but a brief sketch must be given of the border history, and a somewhat fuller record of the bishop's visits to the British forces in the Khyber and at Candahar.

It will be remembered that French was present at a great durbar at Lahore in 1869, when Shere Ali was welcomed by the British Government, and that he had been struck by his impenetrable and unimpressionable countenance. In 1878 considerable excitement was caused in India by the intelligence that the Ameer had admitted a Russian embassy to Cabul. Sir Neville Chamberlain, an old Beddington acquaintance whom Bishop French had the pleasure of meeting that summer at Simla, was appointed head of an especial British mission, and prepared with a following of near 1,000 men (a force of which Lord Carnarvon said that it was too small for an army and too large for a mission), to set out from Peshawur.

The Ameer, either prompted by Russia or genuinely doubting his power to protect the mission from his own unruly subjects, refused to admit it to his country, and his threat of armed opposition led to the outbreak of war. The capture of Ali Musjid, and the battle of Peiwar Kotul, by which General Roberts became master of the Kurrum valley, followed in November and the beginning of December, 1878. By December 20, General Sir Samuel Brown had entered Jelalabad, and by January 9, 1879, General Stewart, who was in command on the Sindh frontier, had entered Candahar almost without opposition. Meantime the Russian mission had withdrawn from Cabul, and Shere Ali had taken his departure with them.

These movements attracted great attention in England, where a war with Russia had lately seemed imminent, and Lord Lawrence, in Parliament, strongly opposed the forward frontier policy.

Writing to his sister, Mrs. Sheldon, on January 23, 1879, the bishop said :—

'The chief blame of the war must rest on those who affronted and alienated the Ameer. As things are war was inevitable, as the acceptance of the Russian embassy exposed our frontier most

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fatally, and by damaging our prestige endangered the lives and property of Europeans and of our friends. It was as defensible as all self-preservation is. No one could doubt that who knows anything of the real state of things in India. The name and cause of England would have been utterly contemptible, and a revolt at any moment probable, if the warlike and turbulent tribes on the frontier had been left to their old fanatical and insurrectionary spirit with Cabul and Russia to back them up.

'Mr. Gordon is now at Candahar. I sadly want him back for the Belooch mission, which is left in confusion by his impulsive ardour of advance, a valuable quality when under proper checks and safeguards. I have let him know clearly that I am not well pleased. My only comfort is, I tell him, that as he was suffering so much from fever last year, perhaps the cool climate of Candahar may brace him for more years of work. I will support him all I can, but must be firm where faithfulness to pledges is at stake. The archdeacon is at the camps about Peshawur, and writes to me pretty full accounts, as also does the chaplain, Mr. Swinnerton.'

In February Shere Ali died, and Yakub his son. who had formerly rebelled against him and been confined five years. in a dungeon, was recognized as Ameer, and began to make peace overtures. The negotiations proceeded slowly under the able conduct of Major Cavagnari, and the troops meanwhile suffered much from heat and cholera and other sickness in the inhospitable passes. One incident, the drowning of almost a whole squadron of Hussars in the Cabul river during a night reconnaissance, was particularly painful. What a terrible loss!' the bishop wrote from Ambala, April 6. It makes one shiver all over.'

On May 6 the bishop wrote to Mrs. Sheldon :-

'Mr. Hughes thought we might go together into the Khyber to the camps there, but Mr. Egerton (the Lieutenant-Governor) rather deprecates it, as Englishmen of any rank might be seized and kept for the sake of obtaining a ransom. He said, "We should not like a joint of your thumb to be sent into Peshawur with threats of death if a ransom were not paid by Government." He seemed hopeful when I called last Wednesday of Yakub Khan's coming to terms.'

On May 26 the treaty of Gundamuk was signed, by which the English obtained the right to maintain an embassy at Cabul, and the control of the Kurrum, Pishin, and Sibi

valleys, and the Khyber and Michni passes, as a defensible frontier, they in turn engaging to protect the Ameer from foreign enemies, and to give him a subsidy of six lacs of

rupees.

Meantime the bishop had travelled to Peshawur, and wrote thence to Mrs. French :

'May 26, 1879. I preached three times yesterday. The English congregations are wretched, the ladies and most of the regiments being away, so that if I want to see them I must go after them and find them. Thus far I am kept in good health, and it is a wonder that four nights' steady travelling should not have knocked me up more. . . . With such a force on the frontier, to distribute one's few chaplains aright is a great difficulty and anxiety. This place is distinguished by its greenness and verdure all the hot weather through, through the abundance of water from the hills; but this is the cause of its greater sickness also. Cholera has all but ceased, and the panic is allayed.'

