THE SIKHS AND THE LATE CAMPAIGN. THE population of the Punjaub, when the kingdom was at the height of its glory, does not appear to have exceeded three or four millions of souls. Of these, not more than half a million were Sikhs, while the proportion of Hindus to Mussulmans could not have been less than three to one. All were, however, taken indifferently into his military service by Runjeet Singh. Of his manner of drilling them in the European fashion, and of the chief of the instruments which he used in so doing, notice has already been taken; and it is fair to add, that they did not stand alone. Many a scoundrel of European extraction, as well as some Americans, and fugitive Sepoys in abundance, sought employment, and endeavoured to accumulate wealth, under the Lion of the Punjaub. But, with the exception of Ventura, Court, Avitabile, Allard, and Korland, a native of the United States, who served as a civilian, though with more than a soldier's proverbial indifference to human life and the claims of pity, none attained to situations of high command. Some of them were put in charge of battalions, with pay at the rate of 5001. or 1000l. a-year; others commanded companies, or troops or squadrons of horse; but the manner in which the majority was disposed of was, that Runjeet attached them to the artillery, and they received wages at the rate of ten shillings a-day for teaching the natives how to work, and point, and manœuvre the guns. In a former paper, some notice was taken of the arrangements in Sikh society, which renders the Punjaub, in every point of view, a nation quite distinct from all which touch upon it. A monarchy in name, it yet exhibited, even when Runjeet reigned, much more the appearance of a federation of petty principalities than of a single consolidated nation; for each chief, though appointed by the Maha Rajah to his district, ruled it and held it too, not unfrequently in defiance of the power which had placed him in his high station. Moreover, of the parties which intrigued one against the other at the durbar, and, indeed, throughout the whole extent of the empire, there was no end; and so formidable were these, that Runjeet himself, able and unscrupulous as he was, controlled them more by holding the balance amid their feuds, than by putting down, by a strong hand, the factious spirit, and rendering his own will the law. The consequence was, that no sooner had Runjeet ceased to breathe, than the government, properly so called, resolved itself into its elements, and those frightful events followed of which we have already said enough, and of which it may be doubted whether even yet the end is achieved. There is no Salic law among the Sikhs. On both sides of the Sutlej women have repeatedly held the sceptre, and almost always with an impure as well as a feeble hand. Upon this plea, the widow of Runjeet's son claimed, upon the death of Noo Nehal Singh, to govern, as regent, till it should be seen whether the widow of the deceased should have a child; and though by no means in favour with the powerful faction, of which Dhejan Singh and Goolab Singh were at the head, she carried her point. But her frightful debaucheries soon disgusted even the impure Sikhs; and the absurdity of the plea on which she claimed and exercised rule having been demonstrated, Shere Singh, one of the twins whose legitimacy Runjeet scarcely admitted, rebelled against her. She shut herself up in the citadel of Lahore and stood a siege. In due time, however, Dhejan Singh came to the assistance of the prince, and she was forced to surrender. She was murdered, forthwith, by her own waiting-woman. And now began that series of mu tinies and frightful revolts which led to the violation of the protected territories, and caused the Indian government to put forth its strength in the justest quarrel that ever led a nation to arm. The Sikh army had always been kept in arrear with its pay. Even Runjeet himself made a practice of withholding the wages of his troops till a threatened mutiny forced upon him the necessity of acting honestly; indeed, it was no uncommon thing to find a whole year's pay due to men, who, with arms in their hands, lived, as was to be expected, by plunder, till the districts which they were embodied to protect could no longer sustain the weight of their presence. During the anarchy that followed Runjeet's demise, both the Sirkar and the army more and more followed the bent of their inclinations; and the one withholding pay, the other first threatened, then robbed the peaceable inhabitants, and, finally, broke out into universal mutiny. As was to be expected, the infuriated soldiery turned their arms first against their European commanders. Some of these they slew, others with difficulty escaped, while some owed their lives to their own gallantry and the devoted attachment of a few of their adherents. The result was, that Shere Singh yielded every point for which the mutineers clamoured, distributed largesses among them, and punished none; after which he granted a four months' furlough to the whole of them, and forthwith plunged into the course of degrading vice to which he had long been addicted. It was in 1843 that the hatred of the Sikhs towards the English, which had long smouldered, and by the energy of Runjeet been kept under, began to shew itself openly. They demanded, that the new Maha Rajah should refuse a passage to General Pollock through the Punjaub; and when they failed in carrying this point, they clamoured for leave to fall upon his communications, and rob the convoys which from time to time were sent up to him. Shere Singh steadily refused to sanction these proceedings; whereupon a conspiracy was entered into for the purpose of getting rid of him; and, at a review of cavalry outside the walls of Lahore, he was murdered by his own brother-in-law, Ajeet Singh. Not that the young man stood alone. On the contrary, Dhejan Singh, the same minister who had raised Shere Singh to the throne, secretly favoured the plans for his destruction, and gave proof of his approval of the assassination by getting into the murderer's carriage and proceeding with him towards the city. But they had not sat long together ere a difference of opinion, with