The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 11, 1858. eons employed amount to 65,886 f. If to this latter sum be added all the other expenses of the working, it will be found that this mine costs the Slate 51,2241. more g u m it brings in. In order to explain such extraordi nary results, it must be mentioned that among the charges made for the collection of the different branches of the pow io reveille may be found the most singular items— sack, for instance, as muses for the collectors, special funds allotted to the Pope, allowances to the bishop, and even snuff for the Capuchin friars. This is what is called administration in the Papal States. These facts, its seems to us, speak for themselves. They complete the picture we have drawn. While the illustrations which precede them show us Rome setting at nought the highest principles of morality and the holiest convictions of religion, they place her before us as deliberately violating the commonest dictates of honesty. If (returning to the Theology of Boccaccio) they do not supply an argument forcible enough to convert a Jew, they would seem at least sufficient—and more than sufficient—to pervert a Puseyite. History of the Afghans. By J. P. Ferrier. Translated from the Original Unpublished Manuscript by Captain William Jesse. Lon don : Murray. Tuts book was promised to the public in 1856, when the account of General Ferrier's travels in the East was published. Those who have not read that interesting book will be glad to be informed who General Ferrier is, and what has been the course and object of his travels. The General is a hard, practical, French soldier, who after serving in Algiers, and making his way upward trom the ranks to the position of Marechal de Logis, went about the year 1840, in company with other French officers, to drill and organize the army of Persia. In Persia he remained for three years with the rank of adjutant-general, until, according to his own account, the influence f Russia at the Court of the Shah prevailed to procure his dismissal. From 1843 to 1845 he lived in France, and then set out for Lahore, having been attracted to the service of Runjeet Singh. He took the route from Bagdad to Herat, and from this town endeavoured to reach India by Ralkh and Cahn] Unsuccessful in this attempt, he turned westward and made his way through the wild and unex plored Hazarah country towards Gour. Again he failed, and was compelled to return to Herat. Once more, however, strong in the Oriental faith that a man cannot die till his hour comes, he made for India through Southern Afghanistan, by Girishk and Candahar. At this latter town he was so unfortunate as to arrive simultaneously with the cholera. The visitation of the pesti lence was attributed by the inhabitants to the presence of the infidel. He was attacked in his house by the mob, and, though protected by the authorities, bad the greatest difficulty in defend ing himself, and making his way out of the town alive. Few travellers of the present age have escaped with life out of so many perils. Few have been able to describe such thrilling adventures as the night-march of Ferrier along the banks of the Helmund ; his skirmish with the savage Belooches among the tamarisk bushes. A most simple and unaffected narrator, he wins the confidence of the reader more than most travellers • and hence, when his style, in spite of becomes graphic and pictorial, the brief splendour which lights up the homely narrative of the following passage has a more impressive brilliance than a far more laboured description would have in a more artificial narrative : The danger was as great in foilowirg the line of route we bad come as in taking a direct course to that town ; in the latter case we should not have fotind either food or provisions ; we determined therefore to keep close to the river, the sides of which being wooled offered us greater security. Concealed by the underwood, we could see without being seen by the Belooches, whose encampments we carefully avoided, and sometimes made a considerable circuit to do so. When a faint streak of light in the horizon announced the approach of day, we mounted our b° ll4l , adsancing cautiously amongst the willows, tamarisks, and mimosas, having the Helmand on oar right, and leaving on our left the silent and sterile deserts of Seistan. The waning moon's reflected light was shed over its red and shining sands, which seemed like one immense furnace, and the noise of our horses' feet was lost in the sound of the gurgling river, or the gush of waters against some rock which, with several wooded islets, obstructed the rapid current, or where, at some shallower part, it rippled over the gravelly bed beneath. But for the broken waters a profound stillness reigned around : no sound was he ar d, an d no s i gns of an enemy being discernible our anxieties had almost ceased, when on a sudden a covey of partridges, comfortably ensconced in the bushes for the night, rove with their loud whirr, and gave a slight and not agreeable