Page:The Sikhs (Gordon).djvu/263

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UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN.
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made a leap for empire, Lord Canning well expressed it when, after peace was restored, he addressed the chiefs at Lahore, saying, "In other parts of India I have received many distinguished chiefs of ancient lineage who have proved themselves faithful feudatories of the Crown, and many of lower degree who have been dutiful subjects in the midst of great discouragements and danger, but in the Punjab I find a whole nation of brave and loyal men." And the late Sir Charles Aitchison, a former Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in his Life of Lord Lawrence wrote: "Certainly no troops ever fought more bravely or covered themselves with more glory than did the Punjab troops in our cause against the rebel sepoys. They shared with us the privations and diseases and dangers of the ridge, soldiers all day and sentinels all through the night. They shared in the glory of the assault. In the Oudh and Rohilkhund campaigns they were shoulder to shoulder with the best