The Maharaja Dhuleep Singh recently quarrelled with the India Office
about his allowances, and resolved for the future to reside in India. He broke up his establishment at Elvaston Hall, Suffolk, ordered the splendid furniture to be sold, and started for India, sending before him an address to the Sikhs which, if it is not a forgery, is one of the strangest documents ever issued. He begs forgiveness of the Khalsa for having forsaken the faith of his ancestors, but pleads that he was young when he embraced Christianity. He now desires to become a Sikh again, but has no intention of accepting caste, or of abstaining from particular meats and drinks, and will only " worship in the tenets of Baba Nanuk, and obey the commands of the Gooroo Govind Singh." The Sikhs could, we imagine, readmit the Maharaja, though they could not allow him to eat beef or to dispense with all the safeguards of ceremonial parity ; and if readmitted, he might become a very dangerous personage. The Government of India has accordingly, we suspect, acted with its usual decision, and has signified that he must return to Europe. At all events, he is said to have stopped at Aden, and to be returning,—let us hope to reconsider his decision that the Sikh form of Hindooism is more true than Christianity. Native Christians have become Mahommedans in hundreds, but the return of a baptised Hindoo to Hindooism is, we believe, a nearly unprecedented event. With most of the Hindoo Churches it would be an impossible one.
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