the Sikhs was that we learned their great value as soldiers when mutual respect was won by valour in the field. After the first war some Sikh regiments were raised for our service, and after the annexation Sikhs were freely enlisted in the Frontier Force, and also in some regiments of the Bengal army, where they were not, however, welcomed by the Brahman fraternity, who resented intrusion on their own preserves as tending to break up their solidarity. One of the local Sikh battalions volunteered and was sent on active service to Burma during the war there in 1852, the vanguard of that movement for service over-sea to distant parts of the Empire which has characterised the Sikhs ever since.
In May 1857 occurred the great crisis of the revolt of the Bengal native army, which for a time threatened to overwhelm the British power in Upper India. Mischief was known to be brewing, but it was little suspected that the whole of that army was honeycombed with sedition and ready to
