222 CHAPTER XIX. THE CLOSE OF AN EPOCH. Section 1: The second Sikh war.-Section 2: Annexation. -Section 3 : Internal administration. SECTION 1. The undiscriminating admiration of force has led men to single out Lord Wellesley as the ideal ruler of India and to talk as if Lord Dalhousie alone, in later days, came up to the Wellesley standard. Perhaps a calm and attentive study of the facts briefly summed up in these pages may tend to modify that view. We may even think that we come to see that much of what we had been inclined to attribute to those able statesmen was prepared, and even affected by other hands. Most of all is it likely that we may learn to dilute the strength of our belief in the unaided power of any individuals, however intelligent or highly-placed; and to see that their work has been mostly confined to the shaping of details: while the great current of History-in India and elsewherehas been formed by the needs of man and the natural process of evolution. Thus, when we think of Dalhousie as fixing the future destinies of British India, by bringing the frontiers into contact with Upper Burma, with the Chinese Empire, and with Russian Turkestan, we ought not to forget that all those approaches had already begun, in the wars of Hastings, Amherst, and Auckland. The part of Dalhousie's political conduct which was original has, indeed, been condemned by many good judges, and, partly, by the logic of events, while his solution of the Punjab problem-which is less open to dispute had been foreseen and prepared by Hardinge, his immediate predecessor. How that solution was precipitated will now be briefly shown. Lord Dalhousie landed in Calcutta on January 12th, 1848. He was in his thirty-sixth year, already distinguished as an adminstrator, having, as President of the Board of Trade, been engaged in the recent development of railway-work in the British Islands. He was welcomed by Hardinge with the assurance that all was peace in India; and so confident of this were those best qualified to judge that Colonel Lawrence was one of those who embarked with the departing ex-Governor on the 18th. On the 23rd February, Lord Tweeddale was relieved of the charge of the Madras Government by Sir Henry Pottinger, formerly Resident with the Amirs of Sindh, while Sir G. Clerk was retiring from a short tenure of Bombay, to be succeeded by Lord Falkland. In Sindh Mr. Pringle ruled in the room of Sir Charles Napier, while Sir F. Currie acted as Resident, and virtual head of the Regency, at the Court of the youthful Rája of Lahore. Suddenly the bolt fell from the cloudless sky. Many of the Punjab districts besides those in the Jalandhar Duab were under charge of British officers, who were engaged in drilling local levies and making tentative land-settlements and other beginnings of orderly administration. Among other regions. yet administered by Native Chiefs was the district of Multan, on the Sindh border, where stood a famous fortress taken from the Pathans in 1818 by Ranjit Sinh. Since that time the fort and country had been held by Diwán Sáwan Mall, one of Ranjit's best adminstrators; and, on his death, by his cruel and unprincipled son, Mulráj. Towards the end of 1847 Diwán Mulráj, dissatisfied with the new system of Government, had tendered his resignation; he was asked to reconsider it; but when the winter was over he repeated his request to be relieved, and a Sirdar named Khán Sinh was accordingly sent to take charge, accompanied by Mr. Agnew, of the Civil Service, who was to be "political" adviser, and who took as his assistant, Lieutenant Anderson, of the Bombay army. It seems now to be pretty well established that the whole thing was an intrigue, devised to give occupation to the British authorities while the emissaries of the Ráni raised the Sikhs for a general revolt. On arriving at Multan the new Názim and his European associates were received with apparent friendliness, and shown over the fort; but on leaving the city to return to the camp, outside, they were attacked by a murderous soldier in the service of Mulráj. The Diwán turned his horse's head and rode to his suburban villa; but his escort turned backapparently by his orders-to join in the attack. Agnew and Anderson were carried off, covered with sword-cuts; and, their dwelling-place being made as defensible as possible, they sent word to Banu, the nearest point where a British officer could be hoped for, and awaited events. But all in vain; for the escort was soon corrupted and persuaded to desert, and then the baggage cattle were driven off. By the evening of April 19, Agnew and Anderson were alone, but for the