216 PARDON OF THE VELLORE MUTINEERS. [CHAP. the Chairman and his deputy at the India House and asking their final instructions, there seemed to be only two points on which they felt any anxiety-the importance of adhering most scrupulously to the policy of non-interference, and of controlling the consumption of penknives, which appeared by the latest indent to be growing extravagant. On reaching Madras he found himself called upon, as his first act of government, to determine the fate of the Vellore mutineers. Seventeen of the ringleaders had been executed by sentence of court-martial, but six hundred yet awaited their doom. Great difficulty had been felt in obtaining evidence of individual guilt. The excitement and animosity created by the mutiny had, moreover, subsided; the confidence of the army had been restored, and the officers ceased to sleep with pistols under their pillows. Lord William Bentinck advised the adoption of a mild course; the Commander-in-chief advocated a severe example. The Supreme Government, to whom the matter was referred, ordered the whole party to be transported beyond sea, which, to Hindoos, would have been a penalty worse than death. Lord Minto adopted the more generous and lenient counsel of Lord William Bentinck, and ordered that they should be dismissed the service, and declared incapable of ever re-entering it. BundlekundAnarchy of the province, 1807-1812. On his arrival in Calcutta, the early attention of Lord Minto was drawn to the state of anarchy into which the feeble policy of his predecessor had plunged the province of Bundlekund. By the treaty of Bassein the Peshwa had ceded to the Company for the support of the subsidiary force districts in the southern Mahratta country and near Surat, yielding twenty-six lacs of rupees a-year. A twelvemonth after they were exchanged for districts in Bundlekund, and the transfer was considered mutually beneficial. The lands in the Deccan were isolated from the Company's dominions, and the defence and management of them would have proved both troublesome and expensive, while they abutted on the Peshwa's territories. The XXIV.] ANARCHY IN BUNDLEKUND. 217 districts in Bundlekund were more handy for the British Government, while the Peshwa's authority in them was nominal, and they yielded him no revenue. The exchange, which received the high sanction of General Wellesley, was effected in a supplementary treaty of December, 1803. The province, however, was a prey to anarchy. It was overrun with innumerable military adventurers, who gained a subsistence by plunder, and who were necessarily opposed to any form of settled government. A hundred and fifty castles were held by as many chieftains, and they were incessantly at feud with each other. The inhabitants, a bold and independent race, were disgusted with the stringency of our judicial and fiscal system, and deserted their villages, and too often joined the banditti. Two forts, Calinger and Ajygur, universally considered impregnable, were held by chiefs who owed all their power to rapine and violence, and headed the opposition to the British authorities. Lord Lake assured the Government in Calcutta that the peace of the province could never be maintained without obtaining possession of these fortresses, which might be effected by a vigorous effort in a single campaign; but Sir George Barlow replied that "a certain extent of dominion, local power, and revenue, would be cheaply sacrificed for tranquillity and security within a more contracted circle." The sacrifice was made, but the tranquillity and security were more distant than ever. The chiefs who had seized the forts were left in possession of them, and sunnuds, or deeds, were granted to them and to some of the most notorious leaders of the freebooters, recognizing their right to the lands they had usurped, upon a vague promise of allegiance. Due respect was likewise paid to the principle of non-interference, by allowing them to decide their disputes by the sword, and this fair province, endowed with the richest gifts of nature, was turned into a desert. Lord Minto's Within five weeks after Lord Minto had asvigorous policy, sumed the Government, he adopted the resolution 1807. 218 SUBJUGATION OF BUNDLEKUND. [CHAP. that "it was essential, not only to the preservation of political influence over the chiefs of Bundlekund, but to the dignity and reputation of the British Government to interfere for the suppression of intestine disorder." The whole policy of the state was at once changed, and it was announced throughout the province that Government was determined to enforce obedience to its authority. The numerous rajas, who had hitherto treated with contempt the maudlin advice of the commissioner, hastened to make their submission when they found the Governor-General in earnest, and agreed at once to refer their disputes to the decision of British officers. But it was found impossible to extirpate the banditti which infested the country, while they could obtain shelter in the great fortresses; a military force was, therefore, sent to reduce them, and Ajygur was surrendered after a breach had been made in the walls. But one military adventurer, Gopal Sing, by his astonishing skill, activity, and resolution, aided by the natural advantages of a country filled with