It is not absolutely certain that even this much will
be attempted. The Premier, for some unexplained reason, possibly from fear of a division within the Government, has abstained hitherto from calling a Cabinet Council. One, however, has been called for to-day, and •its decision will probably clear away a little of the haze. There are signs that it will be a weak one. The Times has been " inspired " through- out, and on Friday it hinted in the clearest way that while the Candahar movement is to go on, Shere All is to be allowed to apologise, and that the design of annexing Afghanistan has been definitively abandoned. It has even the coolness to assert that the Ameer's independence never was threatened,—a bit of contempt for the history of yesterday which we should only have expected from the Premier. If the Times' article foreshadows the policy of the Government, then we are to risk war by an advance beyond Quettah, in order to obtain an empty form of words from a potentate demi-officially described as " a morose barbarian." He is no more a barbarian than the Sultan, though he is a danger- ous hypochondriac ; and if an apology is accepted after we have entered Candahar, all India will pronounce the Ameer once more victorious.
