Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/95

Rh his way in India, 'No Indian Prince should exist' ... 'and the Indian Army [should be] all in all in the East .'

A difficulty more serious than the fiery words of Sir Charles Napier lay, however, in Lord Dalhousie's path. His predecessor. Lord Hardinge, was an old soldier, who gladly made over to others the work of civil administration. Sir Henry Lawrence had completely won Lord Hardinge's confidence, and was uniformly spoken of and written to by him, 'with the tenderness of a brother .' Lord Hardinge provided, indeed, for Sir Henry Lawrence's friends and relatives with more than a brother's care. One Lawrence, John, administered the eastern districts of the Punjab annexed at the close of the first Sikh war; another Lawrence, George, held the great western tract of the Punjab, Peshawar; a third Lawrence, Henry, ruled over the central districts and controlled the whole Punjab, as Resident at Lahore. When Henry Lawrence took temporary rest from his duties, John acted for him as Resident. The administration consisted to a large extent of their friends, and the Lawrence family practically held the patronage of the Punjab, and the fortunes of its officers, in the hollow of their