1 Anarchy. 159
2 their deliberations were concluded, the minister and
3 his favourite, perceiving that their rule was at an
4 end, had fled the city. Their intention was to make
5 for Jammu ; but the troops of the Khalsa were in hot
6 pursuit, and ere noon of the following day they
7 were overtaken and slain, and by the evening their
8 heads adorned the gates of the capital.
9 The ministerial office was not immediately refilled,
10 and for the time everything was in the hands of the
11 Panches, who were themselves little more than the
12 spokesmen of the soldiery. The pay of the latter
13 was again increased, and so often had this measure
14 been repeated during the previous five years that the
15 cost of the army, always a heavy burden to the state,
16 became insupportable. Since the death of Maharaja
17 Ranjit Singh the strength of the regular forces had
18 been almost trebled, and the monthly military ex-
19 penditure had risen from four lakhs of rupees to
20 nine, equivalent to a yearly expenditure of more than
21 a million pounds sterling. During the same five
22 years, owing to the complete disorganization of the
23 administrative machinery, the income of the state
24 had fallen to the lowest ebb ; indeed, from some of
25 the more recently conquered provinces not a rupee of
26 revenue was coming in. To make provision for this
27 enormous and ever-increasing outlay was, therefore,
28 the first endeavour of the heads of the government.
29 Their second, and, it may be added, their only other
30 endeavour, was to find an outlet for the unwieldy
31 and inflammable forces whose power they dreaded
32 and whose growth they dared not check.
33 At the commencement of the year 1845 the