Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎60v] (124/312)

farther side of the river, about sis milfes distant
from the walls. Still the men laboured oWri'ully
in the ditches and on the ramparts. The woi'ks
were daily becoming stronger; but their labours
were destined to be frustrated by an enemy mora
swift and destructive than any they had yet en?-
countered in Afghanistan. On the 19th the men
marched out as usual, with their pickaxes and
the guards were at the gates, the sentries
on the walls. Colonel Monteith, the field officer
for the day, had ascended one of the bastions, and
was scanning the horizon with his glass, when
suddenly the ground trembled, and a noise was
heard which is described as not so much like
thunder as the sound of a thousand heavily-
laden waggons rolling and jolting over an
ill-paved street. The diggers looked around
" them with a stare of consternation; and then,
as if actuated by one common influence, the
parties in the trenches, seizing their arms, rushed
out. It was well for them that they did so ; for
scarcely had they reached the glacis ere the whole
of the plain began to heave like billows on
the surface of the ocean, and walls and
houses, splitting asunder, came tumbling
down upon the space which but an instant
before had been crowded with workmen."
In a moment the earthquake had undona
" all that it had taken the garrison of Jellalabad
three months to accomplish. The whole of the
parapets which had been with so much skill and
diligence constructed were thrown down with a
i fearful crash into heaps of ruins. In the walls,
breaches were made, more accessible than any
! which the troops found when they first entered
the place; and the entire circuit was more or less
shaken. As to the houses in the town, there was
scarcely one of them which escaped more or less of
damage. Some fell in altogether; others had
their fronts or flanks destroyed and the roofs
shaken down ; and the cloud of dust which rose
immediately on the occurrence of the catastrophe
is described as having been portentous. Happily,
very few lives were lost. By far the greater
number of the troops, being without the walla
when the shock came, stood upon the glacis, or
lay flat, while it heaved beneath them, to witness
the overthrow ; and the guards, making for open
spaces, escaped. Some natives were overwhelmed
in the ruins of the houses where they sojourned;
and Colonel Monteith, before he could escape from
the rampart, sustained some bruises. But,
on the whole, the casualties were wonder
fully rare; and the stores, both of ammunition
and salted provisions, sustained no damage,"
Nothing could better exhibit the wholesome
respect inspired by the attitude of the garrison than
i the neglect of Akbar Khan to seize this moment
for assaulting the place. The opportunity was
soon lost. On the morrow the pickaxes and spades
of the indefatigable garrison were again busily at
(work. Grass-cutting and foraging parties still
went forth daily, sustaining occasionally
losses from the attacks of the enemy's cavalry, but
(always repulsing their assailants, and rarely re
turning empty handed. The rifle was not at that
time the trusty friend of the English soldiei
which it has since become, but the whole country
within long range of the walls had been so care
fully measured, and the practice had been so effec
tive that every shot thrown where a group of
Afghans assembled told. To such perfection, in
deed, was the art of gunnery carried by the be
sieged that it is stated that on one occasion
Captain Backhouse struck down a single horse
man more than a mile distant from the fort.
As the month wore: on, the Afghan invest
ment became closer, and the harassment
of their fire more galling to the working
parties, and the men on the ramparts. On the
2nd of March, towards evening, a party of sappers
sallied forth and drove the enemy's skirmisher!
away.- The Afghans were continuously receiving
reinforcements, but the besieged, though com
pelled to husband their failing stock of ammuni
tion, made many successful sortiefe, and the
attempts to interfere with the foraging partiea
were rarely completely successful. On one occa
sion a party of cavalry and infantry, suddenly
issuing from the gates, boldly marched down upon
the flocks of the enemy, and before they could be
interfered with actually returned into the town,
driving before them not fewer than 500 head ol
sheep. Both food and ammunition, however,
began at last to fail. For upwards of four months
the garrison had thus maintained itself isolated
I
in the heart of an enemy's country ; the timo
had come when more decisive steps must be taken.
