1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. 277°
2 capable of performing it was looked upon by the
3 fierce and warlike tribes of the country as invin-
4 cible. ’Tis true there were no organised troops to
5 arrest the progress of this army, nor could: the
6 Affghans oppose it with any force of artillery like
7 that brought into the field by the Sikhs; still, the.
8 occupation of Cabul by the British was a great
9 enterprize. That such a task was accomplished by
10 sheer bravery and perseverance, no one will deny
11 who has read the records of the campaign. The
12 capture of the chief fortress of the Ameers was Valour
13 a fitting sequel to the deeds of high emprise in taking pos-
14 : F . ion of
15 enacted in Affghanistan, and the victory on the Cabul,
16 Sutlej capped the whole. Thus, in a period of p32taéand
17 eight years, did the British troops under a Keane, a
18 Napier, and a Gough make themselves masters of
19 Cabul, Hydrabad, and Lahore. Ten or twelve
20 years ago, such feats were hardly dreamt of, and
21 the policy of Lord William Bentinck in 1831 would Pitas
22 have shrunk from such acts of daring. And how Policy.
23 was it that this enlightened governor never con-
24 templated such conquests? Not, certainly, from any
25 dread that the army of India could not accomplish
26 them; but solely from his unwillingness to risk the
27 lives of his own countrymen, as well as those of the
28 Natives of India, in a warfare for the “possession of
29 territory which he had the sagacity to perceive would
30 entail endless trouble and expense on its possessors.
31 The experiment was made by his successor of Roache
32 jand’s policy
33 placing a dethroned and imbecile king on the in restoring
34 Shah Soojah-
35 throne of Cabul: and for what noumnce? Tha rod