1 THE SECOND, SIKH WAR. 557
2 ciplined troops, together with their park_of artillery consisting of about
3 400 guns, the result of Ranjit Singh’s organization, still remaining to them,
4 while by the terms of the treaty their country was shorn of its most
5 fertile provinces. The Court of Lahore was as dissolute in politics as
6 in morals, and encouraged faithlessness to the British, Major Henry
7 Lawrence, who had been left at Lithore with 10,000 British troops, laboured
8 hard to keep order, but ill-health compelled him to leave the Panjdéb
9 in November, 1847, and his place was occupied for a time by his brother,
10 Sir John, afterwards Lord Lawrence, and ultimately conferred on Sir
11 Frederick Currie, formerly Chief Secretary to Government, who assumed
12 charge on the 6th of April, 1848.
13 Mul Rdj, the Dewdn of Multdn, a practised disciple of deceit and
14 cunning, had succeeded his father Sdwan Mul in 1844. The province
15 of Multén, as held by M&l Raj in the spring of 1848, extended from the
16 district of Kachi on the left bank of the Indus, on the north, to the eastern
17 frontier of Sindh, on the south, and from Chichdwatni, on the Ravi and
18 Tibbi, on the Sutlej, on the east, to the Sulaimdén Mountains, Trans-Indus, on
19 the west.* Sdwan Mil had strengthened the fort of Multan, by digging
20 around it a broad and deep ditch faced with masonry, and throwing up
21 a glacis, while within the ditch, was a formidable wall, 30 feet high, He
22 aspired at sovereign power, and his eldest son, Mil Raj, was reared up
23 amid dreams of future independence. On Sdwan Mul’s death, Mal Raj
24 was confirmed in the Governorship of Multan, on condition of paying thirty
25 lakhs of rupees as nazrdnd, or a succession fee tothe Darbdr, and the
26 enormous sum of ninety lakhs of rupees, hoarded by the old Dewdn during
27 a long peried of 23 years, was divided by the new Governor with his
28 brothers, Rajd Lal Singh, on the re-establishment of the Lahore Govern-
29 ment, sent a force against Mul Raj to secure the payment of the nazrdnd ;
30 but the troops were defeated near Jhang. The British Resident at Lahore
31 intervened, and it was arranged that the district of Jhang should be
32 removed from the jurisdiction of Mul Raj, that the succession fee should
33 be reduced to twenty lakhs and the revenue of the districts still left under
34 his charge raised in amount by more than one-third. As observed by Sir
35 John Lawrence, Mul Raj “faithfully fulfilled his pecuniary engagements
36 up to the time of his rebellion,” but he proved himself grasping and
37 avaricious, and rendered himself obnoxious to the trading and agricultural
38 classes, who complained bitterly of his exactions. The old Dewan’s
39 popularity in the province which he governed was proverbial, Mal Raj,
40 who had inherited none of his liberal views or conciliatory qualities, de-
41 liberately broke up many of his wise institutions. Indeed, his character
42 was sufficiently known to the people before the death of his father, and a
43 proverb is still current in the district of Jhang, having reference to the Sikh
44 times, to the effect that while Multdén was blessed with dwar (or rains)
45 Leia with Karam (kindness), Jhang was cursed with J/ulé (an insect which
46 eats the roots of the corn). -
47 The Darbér interfered with Mil Raj’s coercive measures at Multén, as
48 they could not be tolerated so long as State affairs were under the supervi-
49 sion of a British Resident. Mul Raj asked leave to come to Ldhore, and, in
50 his interview with the Resident, Sir John Lawrence, expressed his desire
51 * Edwardes.
52 +The old dewan, to relieve himself of some of the cares of Government, and accustom
53 his sons to business, pub the province of Jhang {then included in Multan) under charge of
54 Mul Réj and Leia under his second son Karam Narayan ; he himself remaining in Multin,—A
55 Year on the Panjdb Frontier, by Sir Herbert Edwardes. .
56 Mul Raj, the Dewan
57 of Dfultin,
58 The fortifications of
59 Multan.
60 He renders himself
61 obnoxious to the
62 people,
63 The Darbar
64 interferes,
65 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com