regard to the new government that was to be set up, occurred; whereupon Ajeet Singh stabbed his relative to the heart, and casting his body to the ground, made his followers hack off his head It would be as little profitable, as it would be disgusting, to follow, one by one, the course of the atrocities that followed. Ajeet Singh slew every member of the royal family whom he succeeded in getting into his power, shewing mercy to none. not even to an infant born the day before; and summed up all by send ing the head of Dhejan Singh to his son, Rajah Heerab Singh. He paid dearly for his folly; for Heerab Singh getting his uncle, Gholab Singh, to join him, issued orders to the troops in garrison at Lahore to seize the murderer, who shut himself up in the citadel and was there besieged. The murderer endeavoured to escape,, was overtaken, and cut to pieces, whereupon Herab Singh set up Dhulab Singh, a reputed son o Runject, as Maha Rajah; and in the capacity of minister to this child of tender years, endeavoured to grasp the powers of the state. He was not strong enough to keep the place he had won. New factions arose, new mutinies occurred among the troops, and Ierab Singh becoming an object of hostility to his nearest of kin, died as most of his predecessors had done. And now the mother of the infant Maha Rajah put in her claim to be treated as regent, and the whole frame-work of society fell to pieces. The soldiers roamed about the country at will. Towns were sacked, villages plundered, while the wretched woman, nominally at the head of affairs, lived as we could not, without the violation of all the dictates of decency, stop so much as to hint at. Meanwhile the Indian government had not been inattentive to the progress of events across the Sutlej. Other and more urgent cares pressed, indeed, upon Lord Ellenborough, so that he had neither leisure, nor perhaps military means sufficient, to throw the weight of his influence into the scale of the Sikh parties; but his lordship, we believe, makes no secret of the plans which he meditated for the patting down of a state of things which could not fail, sooner or later, of involving the British provinces in a war. Scinde and Gwalior, however, demanded his attention in the first instance. He gave it, and the results were, the permanent annexation of the former to the Company's possessions, and the establishment with the latter of relations which must conduce, ere long, to the absorption of the weaker into the vortex of the greater power. And then he began to march an army of observation towards the Sutlej. But Lord Ellenborough's brilliant policy was too rapid for the four-and-twenty kings of Leadenhall Street. In the exercise of their undoubted right, though much to the astonishment of all concerned, Lord Ellenborough was recalled, and Sir Henry Hardinge, in the spring of 1844, proceeded, overland, to assume the reins of government at Calcutta. From the first beginning of British power in the East, there has been, both in the Company and among the people and government of England, the greatest horror of the extension of dominion which has been constantly going forward. When tidings arrived, in 1765, of the assumption of regal power over the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, men experienced, amid the triumph, a sort of dread of the consequences, for which they did not know how to account. Warren Hastings, in like manner, was condemned and afterwards persecuted for obeying an impulse which was resistless; and every governor-general since has assumed power, pledged to pacific measures, which he has invariably been compelled to abandon. But among all who have undertaken the serious charge of the Indian government, perhaps not one ever quitted England more honestly desirous of avoiding war than Sir Henry Hardinge. For himself, he had seen enough of battle to hinder any personal ambition, as a warrior, from swaying him. He knew, also, that at home the effect of the Cabul campaigns had been to render even Sir Charles Napier's triumphs in Scinde unpopular rather than otherwise. And almost the last advice which his old master gave him, ere parting, was to shun a rupture with the Sikhs altogether, if it should be possible so to do; if not possible, to defer the evil as long as might be, and to put the enemy, ere he struck a blow, wholly in the wrong. Never, surely, was advice more prudent or more just offered; never was just and prudent counsel more faithfully followed. Sir Henry Hardinge, though awake to all that was passing in the Punjaub, would not permit so much as one additional regiment to approach the Sutlej. He satisfied himself that the garrisons of Ferozepore and Loodiana were of sufficient strength to hold them till succour could be sent; and refused, therefore, to throw into the territories of the protected chiefs one man more than was needed to keep up the communications between these advanced posts and the frontiers of the provinces. The summer of 1845 was marked Meanwhile, there were frequent into effect, the concentration of a considerable army about Meerut, Umballa, and Delhi; and Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief, placing himself at its head, both the government and people of India stood still, as it were, to watch the results. So early as the month of June affairs had assumed an aspect so alarming that it was judged prudent for the governor-general to visit the western provinces in person; and to confer on the spot with the commander-in-chief in regard to the measures which in the event of certain anticipated contingencies it might be judicious to adopt. Accordingly, late in the autumn, Sir Henry Hardinge proceeded up the Ganges, and on the 26th of November met Sir Hugh Gough at Kurnaul, where arrangements were made such as it was supposed would render the army available for any emergency that might arise. But though it was well known by this time that the Sikh columns were in motion, though a strong advanced guard had actually touched the Sutlej opposite to Ferozepore, and other columns were reported to be in movement towards other points on an extended frontier, Sir Henry Hardinge restrained the forward movement which Sir Hugh Gough had begun; and kept