Lehal Library

INTRODUCTORY X papers that have been examined up to the present time (1915) show how actively Ranjit Singh interested himself in the details of his administration. As regards his character, he was not altogether without faults. Temperance and chastity were not his conspicuous virtues. But with all his shortcomings, he was a strong and able ruler admirably suited to the conditions of the time. The Maharaja's territorial expansion brougnt him into contact with the Cis-Sutlej States, which were under English protection, and so into contact with the English. The result of this was the Treaty of 1809, which Ranjit Singh loyally observed down to his death in 1839, although at times he showed symptoms of irritation at the rising power of the English. The death of Ranjit Singh in 1839 was the signal for the outbreak of a series of palace revolutions, in which the army of the Khalsa played a part hardly dissimilar from that of the Praetorian Guards at their very worst. This period of the story is fully dealt with by the author in Chapter VIII. The disorder culminated in the crossing of the Sutlej by the Sikh forces and the consequent outbreak of the first Sikh War. From this point of the story the partiality of the author causes many of his statements to be viewed with suspicion. In his eyes the war represents a national tide of self-preservation rising against the ever-encroaching power of England. Such was far from being the case, and very different motives actuated the corrupt administration of Lahore. Terrified of the power of the army, that administration flung its legions across the Sutlej in the hope that they would be either annihilated or so seriously crippled as to cease to be a danger in the future. At the same time the outbreak of hostilities would divert attention from the shortcomings a political manoeuvre of the central government strongly reminiscent of some of the actions of Napoleon III. The author gives a somewhat turgid description indeed, the language in the of the battles of the war account of the battle of Sobraon reminds one of the story of the battle in the poems of Mr. Robert Montgomery and he concludes his narrative by some general remarks upon English policy in India. From the latter I have removed some passages which are not only injudicious but which have been stultified by the — — — march of events. Beyond a bare reference the author does not touch on the second Sikh War and the resultant annexation at all; but, as he was transferred to Bhopal at the con-