Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/92

88 admirable staff officers, were killed; Hillier was severely wounded. Amongst the distinguished general officers who fell on this occasion were Sir John McCaskell, K.C.B., and Sir R. H. Sale, K.C.B., whose services were so pre-eminent and well known that it is needless to recapitulate them. After performing the last melancholy rites, it was necessary to turn to the more pressing exigencies of the situation.

The most important incident of this day was the formal offer of Sir Henry Hardinge to place his military services unreservedly at the disposal of Sir Hugh Gough the Commander-in-Chief, who suggested that he could serve in no other capacity than second in command. Sir Hugh Gough reports this in his despatch: — 'This evening [the 19th] in addition to the valuable counsel with which you had in every emergency before favoured me, you were pleased yet further to strengthen my hands by kindly offering your services as second in command in my army. I need hardly say with what pleasure the offer was accepted.'

This proposal has been much criticised; but as it will be referred to again further on, it is unnecessary to dwell upon it now. Herbert Edwardes, in his account of the campaign in the Calcutta Review, observes: 'It has been censured as derogatory and rash. We have every respect for the abstract dignity and high mightiness of the Governor-General of India, embodying as it does the irresponsibility of the Great Mogul with the infallibility of the Pope, but we are