The accounts from Cabal are exceedingly contradictory. According to the
Times, the Sirdars assembled at Cabul have been told that the British will retire as soon as the chiefs have agreed upon an Ameer. According to the Daily News, they have been told this, subject to the condition that the Ameer must not be Yakoob Khan, and that the province of Candahar must be permanently ceded to an independent Prince ; while the Kohistanees, whose consent is indispensable, have accepted Abdurrahman. According to the Chronicle, fighting has re- commenced, and General Bright is hotly engaged with the Ghilzais in the Valley of Hissarlik. All these accounts are probably more or less true, and none of them complete, and the most important question is the form of the authority given to Shere Ali in Candahar. If the arrangement made with him in- vcl es no pledge, it will do little harm, but it would be like Lord Lytton to endeavour, by virtually annexing Candahar, to throw an obstacle in the way of the new Government. Any agree- ment of the kind must be subject to the ratification of Parlia- ment, and it is open to the House of Commons to pass a vote of censure on Lord Lytton for exceeding his authority, such as would disqualify him for the future service of the Crown. A proceeding of the kind, however, carried out after the whole country had formally condemned the Ministerial policy, is too monstrous for belief.
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