Affghans, though
frequent, have never been protracted or sanguinary:--like the
Highlanders, as described by Bailie Nicol Jarvie, "though they may
quarrel among themselves, and gie ilk ither ill names, and may be a
slash wi' a claymore, they are sure to join in the long run against a'
civilized folk:"--but it is scarcely possible that so many conflicting
interests, now that the bond of common danger is removed, can be
reconciled without strife and bloodshed. It is possible, indeed, that
Futteh-Jung (whom the last accounts state to have remained at Cabul when
our troops withdrew, in the hope of maintaining himself on the musnud,
and who is said to be the most acceptable to the Affghans of the four
sons[33] of Shah-Shoojah) may be allowed to retain for a time the title
of king; but he had no treasure and few partizans; and the rooted
distaste of the Affghans for the titles and prerogatives of royalty is
so well ascertained, that Dost Mohammed, even in the plenitude of his
power, never ventured to assume them. All speculations on these points,
however, can at present amount to nothing more than vague conjecture;
the troubled waters must have time to settle, before any thing can be
certainly prognosticated as to the future destinies of Affghanistan.

[33] The elder of these princes, Timour, who was governor of
Candahar during the reign of his father, has accompanied
General England to Hindostan, preferring, as he says, the life
of a private gentleman under British protection to the perils
of civil discord in Affghanistan. Of the second,
Mohammed-Akhbar, (whose mother is said to be sister of Dost
Mohammed,) we know nothing;--Futteh-Jung is the third, and was
intended by Shah-Shoojah for his successor;--Seifdar-Jung, now
at Candahar, is the youngest.

The kingdom of the Punjab will now become the barrier between
Affghanistan and our north-western frontier in India; and it is said
that the Sikhs, already in possession of Peshawer and the rich plain
extending to the foot of the Khyber mountains, have undertaken in future
to occupy the important defiles of this range, and the fort of
Ali-Musjid, so as to keep the Affghans within bounds. It seems to us
doubtful, however, whether they will be able to maintain themselves
long, unaided, in this perilous advanced post: though the national
animosity which subsists between them and the Affghans is a sufficient
pledge of their good-will for