Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/182

 CHAPTER XIII

Army Administration. Conclusion

In 1848, the very year of his return to Eng]and, Lord Hardinge was sent to Ireland on special duty. The Smith O'Brien riots were then agitating the country; and the Government considered that he possessed no ordinary qualifications, both civil and military, for dealing with such a crisis as might at any moment arise. On his arrival, he immediately visited the disturbed provinces; but his personal intervention was not required. The ignominious capture of the author of these riots prevented any further agitation, and Lord Hardinge returned to England.

In 1852 he was again called upon to serve in his old department of the Ordnance, a department which had brought him into public notice shortly after his first election to Parliament. His devotion to and confidence in Peel induced him to adhere to the fiscal policy which the latter had carried out in the face of the opposition of a powerful section of the Tory party. He had also voted for the repeal of the Navigation laws, though taking no prominent part in the parliamentary struggles of that period. His political