Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/54

50 hope that peace will be preserved in India. I need not say that it is our anxious wish that it should be so. You, sir, know how great are the evils of war. And we feel confident that, while ever ready to maintain unimpaired the honour of the country and the supremacy of our arms, your policy will be essentially pacific. It has always been the desire of the Court that the government of the East India Company should be eminently just, moderate, and conciliatory; but the supremacy of our power must be maintained when necessary by the force of our arms.' May it not be said that Sir H. Hardinge's subsequent policy carried out almost to the letter the above instructions?

In the preceding pages the early life and political career of Sir H. Hardinge have been briefly sketched, the limits of this Memoir not admitting of further detail. Few soldiers of the present century can point to such a combination of military and political services; while his Indian administration, now to be described, is not the least eventful chapter in the history of that country.