Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/99

Rh dominion' and against 'Russian encroachments' was in Kábul. In February, 1837, Lord Auckland wrote to Mr. McNeill, deploring the imperfect nature of his information from that country. He still looked to commerce as the instrument by which possibly a better state of things might be brought about. Captain Burnes, he added, was on his way to Lahore and Kábul, to ask for facilities for annual fairs, and for the improvement of traffic on the Indus. If he could but gain time, he would not despair of seeing those countries flourishing and independent, and forming in their own strength the best rampart which India can have. On the 9th of April, Lord Auckland told Sir John Hobhouse that to Dost Muhammad he could only speak words of friendliness, and, if he desired it, of mediation. 'In his pressing need, he has courted Persia, he has courted Russia, and he has courted us. But it would be madness in us, though we may wish to see his independence assured, to quarrel with the Sikhs for him.' Suddenly there flamed out beyond the Indus the 'blood-red blossom of war.' Dost Muhammad Khán had made a dash upon Pesháwar, and on April 30, at the battle of Jamrúd, had been driven back. All hope of a friendly group of States on the north-west frontier was, at least for the moment, at an end. The breach between Kábul and Lahore was almost hopelessly widened. 'His ear of sagacity is closed by the cotton of negligence,' wrote Ranjít Singh of his rival. 'When it is of no avail to him, he will