It is very difficult to doubt that Lord Lytton has
decided on an advance to Cabul, although such an advance may not have actually begun. Sir S. Browne's force at Jellalabad has been strengthened by an additional Division, and he has been ap- pointed to the chief command in Afghanistan. Immense stores have been collected at Jellalabad, the road has been reconnoitred up to the entrance to the Khoord Cabal Pass, and the heavy 40-pounders which had been sent back to Peahawur have been once more forwarded to Jellalabad. General Roberts, who is to
assist in the movement, has made his road up the Peiwar, and has been reinforced by two strong British regiments, who would not have been sent into the Kurnm Valley, unless serious work were on hand. The Civil and Military Gazette, published at Lahore, under the eyes of the Viceroy, uses terms, vague in- deed, but implying the advance of a corps d'armie, which, more- over, Colonel Colley, the real dictator of Indian policy, the .strong man in the Viceroy's entourage, joins as Chief of the Staff. This last appointment will strike Anglo-Indians as final evidence ; and Sir Stafford Northcote's professions, on Thurs- day, of total ignorance must be read in the light of his constant refusal to believe anything not officially before him.
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