_. (!) We will withdraw from your country in peace as fast as we can, and leave you masters in your own land.'" It will be remembered that so far back as 1838, Sir James Outram [Footnote: Named by his great friend, George Giberne (later on Judge in the Bombay Presidency), the "Bayard of India."] did great services in the first Afghan War. It was thought by many that had he remained in the Ghilzee country many of our disasters might not have occurred. But Lord Ellenborough--one of the many mistakes placed by our Government in authority in India during a critical time--never recognized in any way his services. "It is certain they would have seen this to be sincere, and would have been delighted to get rid of us without more bloodshed.... It is pretended that it would be _cruel_ to leave Afghanistan without first securing to it a stable government, when obviously we are without moral power there to add stability. Our presence makes enmity among them.... Alas! once more I find Mr. Gladstone fail of daring to act according to his own moral principles. He ought not to have accepted office.... It makes me very sad for what must come upon England, and perhaps on all English settlers in S. Africa, to say nothing of India and Anglo-Indians. "I am, yours ever affectionately,