Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/23

Rh though the hands of the English were clean in the matter of the Sikh wars and in the annexation of the Punjab, which were forced unwillingly upon them by the fierce and uncontrolled passions of the Sikh chiefs and people, yet there can be little doubt that, even if the contest with the English had been delayed, and the successors of Ranjít Singh had clung, as he did, to the British alliance, the trial of strength which was to determine the question of supremacy in Northern India must have occurred sooner or later. There were too many occasions for dispute and discord on the Sutlej and in Afghánistán; the temper of the Sikhs was so hot and imperious; the prestige of England was so essential to maintain, that it was impossible that these two military powers could have for long existed side by side in peace. It was fortunate both for the reputation of England and for her future relations with the Sikh people that the provocation and the attack came from Lahore and not from Calcutta. In the splendid record of the English conquest of India, illumined by so many chivalrous and noble actions, so much temperance in the hour of victory and so much generosity to the vanquished, there are still some episodes which, however pardonable in rough times, cannot be regarded by the impartial historian with approval. But the annexation of the Punjab is not one of these. It was accepted by the whole Sikh nation as just, and their acknowledged bravery in both campaigns and the loss they inflicted on their opponents, took the sting from defeat and