Pasha for oppression, has been appointed Ambassador at St. Petersburg
; that Sir Henry Layard comes home from Constan- tinople, ostensibly on the ground of ill-health, which we are happy to believe is not serious ; and that the British invasion of Afghanistan has come to a sudden halt, General Stewart, in particular, having been ordered to fall back from Khelat-i- Ghilzai. The present Ministry never tell Parliament anything, and only tell the taxpayers what they are to pay ; but in the absence of information, all this looks as if some new attitude were to be adopted towards Russia. Are we, perchance, on the verge of another secret agreement with St. Petersburg ? That is unlikely, for the Ministry are not publicly threatening Russia, as they would be if they had privately arranged everything with her ; but it is obvious that there is some change of tone. We do not think we have seen above three articles against Russia in Tory papers this week, and no journal has demon- strated that Cetewayo is a paid agent of St. Petersburg. A few months ago it would have been shown beyond all question that he was in the hands of some Dutchman, employed by Prince Gortschakoff to stir him up to the massacre of the English ; and music-hall audiences would have believed it, too.
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