tion of its menacing attitude, it seems to us, would have been
a complete justification of such a movement of our forces as might have
concentrated them, by a march of one day, instead of six days, on the
banks of the Sutlej, and in the face of the enemy. Had such a step
hastened the rupture, who could righteously blame us for the result?
But, as it happened, the trumpet of the Sikhs which summoned us to the
dreadful appeal of battle could not have sounded sooner than it did, and
we should have entered the mortal lists every way at less disadvantage,
without the odds against us, which the disparity of numbers rendered
formidable enough, being multiplied an hundred-fold by the physical
exhaustion of each individual soldier in our ranks.

The disbelief in the probability of any serious hostility still filled
the mind of the Governor-General, when, upon the 6th of December, he
moved from Umballah towards Loodianah, peaceably prosecuting his
visitation of the Sikh protected states, according to the usual custom
of his predecessors. "In common with the most experienced officers of
the Indian government," he writes,

"I was not of opinion that the Sikh army would cross the Sutlej
with its infantry and artillery.

"I considered it probable that some act of aggression would be
committed by parties of plunderers, for the purpose of compelling
the British government to interfere, to which course the Sikh
chiefs knew I was most averse; but I concurred with the
Commander-in-Chief, and the chief Secretary to the Government, as
well as with my political agent, Major Broadfoot, that offensive
operations, on a large scale, would not be resorted to.

"Exclusive of the political reasons which induced me to carry my
forbearance as far as it was possible, I was confident, from the
opinions given by the Commander-in-Chief and Major-general Sir John
Littler, in command of the forces at Ferozepore, that that post
would resist any attack from the Sikh army as long as its
provisions lasted; and that I could at any time relieve it, under
the ordinary circumstances of an Asiatic army making an irruption
into our territories, provided it had not the means of laying siege
to the fort and the intrenched camp.

"Up to this period no act of aggression had been committed by the
Sikh army. The Lahore government had as good a right to reinforce
t