Every Government, it is said, and we believe truly said,
"obeys the law of its being,"—that is, rises and falls by the same means and in pursuance of the same idea. If this is true, this Government, which has regulated all its policy upon the theory that England is an appanage of India, which has made Queen Victoria an Empress, and brought Indian troops to Europe, and sacrificed all moral considerations to pro- tect the route to India, will come to its fate through some colossal Indian blunder. It is quite possible that this may be an invasion of Afghanistan, which, though not decided on, has been considered, and equally possible that it may be a direct attack on the one common interest of the Princes, their passion for military show. None of the Native armies signify more to India than the Campbells signified to Great Britain two hundred years ago, but a call to the people to rise, uttered at the same moment by all the Hindoo feudatories, and backed by Nepaul, which has a clear road to Calcutta, might produce a most formidable civil war. Our best defence against such a risk, with so flighty and rash a Cabinet in power, is perhaps the Secre- tary for India, who, though given to "tall" talking about war, has a certain solidity and even gravity of temperament. He is not likely to run huge risks merely to pose as a man with a lucifer- match at his disposal.
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