THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
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Afghanistan, the country which lies just beyond our north-west border, 
has been so often described, and is so well known as compared to the other 
regions of Central Asia, that I need hardly do more than allude to a few of 
its general outlines. 
It is a country for the most part of narrow sheltered valleys, lying 
between the great mountain spurs, which radiate from the Hindoo Koosh, 
and which traverse and divide the land from end to end, one of the principal 
chains, the “ Soliman,” forming its boundary with our dominions. It is a 
rugged and comparatively a poor country, with few good roads, and there¬ 
fore ill adapted for military movements on a large scale. 
The Afghans are a brave, hardy, and fierce people, fond of fighting for 
fighting's sake; incessantly quarrelling amongst themselves, but ever ready 
to combine against others. They are fanatical, revengeful, and cruel, and 
they have suffered long under that curse of wretched government and 
distracted rule, which seems now to be one of the distinguishing features of 
all the countries of Central Asia. The Afghans are an independent nation, 
but all along our border there are a number of tribes varying in strength, 
who, though Afghans in race, religion, feeling, and language, are professedly 
independent of each other and of the chief ruler at Cabul. 
Although Afghanistan is so shut off from us by a screen of mountains, 
still there is a certain amount of trade carried on between us; the two chief 
roads being by the Bolam and Kyber Passes. There is however' not much 
reciprocity of feeling on their part; for although we allow them to travel 
freely in our country and to trade in our bazaars, no Englishman dare 
venture alone even to the foot of their mountains, much less enter their 
country. 
The kingdom generally consists of a number of rather loosely knit states, 
most of them lying to the southward of the Hindoo Koosh range. The 
chief towns are Cabul, Ghuznee, Candahar, and Herat. When the ruler is a 
man of strong character, then the country remains tolerably united and 
quiet; otherwise it soon falls into anarchy and confusion. In our European 
sense of the word, it can hardly be called a kingdom; like many other 
countries in the East it is ruled by might rather than by right. 
The great old chief Dost Mahomed died in 1863, and since then the 
country has gone through the miseries of a war of succession, the sons 
fighting over the father's patrimony. Shere Ali Khan seems now tolerably 
firmly established at Cabul, and no doubt the favour and support lately 
shewn him by the Viceroy, Lord Mayo, at Umballah, have contributed to 
this result. I will revert to this topic in speaking of our general policy. 
The three great independent khanates or principalities, Khiva, Bokhara, 
and Kokan, which together form the north-western division of Central Asia 
—once the seat of civilisation and the arts'—are now, and have been for a 
long period of time, cursed by all the miseries of wretched government, and 
their fair provinces have been desolated and ruined by the hands of cruel 
men. Many portions of this vast country are fertile and beautiful, and are 
well adapted in every respect for the circumstances of peaceful and pros¬ 
perous existence; and in spite of tyranny and misgovernment, parts of it 
(especially the valleys which lie about the upper parts of the rivers Oxus 
and Jaxartes), are cultivated and comparatively prosperous—the inhabitants 
