portents which have
appeared in the political horizon. In Affghanistan all things seem
gradually returning to the same state in which the British invasion
found them. The sons of Shah Shoojah have proved unable to retain the
royal authority, which they attempted to grasp on the retirement of the
invaders; and Dost Mahommed, released from captivity, (as we expressed
in Feb. 1843 the hope that he would be,) once more rules in Cabul--there
destined, we trust, to end his days in honour after his unmerited
misfortunes--and has shown every disposition to cultivate a good
understanding with the government in India. Akhbar Khan is again
established in his former government of Jellalabad; and it is said that
he meditates availing himself of the present distracted state of the
Sikh kingdom, to make an attempt for the recovery of the Peshawar--the
refusal of his father to confirm which, by a formal cession to Runjeet
Singh, was one of the causes, it will be remembered, of the Affghan war.
There are rumours of wars, moreover, in Transoxiana, where the King of
Bokhara has subdued the Uzbek kingdom of Kokan or Ferghana, (once the
patrimony of the famous Baber,) and is said to meditate extending his
conquests across the Hindoo-Koosh into Northern Affghanistan--a measure
which might possibly bring him within reason of British vengeance for
the wrongs of the two ill-fated envoys, Stoddart and Conolly, who, even
if the rumours of their murder should prove unfounded, have been
detained for years, in violation of the rights of nations, in hopeless
and lingering bondage.[15] The Barukzye sirdars have repossessed
themselves of Candahar, whence they are believed to be plotting with the
dispossessed Ameer of Meerpoor in Scinde against the British; while at
Herat, the very _fons et origo mali_, the sons of Shah Kamran have been
expelled after their father's death, by the wily vizier Yar Mohammed,
who has strengthened himself in his usurpation by becoming a voluntary
vassal of Persia! Thus has the Shah acquired, without a blow, the city
which became famous throughout the world by its resistance to his arms;
and the preservation of which, as a bulwark against the designs of
Russia, was the primary object which led the British standards, in an
evil hour, across the Indus. Such has been the result of all the
deep-laid schemes of Lord Auckland's policy, and the equivalent obtained
for the thousands of lives, and millions of treasure, lavished in
supp