Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/124

Rh 112 P U P P U R after his death in 1839, the British were putting Shah Shuja back on the throne of Cabul. Ranjit was succeeded by his eldest son Kharrak Singh. He left two reputed sons, Shir Singh and Dhah'p Singh, and two adopted sons, Kashmira Singh and Peshaura Singh, named from expeditions on which Ranjit was engaged at the time Years of they were taken into his family. When Kharrak Singh made Cheit disorder. Singh his chief minister in place of the Jamnu'i brothers, Dhian Sin^h killed the new minister. And now for a time the history of the Punjab became a history of intrigues and deeds of violence, and of contests for power which, when gained, could not be kept. Kharrak Singh's successor, Nau Nihal Singh, was killed by the fall of a beam from the Roshnai gateway of the Huzuri Bagh at Lahore as he was returning from the deceased king's funeral. Shir Singh succeeded, a man addicted, like Ranjit, to intemperance, and he was soon put out of the way by Ajit Singh Sindhanwala. His son Partab Singh was murdered by Lena Singh Majithia. Ranji't's adopted sons, Peshaura and Kashmara Singh, were also killed. Then came the turn of the ex-minister Dhian Singh, who was slain by the same hand that had put Shir Singh to death, and which now placed the young Dhah'p Singh on the throne. Other assassinations accompanied these chief ones. The leading Sindhanwalas were now all murdered, and with the accession of Dhalip Singh the friends of his mother, the rani, came into power, some of the wise old servants of Ranjit also continuing to hold important offices. First Raujit had left an army of 92,000 infantry, 31,800 cavalry, with Sikh 171 garrison guns and 384 field-pieces. It was a force which could war. not be held in the feebler grasp of his successors. When one after another of those in nominal power had been assassinated and the treasury plundered, the army, unpaid and unmanageable, demanded to be led into British territory, and had their way. They crossed the Sutlej in December 1845. The battles of Mudki, Firoz-shahr, Badduwal, and Aliwal were followed by the rout of the Sikh army at Sobraon on 10th February 1846, when they were driven back into the Sutlej with heavy loss, and the British army advanced to Lahore. Of the Sikh guns 256 fell into the hands of the British in these actions on the Sutlej. A treaty was made at Lahore on 9th March with the Sikh darbar, the chiefs and ministry who were to hold the government on behalf of the young maharaja, Dhalip Singh. By this treaty the Jalandar Doab and the hill district of Kangra were ceded to the British, also the possessions of the maharaja on the left bank of the Sutlej. In addition the British demanded a money payment of 1,500,000. The services of Gulab Singh, raja of Jammu, to the Lahore state, in procuring the restora- tion of friendly relations with the British, were specially recognized. His independent sovereignty in such lands as might be made over to him was granted. The Sikh Government, unable to pay the whole of the money demand, further ceded, as equivalent for 1,000,000, the hill country between the Bias and the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara. Gulab Singh was prepared to give the amount in place of which Kashmir was to have become British, and by a separate treaty with him, 16th March 1846, this was arranged. The pay- ment was seventy-five lakhs of Nauakshahi rupees, and Kashmir was added to Gulab Singh's territory. At the urgent request of the darbar a Britis 1 force was left at Lahore for the protection of the maharaja and the preservation of peace. To restore order and introduce a settled administration a British resident was appointed, who was to guide and control the council of regency, and assistants to the resident were stationed in different parts of the country. Peace was not long preserved. The governor of Multan, Diwan Mulraj, desired to resign. Two English officers sent by the resident to take over charge of the fort were murdered, 19th April 1848, and their escort went over to the diwan. Another of the assistants to the resident, Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes, then in the Derajat, west of the Indus, hearing of the attack on the two officers, hastened to their assistance. On hearing of their fate he collected a force with which to attack the Multan army while the insurrection was yet local. This he did with signal success. But Multan could not fall before such means as he possessed. The movement spread, the operations widened, and the Sikh and English forces were in the field again. Multan was taken. The severe battle of Chilian- wala on 13th January 1849 left the Sikhs as persistent as after the two terrible days of Firoz-shahr in the previous campaign. And it needed the crushing defeat of Gujrat, 21st February 1849, like Sobraon in 1846, to bring the war to a conclusion, and this time to give the Punjab to England. It was annexed on 2d April 1849. For the government of the new province, including the Jalaudar Doab, previously annexed, and the cis-Sutlej states, a board of administration was appointed consisting of three members. In place of this board a chief commissioner was appointed in 1853, aided by a judicial commissioner and a financial commissioner. British troops, European and native, of the regular army were stationed at the chief cities and other places east