Afghanistan

The telegiaph news trom Ixmcton i to the English mission to ■ istan is to the effeo (luit it lias boen a i somploto failnro. Acoording to these accounts, the British mission, ujion roaching Khybor pass, was eoníVontcd by :m Afghan offleer who rcfused to let tho company pasa throiigh tlu; monntiiins. Entreatios irere Óf HO avail. The offtcer maimed the pass with his forcea, and gave öViaenoe tliát, i f neoessary, lio woiilil ivsist by forcé the jmssage of the English. 11e was Botified that tlie Ainoor wonld lushcld rosponsible; lnt the ootificatiou ièade no düïerence. He still rofnsrd the, desired ponnission, and Knglish missidii was compelled to retrace its steps to Calcutta. The En(aIjnIi telegrama add llmt the matter will encefotih regarded as sotaiëtMÜg I direotly conceming BngUsh politics, and that it will hv treated Erom this, instoiul of an Indian staiidpnint. Theee facts retioldfig Üte American public, wil! lint ho npt, ti) excite any especial interest excepi among those few who niay have piveii some attention to ! iiVüirs ia that part of the wórld wnere bhis event has just occurred. Tn rcalitv, the ocourrenoe is one of great signiñeanee, because it lm a most important bearing on the future relations of England and Russia. From this refusal of i the reprosentative of the Afghan Ameer ' to allow the English embtifisy to enter the country there may como events of worldwide impprtanoe. Afghanistan is a country eoiitaining some 200,000 square milos and a population of nearly 10,000,000. It lies to the northwest of India, being adja?ent I to Seinde and the Punjaub. To the j north if it lies Bokhara, in Turkistan, a country WifGÜy underltussianinfluence. The great bngbear of England is au overlaad üvasioo of her rieh Iuclian possessions by Russia, and the only feasible route for xiioh an invasión is by way of Bokhara through Afghanistan. A Russian anny gathered in Bokhara oonld cross the Hindoo Koosh i ains which separate Turkistan from Afghanistan, and then, moving east, eould cross the Bolyman mountains, through the famous Khybor pass, and find themselves in India. Well awarc of the strategieal value of Afghanistan as a banier to a Russian advance, England, since 1838, has labored nssidnously to secure a standing in that country, either as a conqneror, a ]rotector or an ally. Thus far these efforts have been, in the main, a most eostly and bloody failnre. There are many living who wDl not have forgotten the long and nseless war which raged between the English and Afghans. In 1839 the English army entered the country through the Bolan paKswhich lies south of the Khyber jüvss - with a heavy force which, at first, gainod some temporary advantnges. Tho principa] cities were captured, the greater part of the country was overrun, and a niler friendly to the British terests was installed. This was in 1840; but during that year and the ! following one insurrections broko oiit in every direetion, which were only held in check byan expenditure of nearly ! $10,000,000 por annnm. In the early : part of 1842 the British garrisons were attacked by the in.siirrectioni.sfe, anti in ; everv instanee they werf1 eithereaptnred by storm or forööd to capitttlate. i sanidfi of tlie Indian and English troops wero masoacred as they were marching ' out of the country. In one case an armyof sonio 5,000 men and somc 10,000 camp followcrs, who had capitalatedand ' were marchine out of the country undcr a safe-eonduet, were waylaid in the de(ilesof the ttolyman moimtiiins andmassacred, with the excoption of u single ; man. Anotlier army some months after j sueceeded in entering the country and gaining a few small succcskos, but tlie forcea soon after reórossed into India. Tima ended the attempt of England, whose failore, in itsdisgraoe, has no parallel in modern Englisli liistory. Since that time tlie English llave never invaded Afghanistan, although upon one or two occasions tlie Afglians have carricd the. war into África by Crossing the mountains and making a descent upon India. Latterly the Englisli have confined thöhiséTvea to intrigues whose parpose has been tlie secming of a frïendly toles u)mm the Afglian throne. Up to the last yenr thé British have had much to do, in a mond wii.y, witli a war wliieh raged betwocn Yacab lieg and his father; and thcy have also laborod to .secure such a separation between Afghanistan and Bokhara as would have the effect to impede the advanoe of Rnssia. Foi the last eighf yeara the relations of England and Afghanistan have been of a quiet and nither fricndly nature. 'lili', telegrams now coming from London rclative to the fate.of the mission which started lor Afghanistan, and the furthcr fiict that the ad'air is no longir a matter to be handled from India, but trom (reat, Britain, shows hro things. üne is that Afghanistan, and by conserruenee the Russian road to the Indies, luis fallen into the hands of lïussia. The second is that the English people, by installing tho Afghaq trneation in En, glish politics, sliow (lint fliev regard tlie event as one of the greatest importance. It would be a little si p-ange if, at this vcry moment, woon the salvos of the guns which announced Beaconsflëld's diplomatic " ictjry " over Bnssia have hardly died away. the "check" which England gave Hussia at Berlín should now. so soon, be returned by a "clieekmate " on that distant portion of the political chess-board at Cabul. It is a tact that, while the English mission was vainly knoeking at KhyVer pass for adinission to Afghanistan, a Kussian mis siim was already installed at Cabul. Already is Berlin avenged. Kussia hos ])ossession of the only available route to India, and has friendly nations guarding evety inch of its extent from Bokhara to the Indies.