POLITICIANS, FICTIONS, AND SOLDIERS' FACTS. [To TITS EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR.") SIR,—The following extracts from the Times of the 17th ins". form a curious and suggestive contrast. The leading article says :—" We declared war against Shere Ali, but we proclaimed at the same time that we had no quarrel with the people a Afghanistan, and we have no such quarrel now." Says the correspondent at Kohat, " He," General Tytler, "burnt twelve large villages, stored with grain. The enemy suffered severely, leaving large numbers dead." It must be remembered that by burning villages and destroying grain, we cause innumerable helpless women and children to perish,-- quite a different matter from killing men in a fair fight; but the whole fact is a curious commentary on the policy of a Government which aimed at securing, by such singular means, a " friendly " Afghanistan. When such is the practical work- ing of Lord Beaconsfield's policy, is it astonishing that he felt no disgust at the Bulgarian atrocities by the Turks P—for " fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind."—I am, Sir, &c., A READER OF THE " TIMM".
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