3 JANUARY 1880, Page 23

LORD SALISBURY ON SIR L. CAVAGNARI.

[TO THE ED/TOR OF THE SPECTATOR.") Sra,—An article in your last issue enumerated a series of " falsified predictions of the Government" with respect to Afghanistan. Can you find place for the following forecast on the same subject, made by Lord Salisbury, in the House of Lords, on December 5th, 1878, which subsequent events have undeniably verified ?—" Her Majesty's Government had been impressed with the opinion that to ask the Ameer to receive an Envoy at Cabal would be not only idle, but unwise, because of the turbulent and revengeful character of the population, which would render the residence of the Envoy dangerous." (3 "Hansard," ccxliii., 56.) It is not often that a statesman has so clearly foreseen a danger, and so recklessly disregarded it.—