Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/153

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SIR HENRY LAWRENCE

creation of a Staff Corps for Staff duties. On these points it may also be added, that the type of troops which he raised for the Punjab frontier has become, with certain modifications, the model for the whole native army of Upper India; and that, after the Mutiny, a Staff Corps was organized, but it was not one that realized the objects and aims that Sir Henry had in view.

His pen was seldom idle, especially after the Afghán war. He had previously brought out The Adventurer in the Punjab, a novel which at the time gained much attention and popularity, graphically describing as it did the habits and ways of the Punjab under Ranjít Singh's régime. But his chief literary works were articles written for the Calcutta Review. Six of these gave descriptions of the Sikhs, of Kashmír, of Oudh, of the Sutlej and the Jumna districts, and of the Maráthás; one was an account of Lord Hardinge's administration; and three others dealt with military subjects — the Indian Army and its reform, and the defence of the Indian Empire. As might be expected from the character of the military operations in which his practical experience had been gained, he was inclined to exalt such qualities as forethought, energy, promptitude, boldness, influence with men, leadership and the like, as the most essential requirements in an officer, and to undervalue the consideration due to an intimate knowledge of the soldier and to perfection in technical and professional details.

Probably the most important paper which he wrote (in 1843), was intended chiefly as a defence of Sir