1780-1855),
formerly Ambassador to Constantinople, whom Byron described as

"Hibernian Strangford, with thine eyes of blue,
And boasted locks of red or auburn hue."]

[Footnote 96: See _post_, p. 329. (Ch. X, 19th September, 1841)]

[Footnote 97: The new Ambassador to Vienna.]

[Pageheading: INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN]

[Pageheading: LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S REPORT]

[Pageheading: INDIAN FINANCES]

_Lord Ellenborough[98] to Queen Victoria._

Lord Ellenborough presents his most humble duty to your Majesty, and
humbly acquaints your Majesty that having, on the morning after the
Council held at Claremont on the third of this month, requested the
clerks of the India Board to put him in possession of the latest
information with respect to the Political, Military, and Financial
affairs of India, he ascertained that on the 4th of June instructions
had been addressed to the Governor-General of India in Council in the
following terms:--"We direct that unless circumstances now unknown to
us should induce you to adopt a different course, an adequate force
be advanced upon Herat, and that that city and its dependencies may be
occupied by our troops, and dispositions made for annexing them to the
kingdom of Cabul."[99]

The last letters from Calcutta, dated the 9th of July, did not
intimate any intention on the part of the Governor-General in
Council of directing any hostile movement against Herat, and the
Governor-General himself having always evinced much reluctance to
extend the operations of the army to that city, it seemed almost
probable that the execution of the orders of the 4th of June would
have been suspended until further communication could be had with the
Home Authorities.

Nevertheless, in a matter of so much moment it did not appear to be
prudent to leave anything to probability, and at Lord Ellenborough's
instance your Majesty's confidential servants came to the conclusion
that no time should be lost in addressing to the Governor-General in
Council a letter in the following terms--such letter being sent, as
your Majesty must be aware, not directly by the Commissioners for the
Affairs of India, but, as the Act of Parliament prescribes in affairs
requiring secrecy, by their direction through and in the name of the
Secret Committee of the Court of Directors:--

"From the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India
Company to the Governor-General of India in Council