text:  Macaulay in a debate on the Income-tax in April 1842 after _cannily_ disclaiming any responsibility for the Affghan invasion as having been effected before he joined the Government was driven to deplore these military reverses as the greatest disaster that had ever befallen us: and added somewhat incongruously:-- "He did not anticipate if we acted with vigour the least danger to our empire; though it must always be remembered that a great Mahometan success could not but fall like a spark upon tinder and act on the freemasonry of Islamism from Morocco to Coromandel