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Rh possibility of invasion as a contingency in view of which the strength of the army of India must be even at that distant date considered. Though Persia and Russia were far off, what safety lay in mere distance? A people who had come with their armies in long months round the Cape, could not feel much security in considerations of remoteness. Our British troops were few and in the air, being nearly half a year distant from their base. Was the Cossack on the Caspian practically further?

To understand the position when Lord Auckland set foot in India, and to what point it had arrived when he alighted in Simla, review is required of events which had been passing in Persia and in Afghánistán since the early years of the century. The relations of Great Britain with Persia had long engaged attention both in Downing Street and in Calcutta. To baffle Napoleon the British Government had despatched Sir Harford Jones to Teherán; the Government of India had sent Sir John Malcolm. The mission of the latter bore no diplomatic result; but the envoy of the Cabinet succeeded, in spite of misunderstandings with the Company and its Governor-General and his Council, in effecting a treaty with Persia. It bore date March 12, 1809, and contained an agreement for mutual aid. The Sháh would allow no European force to pass through Persia towards India; if India were attacked or invaded by the Afgháns, or by another Power, Persia would furnish a force for its assistance. On her part Great Britain would