New-York tribune., 1879-02-03
BRITISH TOPICS.
THE AFGHAN WAR-TYNDALL OF TIE ELEC-
TRIC LIGIlT.

! AWORD WITH Mr.. HALsTEAD-ENGLAND As FIGHT
ING NA1DN-rHE ELECTRIC LIGHT CERTAIN TO
| BE USED FOR PUBLIC NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
LIKFNTD TO GENEVA BY DEAN Stanley.
lFRuM TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIGUNE.
! LoNDON. jar. Essays n society journal of to-
| day: "lhe old rumor is revived that Mr.. Wal
| ter i 10 be raised to the pecragc.' Will MI Hal
stead please take notice When l mentioned and
| dscredited the story some weeks ago, my Cincin-
natI friend remarked: "This does not seem 10 be
worth while" Perhaps it was not. reported il as
! a matter of current gossip; interesting 10 me and
/ - him because it affected the proprietor of a great
/ journal. But Mr. halstcad said The Liberals
are displeased with The London Tines because
| it does not JOIN them in their incoherent
vaGaries, and therefore they tell lis in chorus
that The 7fmca is tie decline and Mr.. Walter
is known 20 bo the proprietor of the great journal.
I he Is accused If anxiety for a peerGge." But the
/ paper from which IquOte the above sentence Is in
no sense Liberal journal. | don't remember to
| hive seen the wish imputed to Mr.. Walter in any
/ Liberal journal 1t was, and continues TO be,
matter of common talk among Liberals and Tories
alike. The ting of Mr. Halstead's comment lies in
/ the word therefore" lean only say that | re-
marked the decadence of Tie Times long
! before it definitely cast in Its lot with thc
| present Ministry. and that the falling of
7 WIlCu noticed III lne HatunR JDuIHd'
with sincere regret let me say-ocCurred and was
! criticised quite independently Of it, Jingoism.
/ did not infer is decadence from its Jngoism, but
/ its .lingoism was only among several symptoms
of It's decadcnce. Thatisa subject on which have
written much less than might. To me, as 10 every
other man who has an interest in Journalism, any
evidence of weakness IN great paper-l care not
! what its politics may be-is deplorable. | speak
/ Of it with batcd breath by no means joyfully or
eagerly
note, for example. with pain the de-
/ lu,ion under which Mr.. Halstead, one OF
/ the ablest Of journalists, labors with re-
spcct 10 Lord Belconsicid aud his policy.
| lie speaks o. Lord Beacousheld as having re
| trcyed the reputation of England as fighting ma
! tion and rcpulsed the advances Of Russia upon
| COnstautnople and India It seems to me that
/ the reputation Of England lighting nation must
/ be ~ . low ebb indeed if it has been retrieved y
bv anything Lord BaacousGed has done. lie has
not rcpulsed the advances of Russia upon Constan-
tiuople aud India, lor two reasons: inst that shc
( has made none; second, that England has not L.
s.s,cd those which the Jlngoes say she las made.
/ The war between Russia and Turkey was
wag.d 80 its bitter cld without English
Intervention. England never fired shot
T in the Turkish campaign. In India, she
hal. perhaps some provocation from Russia. do
not agree tha She had, but may admit II for argI-
mrut- AXE. How did she meet i'll by attacking
/ Ruseia7 Not AZ all. BY beginning what her great
/ est Statesman calls an uuprovohed war on shere
1 III She "retrIeved her repufation' by pocketing
tho insults Of Russia and venting her anger ON a
poor devil Of savage whom she believed incapable
/ Of seriously resisting her aggression. She
wanted to restore her prestige in India,
and she, welding tho resources Of an empire
/ Of three hundred millions Of people, invaded
/ the dommons Of en- Aslatic Prince claim
/ ing the doubtful allegiance of four millions
/ Of. b,if b,rbarous tribes. I admire, possibly not
les than Mr.. Halstead, Lord B-aconsield's extra
ordinary gifts as political leader. But if wanted
to exhibit them in the least favorable light should
choose for attack the vrry,iustance which Mr. Hal
/ stead chooses for panc4yrc. With what he says
! upon fhc iuctHclcucy and IudecIslon OF Liberal
/ leadership agree. / have spoken Of II not less
often nor less plainly than he has. But hold 1t a
/ poor compliment to general 90 point out his op-
ponents mistakes.
A. 10 the "cloryr gained in the recent -l;;r-
! mi,hes with Afghan troops. the les, said
the better. The comparison Of II with
the sodicrly fame won by the Russians
IN tlcir stub1orlly fought campaigns IN Turkey is
not one which Inc English army would care 10 have
mad.. Lido not suppose 1ur own Ne~t-Poinj"rs ar"
very proud vi their coullicts with the Cheyennes {;
ortbartncy cvuit wildly over their conq1ost-lf
conquest il w,ra-of sitting Bull But General
Roberts. who i, the on English hero Of the Afghan
war. has met no enemy worthy of being compared
with the Indians whom our troops pushed into
Cq,sla General Roberts, chief enemies wcr" the
r,ll the mountain passes. aud the Indian commits
s,uot. the comInissariat which sent hi, men
half clad into regions OF al bHt perpetual
snow. without reserves OF troops, Of food, OF Of
powder.
And now that Shere Al he's fed. the great prob
lem OF the war for the English where To find their
foe. They set ont with proclamation tha; they
meant no harm 10 the people of Aishanistan their
one ohject-b4rrug Lord BeaconsHcId5 scientific
frouti,r-was 20 bring Shcie Ali 10 terms. The
methods they employed 10 win h,- friendship drove
him IutO trc arms of Russia. What they are now
.r,i,, il. II, bI the successor Of the man whom hey
could not bully Gold Is to do for laLooo
Khan what steel failed 20 accomplish with >hcIe Ali.
II is said that General Roberts from the top OF the
Sbaturgardun Pass. looked longin-ly down ou Ca
bul. only sixty milrs away, aud waited Only for
tcrtis-on to snatch II. There was nothing 10 stop
bm. B,tween him end the capital of the country
he was sent to conquer stood no ,embance "t an or
ranized force But Lord Lytton had not the cour-
rage # his opinions lie forbade th" advance and
nobody knows at this moment what shape the IN
,-,.,on l. totIe or what rs fua object may prove
to lr The Russians would like nothing better
th.a FOB .ec En.laud with ~ Afphani,tdu OF her
i..t-. rh.re +, talk Of setting mp an AZ
chan Pruc,-Yahoob or anoiLel-n Ing
h,l bayoucJ,. Bat il is bard TO believe
that even Lord Lytton is capable OF repeating the
,,s,strouS experiment Of $50: or that hls master
will allow him 70 commit folly for winch a mon
uiHeut was built So long In advance.
4, 8 vl iif L. r4tI gfT tff