Firozsháh in 1845, and, in the following year, at Aliwál and Sobráon, tamed the ambition of the Sikh leaders and advanced the British frontier to the west of the Sutlej. The infant Sovereign was restored, a Council of Regency appointed; benevolent despotism had full sway. The current of reform ran swift and strong. There was superficial tranquillity. Hardinge left India with the belief that not another shot need be fired for five years. In a few months the bloody fields of Chilianwála and Gujarát attested the vanity of such hopes. The army of the Punjab was conquered and disarmed; but the fact remained that the Sikhs who, under Ranjít Singh, had stood as one good line of defence against an assailant from the North-West — India's most vulnerable point — had shown themselves our sternest foes, and had cost us some of our bloodiest encounters. The Protectorate established by Lord Hardinge had completely broken down; and Lord Dalhousie having to determine between 'thorough conquest and incessant warfare,' had solved the alternative by annexation. But though Gujarát had crushed the Sikh Confederacy, the campaign had demonstrated how formidable a foe the Sikh nation could be, how easily the national feeling might be roused against the English. Seven years of alien administration could hardly have effaced national resentment or the desire of a warlike nation to assert its prowess in the field. 'The spirit of the whole Sikh people,' Lord Dalhousie had said, 'was inflamed by the bitterest animosity against us. ... It was necessary to
