It has been already stated that Lord Salisbury, when Secretary of State for India, had a scheme in view for covering Afghanistan with European residents, and that Lord Northbrook resigned office rather than further it. In 1878 Lord Lytton found an opportunity made for him by Russia for developing this scheme, and he hastened to seize it. He had already estranged Shere Ali, the Afghan Ameer, by his menaces, and this prince was perhaps not indisposed to intrigue with a rival Power. When Lord Beaconsfield brought the Indian troops to Malta, Russia not only made secret preparations for the invasion of India, but sent a Mission to Cabul for the purpose of securing the co-operation of the Afghans. It does not appear that Shere Ali entered into any bargain with the Russian Envoys, whom he sent away as soon as he could, because whilst they were in Cabul he seems to have been very nervous about their safety. But the Indian Government, hearing of what was going on, demanded that they too should send an Embassy to Cabul, urging that the reception of the Russian Mission showed that Shere Ali’s apprehensions as to the safety of Europeans in his capital were groundless. A Mahometan official of rank, the Nawab Gholeim Hasan Khan, was entrusted with the task of conveying the demand to Shere Ali, and he did his work honestly, and with great tact and skill. The Nawab, on the 30th of August, left Peshawur, where the British Envoy, Sir Neville Chamberlain, and his escort of a thousand troops were waiting for the Ameer’s reply. The Nawab apparently did not see Shere Ali till the 12th of September, who told him that he did not like the idea of the Mission being forced on him. The advice of the Nawab, who appears in these transactions as the only diplomatist who correctly appreciated the situation, was to delay the Mission, “otherwise some harm will come.” By “some harm” Gholeim Hasan Khan meant an Afghan war, at all times a dire calamity for India, whether it ended in victory or defeat. The Nawab, as the result of further negotiations, reported that Shere Ali was willing to send for the British Mission, and clear up any misunderstanding that might have arisen about his reception of the Russian Envoys, if the Indian Government would give him time. The Russians had come to Cabul uninvited, and they had all been sent away, save some who were ill, and who were to be sent back whenever they recovered. As the Nawab sensibly said, Shere Ali did not want his people to suspect that the British Mission was thrust on him. “If Mission,” said the Nawab, “will await Ameer’s permission, everything will be arranged, God willing, in the best manner, and no room will be left for complaint in future.”[136] But during September all these details--afterwards revealed in the Blue-books--were concealed from the British people. The Indian Government primed the correspondents of the Press with mendacious accounts of Shere Ali’s insulting