1 CHAPTER XIV.
2 ANNEXATION AND AFTER.
3 When Lord Hardinge, in the hope of preserving the
4 Sikh kingdom, concluded the Treaty of Lahore, he
5 was far from confident of the ultimate success of
6 his scheme; but "considering the importance of the
7 results aimed at" he believed it to be worth trying.
8 " I confess," he wrote to Henry Lawrence, " I think
9 the probability is against the continuance of a
10 Sikh Government ; " * and on March 11, 1846, he thus
11 concluded his address to the assembled sirdars :
12 " Success or failure is in your own hands ; my co-
13 operation shall not be wanting; but, if you neglect
14 this opportunity, no aid on the part of the British
15 Government can save the state." Lord Dalhousie
16 came to India fully prepared to continue the policy of
17 his predecessor ; but the outbreak of the second Sikh
18 war rendered such a course impossible. " There was
19 no more sincere friend," he wrote to the same officer,
20 Lawrence, "of Lord Hardinge's policy to establish
21 a strong Hindu Government between the Sutlej and
22 the Khaibar than I. I have done all that man
23 1 See Sir Henry Laivrence, by Lieutenant-General M'Leod Innes,
24 p. 59.