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

CHAP. VIII

KHARAK SINGHI

225

weak mind of the Maharaja, and Kharak Singh's own desire 1839.
of resting upon the influence of the British agent, induced
the two parties to coalesce, first for the destruction of the
minion, and afterwards for the removal of Col. Wade. That
officer had stood high with Ranjit Singh as a liberal construer
of Sikh rights, or as one who would carefully show how a
collision with the English was to be avoided; he had steadily
refused to make Dhian Singh the medium of his communications with the old Maharaja; he had offended the heirapparent by unceremoniously accusing him of machinations
with Afghan chiefs; and in the eyes of the Sikhs he was
pledged to Kharak Singh at all hazards, by the prominent
part he had taken in the meeting at Ruipar before noticed.
His presence was thus disliked, and his interference dreaded,
by men not inclined to wholly yield themselves to English
counsels, and yet accustomed to see the suggestions of the
Governor-General regularly carried into effect by the
sovereign of Lahore.
The privacy of the Maharaja's household was rudely The
violated by the prince and minister at daybreak on the 8th favourite,
Chet Singh,
of October 1839, and Chet Singh was awakened from his put to
slumbers to be put to death, within a few paces of his death, 8th
Oct. 1839.
terrified master.1 The removal of Col. Wade was mixed up
with the passage of British troops across the Punjab, and
had to be effected in another manner.
The Governor-General had designed that the Anglo- Mr. Clerk
succeeds
Indian army which accompanied Shah Shuja should return Lieut.-Col.
by way of Peshawar, instead of retracing its steps through Wade as
the Bolan Pass; and when his lordship visited Ranjit Singh Agenpri,
at Lahore, the proposition was verbally conceded, although 1840.
1 Gulab Singh was perhaps the most prominent and resolute actor
in this tragedy, although his brother and Nau Nihal Singh were both
present. Col. Wade was desired to express to the Lahore Court the
regret of the British Government that such a scene of violence should
have occurred (Government to Col. Wade, 28th Oct. 1839); and
similarly Mr. Clerk had been directed to explain to Kharak Singh
the disapprobation with which the English viewed the practice of
sati, with reference to what had taken place at his father's funeral.
(Government to Mr. Clerk, 20th Aug. 1839.) [For a detailed account
of this sati the reader is referred to Latif, History of the Punjab,
pp. 492-6-ED.].
Q