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10
JOHN RUSSELL COLVIN

be complete in the foreground of which is not placed a narrative of the events which, in 1837 and 1838, brought about the first Kábul war, and a review of some phases of the Indian Mutiny. With those incidents in Indian history these pages, therefore, must be largely occupied.

The writer of this Memoir is very greatly indebted to the present Lord Auckland, who has kindly placed at his disposal the Earl of Auckland's letters and Minutes, written while he was Governor-General, and contained in forty-four large manuscript volumes. Such of these papers as have been published in Blue Books have been referred to, but their text has been little quoted in this Memoir. Of Lord Auckland's Indian correspondence, which contains his letters to Sir John Cam Hobhouse when President of the Board of Control, to successive Chairmen of the East India Company, and to other public men, nothing has hitherto been published. The writer has also to acknowledge the courtesy of the authorities at the India Office, who have permitted the publication of certain despatches of the Secret Committee of the East India Company, written in 1836 and 1838. The text of these, though they have been referred to by Lord Palmerston and Sir John Hobhouse in Parliament, has never been printed for the public eye. From these two sources extracts have been as freely made as space will allow. They throw new light on a page of Indian annals of which Kaye has been hitherto the undisputed exponent. Of