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 CHAPTER IV

Consolidation of the Punjab

Lord Dalhousie, having annexed the Punjab, determined to give it a strong administration. The obvious precedent was the military form of government adopted six years previously for the recently conquered province of Sind. He had, moreover, at his right hand, the new Commander-in-Chief, Sir Charles Napier, who, in 1843, introduced that system and was still its firm supporter. But he had also, as his advisers, the influential Civilian Members of his Council, who believed that martial rule is a bad rule for a British Province, and whose ideal of government was a regular Civilian administration.

Lord Dalhousie adopted neither of these opposite systems. He struck out for himself a mixed form of government which should combine military strength with civil justice; and erected an administration composed in equal proportions of trained civilians and military officers. He did so in masterful opposition to his Commander-in-Chief who has left on record that, if he could have had