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THE SIKHS.

eyes, lie thought with their hearts, and gave them improvements that they really wanted, not those which it might be considered they ought to want. This was the secret of his great personal influence, which secured for him a grip over the affection of the people that the events of 1857 did not loosen, but on the contrary strengthened. He proved the truth of an old Persian proverb, "To a just king his rayats [peasants] are an army," when a few years later he called forth an army from among them. He could not have commanded the Punjab and given it its place in the Empire had he not thoroughly understood the people and been in the closest sympathy with their characteristic traits, although at the same time he never allowed his sensibility to run away with his sense. It was this firm foundation on which the Punjab administration was built that enabled it to weather the storm which beat so fiercely on it in 1857.

A happy consequence of our wars with