1 186 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 the sum of seventy-five lakhs of rupees, a sum
3 practically equivalent to the unpaid portion of the
4 war indemnity. In the year 1808, Ghulab Singh
5 was earning three rupees a month and his rations as
6 a common soldier in an obscure fortress on the banks
7 of the Jhelam. He was now, while still under sixty
8 years of age, the absolute monarch of 80,000
9 square miles of territory. If he was not at the top
10 of the ladder of his ambition, he was certainly
11 as high up on it as he deserved to be — higher
12 even than that, in the opinion of many. But what-
13 ever his faults, Ghulab Singh was a statesman
14 of proved ability. At this time he was the only
15 chief in the Punjab fitted to rule a wild country like
16 Kashmir, and the only one capable of paying seventy-
17 five lakhs of rupees for the privilege of doing so.
18 On the conclusion of these treaties, Sir Henry
19 Hardinge withdrew from Lahore, leaving Colonel
20 Henry Lawrence behind him as his agent. The
21 government of the state was vested in a council of
22 leading men, with Raja Lai Singh as minister. In
23 this council the influence of the court party predom-
24 inated, and, as a consequence, intrigues of various
25 kinds were soon afoot. The Rani and her advisers
26 had submitted to the Treaty of Lahore because no
27 other course was open to them ; but they were
28 determined to place as many obstacles as possible in
29 the way of its enforcement. In the month of May,
30 the Sikh commandant at Kangra, acting under secret
31 instructions from Lahore, refused to deliver up his
32 fortress to the British, to whom, under the treaty, it
33 now belonged. When, however, he saw himself