1 The policy of
2 Maharaja Ranjit
3 Singh eminently,
4 wise.
5 The defensive
6 (treaty proposed
7 by the Govern-
8 nent gave
9 vdvantage to
10 them alone.
11 ‘
12 104 THE RAJAS OF THE PUNJAB.
13 could only tell him that he was unable te interfere,
14 though the Government had no sympathy with this act
15 of oppression, and that the presence of the mission in
16 the Maharaja’s camp gave no sanction to the Cis-Satle]
17 expedition.”
18 It was, indeed, high time to give such assurances, for
19 the presence of the Envoy with the Maharaja could not
20 but be misunderstood. However insincere the conduct,
21 of Ranjit Singh may have been, there was something of
22 genius in his policy, which deserved success. When the
23 Envoy first commenced his negotiations, the Maharaja
24 at once perceived that an opportunity had arrived for
25 demanding an acknowledgment of his right to sovereignty
26 over the Cis-Satlej States, the first desire of his heart. Ht
27 is true that he had absolutely no right to such sovereignty,
28 and had himself proposed to Lord Lake that the Satle}
29 should be the frontier line of the two States. But since
30 that time his strength had’ infinitely increased, and his
31 ambition had grown with his strength. Besides, he fan-
32 cied, perhaps erroneously, but still with some reason, that
33 the British Government were somewhat in his power.
34 France to him was a name and nothing more: he neither
35 loved nor hated it, or its Emperor; and he clearly per-
36 ceived that the Envoy’s assurances that the Governor-
37 General desired this defensive treaty against France out
38 ‘of a sincere regard for the interests of Lahore, and that
39 the Punjab, and not British India, was the State that
40 would benefit by the alliance, were absurd—for England,
41 and not Lahore, was the enemy of France; and if the
42 love of the British Government for him was. so great,
43 why had they so long kept it a profound secret? Yet if
44 they were sincere ; if they truly thought first of him and
45 1 Mr Metcalfe to Government of India, 25th October 1808,