TEMPLE'S "LORD LAWRENCE."* Faom some point of view or at
some time in his career, nearly if not quite every public servant in India is a man of action. It is of the essence of the great business, that those who carry it on should be able not only to think, but act, either in obedience to orders or on their own responsibility, for none can tell when an emergency may be upon him with which he must grapple at any risk to himself. The range of responsi- bility may be small or large, but the spirit in which it is or should be fulfilled is the same. Nowhere may "two o'clock in the morning courage" be more suddenly called for, or the need for the magical "man on horseback" more abruptly impera- tive. In that sense, almost every European, certainly every public servant, no matter what the colour of his coat, is poten- tially a man of action. During the greater part of his life, and until he became a Viceroy, John Lawrence belonged to the active class of energetic administrators, visible distinctly to the populations over which they rule, and felt every- where as a personal influence within, and frequently beyond their bounds. He made a deep mark in all his em- ployments, but his great claim to be regarded as a man of action rests upon the building-up of British rule in the Punjab, and on the display of what his biographer calls "resplendent" and "disciplined energy" in using the resources of that country to cope with, beat down, and suppress the Sepoy Mutiny, and give the finishing stroke to the siege of Delhi. Those were the achievements which made him clearly intelligible to the people at home, and placed him, in the eyes of men, among the foremost heroes of Indian story. His wearisome labours as a Settlement Officer, his daily toil as Collector of Delhi, even his conduct as Viceroy, can only be vaguely understood, if understood at all, by the general run of men who have no direct and detailed experience of India; but the fact that he and his able colleagues made the Punjab a stronghold in so short a time, and the still more shining fact that, standing alone on this recently conquered soil, he in- stantly accepted the huge responsibility, acted on his own initiative, at his own risk, and used the power he possessed with unfaltering resolution to quench the Mutiny and recover Delhi,—these are deeds which all men sympathise with, com- prehend, and appreciate. They did not make John Lawrence great ; he was that before; they revealed him as he was to the large world of English-speaking men.
Sir Richard Temple, then a young civilian, had the good fortune to be near the great chief when he was so severely tried ; and in this condensed biography he has grasped the fact that the heroic period was the twelve years between the annexation of the Punjab and the end of the military revolt. The earlier services, important as they were, and the later and closing scenes, are described with judicious yet lucid brevity; while the central mass, dealing with the time of transcendent action, occupies, as it should, the larger space. A practised writer, Sir Richard has a due sense of proportion. His sketch of the young Lawrence is sufficiently full and readable ; his account of the Viceroyalty, necessarily compressed, is intelli- gent and free from the controversial spirit, as, indeed, is the whole book. The closing pages are a little weak, as if hurried; but the main battle, the practical essence of the story, is told with directness and vigour. What he really brings out is that, given the inherent character of the man whose life he records, the whole preceding training and opportunities afforded to Lawrence gradually ripened in him the strength which not only enabled him to encounter, and stand firm amid, the tempest when it broke forth in fury, but to gather up his might, breathe his own spirit into the willing Punjabis, who knew him well, speak with haughty confidence to the mutinous Sepoys, strike out fast and hard, and finally send his last reserve to storm in upon their comrades ensconced in the Mogul capital and covered with the magic of its name
• Lord Lawrence. By Sir Richard Temple. (" English Men of Action.",) London : Macmillan and Co.
He was not an accident, neither by accident did he find a seat of power in Lahore. He was a chosen man, and the result showed that Lord Dalhousie judged rightly when he gave him nearly absolute power; for, as Sir Richard Temple justly remarks, it was the solidity and rapidity with which the work of dominating as well as conciliating the Punjab was per- formed, which gave the Chief Commissioner such tremendous vantage-ground when the pampered soldiers of the Bengal Army easily broke through the bonds of a lax discipline. Fortunately, also—yet was this fortune the fruit of foresight and selection—there were many other strong men lathe Punjab, so that the resolute, forecasting, masterful Chief had primary and secondary helpers who could take the initiative where needful, and execute his orders in a spirit kindred to his own.
The story has been often told, yet its lessons can never be sufficiently learned, and it is well to have it told once more, though briefly, With special reference to the central figure, by one who was himself in the storm and stress of the awful tragedy.
Sir Richard Temple's special and incidental picture of the man gives a very good idea of his character. We may take the following passage, part of an account of the position of a public servant in relation to the State, a relation which it is well to bear in mind, for it has a wide application :—
" A really great Anglo-Indian must be able to command within the limits of his right, and to obey loyally where obedience is due from him. But if he is to expect good instructions from superior authority, then that authority must be well informed. Therefore, he must be apt in supplying not only facts, but also suggestions as the issue of original and independent thought. He must also be skilled in co-operating with those over whom he has no actual authority, but whose assistance is nevertheless needed. In dan- gerous emergency he must do his utmost, if instructions from superior authority cannot be had in time. But he must take the line which such authority, if consulted, would probably approve, and he must not prolong his separate action beyond the limit of real necessity. Often men, eminent on the whole, have been found to fail in one or other of these respects, and such failure has de- tracted from their greatness. John Lawrence was good in all these cardinal points equally ; he could command, obey, suggest, co-operate, according to just requirements. Therefore, he was great all round as an administrator."
These qualities he showed in 1857-58 in abundance, and in the end became the real lord and virtual controller even of those, the soldiers, for example, who were not under him. Those who would measure him may consider this fact, that throughout the crisis he maintained intact the daily routine of the civil power in all its branches, revenue, courts, police. "He saw not only the suppression of violent crime, but also the most peaceful proceedings conducted, such as dispensing relief to the sick, and the attendance of children at schooL'' The administrative clock-work, he thought, had a sedative effect on the agitated public mind. He kept the British power and name ascendant in his realm, and if it was a stroke of genius to insist on attack, always attack, and send his last reserve to Delhi, it was not the less so to keep the Judge on his bench, the policeman on his beat, and the child at school. And all through the struggle he was suffering agonies front neuralgia and fever !
His proceedings as Viceroy, a position in which he met with opposition and sometimes failure to carry his own views, are fairly told, but, of course, with the succinctness imposed by limited space; and the story shows how the criticism and worry of working with a Council jarred on his " masterful " yet sensitive mind. Other Governors-General had been brought up on discussion, and were by habit familiar with government by compromise ; but that training had not been his, and the strain tried him sorely. "He listened," writes Sir Richard, "like patience on a monument, but he sighed inwardly," and secretly chafed over-much, whereby, however, he, and not others, suffered. The position was "novel rather than pleasant." Still, in the opinion of his biographer, he was "as good, efficient, and successful" a Viceroy as India ever had,— certainly better than some. On the whole, we may say that the narrative of Lawrence's career as a man of action will be found interesting, perhaps even to some who have perused larger books on the subject, for the very reason that it is the work of a subordinate yet contemporary actor on the great stage of the East during the last twenty years of Lord Lawrence's instructive and astonishing life, which includes not only the ordinary vicissitudes of Eastern service, but brings together in one person such remote functions as that of supreme Viceroyalty and the Chairmanship of a School Board.
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