1 COURT AND CAMP OF RUNJEET SING.

as they are, of the tallest of the Asiatic races, who seem to maintain in this respect the physical superiority which distinguished those dwelling on the banks of the Five Rivers in the days of Alexander. The view of a body of these troops, which Runjeet Sing exhibited to his English visiters, must have been a noble one to a military eye :

"It consisted of about twelve thousand men, and reached to the gates of Lahore, above two miles. I never saw so straight or beautiful a line with any troops. They were all dressed in white, with black cross-belts, and either a red or yellow silk turban, (the shako, it seems, is an European appendage, to which it had been found impossible as yet to reconcile them,) armed with muskets and bayonets of excellent manufacture, from Runject's foundry at Lahore."

But with all this imposing appearance, there were evidently serious deficiencies in the method of the Maharajah. His best troops were ill-officered, and worse paid.

single instance have these vaunted armies ever made serious opposition to our advance. On the contrary, reliance on them has frequently proved fatal to their masters, by urging them on to measures of defiance and acts of imprudence. Such was the destiny of Tippoo, the Nizam, Scindia, and others of our most renowned opponents; while the most obstinate enemies with whom we have had to deal, have been those who have had the wisdom to make use of their native methods of warfare, and the natural advantages of their respective countries. If Runjeet had ever allowed the rash impetuosity of his Sihk favourites to get the better of his policy, and confronted us with his forty or fifty thousand drilled infantry in the plains of the Punjab, the result must have been his destruction; even supposing that the popular suspicion respecting the personal courage of the showy Sinks, to which Captain Osborne more than once alludes, had no foundation.

Of all this, indeed, their chieftain seems to have been himself aware; although, as the captain acutely remarks, he was perhaps the only individual in his dominions who estimated these troops at their real value.

"He asked several questions about our mode of pay. ing troops; and mentioned his having been obliged to disband some hundreds of men from the regiments at Peshowar for mutiny. I asked when they had been last paid. 'Eighteen months ago, and yet they were discon- "He is well aware that the knowledge of the fact of tented Very odd,' I replied. What should you do his maintaining upwards of twenty thousand regular inin such a case?' I explained that it could not have hap-fantry. armed and disciplined like Europeans, has done pened in our service, where the men were regularly paid. He replied, 'So are mine: and more than that, the rascals have been living on plunder for the last six months! I tried in vain to impress upon him, that I did not see exactly how else they could live."

more towards keeping his refractory sirdars in order, than the fear of ten times their number of irregular forces would have done; and he is also well aware of the moral influence he derives from the reputation of being able to bring into the field, at a moment's notice, a body of infantry which, compared with those of other native powers, may be called highly disciplined and effective; and while he relies much on this influence, he places little confidence in their actual services."-P. 158.

The cavalry appeared to Captain Osborne the worst appointed part of the service.

The following anecdote, if true, gives a tolerable notion of what their boasted discipline amounts to:They tell rather an amusing story of some of Runjeet's crack regiments during one of his actions with Dost Mahommed, which will show how little dependence can be placed on their discipline in a case of emergency. During a very critical period of the action, Runjeet saw "I took the opportunity of looking at the two squadan advantageous opening for the advance of part of his rons of General Allard's cavalry, who were on the ground. reserve, which was composed of his best regiments, and They were the first of them I had yet met with, and I he accordingly gave the order for one of the brigades to was much disappointed in their appearance. They do come to the support of his advance; to which order the not look to advantage by the side of the infantry. They only reply he received was, an universal shout from the are men of all ages, ill-looking, ill-dressed, and worse men, that drill and manœuvres did very well in peace mounted, and neither in appearance or reality are they time and on parade, but that they could not stand it now to be compared with the infantry soldier of the Punjab. when they were really in action, and that they must fight One reason for this is, that Runjeet personally inspects in their own way, or they would not fight at all! They every recruit for his infantry, whilst the cavalry is gene accordingly all broke from their ranks, every man fight-rally recruited from the followers of the different sirdars, ing for himself, and of course in a few minutes were completely routed and beaten.”—P. 157.

