professional obligation to accept a command for which he was physically disqualified. Our author, we think, goes too far when he pronounces General Elphinstone to have been 'fit only for the invalid establishment on the day of his arrival in India' (vol. ii. p. 44):-for we have understood that while at the head of the most important division in Upper India, that of Meerut, he exhibited no want of talent for command, and was distinguished by his judicious firmness in maintaining the moral discipline of the troops under his charge. The fact of his being so afflicted with the gout as to render active movement in a hilly country an impossiblity was so notorious, that the selection of him for the service of Afghanistan is only to be accounted for from the delusion already spoken of as prevailing in the highest quarters. That Afghanistan was as tranquil as any province in our empire was the main tenet of the then dominant creed; and in conformity with this supposition, the first upon the roster, be he who he might, was to be preferred to Sir Harry Smith, Sir George Pollock, or any other of the hale and able generals who were at hand for the duty. Of the fatality which gave to such a chief such a second as General Shelton, we can only speak as we would of the inscrutable provisions of Heaven for the chastisement of erring rulers and nations. Their several qualities are contrasted with impartial severity in the following passage :

'They were both of them brave men. In any other situation, though the physical infirmities of the one, and the cankered vanity, the dogmatical perverseness of the other, might have in some measure detracted from their efficiency as military commanders, I believe that they would have exhibited sufficient constancy and courage to rescue an army from utter destruction and the British name from indelible reproach. But in the Cabool cantonments they were miserably out of place. They seemed to have been sent there by superhuman intervention to work out the utter ruin and prostration of an unholy policy by ordinary human means. Elphinstone knew nothing of the native army; Shelton was violently prejudiced against it: Elphinstone, in a new and untried. position, had no opinion of his own; Shelton, on the other hand, was proud of his experience, and obstinately wedded to his own opinions. It would have been impossible, indeed, to have brought together two men so individually disqualified for their positions, so inefficient in themselves, and so doubly inefficient in combination. Each made the other worse. The only point on which they agreed was unhappily the one on which it would have been well if they had differed. They agreed in urging the envoy to capitulate.'-vol. ii. p. 129.

This last line by itself almost suffices to convey the correctest idea of the fearfully difficult position of that high-minded man, whose memory some even in the senate have sought to load with the blame of all that happened through the incapacity and weak

VOL. XCI. NO. CLXXXI.

D

ness

ness of his military associates. Sir William Macnaghten's real error may be told in a very few words. While Secretary to the Governor-General, he had contributed to create the delusion regarding the kingship of Shah Soojah and the loyalty of the Afghans, in which, as Envoy, he afterwards so largely shared. This prevented his seeing or hearing aught that made against a policy originating in some measure with himself, and subsequently adopted by the head of the Government in India, and by the Governor-General's ministerial friends. Hence arose his disregard of the monitory symptoms of the very danger with which, when it did come, he immediately showed how fitted he was to grapple. He perhaps clung too long to the cantonments, though, when forced to give up all hope of preserving that position, we have now the clearest proof that he did his utmost to persuade-for unfortunately he could not compel-his military coadjutors to move into the Bala-Hissar.

Mr. Kaye describes with rare energy the last tragic hour of this accomplished gentleman's career. In conclusion he says:

Thus perished William Hay Macnaghten, struck down by the hand of the favourite son of Dost Mahomed. Thus perished as brave a gentleman as ever in the midst of fiery trials struggled manfully to rescue from disgrace the reputation of a great country. Throughout those seven weeks of unparalleled difficulty and danger he had confronted with steadfast courage every new peril and perplexity that had risen up before him; and, a man of peace himself, had resisted the timid counsels of the warriors, and striven to infuse, by his example, some strength into their fainting hearts. Whatever may be the judg ment of posterity on other phases of his character and other incidents of his career, the historian will ever dwell with pride upon the unfailing courage and constancy of the man who, with everything to discourage and depress him, surrounded by all enervating influences, was ever eager to counsel the nobler and manlier course, ever ready to bear the burthen of responsibility and face the assaults of danger. There was but one civilian at Cabool, and he was the truest soldier in the camp.'-vol. ii. p. 155.

The gloomy interval which followed the death of the Envoythe re-appearance, and ever with additional claims upon our admiration, of Eldred Pottinger-the sad exode from the cantonment-the strange clinging of men in that hour of agony, even at the risk of life, to their household goods-the admirable conduct of our countrywomen—the massacre of the unresisting mass -the undaunted but unavailing resistance of the few-the gradually diminishing number of the fugitives, till at last one single man alone escapes to carry to Julalabad the news of the destruction of fifteeen thousand of his fellow-creatures with whom he had started a few days before from Cabool;-all of these incidents

incidents have, it is true, been told already, but never we think with such effect as in this the first connected history of the war.

We feel that we have quoted much-but cannot omit the following passage in the description of the terrible scene at Jugdulluck, happily expressive, as it appears to be, of our author's sympathy with that noble corps whose uniform he has had the honour to wear.

