The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-08 00:00:00

TrelEa.—lt may possibly have been observed that
our Indian intelligence of yesterday comprised cer-
tain authentic reports from the kingdom or country
of Affghanistan. The recent demise of the Frown
in that happy State has been followed by consider-
able dissension in the Royal family, and " three
parties," we are told, hare already declared them-
selves. One of these interesting factions is headed
by Shere Ali Khan, and Mahomed Sherif Khan, a
second is led by Futteh IVlabomed Khan Jullaloo-
deen Khan, and a third obeys the command of Ma-
homedAzim Khan, Mahomed Asian Khan; and Ma-
homed Osman Khan. The reader may very naturally
anticipate that we propose to explain the pedigrees
of these princes, the relations subsisting between
them, and the hopes or desires by which each may
be animated in commencing a family quarrel and a
civil war. We propose nothing of the kind. On
the contrary, we devotedly trust that every one of
these names may remain for ever as utterly strange
and barbarous to English ears as it is at present.
Never may it fall to our lot to introduce such char-
acters upon the political stage. It is solely for the
purpose of depreciating any concern whatever in
the subject that we refer to it this morning. The
feuds of this precious family did once coat us sacri-
fices so terrible that we cannot look back without
a shudder. We took it upon ourselves to conclude,
some twenty years ago, that it would be a judicious
thing for us to pull down one Khan and set up
another for the sake of establishing a species of
influence in this savage wilderness. The result was
one of the most shocking disasters were sustained
by the British arms. We lost an army, and almost
lost an empire. The "Affghan expedition " plunged
India into debt and difficulty for years, and left
behind it memories which we should think could
never be effaced. Yet we actually read in our in-
telligence that "an army of observation " is ex-
pected to assemble at Peshawur, on the Affghan
frontier, in the ensuing cold weather, and that "it
is more than probable that these forces will have
something to do." We can only say that if, after
the lesson we have received, we meddle again
with the affairs of Affghanistan, it will be the very
extravagance of folly. "Disturbances," it is added,
"seem almost unavoidable in Cabul.'' We heve not
the least doubt of it. Bloodshed seems almost un-
avoidable in Dahomey, and the two prospects con-
cern U 3 in about an equal degree. There has never
been a time, we suppose, when the Princes of the
I)ooranee family were not at war among themselves,
except when they were controlled by some excep-
tionally powerfully chief. It is only by an abuse of
terms that the country can be called a monarchy.
Its provinces are governed by members of the reign-
ing House whose independence has been commonly
complete, thongh seldom allowed. The new Ameer
of Cabal, titular successor of Dost Mahomed, will,
no doubt, find his title contested by a dozen others.
Dost Mahomed himself had first to seize his place
and then to maintain it. Nothing is the world is
more likely or natural than that every one of the
Khans whose titles we have specified should set
himself up in some city or other, and do his best to
acquire, first independence, and then supremacy.
Every Prince in the family will undoubtedly attempt
to avoid obeying anybody himself, and to make
everybody else obey him. In this contest, too, they
will all resort to intrigue, and endeavour to secure
the support of allies. " The Persians," wo are in-
formed, will add " a fourth element to the coming
struggle." That is as probable as anything can be.
We do but repeat our most anxious hope that a filth
"element" may not be supplied from British terri •
tory. Hardly, even with a map before him, could
any reader be brought to comprehend the madness
which possessed us in 1839. Of course nobody,
even then, ventured to assert that the affairs of
Affghanistan, considered in themselves, could import
anything to the interests of British India. It was
not suggested, either, that Persia was a State in
whose policy we need take much concern. We had
to stride across the barbarous wilds of those two
realms, and reach the frontier of a very different
Power, before we could discover the real source of
alarm. If Russia had not bordered on Persia as
Persia bordered on Affghanistan, we should never
have persuaded ourselves that any danger loomed
in the distance. What we were induced to fancy
was that Russia might set Persia in motion, that
the Persians might fall upon the Affghans, and
that, when the road had thus been levelled for the
advance, the hosts of the Czer might begin their
march from the shores of the Caspian to the banks
of the Indus. We resolved, therefore, to snap the
chain in its nearest link, and to set up in Cabal a
Power capable of resisting, in our interest, the an-
ticipated attack of the Persians. These people did
cross their own frontier, and did lay siege to the
border town of Herat, bat they had forsaken the
enterprise and retired to their own territories even
before we commenced our expedition intoAffghenis-
tan. If we had not been utterly blind, we should
have seen that, as far as the relief of our misgiv-
ings went, whatever the most successful war could
do had been already done. At the present time,
nowever, there exists no such sprit-as was allowed
to set all this machinery in motion five-and-twenty
years ago. We are no longer afraid of a Russian in-
vasion of India. We do not imagine that any such
project is contemplated, and still less that the pre-
sent period would be selected for putting it into
execwion. We know also from experience that if
Persia gave us any cause of offence she should be
brought to reason far more speedily by a squadron
off Bushire than by any army in Affghanistan. We
are reduced, therefore, to Affghanistan itself for a
cause of intervention. If we again interfere be-
tween these kites and crows, it must be simply be-
cause we prefer crows to kites, and for no other
reason. We cannot dignify the proceeding with
the lofty and mysterious character which we gave to
it a quarter of a century since. We cannot pretend
to entertain apprehensions of Russia, still less of
Persia. We have learnt, to our cost, that our
Empire of the East is far more likely to be en-
dangered by ill-judged armaments and insolvent
treasuries than by a hostile force from the countries
beyond the Indus. The Affghans can never harm
us except by inducing us to invade their territo-
ries. That one of the contending Princes would
do this if he could is exceedingly probable, but
we should be madmen to give him the chance.