company of a few faithful followers, and the loyal Sirdar, Khán Sinh. The mob now approached, and the building was violently invaded by armed men. Quietly and simply the helpless young men awaited their murderers; their heads were struck off, their bodies mutilated and at last buried with ignominy. But they had told their murderers they would not die unavenged; and the vengence was soon to come. There was another young Briton in the neighbouring district in Banu, who heard of the attack on Agnew and hastened to his relief. Mulráj came out to stop him; and a spectacle was presented worthy of the world's wonder. On one side one of the richest men in Asia, strong in a position inherited from a powerful father, with thousands of veteran soldiers, artillery, and all munitions of war; on the other an isolated alien with two indifferent guns, and no followers but what he could raise and drill as he marched. But one fought for his country the other for himself alone, and the English officer, Herbert Edwardes, beginning the campaign with his improvised levies, soon obtained help from General von Cortlandt, of the Sikh army, and from the Nawab of Bahawalpore, already mentioned as friendly in 1838. In a long and trying engagement on the Chenab he was left to himself by the Bahawalpore troops, and only joined by Cortlandt after seven hours of desperate endurance; but at the end of the day the men of Multan were in full retreat. That was on the 18th of June; Edwardes was soon after joined by another young officer -Lt. E. Lake of the Bengal Engineers-in whose hands the Bahawalpore contingent gradually became more trustworthy; On July 3rd, the associated forces were close to Multan. Here they were again confronted by the enemy, near the suburban village of Sadusám; but Edwardes was no longer alone or obliged to maintain a long defence. Aided most ably by Lake he led his men from point to point. Mulráj was unhorsed and scared off the field; in the two actions the enemy lost ten guns; after the second Mulráj and his men were cooped up within the walls of Multan. But there the tide of success seemed to have lost its power, and a long ebb succeeded. In vain did Currie implore the Commander-in-Chief to send British troops to Multan. Lord Gough, so rash in action, now had a long relapse of prudence; and Edwardes would have been unsupported and exposed to be overwhelmed, had not Currie, on his own responsibility, des. patched a brigade to his assistance. This was the more meritorious because by this time the general disaffection of the Sikh was becoming too plair. to be any longer ignored. Fifteen VOL. II. Q conspirators had been arrested in Lahore alone, and the Rani, being identified with the plot, was deported to Benares. Perhaps, however, as has been hinted by a careful writer, Currie was not sorry to get rid of so dangerous a body of troops with their Sikh officers, and their doubtfully-affected Sirdar. Currie sent a British brigade afterwards, having at length obtained the consent of Lord Gough. Tej Sinh, the betrayer of the Khálsa, seemed the only Chief of distinction who remained true to the British connection; and the survivors of his victims, assured that they had not been beaten by fair means, were eager to try conclusions with the British once more. From Jalandar to Peshawar, the subterranean current was traced; and in Sikh villages the word went forth, so that all the adult males sharpened their swords, and stood prepared for action. But in the course of August, Currie sent off the Lahore brigade to reinforce the leaguer; and on September 4th, the brigade from Firozpore also joined the camp before Multan, a heavy battering train being added. Eleven days later the Sikh contingent under Rája Sher Sinh deserted to the enemy, on which the siege had to be raised, and the small British force was invested in its turn in its camp at Suraj Khund, on the Chenab. The resistance of one fortress had developed into the rebellion of a Province, for Chatr Sinh, who was raising the Trans-Indus was a prominent member of the Council of Regency, and Sher Sinh was his son. The family came from Atári, and their influence extended to the Sutlej. British interests in the Punjab were at low-water mark, indeed, by the end of September. The defection of Sher Sinh had been due to the rebellion of his father, Chatr Sinh, the Governor of Hazára. On the other side of the Indus, the brother of Dost Muhamad, Amir of Kábul, had expelled Major George Lawrence, the Commissioner, and the Major and his family were prisoners in the hands of Chatr Sinh. Only a few of Henry Lawrence's disciples -Herbert, Nicholson, James |