we again entered the high road, along which our army had recently passed; and the first sight that presented itself was the body of a fine European soldier:Again our path was strewed with the mangled victims of war. We reached Jugdulluk late in the evening; and, passing by the ruined inclosure within which the remnant of the force had so hopelessly sought shelter, we beheld a spectacle more terrible than any we had previously witnessed, the whole interior space being one crowded mass of bloody corpses. The carnage here must have been frightful. The body of Captain Skinner was recognized, and an Affghan was persuaded by Captain Lawrence to inter it during the night, Mahomed Akber's consent having been previously procured. The road took a northerly direction up a gorge in the hills, and thence proceeded for five or six miles up a narrow defile, through which runs a small stream whose upper surface was covered with ice. Throughout these regions of snow the cold was intense, and we passed several springs whose waters, arrested by the frost, hung suspended in long glittering icicles from the rocks, exhibiting a spectacle, whose brilliancy would, under less depressing circumstances, have called forth exclamations of wonder and admiration, which we had not now the heart to utter.

*

A few things demand a word or two, now that we have cited the last passage for which we can conveniently find room. And first with regard to the conduct and character of Mahomed Akber:

There appear to be strange contradictions in the character of the Khan, judging according to accepted notions in civilized Europe. Whether he deliberately intended to murder the envoy may perhaps admit of doubt; and he exposed his own life, within a few minutes of the deed, to save the lives of the officers who were with Sir William. But throughout all Akber's transactions, he exhibited a mixture of fierce cruelty and an open generosity that cannot be well accounted for, unless indeed we regard duplicity and treachery as the predominant principle of his character. Certain it is that he shot the envoy with one of the costly pistols which that unhappy functionary had shortly before presented to the murderer. Colonel Dennie has described the Affghans generally as "the most brutalized, sanguinary, and savage wretches on the face of the earth." Nor does Akber appear to have been an exception; although, along with his consummate deceit and cold-blooded cruelty, he has cultivated a show of manners, that proved on occasions perfectly fascinating. But what can be said for a man who unquestionably not only planned the wholesale massacre of the British in their retreat, but who is reported to have actually, in the course of the fearful carnage, called out in Persian to some of his barbarous subjects to desist from, in the same breath that he commanded them in a different dialect to continue, firing on the helpless and exposed remnant of the ill-omened army?

Treachery, in fact, is the very soul of an Affghan, which consummates its most cherished objects by murder and assassinations, freVOL. I. (1843) No. II.

quently of the nearest kindred when an enviable end is to be reached or revenge to be appeased. For example, so diabolical was the hatred which the despicable Shah Sujah entertained towards Sir Alexander Burnes, that, as is now known, he encouraged the outbreak of the rebellion, in the hope that it would lead to his murder, and prevent him from succeding Sir William Macnaghten. And what was the end of the imbecile wretch? Why, he was stabbed by a youth he had befriended, and to whom at his birth he had given his own name.

But with regard to Akber, perhaps the most agreeable part of his conduct in the late deplorable events we have been considering, belongs to his treatment of the imprisoned British, forming such a contrast to that of the army in the course of the most disastrous retreat on record, when Dr. Brydon, the sole representative of seventeen thousand persons, was hunted to Jellalabad.

But passing from the period when Akber was in the ascendant, and defeat and terrible disaster were the lot of the British in Affghanistan, let us hail, although not with unmixed joy, the tidings which have just been received by the overland Indian mail, concerning the return of our at last victorious troops through the hostile defiles of the Khyber. This was fully concluded on the 7th of November. It may be satisfactory to give a summary in our pages of the particulars of the intelligence referred to.