It was now the 7th of April, and instead of the
deep snows and bitter frosts which the forces
under General Elphinstone had to encounter, the
weather was fine and favourable for militaiy ope
rations. The army was moreover in comparatively
good condition—inured to hard work and harder
fighting, and too well accustomed to take the
measure of their enemy to be daunted by his
greatly superior numbers. On that day was
fought the memorable battle outside the walls of
Jellalalad, Some of the most valuable officers in
the army of the Indus fell in that obstinately -4
contested struggle, but the result was a victory
which could not have been more complete. Camp
baggage, artillery standards, horses, and arms oi
every kind fell into our hands, togethei
with abundant ammunition. The redoubtable
Akbar fled towards Cabul with the
wreck of his army; and in one day the
besieged in Jellalabad, who had been put on half
rations found, themselves in possession of abun
dance of provisions. The tide had already
turned ; and it is important to observe that all
this was achieved before the arrival of any succour
from without. What more conclusive evidence
could be furnished of the melancholy truth that
the overwhelming disasters of the Koord Cabul
were literally of our own seeking? "Who can
reasonably doubt that what Sale had done at
Jellahalad, Elphinstone, or some commander less
enfeebled by ill-health, could have accomplished at
Cabul ? To meet death-fighting in the canton
ments or within the strong walls of the Bala
Hissar would at least have been Jpreferable to the
tender mercies of the Afghans, and the rigours dl .
a winter in the rugged and tortuous passes of the
White Mountains; but, with unaccountable in
fatuation, the efforts to obtain supplies had been
delayed at Cabul until even the means of equipping
foraging parties weie wanting.
On the morrow of that battle a market was
actually opened outside the gates of Jellalabad,
to which the country people brought their wares
to be exchanged for the coin of the Feringhees,
On the 10th, Pollock's army was heard of as 4
having reached the middle of the Khyber, The ■
difficulties of the pass, in spite of the resistance of
the Afreedis, who had seized the fort of Ali '
Musjid, had all been surmounted with the loss of
only one officer killed, two or three wounded, and ^
about 135 men killed and wounded. On the 16th
Pollock's column marched into thebeleag ueredcity,
accompanied by the bands of the garrison regi
ments, who had come forth to meet them, and
who greeted them, as Mr. Gleig tells us, with the
old Jacobite melody, " Oh, but ye've been lang a
comin'." The forward movement upon Cabul,
however, was not begun until August. Wave
after wave of the troops despatched to Afghan
istan arrived, until the entire force, con
sisting of nine or ten thousand well-disciplined
troops, attended by five or six thousand
Sikh soldiers, and the enormous number of 40,000
camp followers were ready to march. In tha
fatal passes of; Jugdulluck and the Koord Cabul
they found the bleached bones of their unfoctu-
hate comrades. Preparations had been made bV
the Ghilzyes to oppose our advance; but ou*
troops swept the heights, and their resistance was
overcome with but trifling losses. In th^ vailed
of the Tezeen, where so many of General Elptnn-
stone's army had fallen, Akbar Khan made a last
stand, but was defeated with scarcely mora
sacrifice of life on our side. Similar successes
attended General Nott's advance in Western
Afghanistan. Ghuzni was retaken with little
difficulty, the march continued triumphantly'
on both sides, and on the 17th Septenn
ber the combined forces re-entered Cabult
In brief, the second invasion of Afghanistan
by. 8 comcaratively email EnglLab- atmv hadbeea,.
