own, is keenly jealous of the reputation of her forces; and, as
she is ever prompt to reward military excellence and success, she heaps
unmeasured obloquy on those who may have subjected her to the
degradation of defeat. When our forces have encountered a reverse, or
even when the success has not been commensurate with the hopes that had
been indulged; the public mind has ever been prone to condemn the
commanders; and wherever there has been reason to believe that errors
have been committed which have led to disaster, there has been little
disposition to make any allowances for the circumstances of the case, or
for the fallibility of man; but, on the contrary, the nation has too
often evinced a fierce desire to punish the leaders for the
mortification the country has been made to endure.

This feeling may tend to elevate the standard of military character, but
it must at the same time preclude the probability of calm or impartial
examination, so far as the great body of the nation is concerned; and it
is therefore the more obviously incumbent on those who, from a more
intimate knowledge of the facts, or from habits of more deliberate
investigation, are not carried away by the tide of popular indignation
and invective, to weigh the circumstances with conscientious caution,
and to await the result of judicial enquiry before they venture to
apportion the blame or even to estimate its amount.

"The following notes," says Lieutenant Eyre in his preface,
"were penned to relieve the monotony of an Affghan prison,
while yet the events which they record continued fresh in my
memory. I now give them publicity, in the belief that the
information which they contain on the dreadful scenes lately
enacted in Affghanistan, though clothed in a homely garb, will
scarcely fail to be acceptable to many of my countrymen, both
in India and England, who may be ignorant of the chief
particulars. The time, from the 2d November 1841, on which day
the sudden popular outbreak at Cabul took place, to the 13th
January 1842, which witnessed the annihilation of the last
small remnant of our unhappy force at Gundamuk, was one
continued tragedy. The massacre of Sir Alexander Burnes and his
associates,--the loss of our commissariat fort--the defeat of
our troops under Brigadier Shelton at Beymaroo--the treacherous
assassination of Sir William Macnaghten, our envoy and