V. 1842. Nov. These changes, if effected without shocking the CHAP. national feelings and desires of the different people transferred, formed a great and noble scheme to benefit a fifth part of the human race, and alone would warrant a revision of the treaties with the Ameers by the force of negotiation; but the justice of a revision by force of arms, negotiation failing, would still rest on the violations of existing contracts. The demand for territory was a punishment, to be inflicted only on proof of actual hostility evinced by the Ameers in their secret negotiations for an armed confederacy against the British; and to obtain this proof the General was exhorted to use his utmost diligence, and conscientiously to report. Meanwhile he received the draft of a new treaty embodying the Governor-General's view, a distinction being made in favour of the Ameer Sobdar, whose unvarying faith was repaid, he not being under any tribute which could be remitted, by an accession of territory equal to 50,000 rupees yearly. The required proofs were soon obtained, yet by a most rigid process. The General took an acknowledged seal of Nusseer, and compared it with that attached to the intercepted letter to Beebruck; they appeared similar; but when with a minute earnestness he measured each letter and their distances in both, with a pair of compasses, a difference was perceptible. He was however assured that to have two seals, thus differing to deceive, was notoriously the custom of the Ameers. Wherefore he desired the persons who had intercepted the letter, to procure for him also the secret seal of the prince; this they tried but could not do, and thus removed from the General's mind all suspicion of their treachery, I. 1842. Nov. PART seeing, that a second forgery would have secured the object of the first, and was not more difficult. None of the persons, English or native, cognizant of the Ameer's signet, doubted the authenticity of the intercepted seal; but their confident assertions on this head the General would not accept as proof, and thus delayed his decision; at last he obtained an authentic paper with the secret signet seal of Nusseer attached, and it was precisely the same as that on the intercepted letter; moreover, the writing accompanying the undoubted seal was known to be the writing of the Ameer's favourite moonshee or scribe. The proof was therefore complete that the Ameer had urged Beebruck Booghtee to fall on the British; and had also urged the Mooltan man, though less openly, to the same course and with effect, for he raised troops and diligently fortified his capital. Roostum of Kyrpoor's intercourse with the Maharajah was likewise proved by his seal, the authenticity of which was never questioned; and by the concurrent testimony of persons conversant with such matters as to the style and verisimilitude of thought, but the writing was that of his minister; Roostum was old, and nearly imbecile from debauchery, wherefore Major Outram suggested that the minister might have affixed the seal of the Ameer without his knowledge. This fastidious delicacy of doubt, by a man who had so recently assured the Governor-General that the Ameer's conduct would justify the imposition of any terms, was put aside by this question from the General, If a Prince blindly gives his power and his signet to his minister, is such folly to excuse him from the consequences?" Subsequently, Roostum's culpable 66 VI. 1842. Nov. knowledge was established, and Sir Charles Napier, CHAP. who had been charged by Lord Ellenborough to draw up and present the new treaty to the Ameers when the proofs of delinquency were complete, was now empowered to choose his own commissioner to conduct the details of the negotiation; and, such was the confidence reposed in his judgment, to carry through this affair honourably by diplomacy or arms, that the Governor-General left him master of both, observing, "that he could make no concession before a native power which was collecting troops, nominally for defensive purposes, but which the least wavering would direct to purposes of aggression." Sir Charles Napier now became arbiter of peace and war; on his head rested the responsibility, moral and political, of enforcing the treaty; in his hands were life and death for thousands; the fate of Scinde depended on his word, the fate of India perhaps on the stroke of his sword. He was an untried general, but now found equal to the crisis; and what his friends had always known him to be, he shewed himself to the world, a man of strong heart and subtil genius, sagacious in perception, ready in expedients, of heroic daring, his fiery courage, supported by a pure conscience and tempered by the gentlest feelings, but warmed with a generous spirit which spurned dishonour in whatever garb it came. "I will," he wrote to the man who had so confidingly placed him in this post of difficulty and danger, "I will present your treaty to the Ameers. "I will spare no pains to convince them, that neither injury nor injustice are meditated, and that by "accepting the treaty they will become more rich, PART I. 1842. Nov. 66 If " and more secure of power than they now are. With what an insane fury they did rush to arms shall be shewn hereafter. 139 CHAPTER VI. VI. 1842. Nov. LOOKING forward, like an experienced soldier, to CHAP. the ultimate chance of war, Sir Charles Napier had early applied himself to the organization and discipline of his troops, for they were generally inexperienced. He drew them out frequently, and accustomed them to move in masses; he taught them by counsel also; and exhorted them to a subordinate and modest conduct towards the people of Scinde. Nor was he deficient in a quaint humour which no danger or suffering has ever abated, for when did Charles Napier's spirit ever quail! Broad at times the stream of that humour flows, but never sinks to buffoonery; always illustrative, it conveys instruction and even imperious rebuke in a laughing guise; and with a jest he wins the soldiers' hearts, for they feel their general regards them as comrades and not as slaves. Thus, when some insolent and silly young men persisted, insubordinately, to ride violently through the camp and the bazaars, causing frequent accidents, he issued the following characteristic order, bringing ridicule and fear at once to bear on the offenders. 66 "Gentlemen as well as beggars, if they like, may ride to the devil when they get on horse"back; but neither gentlemen nor beggars have a right to send other people to the devil, which “will be the case if furious riding be allowed in 66 |