X, 19th September, 1841)] [Footnote 97: The new Ambassador to Vienna.] [Pageheading: INDIA AND AFGHANISTAN] [Pageheading: LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S REPORT] [Pageheading: INDIAN FINANCES] _Lord Ellenborough[98] to Queen Victoria._ Lord Ellenborough presents his most humble duty to your Majesty, and humbly acquaints your Majesty that having, on the morning after the Council held at Claremont on the third of this month, requested the clerks of the India Board to put him in possession of the latest information with respect to the Political, Military, and Financial affairs of India, he ascertained that on the 4th of June instructions had been addressed to the Governor-General of India in Council in the following terms:--"We direct that unless circumstances now unknown to us should induce you to adopt a different course, an adequate force be advanced upon Herat, and that that city and its dependencies may be occupied by our troops, and dispositions made for annexing them to the kingdom of Cabul."[99] The last letters from Calcutta, dated the 9th of July, did not intimate any intention on the part of the Governor-General in Council of directing any hostile movement against Herat, and the Governor-General himself having always evinced much reluctance to extend the operations of the army to that city, it seemed almost probable that the execution of the orders of the 4th of June would have been suspended until further communication could be had with the Home Authorities.
Nevertheless, in a matter of so much moment it did not appear to be prudent to leave anything to probability, and at Lord Ellenborough's instance your Majesty's confidential servants came to the conclusion that no time should be lost in addressing to the Governor-General in Council a letter in the following terms--such letter being sent, as your Majesty must be aware, not directly by the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, but, as the Act of Parliament prescribes in affairs requiring secrecy, by their direction through and in the name of the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors:-- "From the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor-General of India in Council.
"Her Majesty having been pleased to form a new Administration, we think it expedient that no step should be taken with respect to Herat which would have the effect of compelling the prosecution of a specific line of Policy in the countries beyond the Indus, until the new Ministers shall have had time to take the subject into their deliberate consideration, and to communicate to us their opinions thereupon.
"We therefore direct that, unless you should have already taken measures in pursuance of our Instructions of the 4th of June 1841--which commit the honour of your Government to the prosecution of the line of Policy which we thereby ordered you to adopt, or which could not be arrested without prejudice to the Public interests, or danger to the troops employed--you will consider those Instructions to be suspended.
"We shall not fail to communicate to you at an early period our fixed decision upon this subject." It was not possible to bring this subject before your Majesty's confidential servants before the afternoon of Saturday the 4th.

The mail for India, which should have been despatched on the 1st, had been detained till Monday the 6th by the direction of your Majesty's late Ministers, in order to enable your Majesty's present servants to transmit to India and China any orders which it might seem to them to be expedient to issue forthwith.

Further delay would have been productive of much mercantile inconvenience, and in India probably of much alarm.

In this emergency your Majesty's Ministers thought that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to approve of their exercising at once the power of directing the immediate transmission to India of these Instructions.
Your Majesty must have had frequently before you strong proofs of the deep interest taken by Russia in the affairs of Herat, and your Majesty cannot but be sensible of the difficulty of maintaining in Europe that good understanding with Russia which has such an important bearing upon the general peace, if serious differences should exist between your Majesty and that Power with respect to the States of Central Asia.
But even if the annexation of Herat to the kingdom of Cabul were not to have the effect of endangering the continuance of the good understanding between your Majesty and Russia, still your Majesty will not have failed to observe that the further advance of your Majesty's forces 360 miles into the interior of Central Asia for the purpose of effecting that annexation, could not but render more difficult of accomplishment the original intention of your Majesty, publicly announced to the world, of withdrawing your Majesty's troops from Afghanistan as soon as Shah Sooja should be firmly established upon the throne he owes to your Majesty's aid.
These considerations alone would have led Lord Ellenborough to desire that the execution of the orders given on the 4th of June should at least be delayed until your Majesty's confidential servants had had time to consider maturely the Policy which it might be their duty to advise your Majesty to sanction with respect to the countries on the right bank of the Indus; but financial considerations strengthened this desire, and seemed to render it an imperative duty to endeavour to obtain time for mature reflection before any step should be taken which might seriously affect the tranquillity of Europe, and must necessarily have disastrous effects upon the Administration of India.
It appeared that the political and military charges now incurred beyond the Indus amounted to L1,250,000 a year--that the estimate of the expense of the additions made to the Army in India, since April 1838, was L1,138,750 a year, and that the deficit of Indian Revenue in 1839-40 having been L2,425,625, a further deficit of L1,987,000 was expected in 1840-41.
Your Majesty must be too well informed of the many evils consequent upon financial embarrassment, and entertains too deep a natural affection for all your Majesty's subjects, not to desire that in whatever advice your Majesty's confidential servants may tender to your Majesty with respect to the Policy to be observed in Afghanistan, they should have especial regard to the effect which the protracted continuance of military operations in that country, still more any extension of them to a new and distant field, would have upon the Finances of India, and thereby upon the welfare of eighty millions of people who there acknowledge your Majesty's rule.
[Footnote 98: President of the Board of Control.] [Footnote 99: For the progress of affairs in Afghanistan, _see_ Introductory Notes for 1839-1842.
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VIII; Ch.