Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/116

Rh capacity whatever, at present. Nevertheless, as you are necessarily ignorant of much that has passed, I think it right to address you expressly on the subject. I have to inform you that I will grant no terms whatever to Mulráj, nor listen to any proposal but unconditional surrender.'

This letter justly ignored the idea that Sir Henry meant to act or could act in the way that had been suggested; but the correspondence intimated very clearly that he must form no conclusions as to the present state of matters, or of the future policy, till he had become more fully and correctly conversant with the details of recent occurrences. It implied that judgement had been already passed on the rising of the Sikhs, and that the outbreak involved a new departure in policy, making any former policy a thing of the past. At the same time, it did not necessarily indicate that, except in some particular cases, such as that of Mulráj, the threatened severity would go beyond political repression.

At first, therefore, Sir Henry had no reason to think that he would not have opportunities for keeping in view the principles and grounds of the old policy of a friendly race on our borders, though that policy itself might no longer be open to adoption in the shape that had been before hoped for, as a continuance of that race in an independent kingdom.

After leaving Múltán he came to Lahore, and we next hear of him at Chilianwála, He was present