text:  Why what were the limits which nature had assigned to our Indian empire? In early days the Mahratta ditch was said to be its natural limit; and why was the Sutlej or the Indus to be more the boundary of our empire than the Himalayas?" Even Lord John Russell who _now_ acknowledges the wisdom of surrendering Affghanistan declares in almost so many words that his party have shrunk from a general vote of censure because they could not properly put it and have chosen this Act as "not the worst " but the most convenient to attack