DOST MOHAMMED, KHAN. 



DUNCAN, PHILIP BURY. 357 



English Government found themselves reduced 

 to the necessity of treating with Dost Moham- 

 med for his restoration to authority. He had 

 remained in. India quietly hiding his time, and 

 in 1843 he left Calcutta, furnished by the Gov- 

 ernment with money, and, remaining for a time 

 at Lahore, where he met his son Akbar Khan, 

 he prepared for his return to Cabul, which he 

 entered in the ensuing summer. Here he ex- 

 erted himself successfully to repair the injuries 

 which British interference had brought upon 

 his country, reestablished commerce, and gave 

 his eldest daughter in marriage to Seid Moham- 

 med, who in 1852 succeeded his father Yat 

 Mohammed as king of Herat. An attack hay- 

 ing been made by the Persians upon Seid 

 Mohammed, Dost Mohammed sent a force to 

 aid his son-in-law, and, though unsuccessful, he 

 exerted such influence with his English allies, 

 that the Persian Government was compelled to 

 acknowledge by treaty the independence of 

 Herat. One of his brothers, who ruled jointly 

 at Kandahar, died in 1855, and in his will made 

 Dost Mohammed the guardian of his children, 

 and thus opened the way, in part, for him to 

 become master of Kandahar. The same year 

 he concluded a treaty of close alliance, offen- 

 sive and defensive, with the East India Com- 

 pany. In the autumn of 1855, a nephew of 

 Kamran, and grandson of Mahmoud, the mur- 

 derer of Fatteh Khan, by treachery introduced 

 himself into Herat, assassinated Seid Moham- 

 med, and seized the throne. Dost Mohammed 

 immediately prepared to march upon Herat to 

 avenge the death of his son-in-law and put to 

 death the usurper ; but the Persian Govern- 

 ment had meantime sent an army to Herat, 

 which besieged it in the summer of 1856, and 

 captured it on the 26th of October of that year, 

 taking the usurper Mohammed Yussuf Chah- 

 Zudeh prisoner. When Dost Mohammed Khan 

 arrived before the city he found himself unable 

 to accomplish anything directly, and was com- 

 pelled to return to Cabul. Through his in- 

 fluence with the English Government, how- 

 ever, he procured from the Persians the con- 

 cession for his nephew Ahmed Khan of the 

 government of Herat. The new sovereign was 

 equal to his uncle in intelligence and ambition, 

 and, allying himself with the Persian Govern- 

 ment, he was soon on unfriendly terms with his 

 uncle. In 1862 the governor of Ferah, one of 

 the provinces of the kingdom of Herat, at the 

 instigation of Dost Mohammed, declared him- 

 self independent, and Ahmed Khan marched 

 against him. The insurgent governor called 

 upon Dost Mohammed to come to his assistance, 

 and the old khan, proceeding with great rapid- 

 ity, defeated his nephew at the battle of Heri- 

 Roud, and moved at once upon Herat, which he 

 besieged, and having gained the chief of the 

 Ulemas to his side, soon had a powerful faction 

 in the city in his favor ; but Ahmed Khan, as- 

 certaining the facts, hanged the chief of the 

 Ulemas, and some of his fellow conspirators, 

 and soon received assistance from the Persians. 



The old khan, however, not discouraged, con- 

 tinued the siege for several months, but in May, 

 1863, was seized with severe illness, from which 

 he died in a few days. 



DUNCAN, PHILIP BURY, Esq., an English 

 scholar and philanthropist, born in South 

 Warnborough in 1772, died at his residence, 

 "Westfield Lodge, near Bath. His early educa- 

 tion was received at "Winchester School, and 

 in 1790 he entered New College, Oxford, where 

 he was associated with the late Archbishop 

 Howley, Bishop Mant, and Sydney Smith, 

 with all of whom he kept up an intimacy and 

 correspondence through life. About the year 

 1796, he, with his brother, the late John Shute 

 Duncan, was called to the bar of Lincoln's Inn, 

 and, for a few years, attended ftie Home and 

 Western Circuits. In 1801 his father took up 

 his residence in Bath, and from that time to 

 the date of his death, the subject of this sketch 

 divided his time between Bath and Oxford, 

 and was intimately associated with nearly 

 every local scheme in any way conducive to 

 the welfare of the poor, as well as with all ob- 

 jects of scientific or literary interest. He took 

 an active interest in the affairs of the Bath 

 United Hospital, of which institution he was 

 made president in 1841. With his brother 

 he was one of the earliest promoters of the 

 Bath Eoyal Literary and Scientific Institution, 

 to whose valuable collection he was a most lib- 

 eral contributor. But no notice of Mr. Dun- 

 can's career would be complete without an allu- 

 sion to his connection with the University of Ox- 

 ford, in which a great portion of his useful life 

 was spent. He was the warm advocate and 

 friend of all measures in any way calculated to 

 extend the benefits of university education, or 

 to give a place among the studies to physical 

 science and mathematics, which, until that 

 period, were not recognized in the same de- 

 gree as ancient literature and philosophy. His 

 experience of men and things was much en- 

 larged by foreign travel and the acquaintance 

 of men of letters on the continent. In 1826 

 Mr. D. received the appointment of keeper of 

 the Ashmolean Museum, which office had been 

 previously filled with great advantage to the 

 University by his brother. Under the good 

 taste and liberality of these brothers the mu- 

 seum became highly successful, and the valuable 

 collections in the zoological and other depart- 

 ments kept alive in the University the attention 

 to natural science which finally resulted in the 

 erection of the University Museum, at a cost 

 of 60,000, with provision for the proper 

 teaching of the several branches of physiology, 

 zoology, chemistry, experimental philosophy, 

 geology, and mineralogy. The University is 

 indebted to him also for the casts of the best 

 statues of antiquity, wax models in the anat- 

 omy school, and models of ancient architecture 

 which are among the chief ornaments of the 

 picture gallery in the Bodleian Library.^ The 

 poor of Oxford, too, are indebted to his ex- 

 ertions for the foundation of a savings bank, 





