Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/91

Rh intermediate policy of a regency. 'The energy and turbulent spirit of the Sikhs,' wrote Lord Hardinge to Sir Henry Lawrence, 'are stated by one section (of politicians here) as ground for not annexing. In my judgment this is the argument which would dispose me, if I were on the spot, to annex... I should be ashamed of myself if I would not depart from a line of policy which was right at the time, because I might be charged with inconsistency .' This frank confession of the noble old Governor-General, whose scheme of governing the Punjab without annexation had broken down, must have strengthened the conviction of Sir Henry Lawrence that he did well in withdrawing his resignation of the Residentship of Lahore; a resignation which he placed in Lord Dalhousie's hands when he learned that his views against annexation were overruled, and that the Punjab was to become a British Province.

Thus, almost within a year of his arrival in India, the young Governor-General found himself compelled to add a great country to the Empire. Amid his engrossing cares for the welfare of the new territories, he did not forget the couple of shallow graves, hastily dug by alien hands, from whose blood-stained soil had sprung the conquest of