period, was plundered by the exasperated soldiery. Under a better and braver leader the result might indeed have conduct of been very different; for never before had so hardly- Sikh soldiery. contested a battle been fought in India, nor, with eventual victory, had ever such great peril of defeat been encountered.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST SIKH WAR, AND ADMINISTRATION OF LORD HARDINGE (continued), 1845 to 1848.

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the Sikhs.

THE British forces could not immediately follow up the success they had achieved; heavy guns, stores, and ainmunition were all wanting, and till their arrival from Dehly, no forward movement could be made. The Sikhs, attributing this vance of delay to fear, took heart, and towards the middle of January, Sirdar Runjoor Singh recrossed the Sutlej and threatened the station of Loudhiana, then weakly garrisoned. Sir Harry Smith was therefore detached with four regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and eighteen guns to relieve it. He had been Combat of cautioned against approaching the fort of Buddewál, Buddewal. which lay on his route; but, nevertheless, moving under its walls, suffered sharply from its fire and from the splendid artillery of Runjoor Singh, lost some of his baggage, and was only saved from further disaster by the dashing charges of the cavalry under Colonel Cureton. Being reinforced, however, by his junction with the Loodhiana troops and Brigadier Wheeler's brigade, Sir Harry Smith now advanced in turn to attack the enemy, who had taken up an entrenched position at Aliwál, and had Aliwal. been reinforced by 4,000 men of the best disciplined Sikh infantry. Their army amounted by estimate to 15,000 men, with 56 guns; that of the British was about 10,000 men, with 32 guns. On January 28 the Sikhs had advanced from their entrenched camp to meet Sir Harry Smith, and a brilliant action ensued. The Sikh squares were penetrated and overthrown by charges of cavalry, in which H. M.'s 16th Lancers, under Colonel Cureton, in particular, were nobly distinguished. Position after Defeat of the position, battery after battery, were stormed; 67 Sikhs. guns were taken; and the enemy, driven to the bridge of boats they had constructed, fled precipitately across the Sutlej, many of them perishing in the stream, and under the fire of the artillery, which played with great effect upon the boats.

Battle of

Although the Sikh army had suffered three notable defeats, they still continued to retain their mischievous and Negotiations. turbulent predominance in the State. Gólab Singh,

Hostilities

Position of

who had undertaken the office of minister from which Lall Singh had been deposed, although he entered into negotiations with the governor-general, who demanded the dismissal of the Sikh army, declared that he was helpless to effect it. No act of submission or peaceful overtures from the army having resumed. been offered, hostilities were resumed on the arrival of the siege-train from Dehly, which reached camp on February 8. For some weeks, the Sikhs, under the direction of a Spanish officer named Huerba, had been employed in constructing a remarkably powerful tête de pont, at the village of Soobráon, to cover a bridge of boats which they had thrown across Soobráon. the river Sutlej, below the ford of Hurreekee, and it was now completed in a series of half-moon bastions, connected by curtains, and covered by a ditch in front, both flanks resting on the river. This great work, two-and-a-half miles in length, was protected by batteries on the right bank of the river, so as to command the passage, and manned by 35,000 of the best of the Sikh troops, with sixty-seven heavy guns. It had been difficult to restrain the British army during its inaction in the presence of the daily progress of this entrenchment; but one day only intervened between the arrival of the heavy guns, stores, and ammunition, and the assault. The British army consisted of 15,000 men, of whom 5,000 were Europeans; and under cover of a fog, on the morning of February 10, all the dispositions for attack were made without being noticed by the enemy.

When they were complete, about seven in the morning, the Battle of fog suddenly rolled away, displaying the British forces Soobráon. in order of battle; and the heavy guns opened on the Sikhs; but they made no impression on the earthworks; the enemy's fire was not checked, and the only resource that remained was a general assault, which was forthwith carried out, amidst Storm of the the thunder of 120 pieces of artillery on both sides. Sikh position. About nine o'clock, the whole of the infantry divisions advanced. Of Sir Robert Dick's division on the left, the horseartillery, under Colonel Lane, gallopped up to within 300 yards of the Sikh batteries, and delivered their fire, while the brigade under Colonel Storey, H.M.'s 10th and 53rd regiments, with the 43rd and 59th Native Infantry, advancing in line with the regularity of a parade movement, were the first to reach the entrenchment; and the Sikhs gathered to defend it, which they did by a withering fire that checked the leading troops, but did not repulse them. The divisions of Sir Harry Smith on the right,

and General Gilbert in the centre, were led on in turn, and after a severe carnage, the entrenchment was won. The Sikh troops, fighting desperately to the last, retired to the bridge, where their retreat became a flight: and the British horse-artillery coming up at a gallop, poured grape and shrapnel on the flying Decisive masses, till the stream, now barely fordable, was choked victory. with corpses, and the water dyed with blood. Nearly 10,000 Sikhs perished in two hours, and the whole of their guns, sixty-seven in number, with standards and immense military stores, remained as trophies to the victors. The battle had begun in earnest at nine o'clock, and by eleven there was not a single Sikh soldier, except the dead and wounded, on the left bank of the river. The British loss was also severe, amounting to 2,383 in killed and wounded, and General Sir Robert Dick, who fell in the assault.

Advance of

army.

occupied.

Notification.

