1 216 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 broken prosperity. It may be doubted whether the
3 history of any country in the world can show, within an
4 equally short period, so remarkable a record of social,
5 political, and material development as is to be found
6 in the administration reports of this province since it
7 fell under the control of the British Government.
8 The military organization of the new territory was
9 carried out under the personal direction of Lord
10 Dalhousie. For the protection of the North- West
11 Frontier a line of forts and cantonments 500 miles
12 in length was established, and to hold this line a new
13 force, called the Punjab Frontier Force, was created.
14 It consisted of five regiments of cavalry, five of
15 infantry, three horse field-brigades, two companies of
16 sappers and miners, a camel corps, and the celebrated
17 corps of guides originally raised by Henry Lawrence
18 in 1846. The full strength of this force was 11,000
19 men, of whom as many as 10 per cent, were Sikhs.
20 To secure the internal peace of the province a police
21 force was formed numbering 15,000 men, and in this,
22 too, many Sikhs were enrolled. Half of this latter
23 force was organized on military lines, and special
24 duties were entrusted to it, such as the guarding of
25 jails, treasuries, and frontier posts, and the providing
26 of escorts for civil officers and the protection of
27 treasure in transit. As an additional safeguard, the
28 people of all districts except those on the North- West
29 Frontier were disarmed. ■■»
30 The civil administration was conducted on the
31 non-regulation system — that is to say, the ordinary
32 laws and regulations were not formally introduced,
33 and officers, though required to conform to the