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LAWRENCE, JOHN LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, 1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 308 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAWRENCE, See also:JOHN See also:LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, 1ST See also:BARON (1811-1879) , See also:viceroy and See also:governor-See also:general of See also:India, was See also:born at See also:Richmond, See also:Yorkshire, on the 24th of See also:March 1811. His See also:father, See also:Colonel See also:Alexander Lawrence, volunteered for the forlorn See also:hope at See also:Seringapatam in presence of See also:Baird and of See also:Wellington, whose friend he became. His See also:mother, Letitia See also:Knox, was a See also:collateral descendant of John Knox. To this couple were See also:horn twelve See also:children, of whom three became famous in India, See also:Sir See also:George St See also:Patrick, Sir See also:Henry (q.v.) and See also:Lord Lawrence. Irish Protestants, the boys were trained at Foyle See also:college, Derry, and at See also:Clifton, and received See also:Indian appointments from their mother's See also:cousin, John Hudleston, who had been the friend of Schwartz in See also:Tanjore. In 1829, when only seventeen, John Lawrence landed at See also:Calcutta as a civilian; he mastered the See also:Persian See also:language at the college of Fort See also:William, and was sent to See also:Delhi, on his own application, as assistant to the See also:collector. The position was the most dangerous and difficult to which a See also:Bengal civilian could be appointed at that See also:time. The titular See also:court of the pensioner who represented the See also:Great See also:Mogul was the centre of that disaffection and sensuality which found their opportunity in 1857. A Mussulman See also:rabble filled the See also:city. The See also:district around, stretching from the See also:desert of See also:Rajputana to the See also:Jumna, was slowly recovering from the anarchy to which Lord See also:Lake had given the first See also:blow. When not administering See also:justice in the city courts or under the See also:village See also:tree, John Lawrence was scouring the See also:country after the marauding Meos and See also:Mahommedan freebooters. His keen insight and sleepless See also:energy at once detected the murderer of his See also:official See also:superior, William See also:Fraser, in 1835, in the See also:person of Shams-uddin See also:Khan, the See also:nawab of Loharu, whose father had been raised to the principality by Lake, and the See also:assassin was executed.

The first twenty years, from 1829 to 1849, during which John Lawrence acted as the See also:

magistrate and See also:land See also:revenue collector of the most turbulent and backward portion of the Indian See also:empire as it then was, formed the See also:period of the reforms of Lord William See also:Bentinck. To what became the See also:lieutenant-governorship of the See also:North-Western (now See also:part of the See also:United) Provinces Lord See also:Wellesley had promised the same permanent See also:settlement of the land-tax which Lord See also:Cornwallis had made with the large landholders or zemindars of Bengal. The court of See also:directors, going to the opposite extreme, had sanctioned leases for only five years, so that agricultural progress was arrested. In 1833 Merttins See also:Bird and See also:James See also:Thomason introduced the See also:system of See also:thirty years' leases based on a careful survey or every See also:estate by trained civilians, and on the mapping of every village holding by native subordinates. These two revenue See also:officers created a school of enthusiastic economists who rapidly registered and assessed an See also:area as large as that of Great See also:Britain, with a rural See also:population of twenty-three millions. Of that school John Lawrence proved the most ardent and the most renowned. Intermitting his See also:work at Delhi, he became land revenue settlement officer in the district of See also:Etawah, and there began, by buying out or getting rid of the talukdars, to realize the ideal which he did much to create throughout the See also:rest of his career—a country " thickly cultivated by a See also:fat contented See also:yeomanry, each See also:man See also:riding his own See also:horse, sitting under his own fig-tree, and enjoying his See also:rude See also:family comforts." This and a quiet persistent hostility to the oppression of the See also:people by their chiefs formed the two features of his administrative policy throughout See also:life. It was fortunate for the See also:British See also:power that, when the first See also:Sikh See also:War See also:broke out, John Lawrence was still collector of Delhi. The See also:critical engagements at See also:Ferozeshah, following See also:Moodkee, and hardly redeemed by See also:Aliwal, See also:left the British See also:army somewhat exhausted at the See also:gate of the See also:Punjab, in front of the Sikh entrenchments on the See also:Sutlej. For the first seven See also:weeks of 1846 there poured into See also:camp, See also:day by day, the supplies and munitions of war which this one man raised and pushed forward, with all the See also:influence acquired during fifteen years of an See also:iron yet sympathetic See also:rule in the land between the Jumna and the Sutlej. The crowning victory of See also:Sobraon was the result, and at thirty-five Lawrence became See also:commissioner of the See also:Jullundur See also:Doab, the fertile See also:belt of See also:hill and See also:dale stretching from the Sutlej north to the See also:Indus. The still youthful civilian did for the newly annexed territory what he had See also:long before accomplished in and around Delhi.

