It is not quite easy to understand what is happening
in Afghanistan. The Government of India obviously apprehends trouble there, and is insisting with some vehemence that the Ameer shall meet General Roberts, the British Commander- in-Chief, in conference, in order that disputed points may be finally settled. The proposal has been accepted, and Jellalabad has been fixed upon as the place ; but according to the latest accounts, the Ameer has drawn back, and is making evasive excuses, which have drawn from the Times what looks very much like a demi-official menace. We doubt if a harsh course is advisable, though it might be wise not to pay any further subsidy until the Ameer had satisfied expectation. We never prosper in Afghanistan, which we ought never to enter unless summoned ; and it is quite possible that Abdurrahman, a gloomy and suspicious man, though an able one, may dread being compelled to make terms he dislikes, or may be aware of some plot which will break out the moment he quits his capital. It must not be forgotten that every sovereign in Afghanistan holds a wolf by the ears, the chiefs of the great clans, his own excepted, always disliking his rule, and holding them- selves in readiness for a chance of throwing it off. We suspect, too, that a wave of suspicion has recently swept through Afghanistan, caused by rumours as to our for. ward policy, and that the Ameer, who only recently ex- plained, to his subjects that be clung to his Southern ally only as a protection against his Northern enemy, is afraid of showing himself too "English " for Mussnlman prejudice. He dare not, for example, admit an English Embassy into Cabal.
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