Ghilzyes, one of the most fanatic of the Mussulman tribes of Afghanistan, but it was exerted in vain. In the Pass of Khoord-Cabul, which for five miles is shut in by precipitous mountains, the unrelenting Ghilzyes shot down the fugitives without a chance of their being resisted or restrained. In this Pass three thousand men are stated to have fallen. Akbar Khan then proposed "that all the married men, with their families, should come over and put themselves under his protection, he guaranteeing them honourable treatment, and safe escort to Peshawur. There were ten women, and thirteen or more children; six married men went with them, with two wounded officers. The small remnant of the force that had left Cabul continued its march towards Jellalabad. There was now not a single Sepoy left. The European officers and soldiers scarcely numbered five hundred. On the 11th, Akbar Khan invited general Elphinstone and two English officers to a conference, and detained them as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad. On the evening of the 12th the march was resumed. At the summit of the Jugdulluck Pass the relentless enemy was in waiting, behind a barricade of bushes and branches of trees. A general massacre ensued. Only twenty officers and forty-five European soldiers were able to clear the barricade. The next morning they were surrounded by an infuriated multitude. They all perished, except one captain and a few privates, who were taken prisoners. Out of some who had been in advance of the column in the Pass, six reached Futtehabad, within sixteen miles of Jellalabad. Five of them were slain before the sixteen miles were traversed. On the 13th of January a sentry on the ramparts of Jellalabad saw a solitary horseman struggling on towards the fort. He was brought in, wounded and exhausted. The one man who was left to tell the frightful tale of the retreat from Cabul was doctor Brydon.

General Sale's brigade had held possession of Jellalabad from the 13th of November, when they took the place from the Afghans by surprise. A letter had arrived from Elphinstone and Pottinger, stating that an agreement had taken place for the evacuation of Cabul. The Afghan chief who bore the letter had been appointed governor of Jellalabad. Sale, and the political agent, MacGregor, refused to surrender the fort which they had made secure against the attack of an army without cannon. An earthquake to a great extent rendered the labour vain which had been so long employed in the repairs of the works; but by the end of the month the parapets were restored, the breaches built up, and every battery re-estab lished. Akbar Khan with a large body of horse was hovering around to prevent the admission of supplies. At the close of March, being at the last extremity for provisions, the garrison made a sortie, and carried off five hundred sheep and goats. It was known to sir Robert Sale that general Pollock was advancing to his relief. On the morning of the 7th of April three columns of infantry, with some field artillery and a small cavalry force, issued from the walls of Jellalabad to attack Akbar Khan, who with six thousand men was strongly posted in the adjacent plain. Every point attacked was carried, and the victory was completed by a general assault upon the Afghan camp. Two days before, general Pollock

*Lady Sale's "Journal."

A.D. 1841. had forced the Khyber Pass, and on the 16th, his advanced guard was in sight of Jellalabad. The successes of Sale and Pollock had interrupted the hopes of those native Powers who believed that the rule of the Feringhees was coming to an end. Shah Soojah had been for some time able to maintain himself in the citadel of Cabul after he had been left to his own resources. He finally perished by assassination. Early in May, general England had joined his forces to those of general Nott at Candahar. Ghuznee, which was in the possession of the Afghans, was recaptured by him on the 6th of September. At the end of August, general Pollock fought his way through the Passes, and was joined by general Nott. On the 15th of September the British standard was flying on the royal palace of Cabul. The English ladies, children, and officers had been hurried towards Turkistan. General Elphinstone had died at Tezeen on the 23rd of April. The khan who had charge of the prisoners agreed that for the future payment of a sum of rupees and an annuity, he would assist them to regain their freedom. They had quitted the forts of the friendly khan, and were proceeding towards Cabul, when, on the 17th of September, they were met by a party of six hundred mounted Kuzzilbashes, under the command of sir Richmond Shakespear, who had been sent by general Pollock to rescue them from their perils. General Sale was close at hand with a brigade. The soldiers cheered; a royal salute from mountain-train guns welcomed them to the camp; the joy was proportioned to the terrible dangers that were overpast. On the 1st of October a proclamation was issued by the Governor-General which stated that the disasters in Afghanistan having been avenged upon every scene of past misfortune, the British army would be withdrawn to the Sutlej. On the 12th of October the army began its march back to India. Dost Mahomed was released, and returned to his sovereignty at Cabul.

