Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/49

Rh political agency,' which would ere long involve us in 'all the entanglements of Afghán politics.' Sir Charles Metcalfe, who had always set his face against meddling with the countries beyond the Indus, and who in 1830 had denounced the plan of surveying that river under the guise of a mission to Ranjít Singh, as 'a trick unworthy of our Government,' recorded in a Council Minute his strong objections to the scheme propounded by Captain Burnes. Of the same opinion was Charles Grant, then President of the Board of Control. In 1836, however, changed circumstances favoured the revival of this unpalatable scheme. The new King of Persia, with the countenance of his Russian friends, was preparing for another march upon Herát. It was said that Dost Muhammad and his brethren at Kandahár were corresponding with the Courts of Teherán and Petersburg. In England, Lord Palmerston ruled over the Foreign Office, while the Board of Control was represented by Sir John Hobhouse. In a weak moment Lord Auckland yielded to outside pressure, and Burnes, ambitious, sanguine, rash, and very impulsive, was despatched on his fateful errand to the ruler whose hospitality he had once before enjoyed.

Proceeding leisurely through Sind and the Punjab, Burnes rode on safely through the Kháibar, and in September, 1837, he was welcomed into Kábul with 'great pomp and splendour' by the Amír's son, Muhammad Akbar Khán. The Mission was comfort-