The truth is, that the notion of maintaining armies disciplined after the European fashion, has hitherto only been one of those delusions which have misled many of our Indian neighbours to their destruction. It seems to be easy enough to drill the pliable Orientals into making a respectable show on parade. A few European instructors can train, after this fashion, a corps of many thousand; but to give them that steadiness which is the basis of all good qualities in the regular soldier, requires a great number of European officers, strong control by those officers over their men, regular pay and good treatment: and, above all, a systematic perseverance which no Indian government has ever shown. At every great crisis in our Eastern affairs, rumour has alarmed us

with accounts of the disciplined troops of our antagonists, and their European commanders; but in no

and most of thein owe their appointments to favour and interest, more than to their fitness and capability."

A still better reason was probably to be found in his avarice, which neutralized all that the zeal and intelligence of Allard could perform in his service. He seems to have regarded both that officer and General Ventura, useful and faithful as they had been to him, with uniform distrust. They only shared, in this respect, the general lot of European adventurers in the service of native princes-one of the most uncomfortable and humiliating conditions to which a man of talent and character can reduce

himself.

A singular portion of Runjeet's military force were the "Akalees," or immortals;-a sort of Sihk fanatics, who must be very disagreeable subjects in peace whatever may be their character in war.

"They are, without any exception, the most insolent

and worthless race of people in all India. They are power of the contending parties. The character of Runreligious fanatics, and acknowledge no ruler and no laws jeet, more unscrupulous than cruel, was curiously dis but their own: think nothing of robbery, or even mur-played in the measures he adopted to possess himself of der, should they happen to be in the humour for it. this highly coveted prize. No greater severity was em They move about constantly, armed to the teeth; and it is not an uncommon thing to see them riding about with a drawn sword in each hand, two more in their belt, a matchlock at their back, and three or four pair of quoits fastened round their turbans. The quoit is an arm peculiar to this race of people; it is a steel ring varying from six to nine inches in diameter, and about an inch in breadth, very thin, and the edges ground very sharp; they are said to throw it with such accuracy and force, as to be able to lop off a limb at sixty or eighty yards' distance; but I have several times invited them to show their dexterity, without witnessing any proof of it that could convince me of the truth of this supposed accuracy. In general, the bystanders have been in greater danger than the object aimed at."

ployed than appeared absolutely necessary to vanquish the obstinacy of the Shah, and none was omitted which promised the accomplishment of that end. The exiled family was deprived of all nourishment during two days; but when their firinness was found proof against hunger, food was supplied. It was in vain that the Shah denied that the diamond was in his possession; and having exhausted remonstrance, resorted to artifice and delay. Runjeet was neither to be deceived nor diverted from his purpose, and at length Shah Shooja, wearied out by importunity and severity, and seeing that nothing else would satisfy the rapacity of Runjeet, agreed to give up the jewel. Accordingly, on the 1st June, 1813, the Măbarajah waited on the Shah, for the purpose of the surrender. He was received with great dignity by the prince, and both being seated, there was a solemn silence,

Runjeet continued to raise irregular regiments of which lasted nearly an hour. Runject then grew impathese savages, and turned them to some use ;-per-tient, and whispered an attendant to remind the Shah of sonally, however, he was obliged to bear towards the object of the meeting. No answer was returned; them the same deportment which Victor Jacquemont but the Shah made a signal with his eyes to a eunuch, says was shown them by all prudent men-namely, to treat them as ill-tempered dogs, and take no notice of them so long as they contented themselves with barking.

"At any review where these regiments may be pa. raded, it is still a common occurrence for them, on

marching past him, to throw handfuls of musket-balls at his feet, and abuse and insult him in every sort of man ner, frequently threatening his life-a threat which, in more than one instance, they have attempted to fulfil. The Maharajah bears it all with the greatest coolness, and they proceed with perfect impunity until they are detected in any great crime, such as robbery or murder, when he shows no mercy, and they are immediately dr. prived of either their noses, ears, arins, or legs, according to the degree of their offence."

who retired, and brought in a small roll, which he re placed on the carpet, at equal distances between the two chiefs. Runjeet ordered the roll to be unfolded, when the diamond was exhibited to his sight. He recognized, seized it, and immediately retired.”—P 32.

At Adeenanuggur the mission had an opportunity of seeing a personage called the "burying Faqueer;" whose feats had attracted much attention in the upper provinces, ano even became the subject of a grave article in a work on the "Medical Topography of Loodhiana," by Dr. M'Gregor of the Artillery.

