text:  It must indeed be admitted that in the early stages of the war the utter iniquity of the measure met with but faint reprobation from any party in the state: the nation dazzled by the long-disused splendours of military glory was willing without any very close enquiry to take upon trust all the assertions so confidently put forth on the popularity of Shah-Shoojah the hostile machinations of Dost Mohammed and the philanthropic and disinterested wishes of the Indian Government for (to quote a notable phrase to which we have more than once previously referred) "_the reconstruction of the social edifice_" in Affghanistan