Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/16

 INTRODUCTION

England was convulsed under the shock of the outbreak of the Bengal Mutiny. Reinforcements were being prepared with intense energy. Sir Colin Campbell had been sent out to India to take the military command; Lord Canning was at the helm in Calcutta, but the situation was so critical that the post might become vacant at any moment; and the succession to it, under such a contingency, must be settled at once. The man best fitted to deal with the crisis, and available on the spot, had to be selected. It was under these circumstances that the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company resolved, on July 22, 1857, that 'Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, K.C.B., be appointed provisionally to succeed to the office of Governor-General of India on the death, resignation, or coming away of Viscount Canning, pending the arrival of a successor from England.'

This did not necessarily involve the selection of Sir Henry for the permanent post of Governor-General.