1 182 CHARACTER OF RUNJEET SINGH,
2 With respect to the policy and iaternal Governmeut of
3 RuNJEET Singh, the most remarkable feature is, the
4 entire absence of any thing like system, or principle ia
5 his management. His career throughout has been that of
6 an encroaching usurper, and seizer of all within his reach,
7 but what he has so possessed himself of, he subjects to no
8 systematic administration. The whole is committed to
9 farmers, with full power to deal with the lives and pro-
10 perties of the producing classes of the population, RuN-
11 JEET Singh trusting to his own military means, for the
12 control of these farmers, and for the exaction from them
13 of any extra gains he may learn that they have made.
14 Nevertheless his extortions are directed chiefly against
15 the old Sikh families, and his own state officers : mer-
16 chants and traders are protected, and the duties and
17 taxes, to which they are subjected, are not for the most
18 part immoderate. Runjeet Singh has however shown
19 a disposition himself to become a dealer in some articles,
20 as in shawls, salt, &c. and all that he touches becomes of
21 course monopoly, or in some other shape the source of
22 exaction and corrupt gain.
23 It cannot be said, that Runjeet Singh has yet given
24 to the Punjab any constitution or fixed form of Govern-
25 ment. There is no law, written or oral, and no courts
26 of justice have been any where established. The Gooroo-
27 Mata, or old council of the Sikhs, has, with every other
28 institution adapted to the state of things which existed
29 before the establishment of the supremacy of the present
30 ruler, been entirely discontinued. The last council of the
31 kind was held, when llolkur fled into the Punjab, and
32 the British armies followed in pursuit, and it was a ques-.
33 tion what part the Sikhs as a nation should take in the