austing the martial
restlessness of the Affghans upon foreign expeditions, was durability to
be had for any government. To live as a dynasty, it was indispensable to
cross the Indus in pursuit of plunder. But exactly that policy it was,
the one resource of prudent Affghan princes, the escape-valve for
conspiracy and treason, which Lord Auckland's army had been put in
motion to abolish.

Now, _thirdly_, let us examine the machinery by which these plans were
to be executed. Under the last head we have seen that, if on the whole
perhaps the best instrument at hand, and better essentially than the
Dost, very soon, indeed, Shah Soojah must have learned the necessity of
passing over to that aggressive system which he had been raised up to
destroy. Merely for his own safety he must have done this. But now
suppose this otherwise, and that Soojah had continued to be that passive
instrument for the Indian cabinet which their plans required and
presumed. Even on this supposition, our agent or lieutenant Soojah would
have required at first some support. By what machinery was this to be
given? What was to be the instrument for sustaining our instrument?

Simply taxation, energetic taxation. Yet, if _that_ should happen to
fail, what was to be the resource? Simply to fine and to amerce--_i.e._
more intense taxation. So, in Moliere's _Malade Imaginaire_, the only
remedy is "_Saignare et Purgare_." But _lavemens_ had been known to
fail. What was to be done in that case? _What is to be done?_ shrieks
the Macaronic chorus--Why, of course, "_Purgare et ensuita purgare_." To
the present government of India, this organ of administration is all in
all. And it was natural to transfer this doctrine to Affghanistan. But
in that they mistook the notions of the Affghans. And, in order to
understand them, it may be well to review the possible aspect and
modifications under which the idea of a tax may fall.

First, there is the lawful and peaceful revenue raised in free Christian
states under their noble civilization, which is paid even thankfully, as
the purchase money for inappreciable social benefits. Next, and in the
very opposite extreme, is the ruffian levy once raised upon central
India by the ferocious Pindarree, who asked for it with the insolence of
a robber, and wrenched it from the recusant with the atrocities of a
devil. Here there was no pretence of equivalent given or promised: and
this was so exquisite an outrage, a curse so withe