want. The only measure which Lord Auckland desired to push on, was the measure favoured by his predecessor and by the Cabinet in London, the commercial opening up of the Indus. In September, 1836, Captain Burnes received instructions to make his way up the Indus, viâ Sind and Pesháwar, to Kábul, and to carry out a commercial treaty. He was at the same time to acquaint himself and his masters with the state and strength of parties in Afghánistán.
A few months after Lord Auckland had expressed himself to the ruler of Kábul, and to Mr. Ellis at Teherán, in the reserved language which has been quoted, we find him, in correspondence with Sir Charles Metcalfe and Sir John Hobhouse, already full of apprehensions. The 'link formed between Indian and European politics,' the 'influence of European politics already felt at Herát,' 'the time which, whether we wished it, might or might not come, when we should be obliged to exercise our influence,' 'apprehensions of our being involved at no distant date in political and military operations upon and beyond our frontier,' — such expressions as these are not easily to be accounted for when we think of the assurances given to the Amír, and the calm tone of Mr. Macnaghten's letter to Mr. Ellis.
'I share with you,' Lord Auckland wrote on September 24 to Sir Charles Metcalfe, 'in the apprehension of our being at no distant date involved in political and possibly in military operations upon or beyond our western frontier; and even since I have been here more than one event has occurred
