1 112 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 succeeded only in driving it and themselves farther
3 and farther along the road to destruction.
4 Ranjit Singh's government was a military despotism.
5 The breaking up of the misls changed the whole
6 character of the Sikh constitution. Together with
7 their individual independence, the sirdars lost all
8 share in the direction of the affairs of their com-
9 munity. The gwrwmata, or parliament of the
10 Khalsa, became a thing of the past; the last was
11 called in 1805, and from that time forward the
12 word of the Maharaja was the law of the land. The
13 army, almost exclusively composed of Sikhs, was
14 the only effectively organized department in the State,
15 and constituted the ruler's sole instrument for the
16 control of his executive and the enforcement of his
17 decrees. The army was, in fact, the Khalsa, and it
18 was with the Sikh army and not with the peoples of
19 the Punjab that the British were, ten years later,
20 forced into collision. Ranjit Singh kept his im-
21 petuous and restive soldiery under control by the
22 maintenance of an iron discipline which they would
23 have been slow to endure at the hands of a less
24 courageous, less able, or less successful leader. That
25 they must get out of hand under Kharak Singh was
26 obvious to all who knew anything of that prince's
27 character ; but probably no one foresaw the violence
28 of the storm that was impending.
29 The revenue of the State amounted at this time
30 to nearly one and a half crores of rupees, or about
31 £1,500,000. Nearly five-sixths of this sum was
32 derived from land revenue, and the remainder from
33 customs and stamp duties. The accumulated incomes