A history of England

by Charles Oman

In 1833, while Lord William Bentinck was still in power, the East India Company's charter from the crown ran out, and was only renewed by the Whig government of Lord Grey on the condition that the Company should entirely give up its old commercial monopolies, and confine itself to the exercise of patronage and the duties of administration. For the last twenty-five years of its rule the tone of the great corporation was vastly improved, now that dividends were not the sole aim of its directors.

The First Afghan war.—Lord Auckland restores Shah Sujah.

In 1836 Lord Auckland took over the governor-generalship. His tenure of power is mainly notable for the commencement of the disastrous first Afghan war. Frightened by the intrigues of the Russians with Dost Mohammed, the ruler of Afghanistan, Lord Auckland unwisely determined to interfere with the internal politics of that barren and warlike country. There was living in exile in India Shah Sujah, a prince who had once ruled at Cabul, but had long been driven out by his countrymen. The Governor-General determined to restore him by force of arms, and to make him the vassal of England. Though we could only approach Afghanistan by crossing the neutral territory of the Sikhs, this distant enterprise was taken in hand. An English army passed the Suleiman mountains, occupied Candahar, stormed Ghuznee, and finally entered Cabul (1839). Shah Sujah was placed on his ancient throne, and part of the victorious troops were withdrawn to India.

Destruction of the British force at Cabul.

But the Afghan tribes hated the nominee of the stranger, and refused to obey the Shah. Lord Auckland was compelled to leave an English force at Candahar and another at Cabul to support his feeble vassal. For two uneasy years the garrison held its own (1839-41) against sporadic risings. But in the winter of 1841-42 a general insurrection of the whole of the tribes of Afghanistan swept all before it. The very townsmen of Cabul took arms and murdered the English resident almost under the eyes of the Shah. General Elphinstone, who commanded the brigade at Cabul, was a feeble old invalid. He allowed himself to be shut up in his entrenched camp, saw his supplies cut off, and was finally compelled to make a retreat in the depth of winter, after signing a humiliating treaty with the Afghan chiefs, and giving them hostages. But the treacherous victors attacked the retreating army as it struggled through the snow of the Khoord Cabul Pass, and massacred the whole force. One British regiment, three sepoy regiments, and 12,000 camp-followers were cut to pieces. Only a single horseman, Dr. Brydon, made his way through to Jelalabad, the nearest English garrison, to bear the tidings of the annihilation of the whole army.

End of the war.—Dost Mohammed reinstated.

Shah Sujah was murdered by his rebellious subjects, and all Afghanistan was lost save the two fortresses of Candahar and Jelalabad, whose gallant defence forms the only redeeming episode in the war. But to revenge our disaster, if for no better purpose, a new English army under General Pollock forced the Khyber Pass, defeated the Afghans, and reoccupied Cabul. They evacuated it after destroying its chief buildings, and Dost Mohammed, whom we had deposed in 1839, was permitted to return to the throne from which we had evicted him. For long years after we left Afghanistan alone, the memory of the massacre in the Khoord Cabul Pass sufficing to deter even the most enterprising Governor-Generals from interfering with its treacherous and fanatical tribes.

Lord Ellenborough annexes Scinde.

Ere the Afghan war was over, Lord Auckland had been superseded by Lord Ellenborough, an able and active ruler, whose qualities were only marred by a tendency to grandiloquence and proclamations in the style of the Great Napoleon. He not only brought the Afghan war to its close, but annexed Scinde, the barren lower valley of the Indus. We were drawn into a quarrel with the Ameers of that country, and it was overrun by a small army under Sir Charles Napier, who beat the Ameers at Meanee, though their forces outnumbered him twelvefold. Scinde was annexed to the Bombay Presidency, and by its possession we encompassed on two sides the Punjab, the only remaining independent state in India.

Lord Hardinge and the Sikh invasion.