Battle of A.D. of it, was drooping from hunger, not having tasted food for 1845 thirty-six hours, and wholly without ammunition, and that, if vigorously attacked, the most brilliant courage could not have saved it from utter destruction. The British empire in India was again saved by a miracle. Our loss was 2,415 killed and wounded, including 103 officers. The battle of Ferozeshuhur was the most severe and critical the British army had ever fought in India. Never before had we encountered so resolute and so skilful an enemy; but it was the defect of our tactics and the deficiency of our ammunition, quite as much as the courage of the Sikhs, which for a time gave a character of equality to the struggle. The tide of invasion had now been stemmed, and of the 60,000 Khalsa soldiers who had poured down on the Company's territories twelve days before, not one remained in arms on the left bank of the Sutlej. But the two engagements had cost the army a fifth of its numbers and exhausted its ammunition, and it became necessary to bring up a large supply of stores as well as siege guns from the nearest depôt, which was at Delhi, 200 miles distant. The army was thus condemned to a season of inactivity, which the Sikhs attributed to timidity or to weakness, and Runjoor Sing crossed the river in force, and threatened the station of Loodiana. Sir Harry Smith was sent to cover it, but owing to his own obstinacy, he received a serious check at Buddewal which gave no little confidence to the Sikh commander; and it became necessary to make a vigorous effort to clear the left bank of the Sutlej of the enemy, and prevent an attack on the long convoy coming up from Delhi. General Smith's force was therefore raised to 11,000, and the two forces met at Aliwal, on the banks of the river. The hill men who defended it were speedily put to flight, but the Khalsa soldiers, men of true Sikh blood and mettle, stood their ground with unflinching courage, and it was not before their ranks had been thrice pierced by Colonel Cureton's cavalry, that they retreated to the river, in which many found a watery grave, leaving sixty-seven guns as trophies in the hands of the victors. This serious reverse disheartened the cabinet at Lahore. Lall Sing, the prime minister, was deposed for his incapacity, and Golab Sing was invited from Jummoo to open negotiations with Sir Henry Hardinge. He was informed that the Governor-General was prepared to acknowledge a Sikh sovereignty at Lahore, but not till the Khalsa army had been entirely disbanded. Golab Sing 1846 informed him that it was impossible to control the move- A.D. ment of the troops, who continued to domineer over the 1846 public authorities, and the negotiation was broken off. While the Commander-in-Chief was awaiting the arrival of the train from Delhi, the Sikhs were transporting their forces across the Sutlej at the Hurrekee ford, Battle of where they erected one of the strongest works Sobraon. against which troops had ever been led in India. It consisted of a series of semicircular entrenchments, with the river for their base, the outer line being two miles and a half in circumference, surrounded by a deep ditch. The ramparts were defended by sixty-seven pieces of heavy ordnance and 35,000 Khalsa soldiers. A bridge of boats united the entrenchment with the encampment across the river, where heavy guns had also been planted to sweep the left bank. The long train of ordnance and stores coming up from Delhi marched into the camp on the 8th February, and raised the drooping spirits of the men. General Smith's troops also joined the army, and increased its strength to 15,000, of whom 5,000 were Europeans. The heavy ordnance was planted on commanding positions opposite the enemy's entrenchments, and opened upon them at seven in the morning of the 10th February. The Sikhs answered flash for flash from their powerful artillery, and at nine it was found that the cannonade had made no impression on their position; the ammunition, moreover, began to fall short, and, after having waited seven weeks for these guns, it was discovered that they were of little avail, and that the issue of the conflict must be left to the arbitrament of musketry and the bayonet. The attack was made in three divisions on three points, by Generals Dick, Gilbert, and Smith. Sir Robert Dick's division was the first to move up to the attack, and, charging home with the bayonet, cleared the ditch and mounted the rampart. The Sikhs perceiving that this was to be the principal point of attack, slackened the defence of the entrenchments elsewhere, and concentrated their guns on it. Fresh regiments were sent up to reinforce General Dick, but they were staggered and checked by the deadly fire of the Sikhs. The other two divisions were therefore ordered to make a simultaneous attack, which the enemy no sooner perceived than they immediately returned to the posts they had quitted, and from every foot of the entrenchment poured a withering fire of grape, round shot, and musketry. The most remarkable occurrence of the day was the charge of General Gilbert's division on the A.D. centre; his troops were repeatedly driven back, but their 1846 indomitable courage mastered the entrenchment, though not without the loss of 689 killed and wounded. The Sikh defences were at length pierced in all three directions. Tej Sing was among the first to fly, and either by accident or design, broke down the bridge after he had crossed it. The Khalsa soldiers, pressed on three sides into a confused mass, still continued to dispute every inch of ground till they were forced to the bridge, and, preferring death to surrender, plunged wildly into the stream, which had risen during the night and flooded the ford, and they perished by hundreds in their attempt to cross. The confusion, dismay, and carnage were such as had not been seen in India since the battle of Paniput. The loss on the side of the Sikhs was computed at 8,000, and the whole of their encampment, with all their artillery, standards, and stores fell to the victors. The loss on our side was 2,383 in killed and wounded, but the victory was complete. The conquerors, as they beheld the trenches filled with the bodies of their iron-hearted defenders, and the fords of the Sutlej choked up with thousands of corpses, and the river itself exhibiting in every direction the wreck of a great