they knew themselves to be strong of arm and steady in battle; and they had confidence in the military skill and science of their French and Italian commanders. Then they wanted employment, and they fancied they could best seek it beyond the Sutledge, within the Company's territories. The Maharajah was in the nursery; his mother and guardian was helpless, and even the more prudent and pacific of the Sirdars were whirled along by the war torrent; for the will of the soldiery, the dictation of the "Punt'h Khalsajee," was not to be resisted without the risk of being murdered. An army was accordingly prepared for the Sutledge, though no ground of offence had been given by the English, and no rational cause could be assigned for the breach of existing treaties.
Sir Henry Hardinge, who had just been appointed Governor-General, and was quietly pursuing a series of civil and military improvements at the seat of government, was not long kept in ignorance of what was passing at Lahore. As there could be no mistaking the intentions of the Sikhs, he determined to lose no time in preparing to meet and repel an invasion; and, before he had been three months in the country, he had several large corps marching from the furthest confines of the Bengal presidency towards the north-west frontier, to reinforce the army of observation on the Sutledge, under the command of Sir Hugh Gough.
By thus taking time by the forelock, every post was reinforced so quietly that even in our provinces the operations passed unnoticed; and when the war did break out, the Governor-General was censured by the uninformed for being unprepared. To disprove this, however, it is sufficient to state that, in the first line from Umballa to the Sutledge, about 150 miles, there were, when Sir Henry Hardinge arrived in India in July, 1844, only 13,539 men and 48 guns; and when the war broke out in December, 1845, there were 32,479 men and 68 guns, showing an increase of 18,940 men and 20 guns! The force at Meerut had also been augmented
