Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/150

144 at the back, the small round shield of tough buffalo hide. These magnificent horsemen were armed some with bows and arrows, but the majority with matchlocks, with which they made excellent practice.

The regular troops were much less picturesque than the jagírdári horse. Their dress was a close imitation of the scarlet uniforms worn by the British army, singularly ungraceful on native troops. Their pay compared favourably with that of the Company's troops—Rs. 10 per mensem for a foot-soldier—but on the other hand they received no pension; the cavalry received Rs. 25, but for this had to procure and maintain a horse and accoutrements.

An account of the civil administration under Mahárájá Ranjít Singh need not be lengthy, for I have already described it as the simple process of squeezing out of the unhappy peasant every rupee that he could be made to disgorge; the limit of oppression being only marked by the fear of his revolt or the abandonment of his land through discouragement and despair. The Sikh farmer of revenue did not wish to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, but he plucked its feathers as closely as he dared. A few paragraphs from Land Revenue Settlement Reports will show how the Sikh procedure appears in the eyes of the officers of the British Government, who administer a system which is as different from that of the Sikhs as light from darkness, and which indeed errs on the side of extravagant generosity. The British Government might largely