Tempo:
CHAP. IX
WAR WITH THE ENGLISH
257
Jammu, always so reasonably averse to a close con- 1845-6. " nexion with the English, began to despair of safety as a feudatory in the hills, or of authority as a minister at Lahore without the aid of the British name, and Lai Singh, Tej Singh, and many others, all equally felt their incapacity to control the troops. These men and urge considered that their only chance of retaining power the army was to have the army removed by inducing it to against the engage in a contest which they believed would end in English, in its dispersion, and pave the way for their recognition """^^ ^^^^ as ministers more surely than if they did their duty by destroyed, the people, and earnestly deprecated a war which must destroy the independence of the Punjab.^ Had the shrewd committees of the armies observed no military preparations on the part of the English, they would not have heeded the insidious exhortations of such mercenary men as Lai Singh and Tej Singh, althougii in former days they would have marched uninquiringly towards Delhi at the bidding of their great Maharaja. But the views of the government functionaries coin1 Cf. Enclosures to the Governor-General's letter to the Secret Committee of the 31st Dec. 1845. (Parliamentary Papers, 26th Feb. 1846, p. 29.) It has not been thought necessary to' refer to the intemperance of the desperate Jawahir Singh, or to the amours of the Maharani, \vhich, in the papers laid before the British Parliament, have been used to heighten the folly and worthlessness of the Lahore court. Jawahir Singh may have sometimes been seen intoxicated, and the Maharani may have attempted little concealment for her debaucheries, but decency was seldom violated in public; and the essential forms of a court were preserved to the last, especially when strangers were present. The private life of princes may be scandalous enough, while the moral tone of the people is high, and is, moreover, applauded and upheld by the transgressors themselves, in their capacity of magistrates. Hence the domestic vices of the powerful have, comparatively, little influence on public affairs. Further, the proneness of news-mongers to enlarge upon such personal failings is sufficiently notorious; and the diplomatic service of India has been often reproached for dwelling pruriently or maliciously on such matters. Finally, it is well known that the native servants of the English in Hindustan, who in too many instances are hirelings of little education or respectability, think they best please their employers, or chime in with their notions, when they traduce all others, and especially those with whom there may be a rivalry or a collision. So inveterate is the habit of flattery, and so strong is the belief that Englishmeh love to be themselves praised and to hear others slighted, that even petty local authorities scarcely refer to allied or dependent princes, their neighbours, in verbal or in written reports, without using some terms of disparagement towards them. Hence the scenes of debauchery described by the Lahore news-writer are partly due to his professional character, and partly to his belief that he was saying what the English wanted
to hear. 17
WAR WITH THE ENGLISH
257
Jammu, always so reasonably averse to a close con- 1845-6. " nexion with the English, began to despair of safety as a feudatory in the hills, or of authority as a minister at Lahore without the aid of the British name, and Lai Singh, Tej Singh, and many others, all equally felt their incapacity to control the troops. These men and urge considered that their only chance of retaining power the army was to have the army removed by inducing it to against the engage in a contest which they believed would end in English, in its dispersion, and pave the way for their recognition """^^ ^^^^ as ministers more surely than if they did their duty by destroyed, the people, and earnestly deprecated a war which must destroy the independence of the Punjab.^ Had the shrewd committees of the armies observed no military preparations on the part of the English, they would not have heeded the insidious exhortations of such mercenary men as Lai Singh and Tej Singh, althougii in former days they would have marched uninquiringly towards Delhi at the bidding of their great Maharaja. But the views of the government functionaries coin1 Cf. Enclosures to the Governor-General's letter to the Secret Committee of the 31st Dec. 1845. (Parliamentary Papers, 26th Feb. 1846, p. 29.) It has not been thought necessary to' refer to the intemperance of the desperate Jawahir Singh, or to the amours of the Maharani, \vhich, in the papers laid before the British Parliament, have been used to heighten the folly and worthlessness of the Lahore court. Jawahir Singh may have sometimes been seen intoxicated, and the Maharani may have attempted little concealment for her debaucheries, but decency was seldom violated in public; and the essential forms of a court were preserved to the last, especially when strangers were present. The private life of princes may be scandalous enough, while the moral tone of the people is high, and is, moreover, applauded and upheld by the transgressors themselves, in their capacity of magistrates. Hence the domestic vices of the powerful have, comparatively, little influence on public affairs. Further, the proneness of news-mongers to enlarge upon such personal failings is sufficiently notorious; and the diplomatic service of India has been often reproached for dwelling pruriently or maliciously on such matters. Finally, it is well known that the native servants of the English in Hindustan, who in too many instances are hirelings of little education or respectability, think they best please their employers, or chime in with their notions, when they traduce all others, and especially those with whom there may be a rivalry or a collision. So inveterate is the habit of flattery, and so strong is the belief that Englishmeh love to be themselves praised and to hear others slighted, that even petty local authorities scarcely refer to allied or dependent princes, their neighbours, in verbal or in written reports, without using some terms of disparagement towards them. Hence the scenes of debauchery described by the Lahore news-writer are partly due to his professional character, and partly to his belief that he was saying what the English wanted
to hear. 17
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