Nawab Ghulam
Hussein Khan. With regard to the expressions used by your
Excellency in the beginning of your letter, referring to the
friendly character of the Mission and the goodwill of the British
Government, I leave it to your Excellency, whose wisdom and
justice are universally admitted, to decide whether any reliance
can be placed upon goodwill, if it be evidenced by words only.
But if, on the other hand, goodwill really consists of deeds and
actions, then it has not been manifested by the various wishes
that have been expressed, and the proposals that have been made by
British officials during the last few years to officials of this
God-granted Government--proposals which, from their nature, it was
impossible for them to comply with.

'One of these proposals referred to my dutiful son, the
ill-starred wretch, Mahomed Yakub Khan, and was contained in a
letter addressed by the officials of the British Government to
the British Agent then residing in Kabul. It was written in that
letter that, "if the said Yakub Khan be released and set at
liberty, our friendship with the Afghan Government will be firmly
cemented, but that otherwise it will not."

'There are several other grounds of complaint of similar nature,
which contain no evidence of goodwill, but which, on the contrary,
were effective in increasing the aversion and apprehension already
entertained by the subjects of this God-granted Government.

'With regard to my refusal to receive the British Mission, your
Excellency has stated that it would appear from my conduct that I
was actuated by feelings of direct hostility towards the British
Government.

'I assure your Excellency that, on the contrary, the officials of
this God-granted Government, in repulsing the Mission, were not
influenced by any hostile or inimical feelings towards the British
Government, nor did they intend that any insult or affront should
be offered. But they were afraid that the independence of this
Government might be affected by the arrival of the Mission,
and that the friendship which has now existed between the two
Governments for several years might be annihilated.

'A paragraph in your Excellency's letter corroborates the
statement which they have made to this Government. The feelings
of apprehension which were aroused in the minds