Lord Lawrence and the Reconstruction of India under the Crown

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER From Chief Commissioner To Viceroy And now the time was approaching for well-earned and honoured repose. Lawrence's wife and family had gone to England in December 1857, but he felt bound to stay one year more till order should be completely restored. Having put things right at Delhi, he returned...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER From Chief Commissioner To Viceroy And now the time was approaching for well-earned and honoured repose. Lawrence's wife and family had gone to England in December 1857, but he felt bound to stay one year more till order should be completely restored. Having put things right at Delhi, he returned to Lahore and retreated to Murree when the summer heat began. From there he submitted to the Government of India a report on the events of 1857 and his recommendations for the reward of all who had done loyal service in the dark and cloudy day. As a rule Sir John Lawrence was sparing in his acknowledgment of services and seldom praised a man to his face. But he never forgot good work or missed a chance of pushing forward those who did their duty with zeal and intelligence. And sometimes his feelings would burst out in a gush of generous emotion. 'Your Lahore men have done nobly, ' he wrote to Montgomery after the disarming of Meean Meer, ' I should like to embrace them.' And to Nicholson after Najafgarh, ' I wish I had the power of knighting you on the spot.' He took to himself little credit.'Next to the indomitable valour of the European soldiery, ' he wrote to Edwardes, ' the Punjabis, white and black, have done the deed. I however look upon myself as only one of them. Few men in a similar position have had so many good and true supporters around him. But for them what could I have done ?' But for all that, history confirms the verdict of Edward Thornton?' Looking back now on all that happened, I can see clearly that it was he and none of his subordinates who can be said to have saved the Punjab.' Or as Edwardes puts it?' Any treatment of the picture, therefore, that would put John in other than the first place would be thoroughly untrue.' ' Through him Delhi fell, ' was the ve