Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1840-04-10

an dominion of Napoleon. Hitherto, in
deed, the result has been different, and
we devoutly hope that, in that respect, the
dissimiarity will continue. But in both
cases the danger was the same. 1t was
the moving forward large force SO far
from its resources and the base of its opc-
rations, which in both cases constituted
the danger. If any serious check had
been sustained by our troops in that dis
tant enterprise; if Runicet Sing had
proved openly treachcrous, and assailed
our rear and cut off our supplies when tho
bulk ofour force was far advanced in the
Afghanistan deGles; if the Bolan pass
had been defended with courage equal
to its physical strength; if the powder
bags which blew open the gates of Ghuz-
nee had missed fire, or the courage of
those who bore them had quailcd under
the extraordinary perils of their mission,
the fate of the expedition would in all
probability have been changed, and a
disaster as great as the cutting off of Cras-
sus and his legions in Mesopotamia, would
have resounded like clap of thunder
through the whole of Asia. Few, if any,
of the brave men who had penetrated into
Allghanistan would ever have returned;
the Burmese and the Nepaulesc would
have Immediately appeared in arms; the
Mahratta and Pindarce horse would have
re-assembled round their predatory STAN
dards; and, while the British empire in
Hindostan rocked to its foundation, an
Al1ghanistan army, directed by Russian
officers, and swellcd by the predatory
tribes of Central Asia, would have poured
down, thirsting for plumber and painting
for blood, on the devoted plains Of Hin
dostan.
Subsequent events have already reveal
ed, in the clearest manner, the imminent
danger in which the English empire in the
East was placed at the period of the
Allghanistan expedition. SO low had the
reputation of the British name sunk in
the East, that even the Chinese, the
most unwarlike and least prccipitatc of
the Asiatlc empires, had ventnred to offer
a signal injury to the British interests and
insult to the British name; and so miser-
ably deficient were Government in any
previous preparation for the danger, that
it was onl y twelve months after the insult
was offered that ships of war could be fit
ted out in the British harbors to attempt
to seek for redress. 1t is now asccrtalncd
that vast conspiracy had been long on
foot in the Indian peninsula to overturn
our power in the strong-holds of some
of the lesser rejahs southern part of the
peninsula, enormous military stores have
been found accumulated; and not doubt
can remain that, if any serious disaster
had happened to our army in Central
Asia, not only would the Burmese and
Nepaulesc have instantly commenced hos
tilitics, buta formidable insurrecton would
have broken out among the semi-inde-
pendent rajahs, in the very vitals of our
mower II i II !. y
1t is no longer possible to disguise that
the sphere ofhostility and diplomatic exer-
ton has been immensely extended by our
success in A6ghanistan. Hitherto the
politics of India have formed, as it were,
a little world to themselves; dark range
of intervening mountains or arid deserts,
were supposed to separate Hindostan
from Central Asia; and however might
be dlsquicted at home by the progress of
Russian Or French ambition, no serious
fears were ever entertained that either
would be able to accomplish the Quixotic
exploit of passing the western range otthc
llimalaya mountains. Now, however, this
veil has been rent as under-this noun
tain screen has been penetrated. The
Russian power in Persia, and the British
III India, now stand face to face the adj
vanced posts of both have touched Hcrat;
the high-road from st. Petersburg to
Calcutta has been laid open by British
hands. The advanced position we have
gained must now be maintained; if VIC
retire, even from tributary or allied states
the charm of our invincibllity is gone );
the day when the god Terminus recoils
before foreign enemy, is the beginning
of rapid decline. We do not bring for
ward this consideration in order to blame
the expedition F.; but to show into what
contest, and with what power, it has
necessarily brought us. Alghanlstan is
the outpost ofRussia Dost Mohammed,
now exiled from his throne, was a vassal
OF the Gar; and now must we contend
for the empire of the East, not with the
Rajahs of India, but the Muscovite bat
talions.
The reality of these anticipations as to
the increased amount of the danger of
collision with Russia, which has arisen
from the great approximation of our out
posts to theirs, which the A1ghanistan
expedition has occasioned, is apparent.
Already Russia has taken the alarm, and