Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/176

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LORD HARDINGE

man whose character was cast in a different mould from that of his brother. At the time of the progress of the Governor-General up the country in 1845, he was magistrate at Delhi, being known even then as a civilian of no ordinary ability. Lord Hardinge at once fixed his eye on him. He had been unusually active in forwarding stores and supplies to the Frontier, so that when his services on the Sutlej were applied for, Mr. Thomason demurred to losing so good an officer. On the close of the war he was immediately selected to take charge of the Jálandhar Doáb, which had now become a British province. The Governor-General entertained so high an opinion of his services that one of his last acts, as recorded in Mr. Bosworth Smith's biography, was to recommend him for one of the high appointments then about to become vacant. John Lawrence's later career is now a chapter in the history of India, as eventful as it is honourable in every way to his memory.

The names of Hardinge and Gough must always be connected with the battle-fields of the Sutlej. The two chiefs had sometimes differed — differed too on important tactical and strategical questions; but such was the mutual good-fellowship between them that their differences were soon merged in the single desire of bringing matters to a successful issue. As Lord Hardinge wrote in a semi-official letter shortly before he sailed for England: — 'The energy and intrepidity of the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gough, and his readiness to carry on the service in cordial