All the news of the week from Afghanistan conveys the
same meaning. General Roberts, with all his energy, with good subordinates, and with full support from his superiors—who have made him a local Lieutenant-General, with command from Jamrud, the Indian entrance to the Khyber, to Cabul—is master only of the ground he stands on. He is posted at Shirpur, above the Afghan capital, with snow falling deep, with one darn. germs line of communication open, which leads through a pass three miles long and "of a mean breadth of forty feet," the " road " being the channel of a stream, and with the hill-tribes rising at every opportunity. On Saturday, for instance, it is announced that the Safees have attacked a company of the 67th, killing and wounding three or four ; on Tuesday, that the Ghilzais, near Ghuzni, are trying to proclaim a holy war ; on Thursday, that the Kohat Thull road has been cut, and sixteen natives, "apparently villagers," says the Viceroy, have been massacred; and on Friday, that General Baker, with 1,200 men of all arms, has been forced to start for Ghuzni. General Roberts judges the situation so seriously, that on November 12th he issued an amnesty for everybody not concerned in the Cabul 6Ineate, believing the remaining " rebels " deceived by a report 'of Yakoob Khan's imprisonment,—a wise proclamation, but 'unexpected, when the threatening one was scarcely dry. He does not want more enemies than he can help, but the country is -clearly hostile, everybody is astir, and if a decent leader turns up, he will yet have to fight for his life. On the Candahar side things are better, as Sir R. Temple is rushing forward his rough railway at a mile a day,—a feat which only he in India seems able even to think of.
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