refusal to receive a British Envoy, whereas he had not only invited a Russian Mission to Cabul in violation of his pledges to us, but was loading them with attentions, whilst Sir Neville Chamberlain was kept ignominiously waiting his pleasure at Peshawur. British _prestige_, it was said, rendered it necessary to coerce the Ameer, and so Sir Neville Chamberlain was ordered to enter Afghan territory without the Ameer’s permission, with a force “too large,” as Lord Carnarvon said, “for a mission, and too small for an army.” When the advance guard of the Mission came to the fort of Ali Musjid the Commandant stopped it. At the time the country was told in the inspired telegrams in the newspapers that the Commandant, Faiz Muhammed Khan, was violent and insulting, and threatened to shoot Major Cavagnari. When the Blue-book appeared with Major Cavagnari’s account of the affair it showed that the Khan behaved with the greatest courtesy, and though he said he must, in obedience to orders, oppose the advance of the Mission, he had actually prevented his troops from firing on Cavagnari and his men. What need to expand the story? The Mission returned. A pretext for a quarrel with Shere Ali, which Lord Salisbury had instructed Lord Lytton to find, was at last discovered. War was declared on Afghanistan, and Parliament was summoned on the 5th of December to hear the news. Of course Parliament was called into consultation too late. The Viceroy of India had deliberately put himself into a position to invite and receive a blow in the face from a semi-barbarous Asiatic prince. The Government were therefore compelled either to recall Lord Lytton, and treat the whole affair as a blunder, or avenge the rebuff which he had received by war. They chose the latter alternative, and the hearts of Liberal wirepullers were lifted up, because manifestly even Lord Beaconsfield’s Administration could not survive such an escapade as a third Afghan war. The debates on the policy of the Government were dismal reading for those who knew what Afghan campaigns meant. The Government shrank from resting their case on the transactions which caused the war. It could not be concealed that on the 19th of August Lord Salisbury asked Russia to withdraw her mission from Cabul, and that on the 18th of September he received a scoffing reply informing him that the Mission was only a temporary one of courtesy. As Sir Charles Dilke put it, Lord Salisbury was naturally dissatisfied with this reply, but being “afraid to hit Russia, yet determined to hit somebody,” he “hit Shere Ali.” Ministers, however, took up a broader ground of defence. They said that the Russian advances in Asia rendered it necessary for England to secure the independence of Afghanistan. All Indian statesmen were agreed that this could be done by guaranteeing his throne to Shere Ali, he on his side giving the Indian Government control over his policy. Shere Ali had been always willing to accept