The worst element in this news is that it shows
the Afghans to have recovered their courage. They are considered in
England cowards, on the strength of their recent panics ; but there can be no doubt of their individual bra,vory,—and it is never safe to trust to continued panic in Asiatics. A song, a story, the arrival of a leader, the preaching of a popular teacher, may rouse them to an enthusiasm in which they will all die. We fear the inspiriting Cause in this instance has been the insane severity displayed at several points to the Afghan lloollahs. Even if these men had been guilty, which they were not, it being their religious duty to preach resistance to the Infidel, it was madness to put them to death. If the " fanatic " feeling has really been excited in Afghanistan, it will take 30,000 Europeans to garrison the country, and 10,000 more to hold down the Nizam's dominions. We hope for better things, but if the Afghans, for any reason, now mean fighting, the entire situation is changed, and we have a most serious war upon our hands, a war in which money must be spent in millions, if only in forcing forward light railways through the Passes. We may lose everything for want of transport.
