in the following spring, on its becoming clear that Outram would be employed in the Persian Expedition, an unexceptionable substitute was found in the person of Sir Henry Lawrence, who took charge of his duties at Lucknow a few weeks before the first outburst of the Mutiny.
Periods such as that of the Mutiny afford but scanty space for the personal biography of those who play a prominent part in them. Such men lead only a public existence. Their thoughts, their hopes, their efforts, are concentrated on public cares. Lord Canning's life during the fateful years 1857 and 1858 was one unflagging effort to keep pace with the torrential flow of events which followed each other with a rapidity too great even for diligence as phenomenal as his.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the multifariousness or the importance of these demands on his judgment. The general course of the various campaigns which the suppression of the Mutiny involved, was, to a large extent, under his superintendence and control; he was in immediate touch with the principal Commanders throughout, who looked to him for orders. Questions of the utmost difficulty — such, for instance, as the abandonment of Pesháwar, in the critical weeks before the fall of Delhi — were constantly presenting themselves for immediate decision; Parliamentary discussion of Indian topics added intensity to the controversial furnace in which Lord Canning lived. He had to watch the growth of public sentiment,
