Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/40

Rh one hand a brave and effective army, composed of a soldiery with complete confidence in themselves, inclined for war, and turbulent, especially now when freed from the powerful hand that had restrained them; and on the other hand, a band of rival chiefs and men of influence aspiring to the leadership, and ready to bid unscrupulously for the support of that army.

This situation was most serious, and Lawrence's part, under George Clerk's guidance, was to watch them all with the utmost vigilance, to guard against the action of the crafty and ambitious, and to guide and support the well-disposed. Sher Singh, a reputed son of Ranjít Singh, became the Mahárájá, after the death of another almost imbecile son, Kharak Singh; and it was during his rule, and with his Darbár, that Lawrence while at Firozpur was chiefly connected in other than local matters.

Troubles in Afghánistán.

A special subject of anxiety was the maintenance of the alliance against Afghánistán which the British had made with Ranjít Singh, which he had not really liked, and which had not been popular with the Sikhs, however much they hated the Afgháns.

It had been entered into in connexion with the expedition of 1839, consequent on the anxiety which the British had begun to feel at the advance of Russia, and the significant complications respecting Herát