The Atherstone Times. — 1879-10-18 (Atherstone, Warwickshire, England)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1879.  CABUL AT OUR FEEL  The massacre of Sir Louis Cavagnari and suite, has been avenged and amply avenged. England has showed her might and her strength, if not her nobility and her generosity, to the savage inhabitants and tribes of the Afghan hills. On Sunday, at noon, General Roberts, accompanied by the Ameer, entered Cabal. What a number of thoughts crowd into the mind at the statement that he was "accompanied by the Ameer." Surely it is a position of affairs unique in the annals of warfare. A nation, so far as can be ascertained, almost entirely hostile to an invading force, and the King of that nation entering the capital in triumph with the enemy, encouraging the enemy to the slaughter of his own forces, and almost participating in the revolting massacre of his semi-civilised subjects ; for the entry was I not made with that ease which was anticipated and predicted. Some severe fighting I took place, ere the Afghan defenders surrendered the capital of their fatherland to the invading foe; and savage and unrelenting butchery, which we can only hope was necessary, was indulged in by British troops ,in the name of her Imperial Majesty. It must be manifest, even to the dullest and most beclouded imagination, that this is by far the best way of winning the hearts of the Afghan people, and of convincing them that the rule of her Imperial Majesty is not only one of strength, but also one of mercy and of nobility. What other conclusion can the I. Afghan people come to 1 " All people found with arms will be immediately shot" proclaimed General Roberts, and it was done. This in a half-civilized country, where it is the custom for every male adult to carry arms, simply means wholesale murder. "All prisoners taken in fight are shot," says a wellknown correspondent to a London daily paper. How does such a course concur with the well-known and recognised rules of international warfare ? "But you cannot apply those rules," says one, "in a conflict with a semi-barbarous state." Then do not apply those rules in reference to the massacre of our ' Envoy and suite, and with regard to persons found in possession of arms. The bravery of our soldiers none can or will doubt, and their humanity, under ordinary conditions, and with righteous instructions, cannot be questioned. But it is impossible to control men whose blood is up, and who are acting under instructions such as we have just quoted, andt outrage and indiscriminate massacre must ensue. If this be necessary, then we niuse hold those responsible who created the necessity. The crime, which we are "avenging," was the natural and inevitable result of our own acts ; it was provoked by th wicked and foolish conduct of the Government, in stupidly and obstinately persevering in an insane policy, in direct opposition to the earnest and definite advice given by all who had any knowledge of India, its history, and its people. As Sir William Harcoart said the other day, it is conduct which can only be compared in its wilful blindness and perverseness to that of a locomotive engine tlriver, who would insist upon proceeding with his t rain with all the signals against him. Surely, a Government, containing not a man with any practical knowledge of India or of Afghanistan, is criminally responsible for proceeding on such a course of action, when a veteran and experienced Indian official like Lord Northbrook resigns the Governor Generalship of India sooner than be a party to it ! India—and pleasedoh fe dlloei dstiaofl dignifymit flatter himself. be We are aware that ho Salisbury flatters himself on his knowledg,e his course of action, found 2 1 E judged dtgeie :tr is known by its fruits," and Lord Salisbur kirte7litivtisle e of " knowledge." But even if this spir,