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Secretaries, especially Colvin and Torrens, were so 'ardent and impulsive' so 'bold and ambitious.' 'The direct influence mainly emanated from John Colvin.' Lord Auckland, separated from his Council, with whom had he remained he would never have decided on war, yielded, good, easy man, to 'the assaults of his scribes.' 'To what extent their bolder speculations wrought upon the plastic mind of Lord Auckland,' writes this careful chronicler, 'it is not easy with due historical accuracy to determine.' Anyhow, that which the Cabinet instructions of 1836 could not effect, neither the fears of McNeill, the desire of Hobhouse, the craft of Palmerston, neque Tydides, nec Larisseus Achilles, was conceded by Lord Auckland to 'three scribes.' The Persian host and Count Simonich at Herát, Witkewitsch at Kábul, the repulse of the British Agent from Kábul, the dismissal from Kandahár of a British officer, the scorn of Dost Muhammad, the agitation of all India, were considerations beneath serious attention. We have seen in our own time what response has been given from India to Russian intrigue in Afghánistán, and to the presence of a Russian envoy in Kábul. Lord Auckland, left to his own judgment, would have exclaimed with Banquo, 'The earth hath bubbles as the water has, and these are of them!' He might have prattled, had he been in the arms of his Council, about British Mervousness and Russian Herattitude. 'Macnaghten, Colvin, Torrens; Torrens, Colvin, Macnaghten:' the changes are rung and re-