Are these rapid rises and falls to be looked upon as the consequence or are they the cause of the moral condition of the Afghan? The question is an important one, if we are looking forward to a civilized Afghanistan.
Does an Afghan in power, knowing the certainty of a fall, deserved or undeserved, say to himself,
“I have authority now, but sooner or later somebody will undermine me in the Amîr’s regard. I had better make the most of my power while it lasts: get all I can out of other people, and enjoy myself. The evil day may be long deferred.”
Looking at it in this way, it is possible to imagine that the condition of things is the cause of his behaviour.
On the other hand, is the moral nature of the Afghan utterly hopeless? I do not mean does he lie, steal, murder, and betray, for we know he has done that for ages; but I mean, is the nation incapable of being raised to a higher moral condition?
The Amîr’s Great Work.
Their frank open-hearted manner and sense of hospitality; their love of liberty and of home; their faithfulness (sometimes) to a friend in adversity,—I have seen this in spite of widespread treachery; the graceful gratitude for a favour conferred: all these seem to show that the moving spirit of the race was once on a far higher moral plane than it is now, and one would think, therefore, that they are capable of being raised to a condition vastly superior to their present state.
That the Amîr thinks so is clear, for he has commenced to raise them by a system of education.
To say that Abdurrahman did not come to the throne by chance is to utter a platitude. There was a work to be done that doubtless he only could do. It was essential that the power of the “Barons,” the great chiefs with rival interests, should be broken and their constant feuds ended; that the country should be united under one head; that there should be respect for authority, and thus a possibility established of drawing the people from the slough of ignorance in which they are wallowing. The Amîr has done and is doing, in this country over which he has acquired nearly absolute control, a grand civilizing work.
Still, one cannot be blind to the fact that the usual evils of a Despotic Government exist:—the instability of every official appointment: the great evil of the “place-seeker” to which I have referred: the oppression of the poor; and the grinding down of the peasants and traders. These are enough to sap the life of any government, for there can be no strength where there is no mutual trust.