The Sikhs. By General Sir John J. H. Gordon, K.C.B.
(W. Black- wood and Sons. 7s. 6d. net.) —This is a pleasant, informing, but not historically pedantic book, which seems to have been suggested to its author by the Coronation of the King in London, when, as the author says, " no visitors received a heartier welcome than the soldiers who so well represented the Indian army." Among such visitors, the first in popular favour were, naturally enough, the Sikhs, the descendants and representatives of the mon who before the Indian Mutiny gave the garrison of India more trouble than any other of its native tribes, but during the course of that crisis rendered the highest service to the cause of British supremacy. The story of the Sikhs, of their origin, of the foundation of their military Monarchy, of its inevitable fall, and of their subsequent loyalty to their conquerors, is a tolerably familiar one. But General Gordon, who has served with the Sikhs, and has taken "personal notes," is able by means of these to strengthen and freshen the old histories of Malcolm and others. His narrative of the rise of the great Sikh hero, Ranjit Singh, is very well and enthusiastically written. A handier manual of this interesting subject has not yet been produced.
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