1 INTRODUCTION. XIX
2 ment of the Resident at Delhi may have been borne in mind
3 by the Envoy at Lahore.* The Bhurtpore Usurper after a
4 time, however, was deposed, but Sheer Sing was allowed to
5 end his days in possession of the rajh. Lord Amherst pluck-
6 ed up courage after a short time, but Lord Auckland (not-
7 withstanding his love for legitimacy) remained timid to the
8 last, though he refused to acknowledge Sheer Sing until he
9 stood in need of his assistance ; so that we may suppose he
10 only objected to support a woman's rule in the Punjaub, having
11 himself so completely failed in his attempt to keep an old
12 woman on the throne of Cabul. But I believe the real fact
13 is, Sheer Sing was considered the Louis Philippe of Lahore,
14 "The King of the People," and the rajh was supposed to
15 be as safe in his hands as it had been in old Runjeet's;
16 though, if such was the case, how little did our Government
17 know of the intrigues of that arch hypocrite, Dehan Sing,
18 a Sejanus to Runjeet, who merely placed Sheer Sing on the
19 guddee to destroy him, knowing he was too ambitious and
20 too powerful to be passed over; for there is not the least
21 doubt that the Minister and the Prince had arranged matters,
22 even before the death of the one-eyed monarch, as Sheer Sing
23 spoke to Colonel Skinner on the subject of his succeeding to
24 the guddee, when Lord Auckland and Sir Henry Fane were at
25 Ferozepore with the "Army of the Indus," though Kurruck
26 Sing was only a few years his senior, and No Nehal Sing
27 settled every thing at Bhurtpore without firing a shot !— proving, that as a diplo-
28 matist, as well as a military man he was superlatively great. Sir David was born at
29 Boston, New England, in 1758, so that in 1825 he was only sixty-seven,— younger
30 than most of our Indian generals.
31 * It appeared to be the wish of the Indian Government to add insult to injury, and
32 to forget who had conquered the Nepalese and defended Delhi, while the panic that
33 had so often prevailed within the Mahratta ditch was their only excuse for this gross
34 piece of ingratitude : indeed they were so much alarmed that they not only ordered
35 Sir David not to depose Doorjun Saul, but to prepare to act on the defensive ! which
36 even brought a smile on his lips in the midst of his anger.