"Ile is held in extraordinary respect by the Sinks, from his alleged capacity of being able to bury himself alive for any period of time. So many stories were current on the subject, and so many respectable individuals maintained the truth of these stories, that we all

They are useful when acts of desperate valour are elt curious to see in. He professes to have been folneeded. During the progress of a negotiation, while towing this trade, it so it may be called, for some years; Runjeet was besieging Moultan in 1815, "An Akalee, and a considerable time ago several extracts from the named Sadhoo Sing, with a few companions, ad-letters of individuals who had seen the man in the upper vanced to the fausse braye, and without orders, in one of their fits of enthusiasm, attacked the Afghans, who were sleeping or careless on their watch, and killed every man. The Sihk army took advantage of the opportunity, and, rushing on, in two hours carried the citadel."

Avarice, carried to an extreme degree, was the besetting weakness of Runjeet in his latter days, as much as rapacity had been in the earlier and more adventurous period of his life. It is well known how he involved his dominions in an expensive war, to get possession of a famous horse called Leili; and nothing can be more characteristic than his bare faced robbery of poor Shah Shooja, the lately reinstated monarch of the Affghans. That prince was obliged, in his misfortunes, to apply to Runjeet for protection; and the latter determined to make him pay for it, by extorting from him the celebrated diamond called Koh-i-Nor, or the "Mountain of Light," which the conqueror Nadir Shah had abstracted from the peacock-throne of Delhi.

"The eagerness of the Sihk to obtain, and the reluctance of the Afghan to resign, this celebrated jewel, (alike renowned for its magnitude and its migrations,) appear to have been of equal intensity: but not so the

provinces, appeared in the Calcutta papers, giving some account of his extraordinary powers, which were at the time, naturally enough, looked upon as mere attempts at a hoax upon the inhabitants of Calcutta. Captain Wade, political agent at Loodhiana, told me that he was present at his resurrection after an interment of some months, General Ventura having buried him in the presence of the Maharajah, and many of his principal sirdars: and, as far as I can recollect, these were the particulars as witnessed by General Ventura:-After going through a days, and the details of which are too disgusting to diregular course of preparation, which occupied him some late upon, the Faqueer reported himself ready for interment, in a vault which had been prepared for the purpose by order of the Maharajah. On the appearance of Runjeet and his court, he proceeded to the final preparations that were necessary, in their presence; and after stop. ping with wax his ears, nostrils, and every other orifice, through which it was possible for air to enter his body, except his mouth, he was stripped and placed in a linen bag; and the last preparation concluded by turning his tongue back, and thus closing the gullet; he immediately died away into a sort of lethargy. The bag was then closed, and sealed with Runjeet's own seal; and afterwards placed in a small deal box, which was also locked and sealed. The box was then placed in a vault, the earth thrown in and tred down, and a crop of barley sown

which his four legitimate wives derived from it. A strange example among the sangninary rulers of sceptic in female virtue might argue from this example, that it is easier, at least in the east, to encounter a hideous death for a lord and master, than to remain constant to him.

The hateful debaucheries in which the conqueror of the Punjab dulged, are too well known to need recapitulation. Captain Osborne, it seems, had the honour of being invited more than once to take his share in the Maharajah's drinking parties.

Persia and India; and though his justice in other respects was summary and savage enough, it was mildness itself in comparison of that which was administered from the durbars of his neighbours. He is not to be compared, undoubtedly, to the Pasha of Egypt, either for the grandeur of his projects or for compass of mind; but having to deal with very different subjects-with independent Sihks whom it was necessary to control by management, instead of "His wine is extracted from raisins, with a quantity a wretched peasantry, with whom the only problem of pearls ground to powder and mixed with it, for no was, to stop short in the course of oppression exother reason that I can hear, than to add to the expense actly at the point beyond which it would have exof it. It is made for himself alone, and though he some.hausted and destroyed them, he has necessarily times gives a few bottles to some of his favourite chiefs, it is very difficult to be procured, even at the enormous price of one gold mohur for a small bottle.