sensation to our nerves. For the moment we thought the 13elooches were before tti, and crack, creek, went the guns, the report of which roused the jackals and deer from their retreats, and started a troop of wild asses that were in front of us off across the country at their best speed. It is scarcely possible to discuss General Fer rier's new book without at the same time dis cussing his former one. The subject of both is the same, and they ought to be studied in con junction, for, indeed, the latter can scarcely be understood, much less appreciated, without the former. Captain Jesse says—" The style of the " author is rather severe, and there are several " portions of the present work in which there " was an opening for much touching writing and " for appeals to the highest and best feelings of " our nature." This is awkwardly expressed, and reminds us of Sergeant Buzfuz's "One of " the purest emotions of our imperfect nature, " gentlemen." But what Captain Jesse means is very true, namely, that the "History of the Afghans" is deficient in description and vivid detail—that it leaves the imagination unsatisfied —that the picture of Afghanistan and the Afghans which it presents wants distinctness and animation. What we miss is, not fine writing, not pathos, not rhetoric, but such a skilful selec tion and arrangement of facts as shall enable the reader to grasp and comprehend all that is dis tinctive and characteristic of Afghanistan and the Afghans. Such skill as this is no doubt difficult to be acquired ; the want of it is espe cially pardonable in General Ferrier, in whom the literary character is quite subordinate to the military and political. It is, notwithstanding, a skill which General Ferrier's undertaking spe cially demanded, and which alone could have saved his book from being in a certain degree dry and repulsive. Dry and repulsive in a certain degree we suppose his book must consent to be regarded by the majority. Of its value and im portance there can be no doubt ; and to any one who has time to study it closely, and the oppor tunity of comparing it with the "Caravan Jour neys," it will prove highly interesting. We are of course quite incompetent to criticise tho accuracy of' General Perrier so a hit:Kt/Ilan. Afghanistan is a country upon which few men living have much information. The greater part of his narrative we must take on credit; the very homely and unvarnished character of it is our best guarantee of its general accuracy, and in the favourable testimony of Sir Henry Rawlinson to the General's former work we have almost all the external authentication which the case admits of. One reasonable suspicion may indeed cross the reader's mind. The General does not say much about his authorities. These are principally Persian MSS. which he has met with in Afghan istan itself. We should like to be informed how far these chronicles are trustworthy. As the General is silent upon this question, we, of course, do not know whether or no he has made it a subject of careful examination, but the very fact that he is silent about it disposes us to doubt whether he has been sufficiently alive to its im portance. Manifestly born for action and busi ness, neither learned nor scientific, he is not un likely to retain some of that superstitious reve rence for books which is seldom cured except by constant familiarity with them. He may be dis posed to accept whatever he finds recorded, unless he can show it to be impossible, and may be in sensible to those considerations which invalidate the authority of a historian altogether, and which render his most plausible statements as uncertain as those which are most palpably improbable. He may, in short, as is commonly the case with amateur historians, have neglected to consider the laws of historical evidence. Shrewd men are apt to be confident that their shrewdness will suffice them in the estimate of evidence, but any lawyer will assure them that this is a matter in which a special training is indispensable. The name of Afghanistan at once suggests to an Englishman that disastrous winter of 1841, that terrible Khyber Pass, the time and place of a calamity such as has rarely befallen the English in the East. Subsequent triumphs and reverses have blunted our impression of that calamity, but what single disaster which has happened to us can be compared to the loss of .5,000 men from cold, hunger, and the muskets of the enemy, in a single defile ? Our policy in Persia and Afghan istan is discussed by General Ferrier with much care and, on the whole, with much fairness. 