'Camp Lundi Kotul, Khyber, May 29. I reached Ali Musjid yesterday from Peshawur, chiefly driving in a little cart with Mr. Jukes. The sickness has nearly passed away, still it has left the force a little drooping and dispirited, and I do hope I may be able to raise and cheer their spirits a little. The scenery of the Khyber near Ali Musjid is something wonderfully grand, and the gorges, grim and sombre, quite a match for the people who inhabit them. It is a strange state of things. All found with arms, except those who wear a crimson sash or turban to signify they are friends to the British, are shot down mercilessly. We march in the morning, sometimes, as to-day, with an escort of two troopers. The officers find quarters for us in tents or barracks. We dine at mess. At Ali Musjid nearly all are native troops-Sikhs, Bhopalese, &c.; a good body of officers are there, some truly pious men. At 4.30 this morning we had Holy Communion, to which seven came. To-day I am General Maude's guest. He is himself ill, but most kind and attentive. I go with Mr. Spens to the hospitals this afternoon, the chief doctor also accompanying. One young officer opened his heart much to me last night. General Maude wants me to consecrate a cemetery here next week. This is the extreme point of our empire in this direction, according to the terms of the new peace. Mr. Spens is quite martyr-like in his devotion. The snowy peaks of the Safid Koh are already in sight. The scenery is enchanting, though the hills are all bluff and bare, full of caves in some places, where the wild Afridis hide like foxes or rabbits. ... Whenever the defiles emerge into a more open space of ground the white tents of the British camps burst in sight.'

'Basawal, Sunday, June 1. We hope to start on our return to

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morrow morning, as the camps are beginning to move towards Peshawur, except that which is to occupy Lundi Kotul. I confess I am not sorry the campaign is over, as the heat and dust in camp is almost insupportable, yet I am glad to have ventured thus far to express my sympathy and thought for what our armies endure. . . . I visited some of the hospital tents in the evening. This morning I preached at parade, the soldiers being drawn up in three sides of a square, the general (Michell) and officers and myself forming the fourth side. All are beginning to feel the heat much. The hot wind blowing through the tent almost incapaci tates for any effort. All seem well pleased with the terms of the peace. I hope it will be solid and lasting. I meet on the whole with much civility from the officers. I don't think I knew any one of them previously. Some of them have great blocks or bricks of snow brought down from the hills. There is a large force here; 5th Fusileers, 11th Lancers, and a large body of Artillery.'

'Lundi Kotul, June 3. The time seems to go sadly slowly towards the much longed-for reunion with you. . . . I write with great difficulty from heat and dust, and very small table, and constant journeying. The evenings must be spent with the officers, who are very hospitable, only so much of it does not suit me. Sunday at Basawal was less hot rather than the Saturday had been, and I preached twice besides looking into one or two hospitals. . . . I was hoarse from a little bronchial attack. The early mornings have been quite cold, sometimes from a snowy breeze suddenly descending, in strange contrast with the usual glowing heat. My further work is cut short by the rapid return of the army. . . . Amid so much excitement there is not much to be done. Colonel Boileau at Dhaka was particularly kind, and General Michell at Basawal. I must say it will be a great comfort to be in a house again. Mr. Jukes is very helpful, and takes most filial care of me. The young officers are singularly attentive. Except just along the banks of the Cabul river, which now and then come in sight, the country is of the dreariest and most desolate imaginable."

'Peshawur, June 6. I got here last evening after a journey of some risks, especially from the sun's burning heat, thankful to Him who has spared and kept me. Our camp at Lundi Kotul was threatened with an attack from the neighbouring Afghan tribes ; but, thank God, we had no such assault.'

Mr. Jukes, who accompanied him on this little campaigning expedition, says:

'He had declined the offer of a couple of horsemen from Peshawur to Ali Musjid, but at the latter place I applied for them, as I would not risk any more so valuable a life as our bishop's in an enemy's country, for although there were convoys going backwards and forwards they were moving too slow for us. At the

various encampments I tried to persuade him to use my camp-bed, which I had taken for his special use; but he never would use it, preferring to lie on the ground. It was very hot weather also, and he felt the sun severely, but he never would take off his boots while resting. I found also that he did not possess a pair of slippers, as he thought them very effeminate articles of apparel.'

A few days later the bishop wrote from Nowshera, near Peshawur, to Miss Mills :

'I have just returned from some of the English camps in the Khyber, and have been preserved from all perils of being smitten by the sun, or by the Afridi arrow which flieth by day, or the pestilence (cholera) which walketh in darkness. Each regiment has lost its quotum of soldiers, dead from cholera, and left in the little cemeteries extemporized under the rough and frowning rocks. The dear soldiers have always had much of my heart, and they seem to find it out. After parade service this morning (a nice full church of English soldiers and officers) I went over to a cholera camp three miles off on the banks of the Cabul river, but only found two cases of patients. I hope they may both recover. One said, "Perhaps you will give us another visit, sir," which, alas! I could not promise, as I leave about midnight for further visitations near Kangra.

'I have seen a little of my old friends the Afghans, but not so much as I hoped. I am working at their language again, all the more so because my diocese throws its arms out into Afghanistan by the three valleys we have annexed or assigned. So the Lahore diocese grows by the new conquests. I pray that our dear Lord may lead captivity captive among them, and make them willing in the day of His power. . . . All along my journeys lately I have seen little but armies coming and going-miles of camels, oxen, mules, carts, &c., and great has been the havoc among them from weariness, heat, want of water, overweighty loads, &c. The Peshawur mission is working nobly, and Mr. Jukes hopes to make his way into Kafiristan viâ Jelalabad as soon as the way is at all open. It has been a campaign of strange incidents, and the peace most unlooked for. God seems to have most graciously answered prayers I issued for use in the diocese. Many hearts must have used them as well as lips I think.'

As they are not likely to find a place in military history, it may be of interest to those whose friends were engaged in these campaigns to know what prayers were sanctioned to be used, in whole or in part, at all Church services throughout the diocese.