ted of some doubt: however it was learned by rote, and having fortified themselves with two the trembling Mary awaited the awful interview, conning over to herself the concerted formula, which to assist her memory had been committed to paper.

« Muther, if so be you ar my muther, and as such being spoke to, speak I cunjer you, or now and ever after old your Tung. »

CHAP. XII.

One-Two-Three-Four- Five-Six-Seven Nine-Ten-Eleven-TWELVE !

The Hour was come and the Ghost. True to the last stroke of the clock, it appeared like a figure projected from a magic lantern, on the curtain at the foot of the bed-for, through certain private reasons of her own, Miss Mullins had resolved not only to be alone, but to receive ber visiter-as the French ladies do-in her chambre à coucher. Perhaps she did not care that any ear but her own should receive a disclosure which might involve matters of the most delicate nature: a secret, that might perchance affect the reputation of her late parent, or her own social position. However, it was in solitude and from her pillow, that with starting eyeballs, and outstretched arms, she gazed for the ninth time on the silent Phantom, which had assumed a listening expression, and an expectant attitude, as if it had been invisibly present at the recent debate, and had overheard the composition of the projected speech. But that speech was never to be spoken. In vain poor Mary tried to give it utterance; it seemed to stick, like an apothecary's powder, in her throat-to her fauces, her palate, her tongue, and her teeth, so that she could not get it out of her mouth.

The Ghost made a sign of impatience.

Poor Mary gasped.

The Spirit frowned and apparently stamped with its foot. Poor Mary made another violent effort to speak, but only gave a sort of tremulous croak.

The features of the Phantom again began to work-the muscles about the mouth quivered and twitched.

Poor Mary's did the same.

The whole face of the Apparition was drawn and puckered by a spasmodic paroxysm, and poor Mary felt that she was imitating the contortions, and even that hideous grin, the risus sardonicus, which had inspired her with such horror.

At last with infinite difficulty, she contrived by a desperate effort, to utter a short ejaculation—but brief as it was it sufficed to break the spell.

The Ghost, as if it had only awaited the blessed sound of one single syllable from the human voice, to release its own vocal organs from their mysterious thraldom, instantly spoke. But the words are worthy of a separate chapter.

CHAP. XIII.

་

Mary! it arn't booked-but there's tuppence for sandpaper at number nine!

(MONTHLY MAGAZINE.)

VOL. III.

56

AFFGHANISTAN AND INDIA.

The events of the last six months have at length reduced the question of our Affghan policy into something like a definite form. From the day when our columns first crossed the Indus in hostile array, we never ceased to proclaim that any permanent occupation of the country, as a conquest made on our behalf, could never be for an instant contemplated; and that the sole object of the expedition was the restoration of the friendly dynasty of the Suddozyes, to whom we were bound by the ties of ancient alliance, to the throne from which they were excluded by an usurping chief, the continuance of whose rule was incompatible equally with our interest and with the welfare of his own country. On this avowed principle, Affghanistan was laid waste with fire and sword, the castles of its independent nobles besieged and stormed, and the chiefs themselves slaughtered while fighting in defence of their thresholds ; and all this was carried on (with a view, as stated by a writer in the Asiatic Journal, to the reconstruction of the social edifice!») in the name of a monarch who, as was notorious to every one, was in effect as much a state prisoner of the English at Cabul as his un

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fortunate competitor, Dost Mohammed, (1) was in Hindostan, and who exercised less real power, beyond the precincts of his own palace, than the youngest subaltern of the invading army. Herat in the meanwhile, the securing which against attack was the original pretext of the war, was almost the only corner of Affghanistan into which our intrusive arms did not penetrate; and its vizier, Yar-Mohammed, was suffered with perfect impunity to insult and expel our envoy, to levy war against his own nominal sovereign Shah-Kamran, and to - open correspondence with all tke enemies of England, avowed or secret. Never, in fact, was the notable Whig process of a non-intervention war more completely carried out than in this instance. All this time, every rupee of revenue extracted from the country in the name of Shah-Shoojah cost at least ten in the collecting; and as the restored monarch was bound by treaty to keep up a subsidiary force, the expense of supporting which would have considerably exceeded the income he had ever been able, even in his former days of prosperity, to levy in his dominions, the slender resources of Affghanistan must, in the natural course of things, have been utterly exhausted in a few years while the current outlay could only be met by incessant draughts on the Calcutta treasury, which was forced to make constant advances, and to contract heavy loans for the sake of maintaining its grasp of a territory already mortgaged far beyond the fee-simple of its value. It appears difficult to conjecture how this blissful state of things would have terminated whether by the bankruptcy of the Indian exchequer, or by the conversion of Affghanistan into a desert-if we had been less unmolested in our philanthropic and Shahefforts to « make a solitude and call it peace, Shoojah had been still suffered by his affectionate subjects to slumber, undisturbed by cares of state, within the screens of

() For the honour of our national character, we hope that the accounts which have appeared from the Delki Gazette, of the degrading restrictions to which this illustrious captive is said to be now subjected, may be either unfounded or exaggerated. He has already experienced sufficient of unmerited evil at our hands; and it is next to impossible that he can be in any way cognizant of the proceedings of his son.

his well-stocked zenana. But the recent catastrophe has given us a chance of extrication from the dilemma. Of the country we are now no longer in possession; and if the intelligence brought by the last mail is to be relied on, both our protégé Shah-Shoojah, and his neplew and rival Kamran, have closed their career in death; thus virtually terminating the Suddozye dynasty, as the sons of the late Shah are utterly powerless and insignificant among the crowd of chiefs, and one at least of them (Seifdar-Jung) is actually in arms against us. It now remains to be seen whether we shall consider it incumbent upon us, for the vindication (as the phrase is) of our military honour, to perpetrate a second act of violence and national injustice by reconquering Affghanistan, and holding it without disguise as a province of our empire or whether, making the best of a bad bargain, we shall content ourselves with occupying a few posts on its frontier, and leaving its unhappy natives to recover, without foreign interference, from the dreadful state of anarchy into which our irruption has thrown

them.

In the hurried and confused accounts which have been received of the opening of the bloody drama, but little mention is made of the indications which immediately preceded the outbreak; but even if we put the most favourable construction on the conduct of the officials both at Cabul and in the Bengal Presidency, their blind infatuation and want of foresight seem almost to have surpassed the bounds of belief. We have been informed, on authority which we cannot question, that as long ago as August last, information had been received by the Cabinet of Calcutta, of the existence of a widely-ramified conspiracy throughout Affghanistan ; but so far were Lord Auckland and his advisers from the deeming it necessary to reinforce the inadequate and overworked army of occupation, that orders were actually given for the return of Sale's brigade to Hindostan; and they were accordingly on their march from Cabul to Peshawer, when they were attacked by the insurgents, and with difficulty fought their way to Jellalabad, where they have ever since been blockaded. Even the warning received in October, by Sir Alexander Burnes,