1215 He has indeed no doubt whatever of our ambition and of our fixed intention to extend our conquests as far as we may find ourselves able; but we must not be very angry with a French man for failing to perceive the somewhat subtle distinction we draw between the ambition of con quest and the necessity of conquest. The practical difference is not considerable whether we avow ourselves ambitious, or speciously maintain, with the leading journal, that the empire which ceases to increase commences to diminish. But when we are charged with cruelty the old Chasseur d'Afrique fires up. We present to our readers the doctrine current in Algiers upon this matter :— I am far from constituting myself the apologist of these seventies ; but I have seen war in Asia and in Africa, and know, unhappily by experience, that it is impossible to conduct it as in Europe, where, in the majority of States, the rights of individuals are respected. In vain may we declaim against bloodshed ; we shall never be able to convert the battle-field into a drawing-room, where all parties are bent upon the interchange of civilities. When I hear it said, "how many thousands of Circassians the Russian Soldiers have slain," or "the French have bathed in the blood of the Arabs ! " or " the English have sacri ficed myriads of Hindoos to their cupidity ; " when I hear it Raid that the troops of these nations " are the scum of the earth—wretches who have outraged all laws, human and divine," I cannot refrain from cursing the people who say so —men, or rather not men, who possess the miserable courage to speak in favour of barbarians, while they can find only an accusing voice when they speak of the soldiers of their country. Unhappy madmen that ye are ! do ye not know that each enemies take your clemency for weakness, your forbearance for fear?—that they have no gratitude but to the God of Islam, who withholds the infidel arm that would have killed them—that their re ligion enjoins them to massacre without pity or remorse? The remedy lies precisely in that in which you see the evil. War has its severities, and they are great, therefore it ought not to be undertaken but for sound and legitimate reasons; that is saying enough, and I have not failed to admit that I never approved the one undertaken by the English against the Afghans. But the acts of a Govern ment are not to be confounded with those of its soldiers ; to the former all reprobation—to the latter, for their many sufferings and hardships, a few encouraging words is no more than their due. It is easy to forget them in the lazy tranquillity of the closet—it is easy to judge of facts, and in a very humane point of view, when sitting by the fire in a well stuffed easy chair ; bat those who endure the misery —who, as the reward of mercy shown in the beat of rpceive a Rviord - tbrust or a bullet in the breast—who have submitted to tortures worse a hundred time, than death, and who then see themselves calumniated and slandered by those who ought, on the contrary, to have exalted their deeds—ask them what they think of your system ? Ask the mmy English, French, and Russian generals, wearied to death with warring against Mussul mans, or consult the writings of others, and they will tell you what is the fruit of ;or imprudent comments. You destroy the energy of national spirit, and set bounds to nothing but the prosperity of your country ; had I any authority over you, you wretched scribblers, 1 would order you no other punishment than to practisa the ger.erusity that you preach win) so much volubility. Go, bear the musket for a couple of years only in Algeria, at Tiflis, or Calcutta, and when you return let us resume the conver sation. Of all the nations which have a central government and a political unity the Afghans would seem to be about the rudest. It is diffi cult to understand what influences preserve this unity. According to the General's account, they have no sense of honour or honesty; no subtlety or acuteness of intellect ; and not only no love of order, but the most ardent passion for dis order and destruction. It is only to destroy and pull down, we are told, that the Afghan lives. At home he is idle and torpid, and his life becomes a burden to him ; but mount him on horseback, and give him a chance of robbery and plunder, adding murder for a relish, he will awake, his eye will kindle, " his hand will " grasp convulsively the hilt of his sabre, and he " will press his sinewy legs against his horses " sides until the animal can scarcely draw his "breath." With this appetite for disorder, with no confidence in each other, with no love, patriotism, or honour, in short, with no centri petal force at work, it seems inconceivable not only that political unity can continue, but that society, even in its most degraded form, can subsist at all, and not rather dissolve and perish in a frenzy of c0001x..,:m.. Perhaps we may suspect that, with that vivid impression of the baseness and badness of uncivilized man which General Ferrier appears to possess, he has coloured the picture somewhat too darkly. History has never yet presented an example of a society without virtue : virtue is the uniting principle ; vice tends to disruption and isolation. Where there is union and confederation there. history seems to teach, must be a measure of virtue. There must be " honour among thieves." . .- - --- -• . THE PRESS, DECEMBER 11 1858. 