l case, namely, that Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Lord
Mayor's Banquet, on November 9, 1878, laid stress almost solely on the
need for acquiring a scientific frontier on the north-west of India. In
the parliamentary debate of December 9 he sought to rectify this mistake
by stating that he had never asserted that a new frontier was the object
of the war, but rather a possible consequence. His critics refused to
accept the correction. They pinned him to his first words. If this were
so, they said, what need of recounting our complaints against Shere Ali?
These were merely the pretexts, not the causes, of a war which was to be
waged solely in the cold-blooded quest for a scientific frontier. Perish
India, they cried, if her fancied interests required the sacrifice of
thousands of lives of brave hillmen on the altar of the new Imperialism.

These accusations were logically justifiable against Ministers who dwelt
largely on that frigid abstraction, the "scientific frontier," and laid
less stress on the danger of leaving an ally of Russia on the throne of
Afghanistan. The strong point of Lord Lytton's case lay in the fact that
the policy of the Gladstone Ministry had led Shere Ali to side with
Russia; but this fact was inadequately explained, or, at least, not in
such a way as to influence public opinion. The popular fancy caught at
the phrase "scientific frontier"; and for once Lord Beaconsfield's
cleverness in phrase-making conspired to bring about his overthrow.

But the logic of words does not correspond to the logic of facts. Words
are for the most part simple, downright, and absolute. The facts of
history are very rarely so. Their importance is very often relative, and
is conditioned by changing circumstances. It was so with the events that
led up to the second Afghan War. They were very complex, and could not
be summed up, or disposed of, by reference to a single formula.
Undoubtedly the question of the frontier was important; but it did not
become of supreme importance until, firstly, Shere Ali became our enemy,
and, secondly, showed unmistakable signs of having a close understanding
with Russia. Thenceforth it became a matter of vital import for India to
have a frontier readibly defensible against so strong a combination as
that of Russia and Afghanistan.

It would be interesting to know what Mr. Gladstone and his supporters
would have done if they had come into power in the summer of 1878. That
they blamed the