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66 had issued his Simla Manifesto of the 1st of October, which set forth his reasons for despatching an army across the Indus to secure our western frontier from attack and to succour the garrison of Herát. The troops designed for that purpose were already marching towards the Sutlej at Firozpur, while other troops were assembling at Bombay. Early in November Lord Auckland knew that the main object of his warlike preparations was already attained.

His mind, however, had been so deeply prejudiced against the Bárakzái princes, so fatally imbued with the poison of Russophobia, that he could not bring himself to abandon altogether the scheme of 'national defence' set forth in the Simla Manifesto. In that remarkable document Dost Muhammad was charged with making 'a sudden and unprovoked attack' upon our ancient ally Ranjít Singh; with 'urging the most unreasonable pretensions' to Pesháwar; with forming schemes of 'aggrandizement and ambition injurious to the security and peace of the frontiers of India' — as if Pesháwar were then our frontier — and with giving 'his undisguised support to the Persian designs in Afghánistán,' in utter disregard of the views and interests of the British Government. The Persian attack on Herát was 'a most unjustifiable and cruel aggression,' to which the Kandahár princes openly lent their aid. As the Bárakzái Sirdárs were 'ill fitted under any circumstances to aid us in our just and necessary measures of national defence,' the Governor-General had determined to