The first division, under General Pollock, succeeded in effecting their march without much difficulty. The second, commanded by General M'Caskill, was not equally fortunate, in consequence, as report states, of the neglect of crowning the heights over a most dangerous part of the defile. The plunder-loving mountaineers were on the watch, and, finding this division embarrassed in its movements near Ali Musjid, during the night of the 3d, made an attack on the baggage, a considerable quantity of which is said to have fallen into their hands. Lieut. Christie, of the artillery, and Ensign Nicholson, of the Thirtieth Bengal Native Infantry, were killed, as well as upwards of one hundred Sepoys killed and wounded, besides a number of camp-followers. Two cannon were also taken by them; but one of the guns was retaken on the following morning, as well as the carriage of the other; the Khyberees having found means of concealing the gun itself. The third division, under General Nott, which formed the last one of the army, arrived at Jumrood, the frontier station of the Sikh territory, on the 6th.

Before the troops left Cabul, the Bazaar, the principal scene of the indignities to Sir William Macnaghten's body, and a mosque, built a year back to commemorate the triumph of the Affghans over the infidels were destroyed.

Akber Khan had lost his influence among his countrymen, and had retired to Balk, as if in disgrace. Shah Poora, a son of Shah

Sujah, sixteen years of age, had been acknowledged as sovereign by the principal chiefs; and the British generals agreed to leave the Bala-Hissar intact, in order to allow him the citadel as a place of refuge in case of danger. Futteh Jung, who had at one time taken possession of the sovereignty, retired with the British to the protection of the Company's territories. Sufter Jung remained in possession of sovereign power at Candahar.

Jellalabad, Ali Musjid, and other forts through the Kyber, had been demolished. Trophies of various kinds had been brought from Cabul: among them more than twenty cannons.

The Governor-General, with his body-guard, had reached Mumehmajra on the 14th of November, in his progress to Ferozepore; where fêtes were to be given on the arrival of the troops from Cabul. It was expected that interviews would take place near Ferozepore between his lordship and the Maharajah, Shere Singh; who, it was supposed, was about to agree to accept the protection of the British Government.

Some apprehensions appear to have been entertained of a collision between the Sikhs and the British troops near Peshawur.

An order had been published by Lord Ellenborough, declaring that all the Affghan chiefs detained in India should be liberated; but requiring, that previously to their obtaining permission to return to their own country, they should attend his levy at Ferozepore. It was supposed that at the levee some terms would be offered to Dost Mahomed which would induce him to acknowledge the supremacy of Shah Sujah's sons: it seems to be hinted that the Dost was to be offered a restoration of his subordinate rank as Ameer. The same order also contains the remarkable statement that Akber Khan, before the late advance of the British armies, had refused to exchange the British prisoners in his custody, even for his father and his own family.

The Governor-General had made public his intention "to station permanently a large British force of Europeans and natives between the Sutledge and Murkunda;" to facilitate the navigation of the Indus and its tributary rivers; and to improve the state of the roads between the Sutledge and the Ganges and Jumna. He had also abolished the Political Agencies in Scinde; placing the whole of the districts under the care of Sir Charles Napier, now commanding the Bombay army stationed there.

And now that our troops have returned triumphant to India, that composure and time can be commanded for a searching inquiry into the errors and follies that characterised our military operations in Affghanistan, we trust that no consideration will divert the Government at home, or the principal authorities in our Eastern empire, from instituting such a scrutiny, and pronouncing suitable censures on the blameworthy. Undoubtedly the British public have something to ask concerning the Cabul tragedy, as well as the Government

of India. They have borne the discredit, and must bear the loss. This inquiry, it appears to us, must go into the entire question,— into the origin, the progress, the conduct, and the issues of the war. To confine the investigation to the outbreak, the rebellion, and the disastrous retreat alone, will be but a narrow and very inadequate field; for in that case the persons more immediately concerned, and against whom the most serious charges at present are entertained, are now numbered with the dead. Macnaghten was murdered; but were his alleged proper demands refused? were undue influences employed to persuade him to withdraw his requisitions? General Elphinstone is no more; but was the reported wish of the worn-out commander to resign unheeded, or unnecessarily was the acceptance of it delayed? Neither of these unfortunate men can defend themselves, and it will be natural for the living to direct all blame to their graves. But will this quiet the British mind? will it satisfy the demands of justice? Assuredly not; and indeed the questions referred to are understood to be occupying at this moment the attention of the Indian Government, and to be under investigation. We wait to learn what is the range of inquiry, what the animus of the persons conducting it, and what may be the degree of fairness manifested in visiting the incompetent, the inactive, and the cowardly, with the censure and punishment due to their misdeeds, whether of omission or commission.