'Here too fell Captain Nicholl, of the Horse Artillery, who with his men, all through the dangers of the investment and the horrors of the retreat, had borne themselves as gallantly as the best of English soldiers in any place and at any time. Ever in the midst of danger, now charging on horse and now on foot, were these few resolute artillery-men. With mingled admiration and awe the enemy marked the desperate courage of the "red men," and shrank from a close conflict with what seemed to be superhuman strength and endurance. There is not much in the events of the outbreak at Cabool, and the retreat to Julalabad, to be looked back upon with national pride; but the monumental column on which are inscribed the names of the brave men of Nicholl's troop who then fell, only displays the language of simple unostentatious truth when it records that, "on occasions of unprecedented trial officers and men upheld in the most noble manner the character of the regiment to which they belonged." And years hence, when it has become a mere tradition that Dum-Dum* was once the head-quarter station of that distinguished corps, the young artilleryman standing in the shadow of the column will read how Nicholl's troop, the oldest in the regiment, was annihilated in the fearful passes of Afghanistan, will dwell on the heroic conduct which preceded their fall, and glow with pride at the recollection that those brave men were a portion of the regiment which now bears his name upon its rolls.'

The Indian Artillery have indeed cause to look back with pride upon a war in the course of which there issued from its ranks such men as Pottinger, D'Arcy Todd, Abbott, and Shakespearall, as we have shown, distinguished at Herat; George Macgregor, the able political coadjutor of Sir Robert Sale at Julalabad; and lastly, Sir George Pollock, of whose skilful advance from Peshawur to Cabool to retrieve our military character, and liberate our captive countrymen and country women, we would, but that our limits forbid, gladly follow out our author's able narrative. However pleasing too it might be to dwell upon the tale of our reviving fortunes, it is from the record of our disasters that the most useful lessons are to be drawn.

In looking back upon the part of Mr. Kaye's work which we have most closely examined, we are struck with three conclusions as directly deducible from the vivid narrative. These are, firstly,

The artillery-station about ten miles from Calcutta.

the mischievous consequences to India of its affairs being in any way linked with the oscillations of party-struggles in England; secondly, the mischief which may flow from the secret and irresistible sway exercised by the Board of Control over the deliberations of the Court of Directors; thirdly, the dangers attending the systematic separation of the Governor-General from the other members of the Supreme Council in India.

If it were but an idle vaunt once heard in India, that it was to the authors of the Afghan war the Whigs owed their return to power in 1839, there is no doubt of this expedition having been regarded by many as the war-horse of their party-or that Lord Auckland, in disregarding the admonitions of the Court of Directors, and the warnings of the Commander-in-Chief on the perilous position of our force beyond the Indus, was greatly influenced by the fear lest, by withdrawing from the enterprise, he should damage his political friends in England. In regard to the sway exercised by the Board of Control over the Court of Directors, all we can gather from the history before us is, that it must in the instance of the Afghan war have operated to stifle or to render of no effect much sound and sensible counsel which the Directors were anxious to impart to their servants abroad. As concerns the separation of the Governor-General from his Council, we have shown at the beginning of this article what its effects are likely to be; and all the facts detailed in these volumes tend to make good Mr. Kaye's assertion, that, if Lord Auckland had not quitted Calcutta, he would have followed a line of policy more in accordance with his own feelings and opinions, and less destructive to the interests of the empire' (i. 304).

6

The time draws near when Parliament will again have to decide upon the future government of India; and to those who would in the interim acquire some knowledge of the working of the present system we can recommend no better study than that of the annals of the first great event which has occurred since, by the power of steam, India has been brought nearer to England, and consequently more under the influence of home-bred politicians.

ART.

ART. III.-1. A Primer of the History of the Holy Catholic Church in Ireland, from the Introduction of Christianity to the Formation of the Modern Irish Branch of the Church of Rome. Third Edition. By the Rev. R. King, A.B. Dublin. 1851.

2. The Experiment of Three Hundred Years. A Statement of the Efforts made by the English Government to make known the Gospel to the Irish Nation. By the Rev. H. B. Macartney, Vicar of Kilrock. Dublin. 1847.

3. A Report on the Books and Documents of the Papacy, deposited in the University Library, Cambridge, the Bodleian, and Trinity College, Dublin, in 1840. London. 1852.

IF reports which have taken public attention by surprise are to

be credited, elements of almost marvellous change are fermenting in Ireland :-Romanism is in process of breaking uplife and thought are stirring and struggling within it; and not alone in some peculiar locality, or in one passionate sally of secession, but in variously circumstanced districts, and in a continuous outpouring, which has deepened and widened until the rivulet has swelled into a stream that promises to become a flood. Multitudes upon multitudes are represented as passing away from a Church, out of which,' they used to believe, there was no redemption' and we, Protestants, that there was no deliverance. Leading organs of the Press, British and Irish, Protestant and Romanist, are agreed as to the fact. Strangers, prejudiced and unprejudiced, who have visited that country for the express purpose of exploring its religious condition, report to the same effect. Speakers at public meetings grow eloquent in praise or in censure of the New Reformation. A Catholic Defence Association,' under the presidency of Archbishop Cullen-special nominee of the Pope-is employed to put this Reformation down. A Society is established by the Lord Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Whately) to protect converts against Papist persecution. And, after ample consultation with the heads of the Established Church, the Lord Bishop of Tuam (Dr. Plunkett) has announced his resolution to dispense with the University testimonials usually required of candidates for Holy Orders, that he may provide for Irish-speaking congregations, converted from Rome, ministers with whom they can hold converse in the language they best understand. No trivial movements could have led to such results as these.

The debate, in truth, is now limited to the circumstances under which so many have quitted the Church of Rome-the instrumentalities