The fate of the Sikh sirdars, since Runjeet's death, has presented also a tragical catalogue: thirty-five have been murdered, seven died a natural death, eleven were killed in the late actions, twelve remain living at Lahore.
Under the present reduced state of the Sikh army, it is not the least probable that the nation can ever become again the formidable enemy which they have lately been found.
In the first place, their military establishment being numerically reduced to one-third of their late numbers, and the extent of the country requiring these to be quartered far apart, a British force of superior numbers could, in a few days, in case of an insurrection, take post under the walls of Lahore. The reduction of an army must, doubtless, impair the martial propensities of a nation, and when these weakened battalions are under the surveillance of the keen-eyes of the British agents, who must, henceforward, dwell in Lahore, we may reckon almost as safely on information reaching us of any irregularities, as we might in the native forces of India.
But, as I have before stated, the principal confidence of all Indian armies is placed in their guns. As the greater part of these are in our possession, and the Lahore arsenal cannot be as busily employed now, without our knowledge and consent, as formerly, the scarcity of cannon will be an obstacle, to which it ought not to be difficult to add a scarcity of artillerymen, for the profession is a noisy one, and therefore their practice is easily overheard, and without unremitting attention and practice, artillery are not usually very formidable.
In Ghoolab Singh, the British Government ought to possess a tower of strength, for they have made him a greater man than he ever was before; and it must palpably be his interest to maintain amicable relations with the British, having paid beforehand for his alliance in solid rupees. The tribute of a few goats and shawls cannot be very irksome to the governor of Cashmere, as the price of the guarantee for his dominions; and not being himself a Sikh by parentage, and most of his army being also aliens to the Punjaubees, there cannot be much danger of a collusion between that chief and any Sikh sirdars who might desire a change of administration.
The establishment of so powerful a chief as Ghoolab Singh as our ally, on a line of hill territories bordering the whole Punjaub on the north, has afforded a security sufficient to deter the Sikhs from any thoughts of hostility, so long as the chief of Cashmere remains contented with his principality, or unable to discover more powerful friends than the British.
I cannot for one moment do Ghoolab Singh the injustice of supposing, that he would prefer the precarious sovereignty of the Punjaub to his present secure and extensive government. The lesson which that sirdar must have learned, when within a hair's breadth of being sacrificed to a popular turmoil in Lahore, operated so favourably, that he manifested the utmost desire to return to his mountains as soon as practicable after the departure of the British authorities from the Sikh capital. But should ambition whisper such a wild project in his ear as to aim at the throne of Lahore, prudence would surely suggest that the Sikh nation had recently experienced how much could be done against the British with a chance of success.
The tract of country between the Beeas and the Sutlej, known as the Jullundur Dooab[68] which was ceded to us in the first treaty arranged by Ghoolab Singh at Kussoor, though extending over territory, will, on reference to the map, be seen to contract the actual frontier line.
That frontier, uniting at the northern angle with the territories of our ally, Ghoolab Singh, and overlooking, from a strongly defensible country, the city of Umritsir and fort of Govindghur, has materially altered our position relative to the Punjaub.
The new forts built as our outposts on that frontier will not, it is to be devoutly hoped, be encumbered by large towns and cantonments; or, if that be deemed indispensable, the area of the new fortresses should be sufficiently extensive to admit all European inhabitants to take refuge within their defences.