pursued a more useful though less ambitious career. On the whole, his detestable profligacy apart, there are few Eastern despots who will have left a better It is as strong as aquafortis, and as at his parties he personal character in history, when little or nothing always helps you himself, it is no easy matter to avoid else is left of his name, and the fabric of his policy excess. He generally, on these occasions, his two or shall have fallen to pieces. This will probably soon three Hebes, in the shape of the prettiest of his Cache be the case. He seems to have looked to Britain merian girls, to attend upon himself and guests, and for the maintenance of his monarchy in the person gives way to every species of licentious debauchery of his son; but Britain has no means of preserving He fell violently in love with one of these fair cup-bearers in unity a body composed of a hundred petty repubabout two years ago, and actually married her, after pa-lics or clans, held together for a time by the genius rading her on a pillion before himself on horseback, through the camp and city for two or three days, to the great disgust of all his people. The only food allowed you at these drinking bouts is fat quails, stuffed with all sorts of spices; and the only thing to allay your thirst, naturally consequent upon eating such heating food, is this abominable liquid fire. Runjeet himself laughs at our wines, and says that he drinks for excitement, and that the sooner that object is attained the better. Of all the wines we brought with us as a present for him from the governor-general, consisting of port, claret, hock. champagne, &c. the whiskey was the only thing he liked."-P. 189.

We suspect that the story of the pearls was a mere invention of the Maharajah's, to justify the charge which he thought proper to make for his liquor.

In the midst of his excesses and intrigues-in the full indulgence of licentiousness and ambitionRunjeet Sing was called to his account-worn out and decrepid-at the age of sixty. His character, when fairly considered according to such authorities as we possess, resembled in most of its features those of other recent founders of military monarchies in the East-such as Ali Pasha of Albania, and, in some degree, the present ruler of Egypt. In all of them we trace the same almost instinctive disposition to artifice and chicanery; the same species of deliberate courage, useful rather than chivalrous, unsheathing itself only where a plain opportunity offers of striking with advantage; the same strange mixture of unbelief and fanaticism in religious matters; and the same tendency in the later years of life to miserly habits-deadening by degrees not only the nobler qualities of the heart, but the acuteness of the intellect. There were, however, many differences between them, both in circumstances and disposition. Runjeet Sing does not seem to have had either the extraordinary daring, or the equally extraordinary finesse of our ancient ally, the Albanian tyrant; but he had over him the great advan- | tage of humanity. He was by no means cruel by temperament, and his policy confirmed him in the practice of clemency. He never took away life-a

of a single chief. If we are to maintain all our positions beyond the Indus, it will probably be necessary for us to command, in some way or other, the passes of the five tributary rivers which wash the plain between that great stream and our western frontier; but to control the conflicting passions and interests of the chiefs of Lahore, seems beyond our power.

"From the moment that Runjeet allied himself with us," (says our author,) he appears to have cast away all doubt, jealousy and fear; to have treated us with uniform cordiality, and to have reposed with ent re confidence on our friendship and support-a confidence which is now repaid by the exercise of our influence and authority to secure to his legitimate son, and designated heir, the inheritance of the kingdom which was created by the wis dom and valour of his father."

Short has been the period that "our influence and borne-more honest than the Abbé Vertot, who reauthority" furnished this security! Captain Osfused to stop, in their passage through the press, those pages of his work in which he predicted the immortality of the Swedish constitution, when the news arrived that the king had abolished it—has appended the following note to this passage:

"The reign of Kurruck Sing, who mounted the throne upon the death of his father Runjeet, has been of brief duration. For while these sheets are going through the press, intelligence has been received of a revolution in the court of Lahore, by which Kurruck was dethroned, and his son elevated to the musnud in his stead."

From the Edinburgh Review,

The Art of Deer-Stalking ; illustrated by a Narrative of a Few Days' Sport in the Forest of Atholl. By WILLIAM SCROPE, Esq. F. L. S. and Member of the Academy of San' Luca, Rome. 8vo. London: 1838.

AMONG the masculine sports which exercise our ingenuity and call forth our physical energies, there

are none so exciting and so highly prized as the pleasures and toils of the chase. In wielding our delegated power over the animal creation, we derive but a transient enjoyment from the subjugation of the domestic races which administer to our ordinary wants. It is only the beast of prey whose lair is in the thicket, or the fleet quadruped whose dwellingplace is on the mountains, that summon us into the field, and develope all the resources of our sanguinary skill. To brave the malaria of the Indian jungle, and to partake in the fierce encounter between the tiger and his pursuer, is a species of transcendental sport in which human skill and courage are pitted against animal strength and ferocity. The mutual danger, too, which impends over the sportsman and his prey, gives a deeper interest to the struggle, where brute capacity often triumphs, and in which the intellectual combatant is sometimes the victim.

