the
agitations of peace will be more impassioned for the coming generation
than the agitations of war for the last. But that sympathy, almost
morbid, which England feels with the condition of social man, other
nations echo by a reflex sympathy with England; not always by a friendly
sympathy. Like the [Greek: aerobatentes] and _funambuli_ of ancient
days, equally when keeping the difficult line of advance, or when losing
it, England is regarded with a searching gaze that might seem governed
by the fabulous fascination of the rattlesnake. Does she ascend on her
proper line of advance? There is heard the murmur of reluctant applause.
Does she trip? There arises the yell of triumph. Is she seen purchasing
the freedom of a negro nation? The glow of admiration suffuses the
countenance of Christendom. Is she descried entering on wars of
unprovoked aggression? All faces in Europe are illuminated with smiles
of prosperous malice. It is a painful preeminence which England
occupies--hard to keep, dangerous to forfeit. Hit, and a million of
hearts are tainted with jealousy; fail, and a million revel in
malignity. Therefore it was that Cabool and its disasters drew an
attention so disproportioned to their military importance. Cabool was
one chapter in a transaction which, truly or not, had come to be reputed
incompatible with those august principles of public justice professed
and worn amongst the phylacteries of Great Britain. Therefore also it
was that on this subject, as we have already said, a library of works
has been accumulated.

[1] _A Great Country's Little Wars_. By HENRY LUSHINGTON. London:
Parker, 1844.

Of these works we assert, fearlessly but not arrogantly, that all are
partially in error. They are in fact, one and all, controversial works;
often without the design of the writers, and not always perhaps with
their consciousness--but the fact is such. Not one of them but has a
purpose to serve for or against Lord Auckland, or Dost Mahommed, or the
East India Company, or the government at home and at Calcutta, which
replaced that of the Whigs. Some even go into such specialties of
partisanship as to manage the cause chiefly as a case depending against
the political agents--Mr Ross Bell, Mr Loveday, Captain Outram, or Sir
Alexander Burnes. Whilst others, which might seem a service of
desperation, hold their briefs as the apologists of that injured young
gentleman, Akbar Khan. All, in short, are controversial for a _pe