1 314 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 Lal Singh ne- necessarily adopted by Lal Singh, to meet the
3 ee emergency which has overtaken the government.
4 such people. With the most rigid economy, he can only hope to’
5 keep up a small army for the support of the nomi-
6 nal government.
7 The reductions already effected in the revenues
8 of the sirdars and their followers, have caused a
9 loud cry of discontent, and these disbanded and re-
10 fractory Sikhs will readily raise their arms against
11 a government from which they can expect nothing.
12 The force sent The force sent against Kote Kangra under Bri-
13 eee Ken: gadier Wheeler, consisted of the 2nd, 11th, 4Ist,
14 and 44th, and a wing of the 63rd regiment, Native
15 infantry; with a siege train of three eighteen pound-
16 ers, two eight-inch howitzers, and six mortars,
17 under Colonel Wood, with Captain Fitzgerald’s
18 battery.
19 Ajeet Singn Our old friend the Ladwa Rajah Ajeet Singh
20 Ran does not appear inclined to abandon his hostile
21 intentions against the British, for he is stated to be
22 in Kote Kangra, urging the garrison to offer a de-
23 termined resistance to both the Sikhs and British.
24 He has now become desperate, having lost his pa-
25 ternal estate of Ladwa, and forfeited his jagheer of
26 Buddeewal. Should he fall into the hands of
27 either the Sikh or British government, he will
28 doubtless receive the just reward of the malice he
29 has displayed towards his former protectors in par-
30 ticular.
31 Tt would be highly injudicious on the part of the
32 British, to expend their shells and shot on a place