1215 f• pus employed amount to 65,886 f. If to this latter sum bushes for the night, rove with their loud whirr, andg ave IHe has indeed no doubt whatever of our b e added all the other expenses of the working, it will a slight and not agreeable se ns ati on to our ner' ves. For ambition and of our fixed intention to extend our b e found that this mine costs the State 51,224 f. more the moment wethought the Belooches were before ni, and g um it brings in. In order to explain such extraordi- crack, crack, went the guns, the report of which roused the conquests as far as we may find ourselves able; ai ry results, it must be mentioned that among the charges jackals and deer from their retreats, and started a troop of but we must not be very angry with a French- made for the collection of the different branches of the wild uses that were in front of us off across the country man for failing to perceive the somewhat subtle public revenue may be found the most singular items— at their best speed. distinction we draw between the ambition of con- sul), for instance, as muses for the collectors, special funds allotted to the Pope, allowances to the bishop, It is scarcely possible to discu ss G enera l F er - qu e s t an d th e necess i ty o f conquest. Th e an d even snuff for the Capuchin friars. This is what i s rier's new book without at the same time dis- practical difference is not considerable whether c alled administration in the Papal States. cussing his former one. The subject of both is we avow ourselves ambitious, or speciously These facts, its seems to us, speak for themselves. the same, and they ought to be studied in con- maintain, with the leading journal, that the They complete the picture we have drawn. junction, for, indeed, the latter can scarcely be empire which ceases to increase commences to While the illustrations which precede them show understood, much less appreciated, without the diminish. But when we are charged with cruelty us Rome setting at nought the highest principles former. Captain Jesse says—" The style of the the old Chasseur d'Afrique fires up. We present of morality and the holiest convictions of religion, " author is rather severe, and there are several to our readers the doctrine current in Algiers they place her before us as deliberately violating " portions of the present work in which there upon this matter:— the commonest dictates of honesty. If (returning " was an opening for much to uc hi ng wr iti ng an d lam far from constituting myself the apologist of these to the Theology of Boccaccio) they do not supply " for appeals to the highest and b es t f ee li ngs o f sever i t i es ; b ut I have seen war in Asia and in Africa, and an argument forcible enough to convert a Jew, " our nature." This is awkwardly expressed, know, unhappily by experience, that it is impossible to they would seem at least sufficient—and more and reminds us of Sergeant Buzfuz's "One of conduct it as in Europe, where, in the majority of States, " the purest emotions of our imperfect nature, the rights of individuals are respected. I.n vain may we than sufficient—to pervert a Pose i ts. declaim against bloodshed ;we shall never be able to . " gentlemen.' But what Captain Jesse means convert the battle•field into a drawing-room, where all is very true, namely, that the "History of the parties are bent upon the interchange of civilities. When History of the Afghans. By J. P. Ferrier. Afghans" is deficient in description and vivid I hear it said, "how many thousands of Cireassians the Translated from the Original Unpublished detail—that it leaves the imagination unsatisfied R ussian Soldiers have slain," or "the French have bathed of Af i n the blood of the Arabs ! " or " the En g lish have seen- Manuscript by Captain William Jesse. Lon- —that the picture ghanistan and the fieed myriads of Hindoos to their cupidity ; " when I bear Afghans which it presents wants distinctness and it Raid that the troops of these nations " are the scum of don : Murray. animation. What we miss is, not fine writing, the earth—wretches who have outraged all laws, human THIS book was promised to the public in 1856, not pathos, not rhetoric, but such a skilful selec- and divine," I cannot refrain from cursing the people who when the account of General Ferrier's travels tion and arrangement of facts as shall enable the say so —men, or rather not men, who possess the mi serable in the East was published. Those who have not reader to grasp and comprehend all that is dis- c fi o n o d ta n g n e l to an s when the y speakwhile t hey of can e read that interesting book will be glad to be tinctive and characteristic of Afghanistan and speak e of soldiers of their count g ry. Unhappy mad y menthat ye are ! informed who General Ferrier is, and what has the Afghans. Such skill as this is no doubt do se not know that each enemies take your clemency been the course and object of his travels. The difficult to be acquired • the want of it is espe- for weakness, your forbearance for fear ?