The " no confidence" debate on Candahar commenced on Thursday,
and was to terminate last night, too late for our im pression. It was opened by Mr. Stanhope, in a clear but not very forcible speech, which began with the dangerous admission, for his argument, that it was now easier to send an army from England to India, than it was in Lord Cauning's time to march an army across the country. Mr. Stanhope's main thought was that Russia would attack India, that in view of that attack it was necessary to maintain a paramount influence iu Afghanistan, and that we could not keep this influence if we now gave up Candahar. He denied that if we retreated we could readily return, maintained that a change of policy would unsettle the native mind, and. asked how we were to obtain information as to what passed in Afghanistan, if we gave up Candahar. He repeated, iu fact,. most of the arguments now familiar to the public, and ex- aggerated the argument from authorities, and from the silence of the Government of India, but did not, in the course of a very long speech, produce a single fresh argument or original idea.
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