1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. 317
2 fore it would be unreasonable to demand the sur- Meinaan
3 render of such places as Umritsir and Govindghur,
4 which are in possession of the Lahore government,
5 and the continued existence of which, under Dhu-
6 leep Singh, we acknowledge and support.
7 The experiment nfight, no doubt, be a dangerous
8 one; but we venture to predict, that if the royal
9 purwannah were sent to deliver up Govindghur to
10 the British, it would be spurned as that for Kote
11 Kangra has been. The British are at present The British
12 looked upon in the light of intruders, not only as intruders.
13 regards Lahore, but also as relates to the Jalindhur
14 Doab, and the confiscated possessions on the left
15 bank of the Sutlej, and it will be a long time before
16 the Sikhs can reconcile themselves to the idea,
17 that these provinces must belong to another power
18 as the necessary result of conquest.
19 The Sikhs have experienced defeat and disaster
20 on the left bank of the Sutlej, and will not therefore
21 readily take the field again. But ina country like
22 the Punjab, abounding in forts, some of them of
23 great strength, there is every probability that the
24 Sikhs, sooner or later, will assume a mutinous The Sikhs
25 spirit, and shut themselves up in their strongholds, ned aeie
26 The disbanded soldiers have nothing to lose, and °"*
27 by raising the standard of revolt against the British,
28 their situation could not be rendered more des-
29 perate, and might be temporarily ameliorated. The
30 Sirdars are already disaffected towards the govern-
31 ment of Dhuleep Singh, or more properly that of
32 the British, and many of them would willingly join