rt, I take the liberty of
sending to your Royal Highness two confidential Memoranda prepared for
the information of Her Majesty's servants on the important subjects
respectively of the state of Slavery in the East Indies, and of the
Poor Laws in this country.

They may probably be interesting to your Royal Highness, and if your
Royal Highness should encourage me to do so, I will, as occasion may
arise, make similar communications to your Royal Highness. I have the
honour to be, Sir, with sincere respect, your Royal Highness's most
faithful and humble servant,

ROBERT PEEL.

_P.S._--I do not think that the measure which I have brought forward
for the diminution of the duties on the import of foreign corn, will
deprive us of any portion of the support or goodwill of our friends.
Many wish that the reduction had not been carried so far, but almost
all are aware of the consequences of rejecting or obstructing the
measure.

[Pageheading: AFGHANISTAN]

_Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci to Queen Victoria._

INDIA BOARD, _1st March 1842._

Lord Fitzgerald, with his most humble duty to your Majesty, requests
permission humbly to submit to your Majesty, that the communications
received yesterday at the India House present a dark and alarming
picture of the position and danger of the British troops in
Afghanistan.[16]

Although the Governor-General's despatch announcing these melancholy
tidings also states that no strictly official intelligence had reached
him from Cabul, yet the opinion of Lord Auckland evidently is, that
the reports on which his despatch is founded are but too likely to be
true.

From them it would appear that a numerous and excited native
population had succeeded in intercepting all supplies, that the army
at Cabul laboured under severe privations, and that in consequence of
the strict investment of the cantonments by the enemy, there remained,
according to a letter from the late Sir William Macnaghten to an
officer with Sir Robert Sale's force, only three days' provision in
the camp.

Under such circumstances it can perhaps be but faintly hoped that any
degree of gallantry and devotion on the part of your Majesty's forces
can have extricated them from the difficulties by which they were
encompassed on every side.

Capitulation had been spoken of, and it may, unhappily, have become
inevitable, as the relieving column, expected from Candahar, had been
compelled by the severity of an unusual sea