1 260 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 with the Ranee, and vacate an appointment which
3 “he had accepted merely to suit his own political
4 views. From being a vassal of Lahore, he was
5 His indepen: NOW about to become an independent Rajah, not
6 gained. only of his own territory of Jummoo, but of the
7 whole mountainous tract between the Beas and
8 the Indus; and this accession of authority and in-
9 fluence arose from a war which he himself had
10 heiovasion secretly fostered, with a view: of reducing the
11 of the Sikhs power of the Lahore government, and rendering it
12 tame wholly dependent for its existence on one with
13 which he knew he could make favourable terms
14 for securing his own independence.
15 But in accomplishing his own end, to what a
16 degraded condition has he reduced the government
17 of Lahore! We believe that few will be inclined
18 to doubt what we have asserted, namely, that in
19 reality no independent government now exists in
20 the Punjab. Through the fortune of war, the
21 Sikhs were so completely humbled by the British,
22 that the means of governing their vast kingdom no
23 longer existed ; and it has been shown, that long
24 The cession of before the Jalindhur Doab was ceded to the Bri-
25 mater ofne- tigh, the hill tribes, occupying the mountainous
26 one districts of it, had thrown off their allegiance to the
27 government of Lahore ; so that our taking posses-
28 sion of this Doab was a mere matter of necessity,
29 forced upon the British in consequence of having
30 weakened and broken the power which had, here-
31 The sane xe. tofore, been paramount in this Doab. The same
32 mark true of . é ;
33 makes” reasoning applies to Cashmere, and other hilly