No time was lost in throwing the British army across the Sutlej by a bridge of boats, which was constructed by Major Abbott with the boats which Lord Ellen- the British borough had procured from Sinde; they crossed on the night of the action, and on the 11th envoys arrived from Lahore, followed by Rajah Goláb Singh on the 15th, and the boy, Máhárajah Dhuleep Singh, on the 17th. On the 20th, having advanced by easy marches, the army encamped on the Lahore plain of Meean Meer, without Lahore, and the citadel reached and was partly occupied by British troops. Sir Henry Hardinge, on February 22, issued a public notification reviewing the events that had occurred, and dwelling with a proud satisfaction on the fact that in sixty days he had defeated the flower of the Khulsa army in four general actions, and taken from them 220 pieces of artillery; that only 14,000 of their great army remained, and that he was now dictating a treaty, the conditions of which will tend to secure the British provinces from the repetition of a similar outrage.' On the 23rd, at a public durbar, the treaty itself was executed. All the Sikh territories on the left bank of the Sutlej, with the Jullunder the Sikh Dooáb, a fertile tract lying between the Sutlej and the Beyas, were to become British; 1,500,000l. to be provided, partly by cash, and partly by the sale of the mountain territory, which includes Kashmere; all the mutinous troops to be disbanded, and the army for the future to consist of twenty-five battalions of 800 each, or 20,000 men with 12,000 cavalry. Goláb Singh became the purchaser of Kashmere for a million Kashmere by sterling, and a separate treaty was made with him on March 16, at Umritsir, which secured to him and his heirs the sovereignty of the districts he had purchased. The sale of Kashmere was sharply criticised at the time; but its inaccessible

Treaty with

government,

Purchase of

Goláb Singh.

character, and the still uncertain relations with the Punjab, are conclusive reasons as to the necessity of then abandoning it.

On March 6, a subsidiary treaty was made with the Lahore Subsidiary State in regard to the retention of a body of British treaty. troops during the reconstruction of the government and the army, and was to be in force till the end of the year only. Major, afterwards Sir Henry, Lawrence was left in charge of affairs. The army brought away all the captured ordnance; and 250 superb guns, with their equipments, were marched through the British territories, and, halting at every station, were saluted by the troops, until they reached Calcutta, where they were publicly received with all honours. Without this demonstration it seemed probable that the British victories would have been considered as fictions by most of the native courts, so impossible did the cccurrences of this short but decisive war appear. In England the accounts of it were received with enthusiasm. The thanks of both Houses of Parliament were voted to the army, and the governor-general and Sir Hugh Gough were raised to the peerage; Sir Harry Smith was created a baronet, and honours of the Bath were freely distributed. Upon the army the governor-general conferred a donation of twelve months' batta, or extra allowance. Thus the first Sikh war ended, and with it the policy and foresight of Lord Ellenborough, in regard to Gwalior, were amply confirmed. If the Mahratta army had continued to exist in its lawless and disaffected condition, the counterpart of that of the Sikhs, it could not have been restrained, and under the fierce attack of the Sikhs in front, and that of Gwalior in the rear, the peril would have been ex

treme.

Procession of the Sikh guns to Calcutta.

Proceedings

Belochistan.

Although Sir Charles Napier had conquered Sinde proper by his defeat of the Ameers, there remained many unin Sinde and subdued Belóche tribes to the north-west, inhabiting the strong country of Cutch Gundáva, Murrees, Boogtees and others, which had, for an unknown period, defied alike Sinde and Persia, and, as habitual marauders, preyed upon Sinde with impunity. It was impossible to bring their chiefs to terms, and the perpetual menace of their forces, which were computed at 18,000 men, rendered a campaign against them unavoidable. This, with all his accustomed energy and skill, Sir Charles conducted in person, and moved into the enemy's territories on January 13, 1845. In spite of a more rugged country than had even been anticipated, bristling with strongholds, and after considerable resistance, the chief rebel, Beejá Khan, was defeated and eventually captured; and by March 9, this local war was at end. Nothing could have been more complete or meritorious than the

Successful campaign.

whole of Sir Charles Napier's military operations; they were those of a brave soldier and an eminent tactician; but his civil administration, upon which he most prided himself, civil goand which is detailed in The Administration of Sinde,' verument. though it effected many reforms of the preceding vicious native government, could not make a poor country rich, nor, although Sir Charles issued a memorable proclamation in Lord Ellenborough's style 'to his soldiers,' announcing and asserting the financial success of his measures, were either the Government or the public satisfied that it was true. The student of Indian affairs should not, however, neglect to read the works extant upon the bitterly-disputed question of Sinde, from Sir James Outram's commentary on The Conquest of Sinde,' to other works of Sir Charles Napier and his brother William in reply. The whole of the Sinde question, its conquest and its administration, are discussed in these volumes.

6

Lahore.

The weakest part of the new arrangements at Lahore was the confirmation of Lall Singh as executive minister: a Administraman of low origin, and the notorious paramour of the tion of Ranee, faithless alike to the Sikhs and to the English. The Ranee herself was recognised as nominal regent, and the advice and direction of Major Lawrence were to be available on all occasions. Lall Singh's perfidy was soon manifest. He had incited a rebellion in Kashmere against Goláb Singh, which was only suppressed by Major Lawrence himself, at the head of troops which had lately been fighting against English armies; his own orders in writing to the insurgent Imám-ood-deen were produced by that person, and Lall Singh was tried by an Trial of Lall assembly of Sikh chiefs, found guilty, and banished Singh. from Lahore to Benares on a pension.

control

Lord

Before the time arrived for the withdrawal of the British troops according to the terms of the treaty, the leading Sikh Continuance chiefs, convinced of the entire impossibility of forming of British or continuing a united or harmonious administration, requested. viewed the approaching departure of the English with dismay, and besought a continuance of assistance and direction until the rajah should attain his majority. Lord Hardinge, after every consideration of their request, gave a very re- Hardinge luctant assent: for he saw clearly that there was in reality no alternative between new disturbances in the Lahore State and their probable prevention by local British authority; and he chose the latter. On December 16, 1846, a new Execution of treaty was executed by all the principal chiefs of the a new treaty. Punjab, fifty-two in number, which provided that a council of regency of eight of them should be directed by the British Resi

consents.