The Affgh[=a]n soldiers of our escort did not much relish the discipline I enforced.  A complaint was made to me in the course of the day by a peasant, that these warriors had most unceremoniously broken down hedges, and entering his apricot orchard, had commenced appropriating the fruit, responding to his remonstrances with threats and oaths.  I thought this a fine opportunity to read my savages a lecture on the advantages of discipline and regular pay.  I asked them whether they were not now much better off than when employed by their own countrymen, and whether they expected to be treated as regular soldiers, and still be allowed to plunder the inoffensive inhabitants?  One of the men, who was evidently an orator, listened to me with more attention than the rest, but with a look of evident impatience for the conclusion of my harangue, that he too might show how well he could reason.  “My lord,” said the man, putting himself into an attitude worthy of the Conciliation-Hall, to say nothing of St. Stephen’s, “my lord, on the whole your speech is very excellent:  your pay is good—­the best, no doubt, and very regular; we have not hitherto been accustomed to such treatment; though you brought the evil the remedy has come with it; your arrival in C[=a]bul has so raised the price of provisions that we could not live on Affgh[=a]n pay; we have, therefore, entered the service of the foreigner; but had we received the same wages we now get from you, we should in our own service have been gentlemen.”  Here the orator made a pause, but soon imagining from my silence that his speech was unobjectionable, he boldly continued; “but there is one powerful argument in favour of the Ameer’s service, he always allowed us on the line of march to plunder from every one; we have been brought up in this principle(!!) since we were children, and we find it very difficult to refrain from what has so long been an established practice amongst us:  we are soldiers, sir, and it is not much each man takes; but the British are so strict, that they will protect a villager or even a stranger:”  this last sentence was evidently pronounced under a deep sense of unmerited oppression.  “But,” continued he, “look at that apricot orchard on the right, how ripe and tempting is the fruit; if we were not under your orders, those trees would in a moment be as bare as the palm of my hand.”  But I remarked, “would not the owners turn out and have a fight; is it not better to go through a strange country peaceably and making friends?” “They fight,” answered my hero; “oh! they are Uzbegs and no men, more like women—­one Affghan can beat three Uzbegs.”  I was not quite satisfied how far the vaunted pay and discipline would prevail over the natural lawless propensities of my army, and in order not to try their insubordination too much, I conceived that a compromise would be the wisest plan, and giving them a few rupees, I desired them to make the most they could out of them.  Off they went highly delighted with the results of the interview, clapping their orator on the back, crying out sh[=a]bash, sh[=a]bash, bravo, bravo, and evidently believing the gift of the rupees as entirely due to the eloquence of their comrade.  They are a simple people with all their savage characteristics, but it is very sad to contemplate a whole nation as a race of systematic plunderers.