tmccomplisied witn scarcely more difficulty thai
^.he first. Only three days later the brave Sal(
had the happiness of regaining his long -lost wife
together with his daughter, Mrs. Sturt, whosi
husband had fallen in the disastrous retreat. tiThi
(prisoners had, on the whole, been kindly treated
though their privations, hurried as they had beei
about the country, and frequently removed fron
place to place, had necessarily been considerable
®nd Akbar, embittered by his defeats, had at las
threatened to make presents of them to the chief;
of the barbarous tribes of Turkistan. Thei:
release was ultimately obtained by bribing th
Khan in charge of|the Jort at Bameean, to whosi
custody Akbar had confided them. The total lis
of prisoners released on General Pollock's arriva
jit Cabul, as given in the appendix to Lieutenan
Eyre's Journal, comprises 36 officers, 9 ladies, 2
children, and 55 privates and other persons. •
The Afghan war was now practically at an end
It may be said to have shown conclusively tha
the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan pre
eent no serious difficulties to British troops ; but
in the judgment of the shrewdest and mos
exoerienced of our Indian administrators, i
demonstrated no less clearly the impolicy o
meddling in Afghan affairs. Our protege, Shal
Soojah, fell a victim to the assassin's knife sooi
after the retreat of General Elphinstone; and Dos
Mahomed, who had been a prisoner in the hand
of the British authorities since his surrender in th
previous year, was sooh afterwards permittee
quietly to resume his position at Cabul, which hi
retained till his death in 1862. The maintenanci
of our position in Cabul had even in the heigh
of our success occasioned a drain upoi
the Indian revenues of no less than a million am
a quarter sterling per annum. Lord Ellenborough'
j famous proclamation was issued at Simla on th<
1st of October. In this document, after referrint
to the final triumphs of the British arms, it wa:
announced that our army would now be withdrawi
, to the Sutlej ; and that " content with the limit!
Nature appears to have assigned to its empire,'
; the Government of India would hencefortl
" devote all its efforts to the establishment anc
maintenance of general peace, to the protectioi
of the sovereigns and chiefs of its allies, and to th
! prosperity and happiness of its own faithful sub-
i jects." Snch was the spirit in which our Indiai
authorities marked the close of a struggle which
in spite of the one tremendous calamity by whicl
it has been rendered for ever memorable, had ye
been successful beyond the expectations of th
i most sanguine.
THE FATAL FIRE m BIRMINGHAM.
The inquiry respecting the fatal fire at Di^beth
j itirmmghani, on the 26th Tilt, was resumed on Saturday
1 afternoon, before Mr. W. B. Weekes, deputy coroner
I Kie interest manifested "was greater than at an;
! of the former sittings. A verdict wan expected
j but on the resumption of the inquiry, it wa
, Seemed advisable to call and recall various witnesses
j Mr. Bay ley, fire escape manufacturer, London, said afto;
reading a report of tlie" proceedings in the D'li/p Nexv<
that morning, he hurried at once to Birmingham te explair
1 certain matters. About three weelcs since, just after th<
j Sre, ho pointed out to Major Bond, Chief of Police, th
j Aefects in the escape used at the Digbeth fire
j And last Tuesday he found that the principa
ones he referred to had been attended to, -
with regard to what had been said on the previous day.
i h'; wished to say that the nsvr escape was in a worse
j condition tM.n before the firej principally owing t(
| the new "shoot" which had been put in. He had
j known lives saved by the canvas " shoot," but hac
: never known anyone saved hy the wire shoot. Th
| ; eseapes of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade were con^
j Bfructed under ■witness's direction. There were 14(
escapes in London. He would rather not say
whether four were sufficient for a town lik(
|Birmingham, with nearly half a million inhabitants
j Joseph Dennison, recaUed at the request of the jury, sah
he opened the crates after the boy Cooper left on th
I Saturday night. The straw was not put back into th
1 crates, but left on the floor, where it was afterward
found. Shortly before the fire he sold some pickles a
[Ludlow and Daniell's auction-rooms. In reply to Mr
I M. A. Fitter, representing the Caledonian Fire Office, th
| fitness said he received the policy of insurance about si;
i aays before the fire and paid the premium about thrc
j days later. * He was previousiy insured in the Maucheate:
and Sheffield Insurance Office, but they refused to rene-y
j toe policy because witness had a " candying" machine.-
, Frederick Augustus Bird, wine and spirit merchant
, Baid the crowd moved away from the .escape when i
| arrived, and assisted rather than hindered the police
j There was certainly plenty of room to work Ihs escape
j Dr. Alfred Hill (borough analyst) said he Jjad examined :
| email bundle of straw found upon the premises, bu
| traced no evidence of combustibles likely to be purpose];
Used. He found a small quantity of tar, but simply suc5
as might be produced from the burning of wood. Por
»tions of the straw were in ■parallel lines, as thev would b
to a "bolten." Police-constable Moore said there was m
delay with the escape on its way to the scene, a statemen
-nrro o ^ C r.4-^. AT ro ••