even in that case you would do well to lose no time in attempting to recover your influence in Afghánistán, and to establish your relations with the Chiefs of that country upon a more satisfactory basis than you have hitherto been able to obtain.'
When, in 1851, Sir John Kaye published his History, he held no appointment in Leadenhall Street. But in 1857, and in 1874, when his second and third editions were published, he was employed in the Political Department, first of the Company, and later of the India Office. He had gained access in those years to all their political records. There was no despatch so secret but he could lay his hands on it. In his first edition he had made, on three occasions, passing allusion in vague terms to despatches written to Lord Auckland. But he had not attempted to consider their relation, in point of time, to the sequence and development of events. Their effect on Lord Auckland's policy had been represented as only one of many factors; and entirely secondary to an influence which Sir John Kaye treated as supreme. Whatever may have been his reasons (and it is idle now to speculate upon them), he made no use whatever, in 1857 or in 1874, of the material which had become available to him. In those later years, with the best sources of information before him, he still preferred mainly to attribute the policy of Lord Auckland to the conjectured influence of his Indian advisers. In 1851 he had advanced, and in 1857 and 1874 he adhered to, his theory of the Three Secretaries. These three
