Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/78

74 It is the lot of public men, whether soldiers or statesmen, to have their actions closely scanned and canvassed. Of course, there were those who, during the interval that elapsed between the battles of Múdkí and Firozsháh and the crowning victory of Sobráon, maintained that due preparations had not been made against the emergency and that the Governor-General had been taken by surprise. A writer in the Quarterly Review of June, 1846, undertook the task of giving an historical account of the events of this period. Unfortunately, many of his facts and figures were inaccurate, not from any wish on the part of the author (who was, indeed, an old friend of Sir Henry Hardinge) to detract from his merits, but from insufficiency of information and incorrectness of details.

The words of the Reviewer are these: — 'If there had been urgent arguments addressed to Lord Ellenborough in favour of a peaceful reign, the wish both of the Court of Directors and of the Cabinet on that head was expressed to Sir Henry Hardinge with increased earnestness. Sir Henry entered upon the duties of his office more anxious than perhaps any other Governor-General had been before him to signalise the entire term of his residence in India by the useful labours of peace. At the same time, he did not consider himself bound either to censure or retrace the steps which his predecessor might have taken in an opposite direction. He found the attention of Lord Ellenborough had been turned seriously towards the North-Western Frontier; that all towns