The report so diligently spread that the Afghan officer in
com- mand of All Musjeed had informed Major Cavagnari that but for personal friendship he would shoot him, was, it appears, a falsehood. The Calcutta correspondent of the Times telegraphs on Monday that Faiz Mahommed, the officer in question, re- marked, as proof of his own friendly feelings, that he might have fired upon the Mission, but did not. He ex- pressed some feeling, however, about the bribes by which the Viceroy had secured the adhesion of the Khyberees, who are subjecta of the Ameer, and Major Cavagnari could only reply "that this was not a subject for subordinates to discuss." Through- out, the Ameer's officer was personally courteous, though im- movably firm. From the English point of view, there is, perhaps, not much harm in paying Khyberees not to murder, though there may be some discredit, but the Ameer occupies a different ' stand-point. If Russia sent a fleet to the Solent, with an Ambas- sador on board, bearing an ultimatum, and as a preliminary bought the garrison of Hurst Castle, it is probable that English- men would resent that proceeding as on the whole a base one. Certainly it would not deepen those "sentiments of friend- ship" which Englishmen, as they would be convenient to England, think it the moral duty of the Ameer to entertain.
