habits of their rivals, has yielded very generally to a pressure, of the nature of which the very men who have been moved by it are probably not aware. On the other hand, Keble and his friends did the Church, and the cause of the Church, great damage too. They carried further than truth will allow dogmatic teaching, which is not the teaching of the primitive Church, but the results of one superstition after another, accumulated in ages subsequent to the first. Again, they injured the cause which they had undertaken to advocate by the unbecoming manner in which they accustomed themselves to speak and to write of the great Reformers. Cranmer was, according to them, the meanest of men; Ridley was a blind fanatic; Luther, a rebel against constituted authority; and Melanchthon a lukewarm sophist. This was, we will not say illiberal-because to be upbraided with illiberalism on such subjects was to them a In glory and a pride-but most unwise on their part; just as unwise as their refusal to recognise, under any circumstances, the right of other Reformed communions than that of England to call themselves Churches. spite, however, of these grievous mistakes-in spite also of the extravagances of nominal followers, who are not their followers, and never would have been by them recognised as such-we should do great injustice to the best of the Tractarians-to Keble in particular if we were to deny that they have left their mark for good upon the Church and upon the age. They brought many a man to think who never thought before. They induced a far greater solemnity into the conduct of public worship; and if their views of the sacrament were extreme, at all events their teaching has succeeded only so far as to make thoughtful men and women regard these things as not mere idle ceremonies. SIR JOHN LAWRENCE.-PART I. SIR JOHN LAWRENCE was born at Richmond, in Yorkshire, on the 4th March 1811. His father, who was a man of great natural ability and considerable force of character, had proceeded in early life to Bombay in the suite of one of the commanders-in-chief; had joined on his arrival one of H.M.'s regiments as a gentleman volunteer; and had, not long after, obtained a commission. He bore a part in most of the struggles in which the British were engaged on that side of India; behaved with conspicuous gallantry at the battle of Sedaseer, and at the capture of Seringapatam, where, being then only a lieutenant, he commanded one of the stormingparties formed of volunteers. Of this party all the officers but himself were killed, and he was severely wounded in two places. For this service, but after the delay of a year, Mr Lawrence was promoted to a company in H.M.'s 19th Foot, and was for some years quartered in Ceylon. In 1815, at the time of the Waterloo campaign, he was a lieutenant-colonel in command of the Veteran Battalion, and governor of Ostend. Had he obtained promotion early in life, he would probably have gained considerable distinction, but most of his service was performed as a subaltern; and the mortification arising from longdelayed promotion, the effects of climate and wounds, all contributed to break down his health, and compelled him to retire from active service some time about 1821. He died in 1835 at the age of seventytwo years. Lieutenant-colonel Lawrence had twelve children, eleven of whom grew up, and eight are still living. John was the sixth son. The eldest son died when he was but a child, and the four elder brothers being out in the world, John was, when very young, a kind of companion to his father, accompanying him in his walks, and listening to the stories of his Indian career. In 1823, being then twelve years old, he was sent to a school at Londonderry. He remained there, however, but two years; then, returning to England, completed the first portion of his education at a school at Bath. He had just attained the age of sixteen when an East India Director, an old friend of his father, offered him an appointment in the Indian Civil Service. But the boy was bent on following his father's career. Three of his elder brothers had already gone to India as soldiers, and he had made up his mind that, if he went at all, he would go out in that profession. The opportune return of his brother Henry on sick leave from India induced him to change his decision. Henry pointed out to him the immensely superior advantages of a civilian's career-the vast field for the exercise of energy and ability offered by that branch of the Indian service. He illustrated his argument by reference to himself, his slow promotion, his inferior pay, the absence of all prospect as an artillery officer. His arguments, supported by those of his father, and responded to by the strong common-sense of the lad, were successful, and John Lawrence went to Haileybury. The decision was undoubtedly wise. Yet, judging from after events from some of those, more especially, in 1857, the result of which depended upon the decision of the moment, and to which we shall allude in their proper placewe have no hesitation in affirming that an excellent soldier was thereby lost to his country, and that the honour which the career of Sir John Lawrence has brought to the Indian Civil Service, would have been reflected with not less lustre, had opportunity offered, by his achievements at the head of a British army. Mr Lawrence remained two years at Haileybury. He passed, indeed, the necessary examinations within the first twelve months of his