nce; and this in defiance of
warnings eight several times reiterated by English officers, and by
friendly Affghans, that treachery was designed. We pass the triple
lunacy of treating at all in a case where Sir William M'Naughtan well
knew, and himself avowed his knowledge, that no man or party existed
amongst the enemy who could pretend to have authority sufficient for
ratifying, or for executing, any treat of whatsoever tenor. The Cabool
forces perished eventually by the _dissension_ of the two first in
command. This is notorious. And yet, to mark the dread fatality which
pursued them, the _concord_ of these two officers was even more
destructive to their victims than the worst of their disputes. In the
one solitary case where they agreed, the two leaders, Elphinstone and
Shelton, _sealed_ their doom. That case was this:--Many felt at that
time, as all men of common sense feel now, that the Bala Hissar, and not
Jillalabad, was the true haven for the army. In resisting this final
gleam of hope for the army, both General Elphinstone and Brigadier
Shelton heartily concurred; _and they concurred then first and then
last_. This also, this almost incredible fact, should be added to the
anecdote--General Elphinstone, when hard pressed by the general wishes
on this point, pleaded as a last reason for his obstinacy--that a
particular article, essential to the army, was wanting in the Bala
Hillar. Subsequently, but after all was over, it turned out that this
plea had been the windiest of chimaeras. True, you reply, but perhaps he
was deceived. Yes, reader, but by what manner of deception? He was
distant from the Bala Hissar by less than two miles; he was then in
almost daily communication with it; and yet, upon a matter confessedly
one of life and death for 17,000 souls, he took no steps for
ascertaining the truth!

But these things we pass, in order to reach a point most superficially
treated by Lieutenant Eyre, which was, in truth, the original fountain
of the whole calamity. We have said already, that, (guilty as might be
the leaders by unexampled fatuity, obstinacy, and improvidence,) in our
judgement, the mischief ascended to elder sources than either General
Elphinstone or Shelton. And here was the main source, which (on the
principle explained above) we shall barely indicate, not saying one word
in aggravation. The cantonments--who was it, what man, what men, what
council, on whom rests the horrible responsibility of that