Ellenborough to the King of Bokhara, in which Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly are described as 'innocent travellers." He has attributed to the unfavourable influence produced by that Letter the murder of the officers; and he quotes a conversation between Dr Wolff and Hagee Ibrahim at Meshed, to prove that this inference was just. Again, he says- The strongest 'point in favour of a belief of the execution, I must candidly admit, is the arrival of Lord Ellenborough's never-to-be-forgotten and never-to-be-forgiven letter. That it did arrive at ' its destination there can be no doubt-Dr Wolff saw that letter ' at Bokhara.' Now, in the very same Journal in which Dr Wolff mentions having seen Lord Ellenborough's Letter at Bokhara, he also distinctly states that the Ameer or King had not seen it when he arrived at Bokhara. That it had been intercepted and returned to Balkh; and that it was in consequence of Dr Wolff's own representations that a messenger was sent to bring it from thence. That it was brought accordingly, and that thereafter the King of Bokhara saw it for the first time. This information Captain Grover has not thought fit to mention There is not in his volume one single sentence that could lead us to suspect its existence! On these facts likewise we must decline to make any observation, and we pass to other matters.

Captain Grover accuses the Earl of Aberdeen and Mr Addington of having endeavoured to 'induce' and 'tempt' him to undertake the journey to Bokhara as a private traveller, which the Earl of Aberdeen must well know could only lead to my destruction,' (page 61;) and this accusation is repeated in

various forms.

We were much puzzled, we confess, to discover what possible object either the Principal Secretary of State, or the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, could have had in seeking to send Captain Grover to inevitable destruction. That he may have been an intolerable bore is not improbable; and that none of the ordinary punishments for that description of enormity are at all ade quate to put down the offence we were ready to admit; but still. there seemed to be an unaccountable grandeur of conception in the idea of consigning a Downing Street bore to the black well at Bokhara, that made us hesitate to attribute it to the Foreign Office. Even the prospect of saving the country seven shillings a-day, which Captain Grover himself pointed out, seemed to be an inadequate reason for consigning him to the tender mercies of the King of Bokhara. But, on turning back to page 50, we found the following passage, which to our eyes certainly does not look very like a desire to 'induce' or 'tempt' Captain Groves

to proceed to Bokhara- On being introduced to Mr Addington, he entered into a long statement of the dangers of the journey I was about to undertake, evidently endeavouring to 'frighten me.' Finding that Captain Grover still held to his purpose, Mr Addington suggested that he should see the documents in the Foreign Office relating to Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, and that he might take a few days for reflection; adding that, should he then still be disposed to go, he should be happy to see him again.

Captain Grover having examined the papers put before him, adheres to his intention. Mr Hammond suggested that he should take a day or two to deliberate; but he replied, that his mind was made up, that there was no occasion for deliberation, no time to be lost, and that he should like to see Mr Addington 'immediately.

'I was again,' says Captain Grover, ushered into the presence of the Under-Secretary of State, who seemed much sur'prised that my determination was unshaken. He said, the danger attending such an expedition was so great, that he did not think Lord Aberdeen would feel himself justified in giving me the sanction I required; that there would be no objection 'whatever to my proceeding to Bokhara in search of my friend as a private traveller; and that Lord Aberdeen would willingly 'afford me every assistance at his command should I be disposed to undertake such a journey.'

A singular mode this of tempting' a man to set out on a journey! To try to frighten him by pointing out its dangers; to tell him they are so great that Lord Aberdeen declines to take any share in the responsibility of exposing to them any officer under his orders; and to conclude by telling him, that if, after all these warnings and dissuasions, he should persist in going as a private traveller, the Government would still give him every facility in its power. But the construction of our author's mind is such, that it is impossible to guess what conclusion he may deduce from any given premises. Or, perhaps, Captain Grover having, as he tells us, studied diplomacy as a science at a German university,' may have there learned to interpret by contraries the language of those who profess it.

We have said that we believed Captain Grover to be a man whose natural impulse it is to do good; and that, while we thought him rash and injudicious, we believed him to be capable of generous impulses and emotions. But we are half inclined to retract that admission. We find him advancing against so many individuals, charges and insinuations at once injurious and un

founded, that after making every allowance for imperfect information, eccentricity of mind, and other sources of error, we are unable to acquit him of ungenerous feelings.

6

We have already noticed the passage in which he supposes that diplomatic gentlemen, in their comfortably warmed and carpeted rooms in Downing Street,' may perhaps smile now while they contemplate the horrible sufferings of their victims, 'which a little exertion on their part might have averted.' Then we find him suggesting, insinuating-almost venturing to assert -that the three thousand rupees paid by Colonel Sheil to Saleh Mahommed the Akhondzadeh, in compensation for the losses he had incurred, and the miserable sufferings he had endured in the black well of Bokhara, in consequence of his being in the service of the British Government, were given to him because the intelligence he conveyed of the murder of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly was agreeable information. Could any man of a generous mind have conceived, still less deliberately written, and printed, and published, such things?