army, did not fail to pay a tribute of admiration to the gallantry and devotedness of the noble Khalsa legions. The army Punjab. Major Abbot had been employed day and night in constructing a bridge of the boats which Sir Henry Hardinge had brought up from Sinde to Ferozepore, and enters the it was completed the night before the battle. Sir Henry had been actively engaged in the field at Sobraon, and was severely injured by a fall from his horse, but as soon as the victory was assured, he rode twentysix miles to Ferozepore to hasten the passage of the troops, and that night six regiments bivouacked in the Punjab. Three days after the action, the whole force, which, including camp followers, fell little short of 100,000 men, and 68,000 animals and forty pieces of artillery, crossed the river without a single casualty. On the line of march to the capital, a deputation from the Sikh cabinet, with Golab Sing at their head, waited on the Governor-General, but they were received as the representatives of an offending Government and their complimentary presents were declined. Soon after, the maharaja Dhuleep Sing came into the camp, and was dismissed with honour. On the 20th the citadel of Lahore was occupied by a British garrison, and the army was encamped on the plain of Meeanmeer. Sir Henry ments. The issue of the war had placed the Punjab at the dis- A.D. posal of the Governor-General, and he might have annexed 184€ it to the Company's dominions, but he did not consider it prudent to encumber the Government Hardinge's with the charge of a new kingdom. The morale arrangeof the army, moreover, was low, the season of heat and prostration was approaching, and the four battles had reduced his European strength to 3,000 men, while the remnant of the Sikh army still mustered 14,000, with forty pieces of cannon. He determined, therefore, to punish the Sikh nation for its wanton aggression without suppressing its political independence, and he simply deprived it of the possessions held south of the Sutlej and the province of Jullunder across it. The state was required to make good the expenses of the campaign, computed at a crore and a half of rupees, but the profligacy of the ministers and the rapacity of the soldiery had reduced the twelve crores left by Runjeet Sing to half a crore. Sir Henry Hardinge determined, therefore, to take over the province of Cashmere in lieu of the remaining crore, and Golab Sing, the powerful raja of Jummoo, stepped forward and offered to pay this sum on being constituted the independent monarch of Cashmere and Jummoo. The two provinces were, in fact, sold to him, but he merely received an indefeasible title to that which was already in his possession, and which we were not in a position to deprive him of. Settlement The settlement of the Punjab was embodied in the treaty of the 9th March, which provided that the Khalsa army should be disbanded, that the military force of the state should be limited to 20,000 infantry of the and 12,000 cavalry, and that all the guns which Punjab. had been pointed against British troops should be given up. Although the war had terminated in the total defeat of the Khalsa army and the dismemberment of the Punjab, the fact of our triumph was doubted in the native community, more especially as it was unwelcome. The natives had looked with a feeling of complacency on the growth of the new kingdom in the Punjab, the cradle of Hindooism, as the germ of a power destined to restore Hindoo supremacy throughout India. Sir Henry Hardinge considered it important to remove this feeling of incredulity, and to demonstrate that the power of Runjeet Sing was completely prostrated. A grand procession was accordingly formed of the 250 guns obtained from the Sikhs, which was conducted from Lahore to Calcutta with every demonstration of A.D. military pomp. It was received at the stations and canton1846 ments by the public functionaries with all honour, and its arrival in Calcutta was celebrated by a magnificent ceremonial. In England, the thanks of Parliament were moved to Sir Henry Hardinge, Sir Hugh Gough, and their brave companions by Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington, in speeches which enhanced their value in no small degree. Peerages were bestowed on the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief, and a baronetcy on the victor of Aliwal. To all the troops engaged in the campaign Lord Hardinge granted twelve months' full batta, without waiting for permission from home. At the earnest entreaty of the durbar, Lord Hardinge consented to leave a British force for the protection of the maharaja and the new government, but only to the end of the year; and Major Henry Lawrence, of the Bengal Artillery, was selected as New arrangements in the Punjab. the representative of the Government at the Lahore court. Lall Sing, the paramour of the ranee, was appointed prime minister. He was a man of low extraction, without any capacity for civil or military affairs, and his administration, which was both venal and oppressive, rendered him odious to the chiefs and the people. His treachery to the British government soon brought his career to a close. Cashmere had been made over to the raja Golab Sing, but the governor, Sheik Imam-ood-deen, at first hesitated, and then refused to surrender it. Major Lawrence considered it indispensable to extinguish the first spark of resistance, and at the risk of being blocked up by the snows of winter, marched with the utmost promptitude with a large force, consisting of 10,000 of the Sikh army which we had recently conquered, and a small detachment of British troops. The refractory chief was reduced to submission, and, in his own defence, produced a written order from Lall Sing to obstruct the transfer. A mixed commission of European officers and Sikh chieftains assembled to investigate the charge of treachery, which was fully substantiated, and, in spite of the tears of the ranee, he was banished from the Punjab and consigned to oblivion on a pension. At the close of the year, the Sikh cabinet and the most influential nobles assured Lord Hardinge that the withdrawal of the British force would inevitably lead to the resuscitation of the Khalsa army, and he yielded with great reluctance to their importunity. A new treaty was drawn up to which fifty-two chiefs affixed their seals, which provided that a |