fastnesses, contrived to evade the British troops in a series of desultory and harassing movements, for a period of four years. He offered his submission at length, on condition of receiving a full pardon and a provision for his family, and the Government, weary of a conflict which appeared to be interminable, granted him a jaygeer of eighteen villages. The last fortress to submit was the renowned Calinger, which had baffled the efforts of Mahmood of Ghizni, eight centuries before. It was likewise in the siege of this fort that Shere Shah was killed, in 1545, and the Peshwa's representative, Ali Bahadoor, had recently besieged it in vain for two years. It was surrendered after an arduous siege, in which the British force was, on one occasion, repulsed with the loss of 150 in killed and wounded. The peace and happiness of Bundlekund were restored, to be soon, alas, destroyed again by one of the Company's pucka, or unscrupulous collectors, who rack-rented the province, and blighted its prosperity as effectively as the freebooters had done before him. XXIV.] Career of RISE OF RUNJEET SING. 219 The difficulty of maintaining the practice of Runjeet Sing, non-intervention was still more clearly demon1780-1808. strated before Lord Minto had been a twelvemonth in office, in reference to the proceedings of Runjeet Sing, whose career now claims attention. On the retirement of the Abdalee from India after the battle of Paniput, the affairs of the Punjab fell into confusion, and the half military half religious community of the Sikhs, who had been oppressed by all the successive rulers of the country, had an opportunity of gradually enlarging and consolidating their power. This country, lying in the track of every invader, from Alexander the Great to Ahmed Shah Abdalee, and which had been subject to greater vicissitudes and a more frequent change of masters than any other Indian province, was now in the hands of the Sikhs. Their commonwealth was divided into fraternities, termed misils, the chief of each of which was the leader in war, and the arbiter in time of peace. Of these clans, twelve were deemed the foremost in rank. Churut Sing, the head of one of the least considerable, had commenced a course of encroachments on his neighbours, which was carried on by his son, Maha Sing. He died in 1792, leaving an only son, Runjeet Sing, who at the early age of seventeen entered upon that career of ambition and aggrandisement, which, by a rare combination of cunning and audacity, resulted in the establishment of a power as great as that of Sevajee or Hyder. He acquired great credit for his prowess when, in 1799, Zemaun Shah entered the Punjab, which was still considered as an appendage of the crown of Cabul. Runjeet Sing had the discretion to aid him in moving his guns across the Jhelum, and was rewarded by the important grant of the town of Lahore, which was the capital of the country even before the Mahomedans crossed the Indus, and had always been associated with the supreme authority in the province. From 1803 to 1806, Runjeet Sing was diligently employed in extending his authority over the dif ferent fraternities and chiefs in the Punjab. In 1806, the 220 The Sikh States course of his conquests brought him down to the banks of the Sutlege, and he cast a wishful eye on the plains beyond it. Between the Sutlege and the Jumna lay the province of Sirhind, occupied by about twenty independent Sikh principalities, of greater or less extent, the most considerable of which was Putteeala, with a revenue of about twenty lacs of rupees a-year, and a population of a million and a quarter. The chiefs had been obliged to bend to the authority of Sindia, which General Perron had extended to the vicinity of the Sutlege, but two of them, Kythul and Jheend, had rendered important services to Lord Lake in the campaigns of 1803 and 1805, and were recompensed with large grants of land. As the British power had now superseded that of the Mahrattas in this region, these petty princes offered their submission and fealty to it, and, although there were no mutual engagements in writing, considered themselves under the suzerainty of the Company, and entitled to their protection. The ambition of Runjeet Sing, which had as yet received no check, led him to contemplate the annexation of these states, and the extension of his dominions to the banks of the Jumna. He proceeded with his usual caution. A sharp dispute had arisen between the chiefs of Putteeala and Naba, and the raja of Naba invoked the interposition of Runjeet Sing, who crossed the Sutlege with a large body of horse, and dictated terms of reconciliation. No notice was taken of this encroachment by the Resident at Delhi, and Runjeet Sing flattered himself that he had no opposition to apprehend from the Company's officers. In 1807, the raja of Putteeala and his wife were again at variance regarding a settlement for her son; Runjeet Sing was called in, and crossed the Sutlege a second time. He decreed an allowance of 50,000 rupees ayear to the boy, and received as a token of gratitude a valuable diamond necklace, and, what he valued still more, a celebrated brass gun. On his way home, he levied contributions on some of the petty chiefs, seized their forts and lands, and carried off all their cannon to augment his own artillery, which |