influence in the late Durbar. He is one of a class of men who achieved power under the Seikh rule, and the large immunities they now enjoy attest their past influence. The undigested records that the Seikhs preserved in their archives, were placed under the superintendence of the author's father, the late Rajah Deno Nath, one of the most intelligent, and latterly the most influential member of the Seikh Government. Rajah Deno Nath succeeded in reducing the heterogeneous collections of the royal archives into order, and it is said that under the Rajah's surveillance these records were, for the first time, rendered useful for political purposes. The author himself was personally acquainted with the most considerable men of the Punjab; and where records did not exist, his personal experience stood him in good stead. In sooth we can generally place the most implicit reliance on the facts narrated in this work, the major part of which consists of extracts from the official documents we have spoken of before, or the records preserved by the Dewan's father. Indeed, the Dewan is seldom if ever guilty of an exaggeration, or a distortion of facts, or of any unfairness to which an author may be tempted. Even Runjeet Sing is not spared the censures of just criticism, and whatever we may say of the Dewan's loyalty to a family to whom he is indebted for his rank and fortune, we must hold him guiltless of any great partiality for either the men or the manners, he had so long viewed as a part and portion of the governing class. If Dewan Ummer Nath does not say in so many words, that the avarice of Runjeet Sing knew no other check than the feeble restraint imposed on it by a pliable conscience, he does not conceal facts which would directly lead to such an inference. He certainly does not charge his royal master with either infidelity or perfidy; he yet narrates the death of Nizoodeen of Bussoor, and the occupation of Kangra, without a word in palliation of the guilt which public opinion has attached to Runjeet Sing's conduct.

We believe we have said enough to secure some respect for the Dewan's impartiality as a historian, and if we are unable to applaud his style, let him console himself with our ignorance of the Persian language. Nor are we vain enough to believe for a moment, that all that we can say against his flowery diction, will in the slightest degree lower his reputation as an author, in the sight of those for whose special benefit the Dewan writes. Perhaps it would be more considerate if we assert that we are just as much entitled to give an opinion as to the literary merits of this work, as the Dewan would be in judging of the style of Grote or of Macaulay. What would a Persian scholar say of historians who have written volumes

without once comparing the eyes of their princesses to emeralds or dew-drops, the wealth of their kings to the hoards of Croesus, or the wisdom of their statesmen to the light of a thousand flambeaus? Or what pleasure can a Persian student derive in perusing the most elaborate discussion of party-politics, or the most erudite dissertation on the poor-rates? In like manner we may account for our deficient powers of appreciation in judging of Dewan Ummer Nath's pretensions as a man of letters.

We have an appendix to this work which does not necessarily belong to it. In fact its connection with the Memoirs rests on nothing more or less than the convenience that suggested itself to the book-binder, to work the amalgamation of the two volumes into one. We call it an appendix inasmuch as it is appended to another work, and not forgetting that the matters it contains are of a supplementary character; they are rather elucidations of, and commentaries on, the Memoirs, than a continuation of the work itself. The subject matter of this appendix is an account of some of the most considerable Sirdars of the Punjab; it was contributed at the instance of the late lamented Sir Henry Lawrence, the then President of the Board of Administration. It is the work of more than one writer; some of the monographs are written in Urdu, others in pure Persian, and the whole forms the most interesting biography of the Seikh notables now extant. Here are recorded the lives of men justly famed for feats of valour, which even the brightest examples of western chivalry cannot surpass; of soldiers who, in their devotion to duty, have nothing to fear from a comparison with the most martial people that ever existed; of ministers, who, inferior to Metternich or Talleyrand in political sagacity, were yet able to steer the helm of state with safety, in times hardly less disturbed than the Hungarian revolution or the Hundred Days; and if at the end they succumbed under the growing influence of an infuriated soldiery, the history of Europe is not without examples to keep them in countenance. Here are also recorded the lives of faithful adherents, whose fidelity to the cause of Runjeet Sing was much more rigidly tested than that of Fairfax for Charles the First, or of Savary for Napoleon. How Hurree Sing fell at Jumrood; how the brave old Sham Sing devoted himself at Subraon; how the Khalsa fought at Pheero-Shahur and Chillianwallah; how Mokum Chund, Bhugwani Das, and Deno Nath guided the State Councils; or how hundreds perished with Shere Sing, whom Runjeet Sing had faithlessly impoverished, are subjects of history. We shall not omit mentioning here a circumstance, which reflects no slight honor on the modest for

bearance of the Sirdars in the performance of such a delicate task. While the subjects did admit of eulogies, and even the most scrupulous would concede to them no small measure of praise, these autobiographies and family histories are yet written in a sober and modest style. When we come to consider the latitude that was allowed to the writers to give their feeling of egotism full swing, we wonder that there are so very few of Plutarch's heroes in these accounts.

There are some fatalists who aver, in contradiction to their expressed opinion, that there are certain acts of self-denial which can over-rule even the decree of fate. Such men declare that Runjeet Sing's fortune was the work of his grandfather Churruter Sing, whose sanctified death was accepted by the kind deities as a sacrifice, and for his grandson was reserved a kingdom. Churruter Sing, it is related, having a presentiment of his approaching dissolution, one fine morning left Lahore through the gate under which had been borne the corpses of the Chogutha Kings, and travelled on foot to a shrine, and there in Khorassan breathed his last in the service of the Gooroos.