entrance into that college, but he was compelled to remain there longer, under the operation of the rule which laid down eighteen years as the minimum age at which a student could pass out. Although far from being an idle boy, Mr Lawrence did not avail himself to the full of the opportunities offered him for securing a good education. He worked by fits and starts, was fond of athletic sports, and especially delighted in walking across country with a friend. He had, however, read a good deal in a desultory way, particularly of history and biography, and was considered well-informed for his age. In his second Haileybury term he obtained the prize in history, and a prize in the Bengallee language; in his third term he was second in political economy, and again in the front rank in Bengallee; in his fourth he gained the gold medal for law, a third Bengallee prize, and was returned as 'highly distinguished" in other departments. 66 Mr Lawrence left Haileybury in May 1829, being the third of his term for the Bengal Presidency; but he delayed his departure from England till the following September, in order to enjoy on his way out the society of his brother Henry, who was returning to his post of lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery. Mr Lawrence has often been heard to speak in after years of the great advantage he derived from the presence of his elder brother in England at this critical period of his life of the encouragement to exertion, the sound and rational advice, strongly enforced by good example, with which Henry was always ready, though careful never to press it either with needless or tedious persistency. Mr Lawrence landed in India on the 9th February 1830, and remained ten months in Calcutta. During this period he was frequently ill, and imbibed consequently so great a distaste for the country that an offer of £100 per annum would probably have taken him home again. At last, however, he passed his examinations, and was reported qualified for the public service. He had selected the upper provinces in preference to Bengal as the scene of his future action, and was, at his own request, appointed to the Delhi territory, then a part of the border districts of the North-West Provinces. The time allowed for joining was six months; but Mr Lawrence, travelling by palanquin, performed the distance, upwards of 900 miles, in eighteen days. This was then considered an extraordinary performance; although, in the present day, the space between Calcutta and Delhi, by a more circuitous route, may be traversed in sixty hours! At the time of Mr Lawrence's arrival at Delhi, that division of the country was considered to offer, in many respects, the best school for a young civilian. It was under the direct control of a resident and chief-commissioner and a commissioner. The political jurisdiction extended all over Rajpootana, the extensive but somewhat wild and barren territories of many Rajpoot chiefs, besides all the country lying between the rivers Jumna and Sutlej. In this latter area were five British districts, forming a tolerably compact division of the country; but all the rest of the country was parcelled out amongst different chiefs, mostly, especially_to_the northward and eastward, Hindoos or Sikhs, prominent amongst whom were the Rajahs of Puttialla, Jheend, Khytul, and Nabba. The young civilians were, in those days, employed in various duties, sometimes in listening to the complaints of the tillers of the soil and the poorer inhabitants of the towns, at other times in negotiating with the chiefs of huge fiefs. They thus acquired experience in dealing with men, a thorough acquaintance with all the details connected with the tenure of land, and an insight into the customs and practices of the various orders and classes of native society. But these were not the only opportunities for obtaining knowledge of this nature. In those days many of the chiefs about Delhi still possessed in that city houses and gardens, to which they constantly resorted, partly to pay their respects to the representative of British power, partly to enjoy the pleasures and luxuries of social life. There were also living in Delhi, as permanent residents, old men of rank and family, who had served in some capacity or other in the Mahratta wars-men who had been employed in an irregular fashion under Sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Lake-men who used to be fond of telling stories of those interesting days, and to whom the names of Mr Seton, the first resident, Sir Charles Metcalfe, Sir David Ochterlony, and Sir John Malcolm, were as household words. The intercourse of the British officials with men of this character and experience, the visiting them and the receiving visits in return, the patient listening to their inexhaustible stock of anecdotes relating to the past, tended greatly to the cordial good feeling between both races characteristic of those times. To the young civilian, alike willing and able to read the books of character thus open before his eyes, the lesson was one of incalculable importance to his subsequent career. Among those who more especially delighted in the opportunity thus afforded them of acquainting themselves with the character and feelings, so far as it was possible thus to ascertain them, of their native fellow-subjects, Mr Lawrence was conspicuous. It is impossible to enter here into the details of those early days, interesting and instructive as they are. But