Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/174

170 public which has rewarded me so largely, and must maintain to the last the principle which I exact from my subordinates, that public interests ought not to be neglected. Whilst war and bankruptcy threatened the State, I remained. Now, that peace is established and prosperity reviving, I return with the consciousness that I have done my duty.'

It is well to record, in these last days of his administration, the debt of obligation he felt to those officers who had served him so faithfully during the intricate details and difficult negotiations of his Punjab policy. Many of these 'politicals' were soldiers by profession, who, when the war broke out, aided him either in the field or in the districts where the presence of military men was required to inspire confidence. They were a goodly list: — Henry and George Lawrence, Broadfoot, the four Abbotts, Benson, the Bechers, Lake, Reynell Taylor, Robert Napier, and last (not least) Herbert Edwardes. All these have made their mark in the annals of Indian history. By their side may be ranged the civilians, such as John Lawrence, Currie, Elliot, Maddock, Dorin, Cust, W. Edwards, and a host of others.

As the services of many of these distinguished men have been dealt with in formal biographies, I need not enlarge on their merits. One word, however, must be said as to the services of the two brothers so intimately connected with Punjab administration. Nor can I forget, amid tho host of Indian worthies of that period, the name of George Broadfoot. He was