We may here introduce an incident of recent occurrence, which may serve to dispel a belief, entertained by some men, that the Seikhs are defective in a spirit of adventure, and that even religious influence fails to incite them to it. The Seikhs have a shrine at Astrakhan, and another in some obscure place on the shores of the Red Sea, which the Khalsas view with the same veneration that the Christians of the middle ages viewed Jerusalem, and the Moslems of all ages have viewed Mecca and Medina. A visit to any of these places reduced the sins of years. One Roy, an Udassi Sad, or faqueer, having travelled from Umritser to Astrakhan, was led away by curiosity into the heart of the Czar's dominions. The Russian Empire, of which he had heard such romantic accounts, was now before him, and he ventured to visit the capital of that Government which rules over one-eighth part of the habitable globe. However, imagination soon faded in the face of stern reality, and at Moscow Roy made a halt, which, perhaps, with an opportunity might have been turned into a defeat, and the Udassi Sad might have traced his steps back to the quiet of Umritser and the Punjab. His good fortune led him on, and Roy reached St. Petersburgh; here he contracted a mysterious friendship with a Russian merchant, and was probably admitted as a partner, but it is a fact that, on the decease of the Russian, Roy succeeded to an immense fortune.

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The Sad soon got tired of life in Russia; he was hard sympathy, and howsoever kind the treatment might have been

which Russian courtesy dictated towards foreigners, Roy had nothing in common with his new friends. He now bored his friends in the Punjab to join him at St. Petersburgh, and by repeated entreaties, and the offer of a share in his fortune, he prevailed on one Ramdas of Jhung to undertake a journey to the Russian capital. About four years ago Ramdas left the Punjaub for his new destination, passing through some of the most barbarous countries on the face of the earth. On his way Ramdas was robbed at Tiflis and at Astrakhan, and after suffering much privation, the charity of a Russian officer took him safe to St. Petersburgh. As ill-luck would have it, poor Roy died a few months before his friend's arrival, on the 19th of January, 1856; his entire property was attached and appropriated to the Russian treasury. A Russian captain of artillery pitied the condition of the bereaved foreigner, and had the means to afford only such assistance to Ramdas as to save him from starvation.

One day Alexander II. saw Ramdas in one of the public promenades, and was so struck with the Sad's appearance, that he summoned Ramdas to the imperial presence, and there the mendicant narrated his adventures since his departure from the Punjab. Alexander pitied the unhappy Sad's sufferings, put a small purse into his hands, and advised him to prove his relationship with the deceased Roy, with the view of succeeding to his estate. Ramdas, as a matter of course, sought his Russian friend, and was probably advised by him to consult the British consul, and to procure a certificate of his being a British subject, which document was immediately obtained. M. Micheli, the consul, was absent from St. Petersburgh, and his locum tenens, who was also the Danish Consul, referred to the Danish ambassador at Saint James'. On the 9th of July, 1856, General Oxholm wrote to Lord Clarendon on the subject of his consul's letter, and here the General's ignorance of Seikh nomenclature led him to a ludicrous error. According to the conventional rules observed by the Seikhs in their correspondence, the names of their gods find a promiscuous place with that of the author, and as punctuation is not observed, the two names may go together; hence Ramdas figures in General Oxholm's letter as "Ramsin-Bassino," which is very probably a compound of the names of two gods, Ram and Vishnu, or of Ramdas' own name with that of Vishnu; any how the General's letter is a subject for speculation to linguists. Meanwhile M. Micheli returned to his post, and corresponded on the subject with the Foreign Secretary at home; Lord Clarendon made a reference to the Court of Directors, and the Court of Directors to the Indian authorities. What was

the end of so many references we are unable to surmise, but if Ramdas' claim is supported by evidence, and if the Czar is willing to abide by the result of such an investigation as the local Indian authorities can make, the Udassi Sad may come to the possession of a fortune which, according to his own calculation, is above a crore of rupees.

This little episode, perhaps of some interest, will satisfactorily dispose of the charge of apathy so often brought forward against the natives of the Punjab. Perhaps there are few classes of men in India, who are found at greater distances from their homes, and in whom a spirit of adventure is so rife, as among the Punjabees. They have corresponding mercantile firms in France and England; they traffic largely in Egypt, Persia, Khorassan, and Thibet, not to speak of Hindustan proper, Bengal and Southern India.

But to return to the Memoirs. We are told that when the Chagutha Empire was on its decline, Nadir Shah ascended the throne of Iran; he named Ahmed Shah, the founder of the Dourani dynasty of Cabul, Dourah Douran, and after equipping him in a style becoming the representative of a great sovereign, he sent him against India. The accounts of the ravages committed by Ahmed Shah have exceeded even the measure of oriental exaggeration. It is related that he raised a pyramid of human skulls near the site of the famous temple of Umritser, after blowing up the shrine and levelling the buildings that surrounded it. But it is placed beyond a doubt, that of all the enemies that the Seikhs have ever known, Ahmed Shah Dourani was the most determined, hard-hearted and unscrupulous. Neither age, sex, nor quality had any recommendation in his sight; but persecution produced its natural effect, and instead of answering the sanguine expectations of the Dourani chief, it consolidated the power it was intended to destroy.

In November, 1780, to Maha Sing was born a son at Goojranwallah, afterwards well-known to fame as Runjeet Sing. Of the early life of the future ruler of Lahore little is known that is interesting, and less that is worth belief. He lived in obscurity, and if he gave any early indications of future eminence they are not recorded in history. The following were the most conspicuous of the contemporaries of Runjeet Sing in the Punjab, and the neighbouring territories; Seva Sing, Goojur Sing, and Sahab Sing of the Kuneah family, governed Lahore; Nizamoodeen ruled at Kussoor; the Bhangies at Umritser; Mozuffer Khan Saddozaie at Mooltan; Maioodeen Afghan at Dehrah Ishmail Khan; Munkera at Hotee Bunnee; Surwar Khan Gaitheekhali at Tak,