between the British and the tribesmen. In
a similar spirit I approach the examination of the methods of
offence employed. Many misconceptions, some of which are caused by an
extraordinary ignorance, exist on this subject in England. One member
of the House of Commons asked the Secretary of State whether, in the
punishment of villages, care was taken that only the houses of the
guilty parties should be destroyed. He was gravely told that great care
was taken. The spectacle of troops, who have perhaps carried a village
with the bayonet and are holding it against a vigorous counter-attack,
when every moment means loss of life and increase of danger, going
round and carefully discriminating which houses are occupied by "guilty
parties," and which by unoffending people, is sufficiently ridiculous.
Another member asked, "Whether the villages were destroyed or only
the fortifications." "Only the fortifications," replied the minister
guilelessly. What is the actual fact? All along the Afghan border every
man's house is his castle. The villages are the fortifications, the
fortifications are the villages. Every house is loopholed, and whether
it has a tower or not depends only on its owner's wealth. A third
legislator, in the columns of his amusing weekly journal, discussed the
question at some length, and commented on the barbarity of such tactics.
They were not only barbarous, he affirmed, but senseless. Where did the
inhabitants of the villages go? To the enemy of course! This reveals,
perhaps, the most remarkable misconception of the actual facts. The
writer seemed to imagine that the tribesmen consisted of a regular army,
who fought, and a peaceful, law-abiding population, who remained at
their business, and perhaps protested against the excessive military
expenditure from time to time. Whereas in reality, throughout these
regions, every inhabitant is a soldier from the first day he is old
enough to hurl a stone, till the last day he has strength to pull a
trigger, after which he is probably murdered as an encumbrance to the
community.

Equipped with these corrected facts, I invite the reader to examine the
question of the legitimacy of village-burning for himself. A camp of a
British brigade, moving at the order of the Indian Government and under
the acquiescence of the people of the United Kingdom, is attacked at
night. Several valuable and expensive officers, soldiers and transport
animals are killed and wounded. The ass