1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. 279
2 them? No. Nothing less than the destruction of
3 their invaders, offered a balm to their outraged
4 feelings, ;
5 The invasion of a country without due PFOVOCA> The invasion
6 tion, is to be avoided as an evil in itself, and fruit- deageeeae
7 ful of disastrous consequences. A people may be Pent
8 conquered, but their conversion into obedient and
9 loyal subjects is always difficult—often impossible.
10 The dangerous experiment of invasion was, there-
11 fore, wisely avoided by the present Governor-
12 general of India, He was averse to war under any
13 pretext short of the defence of the British terri. -
14 tories, and his forbearance led him to await aggres- The forbear.
15 sion on the part of the Sikhs. War was forced on British con
16 him; he adopted hostility as an unavoidable eyil oe
17 and he triumphed over the foe who rashly at-
18 tempted invasion. From motives which cannot be
19 misconstrued, the Governor-general in the moment
20 of victory, expresses an ardent wish for the,restora-
21 tion of peace and order among the very people
22 who had threatened.to wrest the British posses-
23 sions in India out of his hands.
24 Though thus conquered and discomfited, the
25 Sikhs, like the Affghans, cherish the hope of yet
26 retaliating on their conquerors, and the spirit which
27 urges them to seek for the lives of the British, has prone shirie
28 already manifested itself; not emanating, it is true,
29 from the head of the government, but in the per-
30 sonal malice of the people. In the bazaar of
31 Lahore, the bunniahs, or merchants, have dared to
32 ill-treat the political functionaries, while they were