Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
228 1842.
chap, '/in
the head of the two armies returning victorious from Kabul, with their numbers increased to nearly forty thousand men by the force assembled on the Sutlej. The native English portion of this array was considerable, and perhaps so many Europeans had never stood together under arms on Indian ground since Alexander and his Greeks made the Punjab a province of Macedon. The Sikhs generally were pleased with one cause of this assemblage, and they were glad to be relieved of the presence of the English on their western frontier; but Sher Singh himself did not look forward to his visit to Lord Ellenborough without some misgivings, although under other circumstances his vanity would have been gratified by the opportunity of displaying his power and magnificence. He felt his incapacity as a ruler, and he needlessly feared that he might be called to account for Sikh excesses and for a suspected intercourse with the hostile Amirs of Sind then trembling for their fate, and even that the subjugation of the Punjab was to be made the stepping-stone to the complete reduction of Afghanistan. He had no confidence in himself; and he dreaded the vengeance of his followers, who believed him capable of sacrificing the Khalsa to his own interests. Nor was Dhian Singh supposed to be willing that the Maharaja should meet the Governor-General, and his suspicious temper made him apprehensive that His sovereign might induce the English viceroy to accede to his ruin, or to the reduction of his exotic influence. Thus both Sher Singh and his minister perhaps rejoiced that a misunderstanding which prevented the reception at Ludhiana of Lahna Singh Majithia, was seized hold of by the English to render a meeting doubtful or impossible.^ 1 On several occasions Raja Dhian Singh expressed his apprehensions of an English invasion, as also did Maharaja Sher Singh. (See, for instance, Mr. Clerk to Government, 2nd Jan. 1842.) 'The writer of the article in the Calcutta Review (No. II, p. 493), who is believed to be Lieut.-Col. Lawrence, admits Dhian Singh's aversion to a meeting between his sovereign and the British Governor-General. The reviewer likewise describes Sher Singh's anxiety at the time, but considers him to have been desirous of throwing himself unreservedly on English protection, as doubtless he might have been, had he thought himself secure from assassination, and that Lord Ellenborough' would have kept him seated on the throne of Lahore; at all hazards. About the suspected hostile intercourse with the Amirs of Sind, see Thornton's History of India vi. 447 The Sikhs, however, were never required to give any explanation of the
charges.
The misunderstanding to which Sardar Lahna Singh was
228 1842.
chap, '/in
the head of the two armies returning victorious from Kabul, with their numbers increased to nearly forty thousand men by the force assembled on the Sutlej. The native English portion of this array was considerable, and perhaps so many Europeans had never stood together under arms on Indian ground since Alexander and his Greeks made the Punjab a province of Macedon. The Sikhs generally were pleased with one cause of this assemblage, and they were glad to be relieved of the presence of the English on their western frontier; but Sher Singh himself did not look forward to his visit to Lord Ellenborough without some misgivings, although under other circumstances his vanity would have been gratified by the opportunity of displaying his power and magnificence. He felt his incapacity as a ruler, and he needlessly feared that he might be called to account for Sikh excesses and for a suspected intercourse with the hostile Amirs of Sind then trembling for their fate, and even that the subjugation of the Punjab was to be made the stepping-stone to the complete reduction of Afghanistan. He had no confidence in himself; and he dreaded the vengeance of his followers, who believed him capable of sacrificing the Khalsa to his own interests. Nor was Dhian Singh supposed to be willing that the Maharaja should meet the Governor-General, and his suspicious temper made him apprehensive that His sovereign might induce the English viceroy to accede to his ruin, or to the reduction of his exotic influence. Thus both Sher Singh and his minister perhaps rejoiced that a misunderstanding which prevented the reception at Ludhiana of Lahna Singh Majithia, was seized hold of by the English to render a meeting doubtful or impossible.^ 1 On several occasions Raja Dhian Singh expressed his apprehensions of an English invasion, as also did Maharaja Sher Singh. (See, for instance, Mr. Clerk to Government, 2nd Jan. 1842.) 'The writer of the article in the Calcutta Review (No. II, p. 493), who is believed to be Lieut.-Col. Lawrence, admits Dhian Singh's aversion to a meeting between his sovereign and the British Governor-General. The reviewer likewise describes Sher Singh's anxiety at the time, but considers him to have been desirous of throwing himself unreservedly on English protection, as doubtless he might have been, had he thought himself secure from assassination, and that Lord Ellenborough' would have kept him seated on the throne of Lahore; at all hazards. About the suspected hostile intercourse with the Amirs of Sind, see Thornton's History of India vi. 447 The Sikhs, however, were never required to give any explanation of the
charges.
The misunderstanding to which Sardar Lahna Singh was
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