74 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



or lier subsequent removal across the Satlaj. Her 

 restless ambition made her the rallying centre for 

 all the discontented spirits in the Punjab. The 

 outbreak at Multan was, in fact, the signal for a 

 general Sikh uprising against the Power represented 

 by Sir Frederick Currie at Lahore, and by a few 

 British officers scattered throughout the country, 

 from Major George Lawrence at Peshawar to Lieu- 

 tenant Edwardes in the south-west. In justice also 

 to Currie himself it must be said that Edwardes's 

 strictures fell wide of their mark. Before the end 

 of April he had arranged for the prompt despatch 

 of Sikh troops under their own sirdars to the scene 

 of danger, rightly holding, as he wrote to Lord 

 Dalhousie, that " a successful rebellion in Multan 

 . . . would kindle a flame through the land which 

 it would be very difficult to extinguish." 



On the 10th of May he wrote to the Governor- 

 General expressing his entire concurrence with 

 Lieutenant Edwardes " in what he says of the 

 importance of an immediate move of troops on 

 Multan, and regret as deeply as he or any one 

 can do, that an expedition against Multan at this 

 season is declared impossible." ^ 



When Lord Dalhousie in July granted the Eesi- 

 dent a free hand, Sir F. Currie lost no time in 

 despatching a British column to the support of 

 Edwardes and the Nawab of Bahawalpur. 



Meanwhile Hodson tells us in his letter of July 

 5 that he had been " fairly successful in obtaining 

 information of the extent of the conspiracy, which 

 has been keeping the whole country in a ferment 

 these two months past. All that has occurred is 



1 Punjab Blue-Book, 1847-1849. 



