ously opposed to
both these proposals, but they did not succeed in convincing Lord
Salisbury that the measures were undesirable; and on the resignation
of Lord Northbrook, the new Viceroy was furnished with special
instructions as to the action which Her Majesty's Government
considered necessary in consequence of the activity of Russia in
Central Asia, and the impossibility of obtaining accurate information
of what was going on in and beyond Afghanistan.

The question of the Embassy was dealt with at once; Lord Lytton
directed a letter to be sent to the Amir announcing his assumption
of the Viceroyalty, and his intention to depute Sir Lewis Pelly to
proceed to Kabul for the purpose of discussing certain matters with
His Highness.

To this communication a most unsatisfactory reply was received, and
a second letter was addressed to the Amir, in which he was informed
that, should he still decline to receive the Viceroy's Envoy after
deliberately weighing all the considerations commended to his serious
attention, the responsibility of the result would rest entirely on the
Government of Afghanistan, which would thus alienate itself from
the alliance of that Power which was most disposed and best able to
befriend it.

This letter was the cause of considerable excitement in Kabul,
excitement which ran so high that the necessity for proclaiming a
religious war was mooted; and, to complicate matters, the Amir at
this time received overtures from General Kauffmann, the Russian
Governor-General in Turkestan.

A delay of six weeks occurred before Sher Ali replied to Lord Lytton's
letter, and then he altogether ignored the Viceroy's proposal to send
a Mission to Kabul, merely suggesting that the British Government
should receive an Envoy from him, or that representatives from both
countries should meet and hold a conference on the border, or, as
another alternative, that the British Native Agent at Kabul should
return and discuss affairs with the Viceroy.

The last suggestion was accepted by the Government of India, and the
agent (Nawab Ata Mahomed Khan) arrived in Simla early in October. The
Nawab gave it as his opinion that the Amir's attitude of estrangement
was due to an accumulation of grievances, the chief of which were--the
unfavourable arbitration in the Sistan dispute; the want of success of
Saiyad Nur Mahomed's mission to India in 1873, when it was the desire
of the Amir's heart to enter into an offensive and defens