e
saddle, looking into everything for himself, laying up stores of
knowledge about land tenure and agriculture, training his judgement to
deal with the still more difficult problem of the workings of the
Oriental mind. He had no friends or colleagues of his own at hand; and
when the day's work was done he would spend his evenings holding an
informal durbar outside his tent, chatting with all and sundry of the
natives who happened to be there. The peoples of India are familiar with
pomp and outward show such as we do not see in the more prosaic west;
but they also know a man when they see one. And this young man with the
strongly-marked features, curt speech, and masterful manner, sitting
there alone in shirt-sleeves and old trousers as he listened to their
tales, was an embodiment of the British rule which they learnt to
respect--if not to love--for the solid benefits which it conferred upon
them. He had an element of hardness in him; by many he was thought to be
unduly harsh at different periods of his life; but he spared no trouble
to learn the truth, he was inflexibly just in his decisions, and his
reputation spread rapidly throughout the district. In cases of genuine
need he could be extremely kind and generous; but he did not lavish
these qualities on the first comer, nor did he wear his heart upon his
sleeve. His informal ways and unconventional dress were a bugbear to
some critics; his old waywardness and love of adventure was still alive
in him, and he thoroughly enjoyed the more irregular sides of his work.
Mr. Bosworth Smith has preserved some capital stories of the crimes with
which he had to deal, and how the young collector took an active part in
arresting the criminals--stories which some years later the future
Viceroy dictated to his wife.

But, after two years thus spent in constant activity and ever-growing
mastery of his work, he had to come down in rank; the post was filled by
a permanent official, and John Lawrence returned to the Delhi staff as
an assistant.

He soon received other 'acting appointments' in the neighbourhood of
Delhi, one of which at Et[=a]wa gave him valuable experience in dealing
with the difficult revenue question. The Government was in the habit of
collecting the land tax from the 'ryot' or peasant through a class of
middle-men called 'talukd[=a]rs',[17] who had existed under the native
princes for a long time. Borrowing perhaps from western ideas, the
English had regarded the