Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/70

Rh and had been beaten by brave men in fair fight, and not by superior artillery or warlike skill or force of numbers: though as a drawback to this, there were loud murmurs imputing treachery on the part of their leaders. With a misgoverned army 'nous sommes trahis' is not an uncommon idea.

Sir Henry, now Lord Hardinge, was mainly solicitous about intrigues on the part of the Sikh chiefs; not so Henry Lawrence, who dreaded more the machinations of the Raní and her party in the Council.

The treaty of March 11, 1846, embodying those arrangements, and called the Treaty of Lahore, was signed by the Mahárájá, by Sardárs Lál Singh, Tej Singh, and Rám Singh, and by the Diwán Dina Náth. Lord Hardinge's words to the Council were these: —

'Success or failure is in your own hands; my co-operation shall not be wanting ; but, if you neglect this opportunity, no aid on the part of the British Government can save the State.'

When thus undertaking his new charge, it may be explained that Henry Lawrence's views, though in accordance with Lord Hardinge's, were based on a far wider range of ideas and objects. Now that Sir George Clerk had left, there was no one there who had such an intimate knowledge of the Sikhs, such an appreciation of their real worth, and such a true insight into their shortcomings and the causes to which they were due. Knowing the chiefs personally, having won their confidence in the Firozpur