the way in which he
controlled the waywardness of this heroic but self-willed officer, while
giving full scope to his singular abilities.

The tale of John Lawrence's government of the Punjab is in some measure
a repetition of his work at P[=a]n[=i]pat and Delhi. It had the same
variety, it was carried out with the same thoroughness; but on this vast
field it was impossible for him to see everything for himself. While
directing the policy, he had to work largely through others and to leave
many important decisions to his subordinates. The quality of the Punjab
officials--of men who owed their inspiration to Henry Lawrence, or to
John, or to both of them--was proved in many fields of government during
the next thirty years. Soldiers on the frontier passes, judges and
revenue officers on the plains, all worked with a will and contributed
of their best. The Punjab is from many points of view the most
interesting province in India. Its motley population, chiefly
Musalm[=a]ns, but including Sikhs and other Hindus; its extremes of heat
and cold, of rich alluvial soil and barren deserts; its vast
water-supplies, largely running to waste; its great frontier ramparts
with the historic passes--each of these gave rise to its own special
problems. It is impossible to deal with so complex a subject here; all
that we can do is to indicate a few sides of the work by which John
Lawrence had so developed the provinces within the short period of eight
years that it was able to bear the strain of the Mutiny, and to prove a
source of strength and not of weakness. He put the right men in the
right places and supported them with all his power. He broke up the old
Sikh army, and reorganized the forces in such a way as to weaken tribal
feeling and make it less easy for them to combine against us. He so
administered justice that the natives came to know that an English
official's word was as good as his bond. And, with the aid of Robert
Napier and others, he so helped forward irrigation as to redeem the
waste places and develop the latent wealth of the country. In all these
years he had little recognition or reward. His chief, Lord Dalhousie,
valued his work and induced the Government to make him K.C.B. in 1856;
but to the general public at home he was still unknown.

In 1857 the crisis came. The greased cartridges were an immediate cause;
there were others in the background. The sepoy regiments were too
largely recruited from one race, the Po