; and we cannot refrain from the hope, that the period of
his Government will not be suffered to elapse without a return to the
old system on this point also--the vital point on which the stability of
our empire depends.

[41] The Nawab of Arcot, one of the native princes, whose
fidelity is now strongly suspected, assured the Resident, in
his reply to the official communication of the capture of
Ghazni in 1839, that from his excessive joy at the triumph of
his good friend the Company, his bulk of body had so greatly
increased that he was under the necessity of providing himself
with a new wardrobe--his garments having become too strait for
his unbounded stomach! A choice specimen of oriental bombast.

Such have been the consequences, as far as they have hitherto been
developed, to the foreign and domestic relations of our Eastern empire,
of the late memorable Affghan war. In many points, an obvious parallel
may be drawn between its commencement and progress, and that of the
invasion of Spain by Napoleon. In both cases, the territory of an
unoffending people was invaded and overrun, in the plenitude of (as was
deemed by the aggressors) irresistible power, on the pretext, in each
case, that it was necessary to anticipate an ambitious rival in the
possession of a country which might be used as a vantage ground against
us. In both cases, the usurpation was thinly veiled by the elevation of
a pageant-monarch to the throne; till the invaded people, goaded by the
repeated indignities offered to their religious and national pride, rose
_en masse_ against their oppressors at the same moment in the capital
and the provinces, and either cut them off, or drove them to the
frontier. In each case the intruders, by the arrival of reinforcements,
regained for a time their lost ground; and if our Whig rulers had
continued longer at the helm of affairs, the parallel might have become
complete throughout. The strength and resources of our Indian empire
might have been drained in the vain attempt to complete the subjugation
of a rugged and impracticable country, inhabited by a fierce and bigoted
population; and an "Affghan _ulcer_." (to use the ordinary phrase of
Napoleon himself in speaking of the Spanish war) might have corroded the
vitals, and undermined the fabric, of British domination in the East.
Fortunately, however, for our national welfare and our national
character, better counsels are at