— that they have General is a hard, practical, French soldier, who c i a lly pardonable in General Ferrier, in whom no gratitude but to the God of Islam, who withholds the infidel arm that would have killed them—that their re- after serving in Algiers, and making his way the literary character is quite subordinate to the lig• ion enjoins them to massacre without pity or remorse? upward from the ranks to the position of military and political. It is, notwithstanding, a The remedy lies precisely in that in which you see the Marechal de Logis, went about the year 1840, skill which General Ferrier's undertaking ape- evil. War has its severities, and they are great, therefore in company with other French officers, to drill cially demanded, and which alone could have it ought not to be undertaken but for sound and legitimate and organize the army of Persia. In Persia he saved his book from being in a certain degree dry reams nittlattia t t h l a remained for three years with the rank of an d re p u l s i ve . D ry an d repu l s i ve i n a certa i n t o i e s v B e l a y a i p n p g r o e v n e o d u g t h h e a o n n d e undertaken it aven ot fa hy l e d th to e i English against the Afghans. But the acts of a Govern- adjutant-general, until, according to his own degree we suppose his book must consent to be ment are not to be confounded with those of its soldiers ; account, the influence of Russia at the Court of regarded by the majority. Of its value and im- to the former all reprobation—to the latter, for their the Shah prevailed to procure his di sm i ssa l. portance there can be no doubt ; and to any one many sufferings and hardships, a few encouraging h words th is From 1843 to 1845 he lived in Fran c e, an d th en w h o h as t i me to stu d y i t c l ose l y, an d t h e oppor - ;t ar o mtoraren g th u7i n li t the o i f r ti el le ue e . losehtis i e t a uea to sy fo to rg j et udtge em of i n n From set out for Lahore, having been attracted to tunity of comparin g it w ith th e "C aravan J our - and in a very lumane point of view, when sitting by the the service of Runjeet Singh. He took the net's," it will prove highly interesting, fire in a well stuffed easy chair ; bat those who endure the route from Bagdad to Herat, and from this town We are of course quite incompetent to criticise misery—who, as the reward of mercy shown h in h the beat breast—who endeavoured to reach India 11y Ralkh and Cahul. t h' s " la . 7 1 .7 a d 7 "ti t "ttbru•st ore bu"et h i a n n t d r e e re t t i :eh t— t w u a n o tho aeouracy of' General Ferries an a hi atus lan. Unsuccessful in this attempt, he turned westward Afghanistan is a country upon which few men de a a v t a h, an a i n tn d i w e ho th o en or a l e ir e es them selves I v a es calumniated and and made his way through the wild and unex- living have much information. The greater part slandered by those who ought, on the contrary, to have plored Hazarah country towards Gour. Again of his narrative we must take on credit; the very exalted their deeds—ask them what they think of your he failed, and was compelled to return to Herat. homely and unvarnished character of it is our system ? Ask the mmy English, French, and Russian Once more, however, strong in the Oriental best guarantee of its general accuracy, and in the generals , mansr consult weartad the to vi d ri a t t i n u gs with o f o w t h a e rr : s i Ig a and t against hey w m i n u si t u ell faith that a man cannot die till his hour comes, favourable testimony of Sir Henry Rawlinson you What is the fruit of ~ ;ur imprudent comments. You he made for India through Southern Afghanistan, to the General's former work we have almost all destroy the energy of nationsl spirit, and set bounds to by Girishk and Candahar. At this latter town the external authentication which the case admits nothing but the prosperity of your country ; had I any he was so unfortunate as to arrive simultaneously of. One reasonable suspicion may indeed cross authority over you, you wretched scribblers, h 1 would order with the cholera. The visitation of the ti- the reader's mind. The General does not say you thlt naoonotpher preach punishmentt m ha o n eh to v P olub l i t li4. t e Go ge h L eTr a t i ee lence was attributed by the inhabitants to the much about his authorities. These are principally musket for a couple of years only in Algeria, at Tithe, or presence of the infidel. He was attacked in his Persian MSS. which he has met with in Afghan- Calcutta, and when you return let us resume the conver• house by the mob, and, though protected by the istan itself. We should like to be informed how maim. authorities, had the greatest difficulty in defend- far these chronicles are trustworthy. As the Of all the nations which have a central ing himself, and making his way out of the town General is silent upon this question, we, of course, government and a political unity the Afghans alive. Few travellers of the present age have do not know whether or no he has made it a would seem to be about the rudest. It is diffi- escaped with life out of so many perils. Few subject of careful examination, but the very fact cult