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112 note of the Governor-General's hesitation. He cannot conjecture what is passing in London, in Teherán, or at Herát. It takes six or seven months to get replies from any of these places. Now that he is within visible distance of war, he cannot but again ask himself whose interests are to be mainly served by it. Those of India, perhaps; but has England, as mistress of India, no interests in her dependency? Is it wholly an 'Indian question'? Will England not exert herself too? The road to India through Persia having been thrown open, by Teherán, to a European Power, will not England, acting from Europe, endeavour to replace the barriers of 1814? Herát, so far as he knows, has not fallen, and that last compulsion has not been put upon him. He could wish, with all his heart, 'that the authorities in England had a better sense of some of the difficulties against which he had to contend.' Though he knows the lines of the Ministry's policy, he can get from them no indication of the precise course which they would now wish him to follow. Little wonder that he hesitates; hopes for instructions from England, or intelligence from Teherán; and would gladly pause for a fortnight, and await instructions, before he takes a measure of such importance as making India the Foreign Secretary's stalking-horse.

To add to his doubts, his Secretary in Calcutta, Mr. H. T. Prinsep, is warning him of Sháh Shujá's personal incapacity. Mr. Macnaghten is to consult with Captain Wade whether there is remedy for this in