more stirring events beckon us forward, and our space is limited. We must content ourselves with the bare statement of the facts, that for the first four years of his residence at Delhi, Mr Lawrence held, under the Resident, the office of assistantjudge, magistrate, and collector of the city and its environs, embracing an area of 790 square miles, and containing a population of 506,689 souls. At the end of this apprenticeship which, as may be imagined, was no light one-Mr Lawrence was selected for the charge of the northern division of the Delhi territory, the chief civil station of which was Paniput, twenty miles from the large and important military cantonment of Kurnaul. Paniput has on three several occasions been the battleground on which the possession of India has been decided. On November 5, 1556, the illustrious Akbar defeated Hemu Adili, the Prime Minister of Mohammed Shah Sur Adili, and recovered the empire for his father Humayun; on February 13, 1739, the army of Mohammed Shah, King of Delhi, was utterly routed by the Persian invader, Nadir Shah; and again, on the 6th January 1761, Ahmed Shah Abdali utterly defeated the Mahrattas under Sudaseeo Ras Bas and Wiswas Ras. ther the traditions of these fierce encounters may have nourished a martial disposition among the children of the soil on which they took place, or whether other causes may have contributed to the feeling, this at least is certain, that the inhabitants of Paniput have the character of being turbulent, disaffected, and difficult to manage, beyond those of any of the towns and districts in the neighbourhood. The district itself possesses an area of 1832 square miles, and a population of more than 486,000. Mr Lawrence acted in charge of this difficult part of the country for two Whe years. During the greater part of this period he was the only officer in the district. It was in bad order when he came to it, and the refractory classes were more than ever inclined to show themselves worthy of their reputation. But Mr Lawrence was not intimidated by their manifestations. He threw himself heart and soul into his work, and, supported thoroughly by his commissioner, he brought the district, at the end of two years, into the most perfect order. This had scarcely been accomplished when the appointment itself became permanently vacant. But here the rules of red-tape intervened. Mr Lawrence, who had not been considered too young to bring the district into order whilst the allowances of the acting appointment alone were available, was pronounced to be far too junior to draw the full salary attaching to the permanent charge. He consequently reverted to his substantive office of assistant-magistrate and collector of Delhi, whilst the district which he had brought into order was made over to a civilian of long standing, who, having failed as a judge, was therefore considered qualified to undertake a far more difficult duty! During his charge of this district Mr Lawrence may be said to have completed his training as a civil officer. It was a difficult school, it is true, but in after life he had no reason to regret the severe apprenticeship. It facilitated all his subsequent labours, no matter how varied or how onerous. It made him thoroughly acquainted with the duties of administration, alike of a large town and an important agricultural district; it brought him in contact with the lower, as had Delhi more especially with the higher, orders of the community. Of the criminal classes and their habits he had obtained during this charge a large experience. Coming daily into contact with the various agricultural races of that part of India, he had acquired a thorough knowledge of the peculiarities of the tenure of land, the circumstances of Indian agriculture, canal and well irrigation, as well as of the habits, social customs, and leading characteristics of the people. During this period of two years, in fact, Mr Lawrence had, with the aid only of native subordinates, marked off boundaries between village lands, regarding which sanguinary feuds had gone on for generations; he had superintended the collection of the revenue, had charge of the treasury, sought out and brought to justice numbers of great criminals, managed the police, and, under the humble designation of magistrate and collector, had been the pivot upon which the whole of the administration revolved. Mr Lawrence did not remain long in his inferior position at Delhi. Three months after joining, he was promoted to the grade of jointmagistrate and deputy-collector of the southern division, but appointed to act as magistrate of the city of Delhi itself. After acting for six months in that capacity, he joined his substantive appointment. Here he obtained great experience of the Menas and Mehwatties, tribes of Mohammedans converted from Hindooism in the reign of Aurungzebe, and who are plunderers and thieves by profession. These curious races yet retain many of their old Hindoo customs and traditions. Of nothing are they fonder than of discoursing of the glories and pleasures of the days, when, to use an old adage of that part of the country, the buffalo belonged to him who held the bludgeon." To add to the difficulties of such a charge, a severe drought affected the upper provinces, adding greatly to the sufferings of the people. But notwithstanding this-notwithstanding, also, the predatory and warlike character of the people, and the absence from the district of a single soldier 66 |