SHAHAMAT ALI'S SIKHS AND AFGHANS.
WE certainly live In an imitative age. No sooner has one person bit npon a plan for acquiring customers or attention than followers start up in every direction; and unless the original discoverer made his hay while the sun of public favour shone upon him, he is very likely to find some of its rays intercepted. Hitherto this competition has gone on among ourselves; but there are signs of its extension, and that the luckless "reading public" may be made the victim of the study of English by the natives of Iiindostan. Two or three Indians competent to write English
have excited some attention by publishing books; but their minds, Oriental and puerile as they were, had been acquainted with English life, and we felt an interest in noticing how our customs and social usages affected the Indian judgment. The sole source of interest, how- ever, was in its novelty : the attraction of the rare and curious ceases when novelty is at an end and curiosity gratified. More of Indian books upon English life would be of little value unless of greater inherent strength than any we have seen from a native ; but latterly the Indians have taken to compose general literature in English. Besides his own travels and European experiences, Mohan Lal undertook to write the Life of Host Mahomed; and his fellow collegian, Shahamat Ali, without any European experience at all, imitates that example, by giving an account of Runjeet Singh and his court and camp, with the said Shahamat's ideas of "the Sikhs and Afghans," such as they appeared to him in a march from Lahore to Cabal and from Cabul to Lahore.
Shahamat Ali, like Mohan La), was educated in the Mogul College at Delhi, reestablished by the British Government; and became a member of the "English class" • whose pupils were at first held in great disfavour by the Mahometan professors, till a hint from authority enlightened their religious prejudices. In 1832, Shahamat, having distinguished himself in the College, was appointed a sort of Persian secretary or clerk to the present Sir C. M. Wade, then Political Agent at Loodiana. When Lord Auckland visited Runjeet Singh to arrange with that chief respecting the invasion of Cabul by Peshawr, Shahamat accompanied MB patron; and subsequently followed the army which acted as a diversion in favour of Lord Keene's forces, to the capital and back. Shahamat All was also sent alone on one occasion to carry some presents to Runjeet Singh. The volume consists of a sort of diary narrative of the march, and general descriptions of Runjeet and his officers, with some statistical accounta ot what his forces and finances were.
There are three reasons why this book was not wanted. In the first place, both the war in Afghanistan and the character and government of Runjeet Singh have been freely treated of by competent persons ; the war, indeed, has been illustrated with a breadth of description and copiousness of detail which leave nothing to be desired—except a full confession by those members of the Whig Ministry and the Indian Government who produced it. Secondly, the particulars which Shahamat All furnishes, even when they happen to be new, (if any of them are new,) are both smell in themselves and not only passed but perished. In the third and chiefeet place, Shahamat Ali is utterly unfit to write a volume. He doubtlens is very competent to translate official papers, and to collect particular information but he wants the breadth and strength of mind requisite to compose a book ; and this natural deficiency appears more remarkable to us from the almost childishness of the Oriental intellect presenting it- self in the English language,—which, however, Mehemet writes very cre- ditably. The most trivial details of the day's journey, or the business of the political agency—flying reports about this, that, and the other—with observations, uninteresting because devoid of strength or character—form the greater part of the diary. The rest consists of accounts of barbarous clans, without the least interest to the British public, and traditions, which are not always devoid of uteretit as illustrations of credulity and superstition, but are somewhat ou of place, and quite incapable of redeem- ing the character of the rest. A more thoroughly empty book we have rarely met. The best if not indeed the only passages on affairs worth quoting, in the whole 550 pages, are these descriptive of the late Runjeet Singh.
"His correspondence with foreign states, as well as with his own functionaries, is solely dictated by himself; and, though illiterate, he exercises a minute criti- cism in correcting the diction of his secretaries. An habitual reserve in matters of business forms a striking feature of his character. It is an invariable rule with him never to mention his object to any one until the time for execution has arrived.
"During the early part of his reign, he and the other Sikh chiefs had no system of official record: business was conducted by verbal orders, and continued so with Runjeet Singh, until Diwan Bhowani DAs, a clever native of Peshawr, was em- ployed. When he came into his service, he divided the transaction of the affairs of state into different offices or departments, keeping the accounts, farming of districts, and preserving every record of importance, commenced only from that period. At present there are twelve dollars, or offices, where the civil and mili-
tary business of the government is arranged. • • "The settlement of the revenue the audit of accounts, and their adjustment, both in the military and civil department, are done entirely by the Maharaja; but in the last two or three years, owing to his bad state of health, lie has sometimes delegated that duty to Raja Dhian Singh. lie has news-writers in every_quarter of his dominions, and the news of foreign courts is always read to his Highness in the morning.'
The opinion of Shahamat All is strongly condemnatory of the bad policy by which the Cabul victories were rendered useless and the British army destroyed. Shahamat, however, adduces no very striking novelties upon this point ; and his opinion is perhaps of slender con- sequence, as it may have been formed Mier the events, since censure be- came the fashion.
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