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2 CHAPTER VII. .
3 THE GOVERNMENT AND ARMY OP THE PUNJAUB.
4 Although, under any circumstances that may
5 arise to give the British a more direct influence
6 over the Sikhs, it is to be presumed that the
7 system of rule that has been in force since the
8 latter became an independent nation, will not be
9 tolerated in its original form, it may nevertheless
10 be useful to describe the nature of the govern-
11 ment to which the people have been accustomed.
12 In a previous chapter we have shown that,
13 after the overthrow of the Mahomedan dominion
14 in the Punjaub, the Sikh chieftains formed them-
15 selves into an oligarchy, which, like all similar
16 institutions of which history preserves a record,
17 gradually fell under the yoke of one family more
18 potent than the rest, and at length of one man.
19 The only government, therefore, of which the
20 Sikhs have had any experience were the aris-
21 tocratic and the despotic, and judging from their
22 conduct and their internal prosperity under these