Let us repeat once more that it cannot by possi-
bility signify to us which one of these Princes
reign in Cabal. Of course a quiet neighbour is bet-
ter than a troublesome one, but no trouble that an
Ameer of Cabal could give us would amount to a
hundredth part of the trouble which we should
incur in making an Ameer of Cabal for ourselves.
The Affghans may settle their own quarrels as they
please, without affecting us. It is just possible that
one of the competitors for power may think to gain
favour with his people by an attack upon our pos-
sessions. Peshawur, with its territory, which we
conquered from the Sikhs, the Sikhs had conquered
in former days from the Affghans, and the recovery
of the province has often been talked of at the Court
of Cabal. So far, therefore, and as a precaution
against a possible onslaught, there is nothing in-
judicious in our maintaining a good garrison in
Peshawur. We wish we could think that the specu-
lations of the Indian press meant no more than this ;
but the truth is that, in a society so purely military
as that of British India, war is never an unwelcome
topic. It is net in the least improbable that even a
second "Affghan expedition" would be popular with
the Indian Army. Let us trust, however, that
Indian statesmen may be wise enough to extirpate
the delusion, and preserve a proper horror of a policy
which. might once more convert prosperity into em-
barrassment, and productive peace into calamitous
war. So long as we keep to our own territories,
the repulse of a few maraudersis the hardest work
that can await us, but nobody can measure the diffi-
culties which might follow from another occupation
of Cabal.

DAILY NEWS.—People generally hug themselves
in the belief that, however much their bread and
other articles of manufactured food.may be adul-
terated, their meat is at any rate free from any
foreign element, and may be eaten without the fear
of poisoning. Our beef and mutton, we fondly
imagine, are free from vitiation. We inky cut and
come again safely at the sirloin or the saddle. We
have only to go to a first-class hatcher, and pay the
best prices (two things, however, which a large
number of parsons cannot do), and we are beyond
the reach of harm in that direction. The reliance is
more pleasing than well grounded. We seem
doomed to impurity and filthiness in the food thatwe
consume. In vain do we fly from bread made of meg-
gotty yeast to the flesh of oxen, sheep, and swine.
A large amount of the meat that come to our tables
is adulterated by disease. No doubt this is less
likely to be the case when a good price is paid ; but
butchers are mere men, and sometimes sell inferior
commodities while charging the highest terms. Mr.
Simon's last annual report to the Privy Council on
our sanitary condition opens the eyes of the public
to the disagreeable fact that so much as a fifth of
the meat purchased for food in this country is dis-
eased. Some investigations into the subject have
been made, at Mr. Simon's request, by Mr. bramgee,
Principal and Professor of the Edinburgh new
Veterinary College, and from these it appears that
a good deal of the mischief is found in connexion
with the pork we get from Ireland. From forty to
fifty thousand of tne pigs reared in the sister island
are measly, and the greater number of these come to
Great Britain for consumptiou. That such meat
should be taken into the human stomach is some-
thing more than a disgusting idea; it is the source
of serious disease. Mr. Gamgee calculates that for
every measly pig in the kingdom there is at least
one human being with tapeworms. When meat is
cooked the action of the fire probably destroys the
germs of these parasites ; but it should not be for-
gotten that a large amount of pig's flesh is eaten