To relieve in some measure the tragical drama that we have been considering, of its accumulated horrors, we conclude with the notice of two circumstances, which although comparatively but slight, address themselves to one's softer sympathies, and show that even in Affghanistan the milk of human kindness has not been thoroughly dried up, nor wholly poisoned. Two little children were lost in the course of the confusion during the rebellion and preserved untouched and safe amid all the cruelties and deaths that environed them. One, a boy, was hastily conveyed to Akber, most probably the intention being that they should reach the British officers whom the Khan detained. Nor, if such was the design did it fail of its object; for the helpless little creature was among the first things that met the eyes of his parents on their arrival at the chieftain's quarters. The other, a girl, was carried all the way to Cabul, and adopted into a family, but restored to her parents when Akber brought his prisoners to the vicinity of the capital.

No doubt ere long we shall receive sundry accounts of the incidents which befel the prisoners, both generally and individually. The female portion of them, we may expect, will contribute their due share of literary service for the gratification of the intense public interest experienced respecting the subject. Perhaps Lady Sale's narrative will figure among the number.

171

ART. II.-The Life of Isaac Milner, D.D., F.R.S., &c., Dean of Carlisle. By his Niece, MARY MILNER. Parker.

In

ISAAC MILNER was a younger brother of the Church historian. fact, he continued the "History of the Church of Christ" commenced by Joseph Milner. The exact condition of their father is not clearly described; and perhaps might not be very flattering to the pride of the successors of the family. At any rate he appears to have been in business at Leeds, and to have been in some way unfortunate; although he was able to afford his sons a good education while he lived. At his decease, however, and when Isaac was only ten years of age, the mother felt obliged to take him from school and to apprentice him to a weaver. But before this he had made considerable progress in Latin, and had tasted of the rudiments of Greek; having also given some early indications of a genius for mathematics. Tastes which had thus exhibited themselves, or been begotten, continued to be cherished during his apprenticeship; and when his brother Joseph, who had been sent to college through the good offices of some friends, and who had obtained the mastership of a school at Hull, proposed to take the weaver from the loom, and to constitute him his usher, the youth was found competent, as we learn from this passage:

"Joseph Milner requested the Reverend Myles Atkinson, the minister of St. Paul's Church, in that town, to examine into the qualifications of Isaac, to become his usher in the Grammar-school at Hull. Upon proceeding to the work-room in which Isaac Milner then laboured, Mr. Atkinson found him seated at his loom, with Tacitus and some Greek author lying by his side. Upon further examination, it appeared that, notwithstanding his long absence from school, and the interruption of his literary pursuits, his knowledge and his love of classical learning remained unimpaired. After a private interview with Mr. Atkinson, during which the terms of the apprentice's emancipation were agreed upon, the master of the establishment entered the work-room, and addressing young Milner, said to him, 'Isaac, lad, thou art off.' The delight exhibited by the youth, on hearing these words, was declared by Mr. Atkinson to be quite indescribable."

Isaac's labours as an usher were, of course, of lasting use to him, both as regarded industrious habits and minuteness of accuracy in grammatical construction. His mathematical capacity seems to have been inbred, and to have always hailed any opportunity that occurred in the school for arithmetical solution. In 1770, and when twenty years of age, he entered Queen's College, Cambridge, as a sizar, having been sent by his brother. It is reported of him that when performing one of the offices at that time allotted to this humble