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ON THE SIKHS.
than the sword, and his conquests, unchecked by the necessity of devising any pretext for them whatever, were the rapid growth of little more than twenty years. A kingdom composed of such heterogeneous materials could be held together only by the means by which it was acquired, and an overpowering military force was necessary to preserve the ascendancy which it had been employed to attain. As long as he preserved a good understanding with the only power in India whom he had cause to dread, as long as the British Government favoured his aggrandisement by turning a deaf ear to the urgent appeals made to its protection by the victims of Ranjit Sing's ambition, he confidently prosecuted his system of aggression, and trampled with impunity upon the rights of his neighbours, whether Mohammedans or Hindus. The transactions that have taken place since his decease have sufficiently shewn the rottenness of his system; the instability of a dominion based upon military violence and individual ambition; the certain consequences of relying upon an army as the main instrument and stay of a government. The successors of Ranjit have perished under the presumption of the military chiefs, and the chiefs themselves have been the victims or the puppets of a mutinous and insolent soldiery. That soldiery has now been pretty well destroyed, but the Khálsa has been left in a state of utter imbecility which will ensure its spontaneous extinction at no distant period, if it be not kept alive by the undeserved protection of the British Government.