BRITISH IN CAPTIVITY AT CABUL RESCUED. 893

Lord Ellenborough had arrived at Calcutta as Governor-General on the 25th of February. Lord Auckland's policy had been proved to be a mistake, and the close of his rule in India was clouded with misfortunes, which fell heavily upon a proud and sensitive man. The new Governor-General, appointed by a new Administration, had been amongst the most vehement denouncers of the Afghan war. Soon after the close of that war, lord Ellenborough committed an act which exposed him to the bitterest denunciations of his political enemies. He issued a proclamation, announcing that he had caused the sandal-wood gates of the tomb of Mahmoud at Ghuznee to be removed to the Hindoo temple of Somnauth, from whence they had been carried in 1805. To despoil the tomb of a worshipper of Mahomed, that honour might be done the worshipper of Vishnu, was to offer an outrage to those sensibilities which more than any other cause made and still make the British rule in India so like treading on beds of lava.

CHAPTER LXV.

WHEN the ministerial arrangements of sir Robert Peel were completed, he asked for the confidence of the House, whilst he considered the mode in which the great financial evil of the previous seven years could be removed. During the three weeks of continued debate till the prorogation on the 7th of October, from all the manufacturing districts came the most afflicting statements of the depression of trade and of the sufferings of the operative classes. But not a syllable could be extracted in either house of parliament from any member of the government, as to the course to be pursued, by which hope might be afforded to those who suffered. When the queen opened the Session of Parliament on the 3rd of February, 1842, after an acknowledgment of "gratitude to Almighty God on account of the birth of the prince, my son; an event which has completed the measure of my domestic happiness," her Majesty recommended to the immediate attention of Parliament the state of the finances and of the expenditure of the country. So also was recommended "the state of the laws which affect the importation of corn and of other articles the produce of foreign countries." Sir Robert Peel announced that on the 9th he should move for a Committee of the whole House for the purpose of considering the Corn-Laws When the day arrived great was the excitement in and around the House of Commons. Six hundred Anti-Corn-Law delegates had gone in procession to Palace Yard and had there taken their station, crying out from time to time as members passed them, "Total Repeal," "Fixed Duty," "No Sliding Scale." Sir Robert Peel's plan was to maintain the existing principle of the sliding scale of duties on the importation of foreign corn, but to lower the protection afforded, and to introduce a more liberal method of fixing the averages. To no party was the minister's scheme satisfactory. Like most compromises, it required something like a tone of apology both to his friends and his opponents. The debates upon each and all of the principles involved were carried on without intermission till the Bill passed the House of Commons on the 7th of April. The minister was on far safer ground when he came forward with his great financial measure. This was a tax upon all incomes above 1507. year, not to exceed sevenpence in the pound, for the limited period of three years. Its object was to justify a large reduction of commercial taxation. Out of a tariff of twelve hundred articles sir Robert proposed to reduce the duty on seven hundred and fifty. "We have sought," he declared, "to remove all absolute prohibitions upon the import of foreign articles, and we have endeavoured to reduce duties which are so high as to be prohibitory, to such a scale as may admit of fair competition with domestic produce. With respect to raw materials, which constitute the elements of our manufactures, our object, speaking generally, has been to reduce the duties on them to almost a nominal amount. The necessity for some bold measures for putting the finances of the country upon a solid foundation, bore down all opposition to the proposed income-tax. The new tariff could not be otherwise than

A.D. 1842.

THE AMERICAN BOUNDARY SETTLED.

895

satisfactory to the commercial and manufacturing interests, but it threw the agriculturists into a fearful state of alarm. After many debates in both Houses, the financial propositions of sir Robert Peel were carried with little alteration.

On the 2nd of May whilst the House of Commons was in Committee on the Income Tax Bill, a long procession of working men entered the lobby of the House, escorting sixteen of their number, who bore a heavy burden. This was a petition, signed, it was alleged, by three millions of people. The petitioners complained of many evils, and they demanded that the House of Commons "do immediately without alteration, deduction, or addition, pass into a law the document entitled 'The People's Charter.'" The motion of Mr. Thomas Duncombe, that the petitioners should be heard at the bar of the House of Commons in support of their allegations, was rejected by a large majority, after an interesting debate.

