go, we are received with respect, and attention, and welcome.' He had just accepted the Government of Bombay in the room of Sir James Carnac; and George Lawrence was to bear him company for a year's leave, while Burnes took the Envoy's place at Kábul. Gladdened by thoughts of coming rest in a higher office, Macnaghten coloured all things with the reflexion of his own happiness. 'The country,' he said in a private letter, 'was perfectly quiet from Dan to Beersheba.' Sháh Shujá was 'deservedly popular' with all classes except the Kháns, who were 'too contemptible to be cared about.' He refused to see how restive the Sháh was waxing under our hard unbending yoke. To him the Afgháns were so many children; and as children we ought to treat them. 'If we put our naughty boy in a corner, the rest will be terrified;' which meant in plainer English, that if Aktar Khán could be caught and hanged by way of example, his followers would cease to trouble us any more[1].
Very different was the view which Nott and Rawlinson took of the position in Afghánistán. Nott was no courtier to suit his speech to his company, but a brave, blunt, war-tried soldier of the Bengal army, with a quick temper and a cool clear head. He looked upon the Envoy as a mischievous enthusiast, and flung out many a jeer at his political agents, whose meddlesome bungling had 'ruined our cause, and bared the throat of every European in this country
- ↑ Kaye; Durand; Lawrence.
