of April, and every consideration was shown to their altered fortunes, by the honourable governor and other authorities, one of the governor's residences being appropriated to their reception. A local journal describes their condition thus:—“ The Amirs, being prisoners of state, are retained in strict seclusion; they are described as broken-hearted and miserable men, maintaining much of the dignity of fallen greatness, and without any querulous or angry complainings at this unalleviable source of sorrow, refusing to be comforted." It would be superfluous to add to this description. The Amirs of Sindh merit deep sympathy; and those even who were opposed to them in the stern shock of arms will yet acknowledge that their fate has been indeed a melancholy one.

Mir Allí Múrad may now profit by the attachment he has professed to British interests; but whether his own will long remain flourishing, or his adherence prove sincere, remains to be seen.

CHAP. XVIII.

Remarks on the newly created Interest in Sindh.—Character of Government.-Reason of our First Connection with Sindh.

The Difficulties that attended our early Negotiation with the Amirs. Settlement of a British Agent in Sindh.-Settlement of a British Minister, and Abolishment of Imposts.— Proposed Cession of Shikarpúr.- Desired Advance of Commercial Interest.—The real Position of the Population under the Government of the Amirs.-Probable Feelings excited among the Bilúchis.-Results likely to follow late Events.Physical Difficulties connected with the Military Occupation of Sindh.. Position of Mir Allí Múrad. - General Observations.

THE late events which have occurred, to change altogether the aspect of affairs in Sindh, possess for the public generally a degree of interest which induces a retrospect of the past government of the country and its effects, as a means of being able to form something like a correct judgment of what will in all probability follow in due course upon the acts that have now taken place, and the position in which we as conquerors are placed.

Among the exciting interests which until a late period occupied public attention as connected with our position in, and withdrawal from, Affghanistan, Sindh was remembered only as a sort of depôt for the materiel of war, a base, as it were, for our military operations in advance. Since this time,

however, its aspect has widely altered: our grasp has been laid upon its rulers, and its warriors and its people have nominally become subjugated to British power; it will therefore be interesting to inquire what is likely to be the feelings now created.

The government of Sindh was of course a perfectly despotic one, no subject, of whatever rank or calling, daring to assume a right, in opposition to the supreme will of their rulers, the Amirs; and the result of this condition was, of course, impoverishment to the territory, misery to the poor, favouritism towards the unworthy, with ignorance, fear, and oppression to all. If an artisan worked cunningly and well, his labour was seized, by order of an admiring prince; if a banker amassed wealth, it was speedily found that the royal coffers were becoming low, and the man of wealth was commanded to replenish them. If the farmer's lands were fruitful, he was compelled to support the military retainers of the court; and thus was every species of energy crushed by the selfish and shortsighted character of the government. But Sindh differed little in this from all others, governed, as all semi-barbarous countries are, by despotism; and many of the evils under which the people laboured were as much the effects of their geographical position, and vicinity to the desert, as to the oppressions of the Amirs. From this remark it must be clearly understood that the idea intended to be

given is simply, that although exaction was common, the best interests of commerce neglected, Sindhian artisans oppressed to pay for the wares of the foreign merchant, and agriculture sacrificed to sport, yet that the government of the Amirs of Sindh was not in these respects worse than might be expected from their limited views; while in many respects there was a total absence of the fierce, violent, and brutal cruelty often exercised by the despot princes of the East, whether Mohamedan or Hindú. It must be also observed, that in the condition of semi-barbarous ignorance in which the Sindhian population is, acts which to a civilised and enlightened people, existing under a free government, would appear oppressive and terrible to the last degree, had no such terrors for the subjects trained and enured (they and their fathers) to a despotic rule; while among feudal systems, in all countries, as in Sindh, a warm attachment is ever found to exist between the serf and his lord, between the military retainer and his prince; a link which, though sometimes felt to be an iron one, would gall more in the breaking than in the wearing, a fact which association and habit can scarcely fail to produce. A free people suddenly cursed with a change of masters, and the oppressions of a conqueror, as the Hindús were, by the violence of the Moslems, cannot be insensible to the tyranny so exercised; but a people accustomed from generation to generation to the same system

are easily reconciled to those instances of harshness which at particular periods press somewhat heavily on either their interests or their tranquillity.

The prominent feature which first produced in the Indian government a desire to cultivate the alliance of the Amirs of Sindh was the value of the river Indus for the purposes of commerce, in connection with the Sutlij; and, therefore, when the first treaty with the Amirs of Sindh was ratified, in 1809, a friendly feeling was also sought to be established with the ruler of Bhawulpúr, as a means of throwing open the rivers to the merchants of Central Asia and of Hindostan. We advanced but slowly, however; and the first point gained was rather a negative than a positive good, the pith of the treaties made (which has been fully shown in its proper place) being, "that the government of Sindh should not allow the settlement of the tribe of the French within their country;" while in 1820 mutual intercourse between the rulers of Sindh and the British government, by means of vakils, was decided on, and the prohibition against the French now extended to Europeans generally, and to our enterprising brethren beyond the Atlantic. Two years from this period, and the great point — the general freedom of the Indus navigation mooted, and the Amirs agreed to allow the merchants of Hindostan to transport their goods by the river, under the condition that no armed vessels

-was