THE THIRD WAR : CHINA. 7 



recaptured fortress after ifortress, and on the 15th September, 1842, 

 entered Cabul. 



Of the British hostages left in Cabul poor Elphinstone had died, 

 and Lady Sale and her companions had suffered terribly, having been 

 hurried from fort to fort, dragged, according to the fortunes of war, far 

 away into the mountains of the Indian Caucasus, and then finally 

 ransomed and safely delivered into the English camp, " where," says 

 one of them, " our joy was too great, too overwhelming, for tongue 

 to utter." 



On the ist October, 1842, exactly four years from the commencement 

 of this disastrous war, for the purpose of restoring Shah Soojah to 

 the Throne of Afghanistan, Lord EUenborough revoked the policy of 

 his predecessor. Lord Auckland, by a proclamation, which declared, 



" That, to force a Sovereign upon a reluctant people, would be as 

 inconsistent with the policy, as it is with the principles, of the 

 British Government ; therefore, the British army would be with- 

 drawn -from Afghanistan, and the Government of India would 

 remain content with the limits Nature had assigned to its 

 Empire." 



Thus, after four years of unparalleled trial and disaster, Afghanistan 

 was restored to the condition we found it, and Dost Mahommed 

 Khan once more became its ruler. 



Whatever may have been the causes of those disasters, it is doubt- 

 ful whether the genius of a Napoleon, or the daring of a Wellington, 

 could have won success in such an inglorious war ; for it was based on 

 a false and fatal policy ; in the words of Lord EUenborough, "to force a 

 Sovereign upon a reluctant people." 



THE THIRD WAR: CHINA. 



1839. 



When the Queen came to the Throne the state of our relations 

 with China were very unsettled, in consequence of the resolute 

 determination of the Chinese authorities to put down the importation 

 of opium, which our merchantmen, in defiance of the Chinese law, 

 and of all moral law, persisted in forcing into China. 



