1 Rise to Power of Ranjit Singh. 77
2 recalled ; and Lord Cornwallis, armed with the futile
3 policy of non-intervention, was sent out to conclude
4 the war. Instead of crushing Holkar, Cornwallis
5 made terms with him, and restored to him the
6 greater part of the territory he had lost. At the
7 same time, a vague and indefinite treaty was entered
8 into with Ranjit Singh, by which the latter agreed
9 to have no further connections with the Mahratta
10 chief, and to see that he left Amritsar without delay ;
11 while the British Government promised, so long as
12 these conditions were observed, to respect the posses-
13 sions of the Maharaja, and undertook that no British
14 force should enter his dominions.
15 This treaty left Ranjit Singh free to carry on his
16 plans for the subjugation of the Punjab ; and as
17 nothing was stipulated regarding the eastern limit
18 of his dominions, he still cherished his project of
19 bringing the Cis-Sutlej Sikhs under his sway. But
20 perhaps the chief interest of the treaty lies in
21 the fact that it was Ranjit Singh's first transaction
22 with the British Government, and brought him for
23 the first time into personal contact with British
24 political and military officers and troops trained
25 ■and disciplined on Western lines. There is little
26 doubt that this experience, coupled with what he
27 heard from Holkar of European methods of warfare,
28 sowed the seeds of that respect and friendship for the
29 British so strikingly manifested in the later years
30 of his life. Ranjit Singh was a man of shrewd
31 judgment and keen political foresight. He never
32 doubted the permanency of the British power in
33 India, and he foresaw, more clearly than any of