A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. VIII LORD ELLENBOROUGH: SHER SINGH 253
his power and magnificence. He felt his incapacity as a 1842.
ruler, and he needlessly feared that he might be called to
account for Sikh excesses and for a suspected intercourse
with the hostile Amirs of Sind then trembling for their fate,
and even that the subjugation of the Punjab was to be made
the stepping-stone to the complete reduction of Afghanistan.
He had no confidence in himself; and he dreaded the vengeance of his followers, who believed him capable of sacrificing the Khalsa to his own interests. Nor was Dhian Singh
supposed to be willing that the Maharaja should meet the
Governor-General, and his suspicious temper made him
apprehensive that his sovereign might induce the English
viceroy to accede to his ruin, or to the reduction of his
exotic influence. Thus both Sher Singh and his minister
perhaps rejoiced that a misunderstanding which prevented
the reception at Ludhiana of Lahna Singh Majithia, was
seized hold of by the English to render a meeting doubtful
or impossible.1 Lord Ellenborough justly took offence at a
slight which, however unwittingly, had been really offered
to him; he was not easily appeased; and when the personal
apologies of the minister, accompanied by the young heirapparent, had removed every ground of displeasure, tne
appointed time, the beginning of January 1843, for the
1 On several occasions Raja Dhian Singh expressed his apprehensions of an English invasion, as also did Maharaja Sher Singh. (See,
for instance, Mr. Clerk to Government, 2nd Jan. 1842.) The writer
of the article in the Calcutta Review (No. II, p. 493), who is believed
to be Lieut.-Col. Lawrence, admits Dhian Singh's aversion to a meeting between his sovereign and the British Governor-General. The
reviewer likewise describes Sher Singh's anxiety at the time, but
considers him to have been desirous of throwing himself unreservedly
on English protection, as doubtless he might have been, had he thought
himself secure from assassination, and that Lord Ellenborough would
have kept him seated on the throne of Lahore at all hazards.
About the suspected hostile intercourse with the Amirs of Sind,
see Thornton's History of India, vi. 447. The Sikhs, however, were
never required to give any explanation of the charges.
The misunderstanding to which Sardar Lahna Singh was a party
was simply as follows: The Sardar had been sent to wait upon the
Governor-General on his arrival on the frontier, according to ordinary
ceremonial. It was arranged that the Sardar should be received by
his lordship at Ludhiana, and the day and hour were fixed, and preparations duly made. Mr. Clerk went in person to meet the chief, and