his force in such a position, as that it might march concentrated and entire as soon as the territory should be fairly violated, and not before. On the 20th of November, Major Broadfoot, political agent for Lahore, had sent off a despatch full of important intelligence to the commander-in-chief. It completely removed an impression which up to this date seems to have prevailed in various quarters, that the army in and about the Sikh capital did not exceed 15,000 men, and established the fact, that not fewer than seven divisions, each mustering from 8000 to 10,000 men, had been instructed to carry the war beyond the country of the Punjaub. One division only was to abide at home for the preservation of the public peace and the defence of the capital, while the remaining six were to pass the frontier, each upon a point of its own. The points threatened were Roree and the hill country about it, Loodi and Attock. It is true that even in this despatch doubts were expressed as to the execution of so gigantic a scheme, and, indeed, of the commencement of hostilities at all. But Sir Hugh, like a gallant soldier as he is, considered that these doubts had no very sure foundation to rest upon. He therefore ordered the columns to concentrate; and was a march or two on his way to the banks of the Sutlej itself when Sir Henry Hardinge stopped him. For Sir Henry Hardinge, be it remembered, had other considerations than those which weighed with the commanderin-chief, to take account of. And he felt that, even in a point of view strictly military, it was as well, perhaps better, to continue his central position till the storm burst, because he should in that case be able to move upon it, and meet it, let it come from what quarter it might. Anxiously, and with exceeding diligence, were the commissariat arrangements pressed forward. Depôts of stores and provisions were formed in various quarters, convenient in the event of operations, while camels, horses, and other beasts of burden, were hired or purchased wherever the agents of government could find them. More troops, also, were called up from the interior, and directed to concentrate in front of Sirhinde; but nothing was done to precipitate hostilities. At the same time, directions were given to the different chiefs of the protected states to have their contingents ready, so that they might offer to the invader the best resistance in their power, and secure time for the army to concentrate. In this state things remained during the month of November, and up to the 4th in the month following. On that latter day, however, Sir Henry Hardinge, finding that his remonstrances were not attended to by the Sikh government, commanded the Sikh valkeel, or ambassador, to quit his camp; and proceeded in person from Umballa towards Loodiana, making a peaceable progress, according to the customs of his predecessors, through the territories of the friendly chiefs that intervened. For both he and Major Broadfoot seem still to have considered, that an invasion upon a great scale was little ana, Horrekee, Ferozepore, Scinde, to be apprehended. That plunderers would cross the river all men now anticipated, and that out of the mischief produced by them causes of war would arise, could not seriously be doubted. But that the Sikhs would take the initiative in this war does not appear to have been dreamed of by any one about the governorgeneral, or in his confidence. Men remembered how, on former occasions, Sikh armies had approached the farther bank of the Sutlej, occupied their camp there for awhile, and retired again; and Sir Henry, not less able as a politician than as an officer, wisely argued that he had no more right to remonstrate against their doing so again, than they had to complain of the measures which had been adopted to render Ferozepore safe against a sudden assault. For it is worthy of remark, that in addition to the old fortress which imperfectly commanded it, Ferozepore had recently been covered by stout field-works, the construction of which, by-the-by, was recommended by the Duke of Wellington, as soon as tidings of the confused state of the Punjaub reached him. Accordingly, the governor-general, considering that Sir John Littler, who occupied Ferozepore, would, with the 5000 men whom he had under his orders, be able to hold the place, so long as his provisions lasted, contented himself, while travelling towards Loodiana, by directing that the different corps in the rear should move up one upon the other, and that the whole should be in readiness to push forward, if required, by the morning of the 11th at the latest. This forward movement brought together about 7500 men of all arms, with thirty-six guns, chiefly light sixpounders. Its object was to have in hand a force wherewith to bring relief to Ferozepore should it be invested; but as Sir Henry Hardinge considered that 7500 men, however trustworthy, would not be able to fight their way through 50,000, he rode over to Loodiana, with a view of ascertaining how far it might be possible to draw a reinforcement from thence. And here, before we proceed farther, it may be as well to describe a little more in detail than we have yet done, the theatre on which these operations were conducted; because, unless he carry in his mind's eye a tolerably correct The river Sutlej, after leaving its The general aspect of the pro tected Sikh states has little, in point of beauty, to recommend it. The country is flat, cultivated near the neighbourhood of towns and villages, but not fruitful even there, because the soil is sandy. Elsewhere, jun gles of stunted shrubs a good deal overgrow it, interrupting the vision, and rendering the movement of troops in line, and especially of cavalry, difficult; and there is great want of water. And the roads are but indifferent. Loodiana lies up the stream, as compared with Ferozepore. It is, likewise, nearer to Umballa by fifty miles at the least, though you may reach the one without coming within sight of the towers of the other. It is a town of greater note than Ferozepore, both because of the wealth of the shops, and that its agreeable climate renders it a favourite place of resort to European families. But in a military point of view it is very |