Our author calls loudly for vengeance on the King of Bokhara, and declares, as we have seen, that in no other way can the British national honour be maintained, or the name of its Government preserved from contempt and infamy.' We quote again his own words - Should the cruelties practised upon Ĉolonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly pass unavenged, the word Dowlut' (the British Government) will have a new signifi'cation-contempt and infamy.' We hope, we trust, that if the time should come when Great Britain may have it in her power to make the present Sovereign of that country account for the atrocities of which he has been guilty, the opportunity will not be lost. We believe there is but one man in the nation who does not feel that the punishment of the King of Bokhara for his cruelties to these British officers, would be an act of most equitable retribution. But we cannot see how Captain Grover can make any such demand without a gross violation of justice, and a total disregard of the first principles of international law. Let us see what he says of the King of Bokhara's conduct în this matter:

Before bringing this narrative to a conclusion, a sense of justice compels me to say a few words in defence of an absent individual, who will probably never have an opportunity of defending himself-that individual is the King of Bokhara. The English newspapers have heaped their whole stock of opprobrious epithets on the head of that monarch. It is natural enough that every Englishman's blood should boil with indignation, when he thinks of the ignominious treatment to which such a

man as Colonel Stoddart has been subjected since the year 1838, by the orders of Nasr Ullah, King of Bokhara. It is, indeed, natural that the whole British nation should be indignant; but, in my humble opinion, this virtuous indignation is misdirected-that it is not the King of Bokhara that is to be blamed for these cruelties, but the BRITISH GOVERNMENT !'

Now, if this is Captain Grover's conviction, can any thing be more abominable, more immoral as an international act, than to call upon the British nation to take vengeance on the King of Bokhara for a proceeding in which he is thus declared to be blameless? But Captain Grover goes further. He offers to give the aid of his personal services to depose this blameless Ruler, and to carry all the horrors and atrocities of an Asiatic war among the people of Bokhara, on the pretext that their Sovereign has injured and insulted the British nation; while in truth he believes that it is not their Sovereign, but his own Government, that is to blame. If, on the other hand, he has here said what is contrary to his conviction, we must doubt the sincerity of all the statements in which he denounces the conduct of the British Government. If he has here asserted what he does not himself believe, for the purpose of fixing dishonour upon his own Government, then the whole book may probably be of the same character.

On which horn of the dilemma does he prefer being transfixed? We offer him the alternative. If he says he is sincere in acquitting the King of Bokhara, then he convicts himself of gross injustice, and disregard of international honour, in demanding that he should be attacked and punished for that of which he acquits him. If he denies that he is guilty of gross injustice, and disregard of international honour, in proposing to attack Bokhara, then he admits that her King is to blame, and that, in stating the contrary, he has asserted what he does not truly believe.

This is the man who puts himself forward to teach the nation how to assert and maintain its honour. Truly, Captain Grover has studied the jus gentium at a German university to some purpose. We should like to know what seminary had the honour of perfecting his diplomatic education, of which he boasts so confidently.

Our author's military scheme for punishing this blameless King of Bokhara, and thus restoring the national honour to its former lustre, is almost as curious as his ideas of international justice. We give it in his own words:

Assuming, therefore, that it is expedient to maintain the national

honour, I will endeavour to show how, in my humble opinion, this may be achieved.

I put the employment of a British force out of the question.

Your Lordship is aware that both Khiva and Kokand are at war with Bokhara.

I had the honour of submitting to your Lordship a letter from the Ausoof-ood-Dowlah, uncle to the King of Persia, governor of Khorassaur, from which it appears that he had assembled, between Merve and Meshed, the most powerful tribes of Saraks, Mahal, Merve, &c., and that he was ready to march to Bokhara to punish the Ameer, with the permission of the Shah, if he had the authority of Great Britain.

The King of Bokhara being such a horrible tyrant, and considered by his subjects as a madman, they might possibly reflect upon the fate of Cabool, and save us the trouble of deposing him.

Now, the plan I propose is this: England should proclaim to all nations her intention of punishing the Ameer of Bokhara for the murder or imprisonment of her ambassador, and to set at liberty all English, Russian, and Persian slaves, the number of which is enormous.

To carry this resolution into effect, your Lordship will only have to say the word to put a Persian army in motion. This army should be accompanied by a British officer as her Majesty's Commissioner; and he ought to have one or two squadrons of British dragoons, or Company's cavalry, and a few light guns as an escort, which would give an English character to the expedition. In case of success, of which I can entertain no doubt, England would retrieve her honour; should the expedition fail, of course the blame would lie with the Persians.

The expedition should be directed against the Ameer alone, our policy requiring that Bokhara should be strengthened rather than weakened.

I trust your Lordship will not consider me presumptuous in offering these remarks. At all events, I feel that I am merely doing my duty. And, in conclusion, I beg leave, through your Lordship, to make a tender of my dutiful services to her Majesty, to be employed in any way in this glorious enterprise, although I am quite sure your Lordship will find many officers quite as willing and better qualified than I am.-I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's obedient humble servant, JOHN GROVER, Captain Unattached. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF ABERDEEN. P.S.-I would send the escort dismounted from Bombay to Bushire, and purchase the horses in Persia.'

Without discussing the question, how far it may be consistent, with a high feeling of national dignity, to seek the vindication of our national honour by the prowess of another people, we confess that we are unable to perceive how the English character, which Captain Grover thinks his own presence and that of his escort would give to this expedition in the event of its success, would immediately cease in the event of its failure-an event