The Duke of Argyll, supported in great measure by Lords
Northbrook and Lawrence, on Friday week gave expression to a sense of uneasiness strongly felt by all Anglo-Indians. He wanted to know what was doing up there on the North-West Frontier. His speech was most cautious—indeed it must be read between the lines—but he asked whether Lord Salisbury really intended to press a Resident on the Ameer of Afghanistan, what he was collecting troops on the Indus for, whether he was bridging the Indus, whether he was about to divide the Punjab, erecting the Trans-Indus region into a separate province, and whether—this was rather hinted than said—we were in danger of an outburst of temper from the Ameer. Lord Salisbury was cautious too. He altogether declined to produce papers, but said distinctly that he was not forming an army to attack Afghanistan, that he did not intend to press a Resi- dent on the Ameer, that he did not think that the Ameer was in a rage, and that he had never heard of the bridge over the Indus. The only question he declined to answer till the papers were ready was about the division of the Punjab. This is most satisfactory, provided, as we have argued elsewhere, Lord Salis- bury can answer for Lord Lytton, as for himself. We suppose he can, but there would not be all that smoke in the Indian journals if there were not imprudence somewhere.
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