Ayoub Khan has quitted Herat, leaving it almost undefended, and
after a certain hesitation, is advancing straight on Canda- har, where he has partisans. On Thursday he drove in the Ameer's outposts at Girishk, and a battle will, therefore, be immediately fought upon the Helmond. According to the Viceroy, he has 4,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry with him, and twenty-four guns; while the Ameer's General commands about 5,000 men. If that statement is correct, Ayoub, with the guns which told so severely upon our force, with equal troops, and with a city friendly to himself behind his enemy, should win; but Abdurralt- man is a dangerous opponent, and Candahar has been lost before without the throne falling. The only British interest in the matter is that one of the Pretenders should crush the other utterly, so that Afghanistan should remain a single State, equally jealous of all foreigners. We can subsidise Ayoub as easily as Abdurrahman, and as representative of national feeling, he will be rather more hostile to Russians.
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