to such advice. It seemed as if every conceivable blunder was to mark the development of our Afghán policy.
The winter of 1839-40 brought a comparative lull in Afghán affairs. During the reign of frost and snow the most turbulent Afgháns are wont to keep quiet. An attempt to capture the fort of a refractory chief in the Kunair valley, a few marches from Jalálábád, met with a severe repulse for Orchard's column, but next day the fort was evacuated. Macnaghten busied himself with questions of local revenue and expenditure, with making frequent appeals to his Government for money in aid of the Sháh's apparent needs, with schemes for raising new levies drilled and commanded by British officers in the Sháh's name, and with carefully watching the course of events outside the Afghán frontiers. Both he and Burnes were longing for the moment when Herát and Pesháwar should be annexed to the new Durání Empire. The duty of 'curbing the Singhs' and of driving Kámrán and his plotting crew out of Herát was the constant theme of Macnaghten's letters to the Governor-General. But Lord Auckland, who had now returned to Calcutta and the care of his Council, proceeded to put the curb on the right mouth. His Commander-in-Chief, Sir Jasper Nicolls, a soldier who had seen much Indian service, was reading him a lesson of economy and practical wisdom, which closed his ears for a time to the Envoy's reckless importunities.