In this Session important amendments, introduced by the Chancellor, lord Lyndhurst, were made in the constitution of Courts of Bankruptcy. The Court of Review was formed of one judge instead of three judges; and District Courts of Bankruptcy were established. Two infamous assaults having been made upon the person of the Sovereign whilst Parliament was sitting, on the 12th of July sir Robert Peel brought in a bill for the better protection of the Queen's person. He proposed that any party not actually designing to take away the Queen's life, but intending to hurt or alarm her, should be subject to transportation for a term not exceeding seven years; but that there should also be a discretionary power of imprisonment with authority to inflict personal chastisement. The Bill was rapidly passed through all its stages in both Houses. It was completely successful in putting an end to attempts which were the results of a distempered imagination producing a morbid desire for notoriety. On the 12th of August her Majesty prorogued Parliament in person.

When the Houses met again on the 2nd of February, 1843, amongst the favourable topics of the Royal Speech delivered by commission, was a treaty with the United States, concluded by lord Ashburton in August, 1842, which settled the question as to the boundary between Canada and the state of Maine. This, and the other subjects of congratulation-the conclusion of the war with China, and the final success of military operations in Afghanistan, were more than counterbalanced by the diminished receipt from some of the ordinary sources of revenue-a most significant index of the continuance of that depression of the manufacturing industry of the country, which a few months before had produced serious violations of the public peace. Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary, had encountered the crisis with decision and firmness. Some of the more dangerous Chartists, amongst whom was Feargus O'Connor, were held to bail, and during the first fortnight of October, Special Commissions sat at Stafford, at Chester, and at Liverpool, for the trial of persons accused of riots and of political offences, a great number of whom were convicted and sentenced either to transportation or to various terms of imprisonment. Very little time was suffered to elapse after the opening of the Session before the one great cause assigned for all these evils was rung into the ears of the prime minister in parliament. The general subject was directly and indirectly

brought forward again and again; but on each occasion a large majority asserted the principle of protection. The Canadian Corn Bill, proposed by lord Stanley, which imposed a duty of only three shillings per quarter upon wheat imported from Canada, was the one practical move towards a great change of policy.

At the beginning of May the duke of Wellington in the House of Lords, and sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons, made a declaration of the intention of the government "to maintain unimpaired and undisturbed the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland." It was certainly time that ministers should speak out. Mr. O'Connell was abstaining from attendance in Parliament to devote himself to his system of political agitation. The organization for Repeal which he had accomplished was to be supported and extended by the means of a universal subscription. This great sinew of war thus compelled from a starving population was known as the "Rent." Through the summer vast assemblies, exultingly called by the great demagogue "Monster Meetings," were held in various parts of Ireland. On the 15th of August, half a million of people, according to the lowest estimate of their number, assembled on the Hill of Tara, where the ancient kings of Ireland had been elected. There the Liberator put on a sort of crown, and declared to his people that the day was come when they should no longer be slaves,-when the land should overflow with plenty, and every one should hold his half-acre with fixity of tenure, and out of its produce maintain his portion of a constantly increasing population. A meeting had been announced for the 8th of October at Clontarf, near Dublin. On the 7th a proclamation was agreed to by the Privy Council at Dublin, which declared the proposed assembly to be illegal The Repeal Association agreed that no meeting should take place. the 14th Mr. O'Connell and his principal associates were arrested on charges of conspiracy, sedition, and unlawful assembling. The accused were admitted to bail; and it was finally determined that their trial should take place on the 15th of January, 1844.

On

At the prorogation of Parliament on the 24th of August, the Speaker in his Address to her Majesty alluded to "the unhappy divisions which have occurred in the Church of Scotland." These "unhappy divisions" had been maturing for nine years. In 1834 the differences which had existed for more than a century between the supporters and the opposers of lay-patronage, assumed a more important character by the antipatronage party obtaining a majority in the General Assembly, and passing a measure known as the Veto Act. The object of this Act was to make it a law of the Church that no presentee to a benefice was to be held fit to be ordained as minister of a parish unless he were acceptable to a majority of the parishioners. In 1839 the decision of the Presbytery against the presentation to a parish was confirmed in the ecclesiastical courts, but was finally decided on appeal in the House of Lords against the Presbytery. There was another case in which this important question was agitated under somewhat different circumstances, but in which the decisions of the ecclesiastical and civil courts were also at variance. At the meeting of the General Assembly on the 18th of May, 1843, before the roll of members was made up, Dr. Welsh, who had been Moderator