of the Indus and at Peshawar. For the rest of the trans- Indus territory there was a special body of native troops called the Punjab frontier force, under the orders of the chief commissioner. During the Mutiny campaign of 1857 the Punjab, under Sir John Lawrence as chief commissioner, was able to send important aid to the force engaged in the siege of Delhi, while suppressing the disturbances which arose, and meeting the dangers which threatened, within the Punjab itselt In 1858 the Delhi territory, as it was called, west of the Jumna, was transferred from the North -West Provinces to the Punjab. The enlarged province was raised in rank, and on 1st January 1859 the chief commissioner became lieutenant-governor. In place of the judicial commissioner a chief court was constituted in 1866. The number of judges, at first two, was increased to three in 1869. The number is now (1885) three permanent and two temporary. The form and manner of government are for the most part like those of other British provinces in India, except that the employment, as in the earlier days, of military officers as well as civilians in the civil administration is continued to the present time. Soon after the annexation of the Punjab Christian missions were begun in the new province by the Church Missionary Society ami the American Presbyterian Board. In connexion with the English society there are twenty-four ordained English missionaries, four medical and two lay missionaries, and ten native clergy. At Delhi there is a mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Cambridge University Mission. Also a large number of English ladies are engaged in teaching native ladies, who by the customs of the country are obliged to remain at home. The number of native Christians in the Punjab is nearly 4000. In 1879 a new diocese, that of Lahore, was constituted, embracing the provinces of Punjab and Sind. Authorities. D. Ibbetson, Report on the Punjab Census of 1SS1 ; L. H. Griffin, Punjaub Chiefs and Rajas of the Punjaub ; B. H. Baden Powell, Punjab Products and Punjab Manufactures ; A. Cunningham, Ancient Geography offf. India ; J. D.Cunningham, History of the Sikhs; H. Elliot, Hittor ians of India (>y Dowson); Martin Honigberger, Thirty-Jive Years in the East ; M. Elphinstone, Caubul ; Prinsep, History of the Punjab; H. Lawrence, The Adventurer in the P-unjnh; Bosworth Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence; H. Edwardes, A Year on, the Punjab Frontier; C. Hiigel, Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab; Victor Jacquemont, Journey in India; George Foster, Journey from Bengal to England; Stanislas Julien, Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang and Hiouen Thsang, Memoire sur les Contrees Occidentales ; F. Bernier, Voyages; G. St P. Lawrence, Reminisccmrs of Forty-five Years in India; D'Anville, Antiquite Geographiyue de I'Inde; V. de St Martin, Geographie du Veda; Lassen, Pentapotamia Indica; R. Clark, Thirty Years of Missionary Work in the Punjab; Calcutta Jievieu', vols. i. and ii. ; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; Punjab Notes and Queries, &c. (B. M'L*.) PUPPETS. See MARIONETTES. PURCELL, HENRY (1658-1695), English musical com- poser, was born in 1658 in St Ann's Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster. His father, Henry Purcell, was a gentle- man of the chapel-royal, and in that capacity sang at the coronation of Charles II. After his father's death in 1664 the boy was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Thomas Purce'll, a man of extraordinary probity and kindness. Through the interest of this affectionate guardian, who was himself a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel, Henry was admitted to the chapel -royal as a chorister, and studied first under Captain Henry Cooke, " master of the children," and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey. He is said to have composed well at nine years old ; but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an ode for the king's birthday, written in 1670. After Humfrey's early death in 1674 he con- tinued his studies under Dr Blow. In 1676 he was ap- pointed copyist at Westminster Abbey not organist, as has sometimes been erroneously stated and in the same year he composed the music to Dryden's Aurenge-Zebe, and Shadwell's Epsom Wells and The Libertine?- These were followed in 1677 by the music to Mrs Behn's tragedy, Abdelazor, and in 1678 by an overture and masque for Shadwell's new version of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. The excellence of these compositions is proved by the fact that they contain songs and choruses which never fail to please, even at the present day. The masque in Timon of Athens is a masterpiece, and the chorus "In these delightful pleasant groves " in The Libertine is constantly sung with applause by English choral societies. In 1679 he wrote some songs for Playford's Choice Ayres, Songs, and Dialogues, and also an anthem, the name of which is not known, for the chapel-royal. From a letter written by Thomas Purcell, and still extant, we learn that this anthem was composed for the exceptionally fine voice of the Rev. John Gostling, then at Canterbury, but after- 1 The Libertine was suggested by Tirso de Molina's tale, El Bur- lador de Sevilla, afterwards dramatically treated by Moliere and chosen by Da Ponte a8 the foundation of Mozart's Don Giovanni.