[11] The credit of this improvement is due to Lord Ellenborough.
[12] Some of the soldiers had suggested the murder of the sirdars, Lal Singh and Tig Singh (two chiefs of the army), as a temporary amusement, but the majority being indifferent to the measure, the subject was allowed to drop.
[13] Lal Singh's presence with the army was deemed, by the Punchees, (military delegates,) a politic measure, and a sort of security for the good behaviour of her respectable majesty the Ranee.
[14] Ghoolab Singh, Soochet Singh, and Dyan Singh, were three brothers who had risen to eminence in the time of Runjeet, from comparative obscurity. The two latter fell, during the wholesale massacres at Lahore, a short time ago.
[15] In the hot season, when the rains set in, the heavy floods and inundations are a sufficient protection to the frontier.
THE BRITISH FORCES—THE SIKH ARMY CROSS THE SUTLEJ—THE BATTLE OF MOODKEE—POSITION AND OPERATIONS CONSIDERED.
Under the circumstances thus briefly detailed, it would appear to have been expedient to bring matters at once to a crisis; for this annual threatening posture assumed by the gigantic incubus which Runjeet Singh had created on our threshold, could not be suffered permanently to draw the strength of the British forces in the presidency to guard their frontier. But it was generally understood that the wishes of Leadenhall Street were strongly in favour of a pacific line of conduct, and thus the governor-general had little choice as to the line of operations to be pursued.