The herald., 1894-03-04
KING OF NO KIN HDOM.
THE ROMANTIC LIFE OF NJ 'At4ARAJAH
DHuLEEP SINGH. E


Removed to Englsnd with ANA 9lowance.
Tried to Stir Up the sSihhs "A gain, but
was Nipped ahdtForgiven by Il le Queen.
A decade ago Maharajah Dhuleep
Singh, who died in Paris recently,
was a we'll known figure in London,
whose photograph was on sal b in the
shop windows. He,was born En 1888,
the son Of Runjeet Singh, 1.-THE lion of
the Punjab," :" that, doughty East Indian
sovereign who was the founder of the
Sikh kingdom andthe cause of ST. much
trouble to England. There ha' re been
two Sikh wars in the last half entury
in which the erelatives of Dhuleep
Singh. figured. I The first was il 1845,
when a Sikh ,armyiof so, 600 n hen in
vaded the queens Indian empi re and
fought four pitched battles, th b final
result beingthe retreat of the in raders
across thes Sutiej and the surren der of
Lahorei to the British. By the terms
of the peace Dhuleep Singh, the infant
son oftRunjeet, was recognized as rajah.
Theasecond Sikh war broke cat in
l64S, bait it proved to be short lived,
the British forces under Lord Cough
succeeding & in destroying the Sikh army
and in ann miexing Punjab to the queen 3
possessions. AS a result of this, way
young DhuAeep Singh received an allow
ance of e50A100 from his conquerqrs.
He, with his mother, moved to Eng
land, became, a Christian, and on his
estate in Sufilolk cultivated the habits
of an EnglislA gentlemen. He was an
intimate friend of the Prince of Wales,
who used annually to spend part of the
shooting season, at Dhuleep's country
home.
The maharaiah's first wife was lit
tie Syrian maid whom he met in Cairo
in 1864, when on his way back from
Bonn bay, where he had gone to take
back to its native soil the body Of his
mother that it migM be there cremated.
The maharanee died@in 1887, and cou-
pie of years later-in91 91s89-he married
in Paris Miss Ada Douglas Wetherill.
Dhuleep watched closely the advance
OF Russia into Asia, and when he
thought the proper time had come he
renounced Christianity and issued a
manifesto to the Sikh nation claiming
the throne of his father. But his re-
nunciation of the creed Of Baba Nanuk
and his suspected illegitimate birth-it
was asserted by the Sikhs themselves
that he was the son of his mother
through an intrigue with one of the ra-
iah's water carriers-hAd long since es-
tranged the feelings of the people, and
if it had been possible to create Sikh
rebellion in the Land of the Five Rivers
there were other princes better able than
this maharajah to lead such an enter
prise.
The British made short work of his
pretensions. He was travelling with
leisurely dignity on his great mission
in P. e. o. steamer, when at Alden he
was informed that return passage had
been secured for him, and that he
would not be permitted to land in In
dia. A Sikh rebellion would have been
a serious matter Tor England, for never
were the British forces more evenly
fought than ON the battlefelds of Mool-
tan, Chiliianwallah andstzhuznee.
There were at that time about 10
regiments of Sikhs in thesindian army,
acknowledged by British officers to be
the finest in the service, and in most of
the Punjab regiments thTeA was very
large proportion Of Sikh soIdf ers.
After his abortiye attempt to stir up
the Sikhs into rebellion against British
rule, phuleep went TO Russia, thinking
to enlist the sympathy Of the czar in
hisg behalf, but his greeting was not
oyerwarm. So the lingwithoGt a coun-
tTyseRablished himself in cosmopoli-
tan Paris, where he lived up to the
time of his death. Lfe on the conti-
nent seemed to unsettler' somewhat the
domestic morals of this oriental Chris
tian. and an hereditary pNedisposition to
polygamy asserted itself. The maha-
Kajah recently expressed deep regret for
the course of hostility which he had
Epursuedtowar England, and her maj;
estH by the advice of her ministers,
was 'gTaciously- pleased oeaoccrd her
pardon to him.
General Dick Taylor ofsyLouisiana
used tell a storyof an encounter with
Dhuleep, While he was staying in
1871 at SandringhamTwith the Prince
Ok stfd4eb, bu0 LksaAdHdJ al Was O1ss du6
party, One morning Taylor arose early
and strelled out intolthe grounds to
small summer house IN which there
was a Hindoo idol brought back'from
lndiagbysthe prince, AS he came near
he.s saWssome one, who proved to be
DBG inafront of the idol
V4SSrtibg Certain movements, evidently
ofaE0Isfiip. The truth probably is
that SiAgat never had abandoned the
ttusrfalfh oG his fathers.
It The reIihgfon of the Sikhs was found
eds NSnuk, who died a. D. 1888,
and'who left for the. guidance of his
followers an inspired volume bearing
the very uneuphonious title of the
"Gruuth." This book Is held in great
reverence and isscarried every morning
in solemn state to the Golden Temple
of Immortality atAmFitsir, where it is
venerated by some 1000, 900 or 4,0e0,-
600 Of people When Europeans visit
the temple, they are required to remove
their shoes. An exception, however,
was made in the case Of the Prince of
Wales.
The5tomb of Runjeet Singh, the fa-
ther Of Dhuleep, is at Lahore, the capi-
tai Of the province of Punjab. 1t is a
Vvhita efrnctnra xuitl, n d,,yaa aod fva