Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎5v] (11/312)

course erroneously, the natives do not like us, and considering that
the further they advance in knowledge the further they will creep
into self-confidence, the signification and tendency of such circum
stances are perfectly clear.
But whether such a state of things as we have lightly glanced
at is a matter of serious or immediate anxiety depends upon
another question—namely, whether there are any active dis
contents, any powerful ambitions, to work upon it; and it is
here that the ordinary means of information begin to fail us, and
here that official glozing and official secrecy keep the country in
darkness. On occasion a little positive assertion or a burst of
high ministerial ridicule is also ventured, when it seems expedient
to banish from the public mind some shadow of the truth. A
change in this respect, however, appears imminent. Circumstances
over which the Government declined control are already com
pelling them to allow a little of the truth to come out through
the usual ministerial channels; and presently it will be allowed
that in India active discontent and powerful ambitions are at
work in the conditions we have described. If over a large area of
our own Indian dominions the schoolmaster is abroad, the
independent States are nowadays well informed, too, on a
variety of matters connected with our sovereignty, its condi
tions and its prospects. Through various means easily imagined
personages like Holkar, Scindia , and Salar Jung know as
well as most people—(of course it is their business to know)—
what our relations are with the rest of the world, for instance ;
' how we stand in comparison with other fighting Powers, if we are
still a fighting Power; what at a given time are the probable
combinations open to us or against us ; what is the condition of our
domestic factions, and so forth. And the progress of enlighten
ment has destroyed a variety of secular superstitions in the minds of
these little Indian potentates. If they ever regarded us as naturally
a kind of demigods, they are disabused of that degrading idea. If
they ever dwelt in illusions as to our actual strength, statistics,
comparison, and the teaching of foreign agents, busy in every con
siderable town in India, have dissipated their ignorance. If they
were unaware that in warfare science and arms of precision make
up for paucity of numbers, they know all about it now; and for
years past and up to this day they have been ardently employed
in making the most of the discovery. This our Ministers and
other officials know who are now willing that the English " man
in the street" shall learn the importance in a military sense
of the native States of India. It has been pointed out that
the Nizam's army is 45,000 strong, with 700 guns ; that
Holkar's "regular" army is 10,000 men; that Baroda has
some 20,000 soldiers ; that while Scindia's force is numbered at
22,000 men and 210 guns, it is believed that he can put 50,000
men into the field; that the Rajpoot princes command some
70,000 men ; that the independent States of Cashmere and Nepaul
can muster—the one 20,000, the other 100,000 disciplined soldiers ;
and so forth. But armies like these might be maintained by per
fectly contented States, as little likely to quarrel with us as other
foreigners are. That, however, is not the case, as our governors
both at home and abroad are aware. Two or three of the most influ
ential, intelligent, and powerful of these princes, and those who
enjoy most intercourse with Europeans, have a long-cherished and
bitter grievance against England. Each believes himself robbed
(justly or unjustly we do not say), and they have looked so long
and vainly for a remedy that at last they despair. And what i^
under such circumstances, they incline to combine, as do the
most peaceful of malcontents, and are already on the move
with that object ? What if they are secretly drilling more
men than figure in the returns, and are not only buying
arms of precision in great quantities (which is why the Indian
Arms Act was passed), but are forging guns and manu
facturing rifles at home, under the supervision of foreign experts,
in a methodical if somewhat secret way ? Would not all this,
taken with other matters, incline us to think rather of the laws of
self-preservation than of the glories of conquest or the joys of
peace ?
Now we say that all we have here set forth has lain clearly
before our Government for some years. In its worst and most
threatening aspect it lay before them a year ago, when they had
to decide whether they would allow Russia to plant herself in the
most commanding positions to operate on such a state of things.
We know what course they chose to take ; and how they came
bragging back from Berlin with their cry of " Peace with
honour ;" and how sure they were that Russia had been
overawed by their resolute policy ; and how now at this |
moment they are forced to contemplate armed operations which
are in fact nothing less than war for India against Russia ; that is ^
to say, against the Power whose ability to disturb the empire it
pleased our Government to ridicule while they were helping her to
do it. We leave our readers in contemplation of that fact, begging
them to look back from it over all we have said above. If they
do so, they will, we think, allow that the observations at the head
of this article are justified, as well as much else that we have been
constrained to say of late.