LORD AUCKLAND'S DLSASTERS.

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Auckland. From this date commences a new era of war and Lordconquest, which may be said to have lasted for twentyyears. All looked peaceful until Lord Auckland, promptedby his evil genius, attempted by force to place Shah Shuja upon the throne of Kabul ; an attempt conducted with grossmismanagement, and ending in the annihilation of the Britishgarrison placed in that city.

For the first time since the days of the SuMns of Ghazni Afghan-and Ghor, Afghanistan had obtained a national king in 1747 Berthein Ahmad Shah Durani . This resolute soldier found his Durants,opportunity in the confusion which followed the death of the i747- l8 26.Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah . Before his own decease in1 773, Ahmad Shah had conquered a wide empire, from Herat to Peshawar , and from Kashmir to Sind. His intervention onthe field of Panfpat (1761) turned back the tide of Marathaconquest, and maintained the Mughal Emperor on the throneof Delhi . But Ahmad Shah never cared to settle in India ,and alternately kept state at his two Afghan capitals of Kabul and Kandahar . The Durani kings were prolific in children,who fought to the death with one another on each succession.

At last, in 1826, Dost Muhammad , head of the powerfulBarakzai family, succeeded in establishing himself as ruler ofKabul , with the title of Amir, while two fugitive brothers ofthe Durani line were living under British protection at Ludhiana ,on the Punjab frontier.

The attention of the English Government had been directed Our earlyto Afghan affairs ever since the time of Lord Wellesley, whofeared that Zaman Shah , the Afghan Amir, then holding his Kabul ,court at Lahore (1800), might follow in the path of Ahmad 1800-37.Shah , and overrun Hindustan. The growth of the powerfulSikh kingdom of Ranjit Singh effectually dispelled thesealarms. Subsequently, in 1809, while a French invasion ofIndia was still a possibility to be guarded against, Mountstuart Elphinstone was sent by Lord Minto on a mission to Shah Shuja to form a defensive alliance. Before the year expired,

Shah Shuja had been driven into exile, and a third brother ,

Mahmud Shah , was on the throne. In 1837, when the curtainrises upon the drama of English interference in Afghanistan ,the usurper Dost Muhammad Barakzai was firmly established Dost Mu-at Kabul . His great ambition was to recover Peshawar from hammad,the Sikhs. When, therefore, Captain Alexander Burnes arrived on a mission from Lord Auckland, with the ostensibleobject of opening trade, the Dost was willing to promiseeverything if only he could get Peshawar .