AFGHANISTAN. 



a^ed dissatisfaction in England and was the 

 chief cause of the downfall of the Disraeli 

 Cabinet. 

 Afghan Policy of the Gladstone Ministry. The 



Liberals withdrew the British troops again be- 

 hind the Bolan and Khyber passes. Mr. Glad- 

 stone, in censuring the Oriental policy of his 

 predecessor, went so far as to declare that Rus- 

 sia would be welcome to extend her territory 

 to the Indian frontier, as the neighborhood of 

 a civilized and orderly state would be prefera- 

 ble to that of barbarous tribes. The real pol- 



suramer of 1884, when the town was captured 

 by Ishak Khan. When the first supply of 

 money and arms was exhausted, others were 

 sent to enable Abdurrahman to maintain pos- 

 session of these rebellious northern provinces, 

 and finally, in 1883, the British agreed to pay 

 their ally a subsidy of a lac of rupees (nearly 

 $50,000) a month, out of the Indian exchequer. 

 When the British placed Abdurrahman in 

 authority in 1880, they concluded a defensive 

 alliance with him of the same nature as those 

 that formerly existed between them and Dost 



LASGIRD, A TOWN OP REFUGE ON THE BORDER. 



icy of the British Government was, however, 

 to re-establish and strengthen the Afghan mili- 

 tary power, broken up by the English conquest. 

 Abdurrahman, whom they set up as Ameer, 

 was not selected as a man in whose fidelity 

 the English could confide better than in that 

 of Shere Ali or Yakub Khan, but as a monarch 

 whom the Afghans would probably accept. 

 Trained under Russian influence in Bokhara, 

 he has proved a shrewd, wily, and resolute 

 ruler. After establishing him in power at Ca- 

 bul and providing him with treasure and weap- 

 ons, the English gave no sign of control, but 

 left Abdurrahman Khan unembarrassed in his 

 difficult task. As the protege of the English 

 he needed all his craft and energy to gain the 

 allegiance of the Afghan tribes. Thus the 

 subjugated peoples in the north, who had 

 hailed the overthrow of Shere Ali's military 

 power as the deliverance from Afghan tyran- 

 ny, were brought into subjection by the aid 

 of able lieutenants. Herat was captured by 

 a strategic stroke, and in two or three years 

 the Ameer's authority was restored along the 

 Oxus. Maimene was not reduced until the 



Mohammed and Shere Ali. The Ameer agreed 

 to follow unreservedly the advice of the Brit- 

 ish Government in regard to his foreign rela- 

 tions. The British Government engaged to 

 aid in repelling unprovoked aggression on his 

 dominions if any foreign power attempted to 

 interfere in Afghanistan. 



The reversal of Disraeli's plan of gaining 

 possession of the line of advance from Herat, 

 and asserting an effectual authority over the 

 turbulent Afghans, is still condemned by the 

 Tories in England, and never has met the ap- 

 proval of eminent military and Anglo-Indian 

 authorities. In returning to the former policy 

 of non-interference, coupled with liberal sub- 

 sidies, in order to produce u a strong, united, 

 and friendly Afghanistan," Gladstone reasons 

 that the Afghans are so jealous, fierce, and for- 

 midable a people that no army would be al- 

 lowed to advance peaceably through their 

 country, or could spare the force necessary to 

 maintain a line of transport against their at- 

 tacks. A Russian advance upon India through 

 Afghanistan has been the bugbear of the Eng- 

 lish for fifty years. An actual struggle between 