He restored it to See also:

order, without one See also:regular soldier. By the See also:fascination of his See also:personal influence he organized levies of the Sikhs who had just been defeated, led them now against a See also:chief in the upper hills and now to See also:storm the fort of a See also:raja in the See also:lower, till he so welded the people into a loyal See also:mass that he was ready to repeat the service of 1846 when, three years after, the second Sikh War ended in the See also:conversion of the Punjab up to See also:Peshawar into a British See also:province. Lord See also:Dalhousie had to devise a See also:government for a warlike population now numbering twenty-three millions, and covering an area little less than that of the United See also:Kingdom. The first results were not hopeful; and it was not till John Lawrence became chief commissioner, and stood alone See also:face to face with the chiefs and people and See also:ring fence of still untamed border tribes, that there became possible the most successful experiment in the See also:art of civilizing turbulent millions which See also:history presents. The province was mapped out into districts, now numbering thirty-two, in addition to thirty-six tributary states, small and great. To each the thirty years' leases of the north-See also:west settlement were applied, after a patient survey and See also:assessment by skilled officials ever in the See also:saddle or the See also:tent. The revenue was raised on principles so See also:fair to the peasantry that Ranjit Singh's exactions were reduced by a See also:fourth, while agricultural improvements were encouraged. For the first time in its history since the earliest See also:Aryan settlers had been overwhelmed by successive waves of invaders, the See also:soil of the Punjab came to have a marketable value, which every See also:year of British rule has increased. A stalwart See also:police was organized; roads were cut through every district, and canals were constructed. See also:Commerce followed on increasing cultivation and communications, courts brought justice to every man's See also:door, and See also:crime hid its See also:head. The adventurous and warlike See also:spirits, Sikh and Mahommedan, found a career in the new force of irregulars directed by the chief commissioner himself, while the Afghan, Dost Mahommed, kept within his own fastnesses, and the long extent of frontier at the See also:foot of the passes was patrolled. Seven years of such work prepared the lately hostile and always anarchic Punjab under such a See also:pilot as John Lawrence not only to See also:weather the storm of 1857 but to See also:lead the older provinces into See also:port.

On the 12th of May the See also:

