largely gifted with
the moral sense. We have had to refer on a former occasion to the
policy adopted by Lord Auckland respecting the educational grants to
Hindustan. An enlightened predecessor of his Lordship had decided that
the assistance and patronage of the British Government should be
extended to the exclusive promotion of European literature and science
among the natives of India. His Lordship, in the exercise of a
miserable liberalism, reversed the resolution, and diverted no
inconsiderable portion of the Government patronage to the support of
the old Hindustanee education,--a system puerile in its literature,
contemptible in its science, and false in its religion. Our readers
cannot have forgotten the indignant style of Dr. Duff's remonstrance.
The enlightened and zealous missionary boldly and indignantly
characterized the minute of his Lordship, through which this
revolution was effected, as 'remarkable chiefly for its omissions and
commissions, for its concessions and compromises, for its education
without religion, its plans without a Providence, and its ethics
without a God.' Such was the liberalism of Lord Auckland; and of at
least one of the leading men whose counsel led to the Affghan
expedition, and who perished in it, the _liberalism_, it is said, was
of a still more marked and offensive character. What do we infer from
the fact?

Not that Providence interfered to avenge upon them the sin of their
policy: there would be presumption in the inference. But it may not be
unsafe to infer, from the palpable folly of the Affghan expedition,
that the _liberalism_ in which Lord Auckland and some one or two of
his friends indulged is a liberalism which weak and incompetent men
are best fitted to entertain. His scheme of education and his
Affghanistan expedition are specimens of mental production, if we may
so speak, that give evidence of exactly the same cast and tendency
regarding the order and scope of the genius which originated them. We
have been a good deal struck by the shrewdness of one of Prince Eugene
of Savoy's remarks, that seems to bear very decidedly on this case.
Two generals of his acquaintance had failed miserably in the conduct
of some expedition that demanded capacity and skill, and yet both of
them were unquestionably smart, clever men. 'I always thought it would
turn out so,' said the Prince. 'Both these men made open profession of
infidelity; and I formed so low an opinion of their taste and