TOPICS OF THE DAY.
EVACUATION OF THE AFGHAN COUNTRY.
niggardliness, and by the appointment of a superannuated leader—and upon the first reverses unblushingly threw up the game in despair. Lord AUCKLAND'S despatches show that he was almost as precipitate in his resolution to retreat from Afghanis- tan as in his resolution to enter it. He began the enterprise in pure gaiete de cceur, and relinquished it as soon as it seemed likely. to prove more troublesome than flattering to his vanity. A young officer on furlOughmight be allowed to undertake and abandon a campaign against the tigers after this fashion. niggardliness, and by the appointment of a superannuated leader—and upon the first reverses unblushingly threw up the game in despair. Lord AUCKLAND'S despatches show that he was almost as precipitate in his resolution to retreat from Afghanis- tan as in his resolution to enter it. He began the enterprise in pure gaiete de cceur, and relinquished it as soon as it seemed likely. to prove more troublesome than flattering to his vanity. A young officer on furlOughmight be allowed to undertake and abandon a campaign against the tigers after this fashion.
The tone of Lord ELLENBOROUGu's despatches presents a striking contrast to Lord AUCKLAND'S. Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S first communication to the Commander-in-Chief (15th March 1842) gives orders for the evacuation of Afghanistan ; impres- ses the importance of " incurring no unnecessary risk " ; but provides that " the Commander of the Forces shall, in the first in- stance, endeavour to relieve all the garrisons which are now sur- rounded by the enemy " ; and suggests, as the most likely method " to effect the release of the prisoners taken at Cabul," the " taking hostages from such part of the country as may come into our pos- session." On the 29th April, Sir JASPER Nrettou.s, who, as the Morning Chronicle says, " appears to have been governed solely by the instructions of the Governor-General," writes to the Com- mander-in-Chief—" As there need be no haste in the retreat when commenced, you are requested to leave no trophies." And pre- vious to the advance upon Cabul, Lord ELLENnortonun wrote- " When every gun and colour and military trophy in the hands of the Afghans, and every prisoner within the reach and power of the de facto Government of Cabul, have been surrendered to you, then, and not till then, you may give orders suited to a state of returning peace." The language is uniform throughOut.. It is the language of one who, finding that his predecessor, by a rash and uncalled-for advance into a hostile territory, had com- promised his army, lost heart, and determined upon a blind and precipitate flight, undertakes to carry back the surrounded troops deliberately, with safety and honour. For the Whigs to cry out against Lord ELLENBOROUGH'S retreat as indicating pusillanimity, is much like the bully, who, after running away from a drubbing be had provoked, should accuse of cowardice the friend who fol- lowed him and warded off the blows aimed at his back.
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