Lord Lytton delivered his long-expected speech on Afghan affairs on
Monday,—a maiden speech. It explained in some degree the opinion held of him by his few friends and his many critics. There was some literary power in it, some grace, a felicity of attack by insinuation, and a bold defence of conquest, as in itself a good thing, when the conqueror brought order ; but there was nothing else. The speech was the merest rifacinicato of the oldest arguments for an iniquitous invasion.. Russia was threatening, Russia was gaining influence, Russia might be a dangerous neighbour ; therefore, do not fight Russia, but attack and dismember innocent Afghanistan. The only new statement in the speech was that the late Government con- sidered their policy of ruling the country through a Resident a mere "experiment," that they accepted its failure when Cavag- nari was murdered, and that they fell back on Candahar as a pia-aller. Lord Lytton desired to keep that province as a means of influencing Afghanistan and controlling Herat, and also as an entrepOt for commerce, and a visible gain from a great war. Of course, the Duke of Argyll, in a speech almost savage in its contempt, made mincemeat of these arguments ; showed that if the invasion were just, the murder of Cavagnari increased its justice ; that it was Lord Lytton who, in his dread of Russia, had opened negotiations with the Russian pensioner, Abdurrahman ; and that not only had he not fallen back on Candahar as a place of influence, but he had assigned it to a native prince, who fell powerless at the first onslaught from an Afghan nationalist. Every Government had trembled for Herat, and Lord Lytton had handed over Herat to Persia, a Russian dependency. He himself had read, since his accession to office, the secret Russian papers of which so much was made by the late Government, and there was nothing whatever in them which was not subsequent to Lord Lytton's menaces to Shore Ali. The debate was useless, except perhaps as showing that when the late Government has said its last word, there is no defence to be made for the invasion of Afghanistan.
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