news of the tragedies at See also:Meerut and Delhi reached him at See also:Rawalpindi. Theposition was critical in the last degree, for of 5o,000 native soldiers 38,000 were Hindustanis of the very class that had mutinied elsewhere, and the British troops were few and scattered. For five days the See also:fate of the Punjab hung upon a See also:thread, for the question was, " Could the 12,000 Punjabis be trusted and the 38,000 Hindustanis be disarmed?" Not an See also:hour was lost in beginning the disarming at See also:Lahore; and, as one by one the Hindustani See also:corps succumbed to the epidemic of See also:mutiny, the sepoys were deported or disappeared, or swelled the military rabble in and around the city of Delhi. The remembrance of the ten years' war which had closed only in 1849, a bountiful See also:harvest, the old love of See also:battle, the offer of See also:good pay, but, above all, the See also:personality of Lawrence and his officers, raised the Punjabi force into a new army of 59,000 men, and induced the non-combatant classes to subscribe to a 6% See also:loan. Delhi wa? invested, but for three months the See also:rebel city did not fall. Under John See also:Nicholson, Lawrence sent on still more men to the See also:siege, till every available See also:European and faithful native soldier was there, while a movable See also:column swept the country, and the border was kept by an improvised See also:militia. At length, when even in the Punjab confidence became doubt, and doubt distrust, and that was passing into disaffection, John Lawrence was ready to consider whether we should not give up the Peshawar valley to the Afghans as a last resource, and send its See also:garrison to recruit the force around Delhi. Another See also:week and that alternative must have been faced. But on the 20th of See also:September the city and See also:palace of Delhi were again in British hands, and the chief commissioner and his officers united in ascribing " to the Lord our See also:God all the praise due for nerving the See also:hearts of our states-men and the arms of our soldiers." As Sir John Lawrence, See also:Bart., G.C.B., with the thanks of See also:parliament, the gratitude of his country, and a life See also:pension of £ 2000 a year in addition to his See also:ordinary pension of £x000, the " saviour of India " re-turned See also:home in 1859. After guarding the interests of India and its people as a member of the secretary of See also:state's See also:council, he was sent out again in 1864 as viceroy and governor-general on the See also:death of Lord See also:Elgin. If no great crisis enabled Lawrence to increase his reputation, his five years' See also:administration of the whole Indian empire was worthy of the ruler of the Punjab. His See also:foreign policy has become a subject of imperial See also:interest, his name being associated with the " See also:close border " as opposed to the " forward " policy; while his See also:internal administration was remarkable for See also:financial prudence, a jealous regard for the good of the masses of the people and of the British soldiers, and a generous interest in See also:education, especially in its See also:Christian aspects.

When in 1854 Dost Mahommed, weakened by the antagonism of his See also:

brothers in See also:Kandahar, and by the interference of See also:Persia, sent his son to Peshawar to make a treaty, Sir John Lawrence was opposed to any entangling relation with the Afghans after the experience of 1838-1842, but he obeyed Lord Dalhousie so far as to sign a treaty of perpetual See also:peace and friendship. His ruling See also:idea, the See also:fruit of long and sad experience, was that de facto See also:powers only should be recognized beyond the frontier. When in 1863 Dost Mahommed's death let loose the factions of See also:Afghanistan he acted on this policy to such an extent that he recognized both the sons, Afzul Khan and Shere See also:Ali, at different times, and the latter fully only when he had made himself See also:master of all his father's kingdom. The steady advance of See also:Russia from the north, notwithstanding the G' rtchakov circular of 1864, led to severe See also:criticism of this cautious " buffer " policy which he justified under the See also:term of " masterly inactivity." But he was ready to receive Shere Ali in See also:conference, and to aid him in consolidating his power after it had been established and maintained for a time, when his term of See also:office came to an end and it See also:fell to Lord See also:Mayo, his successor, to hold the See also:Umballa conference in 1869. When, nine years after, the second Afghan War was precipitated, the retired viceroy gave the last days of his life to an unsparing exposure, in the See also:House of Lords and in the See also:press, of a policy which he had striven to prevent in its inception, and which he did not cease to denounce in its course and consequences. On his final return to See also:England See also:early in 1869, after See also:forty years' service in and for India, " the great proconsul of our See also:English 1 Christian empire " was created Baron Lawrence of the Punjab, and of Grately, Hants. He assumed the same arms and See also:crest as those of his See also:brother Henry, with a See also:Pathan and a Sikh trooper as supporters, and took as his See also:motto " Be ready," his brother's being " Never give in." For ten years he gave himself to the work of the See also:London school See also:board, of which he was the first chairman, and of the See also:Church missionary society. Towards the end his eyesight failed, and on the 27th of See also:June 1879 he died at the See also:age of sixty-eight. He was buried in the See also:nave of See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, beside See also:Clyde, See also:Outram and See also:Livingstone. He had married the daughter of the Rev. See also:Richard See also:Hamilton, Harriette-Katherine, who survived him, and he was succeeded as 2nd baron by his eldest son, John Hamilton Lawrence (b. 1846).

See See also:

Bosworth See also:Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence (1885); Sir See also:Charles Aitchison, Lord Lawrence Rulers of India " See also:series, 1892) ; L. J. Trotter, Lord Lawrence (1880) ; and F. M. See also:Holmes, Four Heroes of India.

End of Article: LAWRENCE, JOHN LAIRD MAIR LAWRENCE, 1ST BARON (1811-1879)

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