The Potteries Examiner : — 1879-01-11 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

CURDAY. JANUARY U. 1879.  "WE WISH YOU LUCK OF YOUR PRIZE, MAN."  The English Government has found Afghan 'unitary resistance as weak as a house of eard4. Our tr:umph is that of the man whose opponent fights and runs away. The strong probability is that the wild tribes and chiefs, the kessely.heldtogether people who lately owned the sway of Stine Ali, "will live te fight another day"; and what England has won so easily may either be very hardly retained, or  I have to be given up as an ineumbrance—an ineumbrance more awkward than pleasant, more I costly than useful. The heterogenenons Afghans are still there, I ut the Government that cemented them as a nation ii shattered; and though sue• cem..ful invaders, who profesa to have no idea of complete subjugation, we have no oue with whom we can treat awl upon whom we can depend to carry out any arrangement Lord Beaconsfield, awl his passive thols may wish to make. Tak•ob Khan Lolda nominal rule, but it is by no means clear _ _ .  that lie sway will be acknowledged and obeyed. Shore All. though a fugitive, is by no means  disposed of. There are, besides, is many possible claimants to the throne of Cabul as Mahomedan polygamy, an& the uncertainty of Eastern politics can produce. Still in existence are nuMerou representatives of the Sadosai tribe who ruled over the old Drurani Empire, of which—as the Daily News says, the present Afghan Kingdom is a mere :fragmzut. The Sadozai dynasty reigned until, nearly three generations ago, the Barskzai—the line repro , sonted by the late Imeer and his family—seized upon the sovereign power, in revenge for the murder of the head of their family by imeer 31shmoad. There are still, however, a numbsr of lineal represantativee of tie Sadozai dynasty in existence, the chief of whom is a British pensioner. The erratic statecraft that controls England and Rindestan may seek to set up thi• banished pre. . .  tender to Afghan royalty, may treat with Takoob Khan, with Shiite All himself, or with any of th aspirants to rule that, thick as mushrooms, are to be found in thilikewest thorn in our Imperial rule— but the difficulty is to tell which of them the people will follow and obey. We have thus, in seeking to " scientifically rectify" our Indian frontier, brought about the most unscientific onfus into ludian-Afghan politics. To attain the very questionable advantage of British representatives being allowca i Oalml, we have probably neeessitited the residence of a British army in Afghan territory, and so more than perpetrated tho silly blunder of burning a penny candle to find a farthing. We made a difficulty where none need have existed, forced a friendly ally into an enemy's arms, and now a brilliant conquest over unop. posing foes boa led to a confusion and a muddle, mid a responsibility. that must be very delightful to Conservative stupidity, that sees strength in mere bustle, and Imperial rule in the fuming and fuss of over-busy incompetency. To parody Burns— . _  The Dell went fiddling thee the Pose An' drove Artieer from off hie throne. Now every statesman cries, See the ass We wish hist luck of what he's woo.