1 302 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
2 Beneficial | general to his attention to the poor wounded men
3 attention of at Feerozpore, a subject to which we have endea-
4 general to the VOured to attract notice. His cheering words to
5 Mecheeriug the European soldiers on the night of the 2Ist of
6 address to the December, had, no doubt, a most beneficial effect,
7 troops on the
8 night of the coming as they did from the ruler of India, who
9 ber, had thrown off his state for the nonce, and shared
10 all the privations of the common soldier, bivouack-
11 ing on the field of battle after a hard-fought action.
12 His determination was, as already stated, to leave
13 the field a victor, or not at all; and, however much
14 the original delay and forbearance of Sir Henry
15 Hardinge may be blamed, there is no one who pos-
16 sesses a spark of good feeling, but must be proud
17 of the gallant and invincible bearing displayed
18 by him in the Sikh campaign when “ hard blows”
19 were to be dealt.
20 Policy of Sir. Sir Howard Douglas, in his ines? in the House
21 wttenten te of Commons, showed, that, notwithstanding the for-
22 Dause* bearance of the Governor-general, “ though pushed
23 so far as to have exposed Sir H. Hardinge and the
24 Commander-in-chief to a surmise, that a policy so
25 forbearing was not consonant with the rules of
26 tactical and stratagetical science,” no errors had
27 been committed. The grounds of his explanation
28 are not given in the report of his speech, but they
29 Success the @ppear to have been satisfactory; and when we see
30 true criterion success attend every step, by which complete vic-
31 pee tory was obtained, we may rest assured that the
32 operations were such as suited the crisis. War has