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24 others off cheaply, and thus acted with a result prejudicial to the public purse. The Survey was not practically effecting its object when Henry Lawrence joined it; its progress being very slow, and its cost tending to be prohibitory. The dilemma was serious; but his experience in the Irish Ordnance Survey and his energy and judgement came to the rescue. His suggestions, reducing and modifying the details of the work and largely curtailing the supervising staff, were tried and proved successful. With this, his character and reputation were established, and recognized in important quarters; but the real benefit to him lay in the sound and intimate insight it gave him into native life and character. As described by Sir Herbert Edwardes —

'Here he first really learnt to know the natives of India, and the best class of natives, the agricultural population. It was their villages, their fields, their crops, their interests of every kind with which his eyes, hands, thoughts, and heart were now occupied for five years. Instead of living in a European station, he pitched his tents among the people, under their trees and by their streams, for eight months out of twelve. He saw them as military men seldom can see them, as all civilians ought to see them, and as the best do see them — in their homes and daily life — and thus learnt to sympathize with them as a race, and to understand their wants. In many respects, indeed, the Revenue Surveyor gets more at the heart of the people than the Civil officers of the district; for while the Collector or Deputy Commissioner is the chief actor on the stage of government, the Surveyor is not only among the audience in the pit, but passes behind