Czar. Lord Lytton was
better informed as to the state of things at Cabul than were his very
numerous critics, one of whom, under the shield of anonymity,
confidently stated that the Russian Mission to Cabul was either an
affair of etiquette or a means of warding off a prospective attack from
India on Russian Turkestan; that the Ameer signed no treaty with the
Mission, and was deeply embarrassed by its presence; while Lord Lytton's
treatment of the Ameer was discourteous[309].

[Footnote 308: Duke of Argyll, _The Eastern Question, _vol. ii. pp.
504-507.]

[Footnote 309: _The Causes of the Afghan War, _pp. 305 _et seq._]

In the light of facts as now known, these charges are seen to be the
outcome of a vivid imagination or of partisan malice. There can be no
doubt that Shere Ali had played us false. Apart from his intrigues with
Russia, he had condoned the murder of a British officer by keeping the
murderer in office, and had sought to push on the frontier tribes into a
holy war. Finally, he sent orders to stop the British Mission at Ali
Musjid, the fort commanding the entrance to the Khyber Pass. This
action, which occurred on September 22, must be pronounced a deliberate
insult, seeing that the progress of that Mission had been so timed as
that it should reach Cabul after the days of mourning were over. In the
Viceroy's view, the proper retort would have been a declaration of war;
but again the Home Government imposed caution, urging the despatch of an
ultimatum so as to give time for repentance at Cabul. It was sent on
November 2, with the intimation that if no answer reached the frontier
by November 20, hostilities would begin. No answer came until a later
date, and then it proved to be of an evasive character.

Such, in brief outline, were the causes of the second Afghan War. In the
fuller light of to-day it is difficult to account for the passion which
the discussion of them aroused at the time. But the critics of the
Government held strong ground at two points. They could show, first,
that the war resulted in the main from Lord Beaconsfield's persistent
opposition to Russia in the Eastern Question, also that the Muscovite
intrigues at Cabul were a natural and very effective retort to the showy
and ineffective expedient of bringing Indian troops to Malta; in short,
that the Afghan War was due largely to Russia's desire for revenge.

Secondly, they fastened on what was undoubtedly a weak point in the
Ministeria