which the stag inherits, often baffle the manœuvres of the hunter, and mock the powers of his telescope. In the intervals of rest, too, as well as in the active pursuit and the final conflict, the deer-chase presents many points of interest and superiority. No fetid exhalations nor putrid effluvia pollute the pure ether which the huntsman breathes. No dread of retaliation disturbs his rest, or paralyses the ardour of pursuit. His mind is free to roam over the beautiful and wide expanse of earth and sky. The blue vault which crowns him, and the granite pavement on which he treads, are equally objects of his admiration. The lofty peak, with its fretted yet crystalline flanks-the overhanging precipice, with its caverns, its rills, and its foliage-the sudden rush of the concealed cataract-the ghastly pine, dead and naked, yet in the form and attitude of life-the brown moss, displaying the wreck of ancient forests, and furnishThis species of amusement, so highly esteemed ing a unit of measure to sound the depths of primeval by the European in other quarters of the globe, is, time-the mountain lake, now blue with the azure we think, inferior in all respects to that which is to which it embosoms, now green with the purity of its be found in the deer-forests of our native hills. The waters, now bright with the ruffled reflection of the excitement of a tiger-hunt is doubtless more intense, clouds, now in ebullition with the thunder-showerits pageantry more imposing, and its casualties more these are the objects which meet the hunter's eye, hazardous; but the sources of interest which the and from which the geologist, the moralist, and the deer-chase presents to a cultivated mind, are more painter may draw the richest instruction. Amid this numerous, more rational, and more allied to our bet-contemplation of nature's grandeur, the serenity of ter nature, in proportion as they are of a less cruel and sanguinary character.

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the moment is agreeably disturbed by the forms of life and beauty which break upon the view. The The Indian and the African forests open their solitary stag appears in stately attitude on the brow recesses to the free passage of the sportsman as well of the precipice, or bounds over the plain, or springs as the naturalist. No lord of the manor claims a across the mossy hag, or clears the span of the mounright to its ferocious denizens-no action at law lies tain torrent; or, perhaps, a noble herd become visible for trespass-and no chancellor of the exchequer in the distance, now breaking the sky line with their stands at the receipt of custom. The right of pursuit twisted antlers, now basking on Bendouran's and slaughter belongs to all; and he who exercises steep," and now holding their council of instinct, it most frequently and most valiantly, is the best when their startled senses indicate the approach of benefactor of the neighbourhood. The privilege of man. deer-stalking, on the contrary, is as rare as it is valuable. The small number of our deer-forests, and their possession by the landed aristocracy, renders them almost inaccessible even to the most opulent; and the few which the key of gold does contrive to unlock, can be maintained only by a great outlay of capital. The absolute exclusion of sheep and cattle from the haunts of the deer, over an extent of thousands of acres-the enormous expense of residence in sequestered districts, and the necessity of numerous keepers to guard the sanctuary of the chaserender the occupancy of a deer-forest one of the choicest and most expensive of our amusements.

"And lo! along the forest glade,
From out yon ancient pine-wood's shade,

Troop forth the royal deer,

Each stately hart, each slender hind,
Stares and snuffs the desert wind;
While by their side confiding roves
The spring-born offspring of their loves-
The delicate and playful fawn,
Dappled like the rosy dawn,

And sportive in its fear."

Such of our readers as have not partaken of the pleasures of the chase, will naturally wish to know something of the details of a sport so highly prized, and so difficult to command. Although the press teems with descriptions of oriental sports, yet no account has been given of the manners and habits of the aboriginal red deer of the Highlands-of the nature and extent of the forests which they inhabitor of the arts by which they fall under our dominion. It is only of late, indeed, that this amusement has been systematically pursued; and of the small number of individuals who have been initiated into its mysteries, but few are qualified to become its his

But rare and popular as this sport unquestionably is, it is not from this cause alone that it derives its prominent interest. The pleasure which it yields is not less intense, nor the skill which it demands less scientific, than the magnificent sports of the Tropics. In all its phases of excitement, from the "break of morn" to the "knell of parting day," reason is continually marshalling its powers against the ertempore and unerring decisions of instinct; and in this noble rivalry of intellectual and physical sagacity, the race, as in other secular pursuits, is not always torians. to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The dex- Mr. Scrope, the author of the work placed at the terity of the rifleman is balanced by the fleetness of head of this article, possesses, we believe, in a higher his prey; the sagacity and the power of the stag-degree than any other person, all the qualities which hound is matched by the muscular energy and the are necessary for such a task. His fine taste, his indomitable courage of his antlered antagonist; and classical acquirements, his vein of chastened humour, the quick vision and the acute perception of smell his exquisite skill as an amateur painter, his know