Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/82

78 Sutlej. Pontoons had likewise been brought up from Sind, and on the same occasion 24,000 men were conveyed across the river, besides a siege train of 40 heavy guns, 100,000 camp-followers, and 68,000 baggage-animals. In the Memorandum referred to, the Governor-General observes that 'The result of these arrangements was that, nine days after the Sikhs had crossed the Sutlej, the British army fought the battle of Firozsháh, 19,700 strong, with 65 guns, including seven regiments of British infantry, a force unparalleled in the annals of India.' 'It may be asked why the force at and above Ambála only fought 19,000 strong at Firozsháh. The answer is, that if in nine days 19,000 men and 65 guns out of a total force of 32,000 men were available, with a reserve of 7090 men and 24 guns marching up from Meerut, the Governor-General had done all that wisdom and foresight could have achieved.'

The writer in the Quarterly Review makes another misstatement when he writes that 'The Commander-in-Chief, conceiving hostilities about to commence, ordered up to Meerut a regiment of European cavalry and two of infantry; but various causes connected with the political state of affairs induced the Governor-General to disapprove of the latter suggestion.' And further he adds that 'This forward movement was countermanded by the Governor-General, and our preparations may be said to have reverted to what they were in the summer.'

The answer to all this is a simple negative. No