Tempo:
-
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
9.\y
1845-6.
denote
held to
a
CHAP. IX
campaign, not of defence, but
of oi{(
aggression.^ The Sikhs further
moved by their esti-
mate of the British Agent of the day.
The Sikhs thus considered that the fixed policy of the English was territorial aggrandizement, and that the immediate object of their ambition was the conquest of Lahore. This persuasion of the people was brought home to them by the acts of the British representative for the time, and by the opinion v/hich they had preformed of his views. Mr. Clerk became Lieutenant-Governor of Agra in June 1843, and he was succeeded as Agent for the affairs of the Sikhs by Lieut.-Col. Richmond, whose place again was taken by Major Broadfoot, a man of undoubted energy and ability, in
November of the following year.
In India the
views of the British Government are, by custom, made known to allies and dependants through one channel only, namely that of an accredited English officer. The personal character of such a functionary gives a colour to all he does and says; the policy of the government is indeed judged of by the bearing of its representative, and it is certain that the Sikh authorities did not derive any assurance of an increasing desire for peace, from the nomination of an officer who, thirty months before, had made so stormy a passage through their country. Major Broadfoot's views and overt acts equally displeasing to the Sikhs.
One of Major Broadfoot's ^ first acts was to declare the Cis-Sutlej possessions of Lahore to be under British protection equally with Patiala and other chiefships, and also to be liable to escheat on the death or deposition of Maharaja Dalip Singh.^ This view was not formally announced to the Sikh government, but it was notorious, and Major Broadfoot acted on it when he proceeded to interfere authoritatively, and by a display 1 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, Dec. 1845. - Sir Claude Wade, in his Narrative of Services (p. 19, note), well observes it to be essential to the preservation of the English system of alliances in India, that political representatives should be regarded as friends by the chiefs with whom they reside, rather than as the mere instruments of conveying the orders or of enforcing the policy of foreign masters. See p. 214, with regard to Major Broadfoot'3 passage of the Punjab in 1841. Major Broadfoot's letters to Government, of the 7th Dec. 1844, eoth Jan. and 28th Feb. 1845, may be referred to as explanatory of his views. In the last letter he distinctly says that if the young Maharaja Dalip Singh, who was then ill of the small-pox, should die, he would direct the reports regarding the Cis-Sutlej districts to be made to himself (through the Lahore vakil or agent indeed), and not to any one in the
2,
•"•
•*
Punjab.
|
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
9.\y
1845-6.
denote
held to
a
CHAP. IX
campaign, not of defence, but
of oi{(
aggression.^ The Sikhs further
moved by their esti-
mate of the British Agent of the day.
The Sikhs thus considered that the fixed policy of the English was territorial aggrandizement, and that the immediate object of their ambition was the conquest of Lahore. This persuasion of the people was brought home to them by the acts of the British representative for the time, and by the opinion v/hich they had preformed of his views. Mr. Clerk became Lieutenant-Governor of Agra in June 1843, and he was succeeded as Agent for the affairs of the Sikhs by Lieut.-Col. Richmond, whose place again was taken by Major Broadfoot, a man of undoubted energy and ability, in
November of the following year.
In India the
views of the British Government are, by custom, made known to allies and dependants through one channel only, namely that of an accredited English officer. The personal character of such a functionary gives a colour to all he does and says; the policy of the government is indeed judged of by the bearing of its representative, and it is certain that the Sikh authorities did not derive any assurance of an increasing desire for peace, from the nomination of an officer who, thirty months before, had made so stormy a passage through their country. Major Broadfoot's views and overt acts equally displeasing to the Sikhs.
One of Major Broadfoot's ^ first acts was to declare the Cis-Sutlej possessions of Lahore to be under British protection equally with Patiala and other chiefships, and also to be liable to escheat on the death or deposition of Maharaja Dalip Singh.^ This view was not formally announced to the Sikh government, but it was notorious, and Major Broadfoot acted on it when he proceeded to interfere authoritatively, and by a display 1 Cf. the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, Dec. 1845. - Sir Claude Wade, in his Narrative of Services (p. 19, note), well observes it to be essential to the preservation of the English system of alliances in India, that political representatives should be regarded as friends by the chiefs with whom they reside, rather than as the mere instruments of conveying the orders or of enforcing the policy of foreign masters. See p. 214, with regard to Major Broadfoot'3 passage of the Punjab in 1841. Major Broadfoot's letters to Government, of the 7th Dec. 1844, eoth Jan. and 28th Feb. 1845, may be referred to as explanatory of his views. In the last letter he distinctly says that if the young Maharaja Dalip Singh, who was then ill of the small-pox, should die, he would direct the reports regarding the Cis-Sutlej districts to be made to himself (through the Lahore vakil or agent indeed), and not to any one in the
2,
•"•
•*
Punjab.
|
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