It is probable that its provisions, if they had remained in
force, would have been found in the long run injurious to the interests
of British India. For that realm Afghanistan has the value that its
ruggedness presents exceptional obstacles to the march through it of
hostile armies having the Indian frontier for their objective, and this
further and yet more important value that the Afghans by nature are frank
and impartial Ishmaelites, their hands against all foreigners alike, no
matter of what nationality. If this character be impaired, what virtue
the Afghan has in our eyes is lost. In his implacable passion for
independence, in his fierce intolerance of the Feringhee intruder, he
fulfils in relation to our Indian frontier a kindred office to that
served by abattis, _cheveux de frise,_ and wire entanglements in front of
a military position. The short-lived treaty, for which the sanguine Mr
Stanhope claimed that it had gained for England 'a friendly, an
independent, and a strong Afghanistan,' may now be chiefly remembered
because of the circumstance that it gave effect for the moment to Lord
Beaconsfield's 'scientific frontier.'
The withdrawal of the two northern forces to positions within the new
frontier began immediately on the ratification of the treaty of Gundamuk,
the evacuation of Candahar being postponed for sanitary reasons until
autumn.
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