to understand what influences preserve this have been able to describe such thrilling that he is silent about it disposes us to doubt unity. According to the General's account, they tdventures as the night-march of Ferrier along whether he has been sufficiently alive to its im- have no sense of honour or honesty; no subtlety the banks of the Helmand ; his skirmish with the portance. Manifestly born for action and busi- or acuteness of intellect ; and not only no love savage Belooches among the tamarisk bushes. ness, neither learned nor scientific, he is not un- of order, but the most ardent passion for dis- A most simple and unaffected narrator, he wins likely to retain some of that superstitious reve- order and destruction. It is only to destroy the confidence of the reader more than most rence for books which is seldom cured except by and pull down, we are told, that the Afghan travellers; and hence, when his style, in spite of constant familiarity with them. He may be dis- lives. At home he is idle and torpid, and his life itself, becomes graphic and pictorial, the brief posed to accept whatever he finds recorded, unless becomes a burden to him ; but mount him on splendour which lights up the homely narrative he can show it to be impossible, and may be in- horseback, and give him a chance of robbery and of the following passage has a more impressive sensible to those considerations which invalidate plunder, adding murder for a relish, he will brilliance than a far more laboured description the authority of a historian altogether, and which awake, his eye will kindle, " his hand will would have in a more artificial narrative : render his most plausible statements as uncertain " grasp convulsively the hilt of his sabre, and he The danger was as great in foilowirg the line of route as those which are most palpably improbable. " will press his sinewy legs against his horse s we had come as in taking a direct course to that town ;in He may, in short, as is commonly the case with " sides until the animal can scarcely draw his the latter case w e s h ou ld not h ave found either food or amateur historians, have neglected to consider the " breath. " With this appetite for disorder, with provisions ; we determined t h ere f ore to k ee p c l ose to t h e river, the sides of which being wxkled offered us greater laws of historical evidence. Shrewd men are apt no confidence in each other, with no love, security. Concealed by the underwood, we could see to be confident that their shrewdness will suffice patriotism, or honour, in short, with no centri- Without being seen by the Belooches, whose encampments them in the estimate of evidence, but any petal force at work, it seems inconceivable not we carefully a v o id e d, an d somet i mes ma d e a cons id era bl e lawyer will assure them that this is a matter in only that political unity can continue, but that circuit to do an. When a faint streak of light in the which a special trainin g is indispensable. The society, even in its most degraded form, can horizon announced the approach o f day, w e mou nt e d o ur horses, ad vanc i ng caut i ous l y amongst the w ill ows , name of Afghanistan at once suggests to an subsist at all, and not rather dissolve and perish tamarisks, and mimosas, having the Helmand on oar Englishman that disastrous winter of 1841, that in a frenzy of ioo,sx:-.5.;.,:5.. Perhaps we may right, and leaving on our left the (Went and sterile deserts terrible Khyber Pass, the time and place of a suspect that, with that vivid impression of the of Seistan. The waning moon's reflected light was shed calamity such as has rarely befallen the English baseness and badness of uncivilized man which over its red and shining sands, which seemed like one the p ast . immense furnace, and the noise of our horses' feet was lost in r S u bsequent triumphs and reverses General Ferrier appears to possess, he has in the soun d o f t h e gurgl i ng river, or the gush of waters have blunted our impression of that calamity, but coloured the picture somewhat too darkly. against some rock which, with several wooded islets, what single disaster which has happened to us History has never yet presented an example of a obstructed the rapid current, or where, at some shallower can be compared to the loss of 5,000 men from society without virtue : virtue is the uniting pat, it rippled over the gravelly bed beneath. But for the broken waters a profound stillness reigned around : cold, hunger, and the muskets of the enemy, in a principle ; vice tends to disruption and isolation. no sound was heard, and no signs of an enemy being single defile ? Our policy in Persia and Afghan- Where there is union and confederation there. discernible our anxieties had almost ceased, when on a istan is discussed by General Ferrier with much history seems to teach, must be a measure of sudden a covey of partridge s , com f orta bl y ensconce d i n t h e care a n d, on t h e w hole, with much fairness. v i r t ue . Th ere mus t be " honour among thie ve. ' ' a Alli