Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/79

Rh from Delhi to Karnál were filled with troops; that the Commander-in-Chief had already surveyed the whole extent of the Protected States with a view to make choice of military positions, and that the advanced posts of Ludhiána and Firozpur had been strengthened. Sir H. Hardinge neither undid anything of all this, nor found fault with it, but he carefully abstained from the discussion in Council or elsewhere of topics which might turn men's thoughts to war.'

Again, 'That he kept his eye on the Punjab, and was neither regardless of the confusion which its affairs were falling into nor of the consequences to which this might possibly lead, is most certain. He had already directed the works at Ludhiána and Firozpur to be strengthened, and raised the garrison of the latter place from 4000 to 7000 men. The former was held by about 6000; and at Ambála, where Gough's head-quarters were established, and among the cantonments in the rear, there were about 7500 of all arms. But as Sir Henry certainly did not anticipate that the whole power of the Punjab would be thrown across the Sutlej, he naturally concluded that there was force enough at hand to meet and repel whatever invasion might be hazarded.'

The apologetic tone of these extracts seems to imply that Lord Ellenborough had prepared everything and Lord Hardinge nothing. So far from the towns from Delhi to Karnál being filled with troops, Lord Ellenborough had abolished Karnál as a military station; and as for the other towns, there was hardly a soldier in them.