Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/309

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LAW
LAW

the direction of affairs in the spring of 1798, a warrant for his arrest was issued on 20th May. Timely notice was, however, given him of the fact by Mr. Stewart, the Surgeon-General, and he escaped to France, where his abilities and spirit recommended him to the special favour of Napoleon. Entering the army, he rose to the rank of general, and distinguished himself on several occasions. He lost a leg at the battle of Dresden. Greneral Lawless died in Paris, 25th December 1824. He was a distant relative and occasional correspondent of Lord Cloncurry. Thomas Moore speaks of him as "a person of that mild and quiet exterior which is usually found to accompany the most determined spirit." 65 72 331


Lawrence, Sir Henry, K. C. B., Brigadier-General, a distinguished Indian administrator, was born at Mattura, in Ceylon, 28th June 1806. [His father, Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence, who died in 1835, originally a poor Irish soldier of fortune, was born in Coleraine, and his mother was from the same locality.] He was educated at Foyle College, of which his uncle. Rev. James Knox, was principal. The puritan training and impressions imbibed from his parents and instructors, had a marked influence on his after life. In August 1820, Henry followed his brother George to Addiscombe, passed in artillery, sailed for India in 1822, and joined the head-quarters of the Bengal Artillery near Calcutta. There his religious impressions were much strengthened by acquaintance with the Rev. George Craufurd. In 1825 he served in a short campaign in Burmah, and was appointed adjutant of artillery. After this he was invalided, and obliged to pass two years and a half at home, part of the time being engaged on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Returning to India in 1829, he passed an examination in native languages, and was then occupied for five years on the Indian Survey, in Moradabad, Futtygurh, Goruckpore, and Allahabad. Two years afterwards he married Honoria Marshall, an Irish lady, with whom he fell in love when at home, and who was in every way qualified to make him happy. In 1839 he received the civil charge of Ferozepore, and in 1842 was specially thanked by General Pollock for his assistance in forcing the Khyber Pass. From this time forward important trusts in the government of India were confided to him — at Nepaul, Lahore, and elsewhere. One of his most remarkable achievements was in 1846, when, at the head of 10,000 Sikh soldiers, only eighteen months after their defeat at Sobraon and enlistment in the British service, he compelled the Lahore government to make over the richest province in the Punjaub to a British tributary. In 1846 he became Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1848 the honour of knighthood as a K.C.B. was conferred upon him. In the following years he was sadly at issue with his brother John, acting Resident at Lahore, regarding the proper policy to be pursued towards the Punjaub — John favouring almost immediate annexation, and Henry desiring the maintenance of its semi-independent position. During, this period he was an occasional contributor to the Calcutta Review. His subscriptions to religious and charitable institutions throughout India for many years averaged above £350; and in 1846 a school for the education of soldiers' children, now known as the Lawrence Asylum, and educating some 500 boys and girls, was opened through his instrumentality at Kussowlee, amongst the first ranges of the Himalayan mountains. As to his government of the Punjaub, the Westminster Review wrote in 1858: "Among the marvels achieved by Englishmen in India, there is nothing equal to the pacification of the Punjaub. . . The wisdom and beneficence of our rule were never more clearly vindicated than by the present condition and conduct of the Sikhs. All this is due to Sir Henry Lawrence. It was his genius which conceived and carried through that system to which we owe the preservation of India. The work which he undertook in the Punjaub was nothing short of an absolute reconstruction of the state. In five short years he had done it. He had brought order out of chaos — law out of anarchy — peace out of war. He had broken up the feudal system, and established a direct relation between the government and people. He had dissolved the power of the great Sirdars. He had disbanded a vast praetorian army, and disarmed a whole population. He had made Lahore as safe to the Englishman as Calcutta. And all this he had done without any recourse to violence, and with scarcely a murmur on the part of the conquered people." In 1854 his life was embittered by the death of Lady Lawrence — "as high-minded, noble-hearted a woman as was ever allotted for a life's companion to one called to accomplish a laborious and honourable career." In March 1857 he was appointed Chief Commissioner and Agent to the Governor-General in Oude, and took up his residence at Lucknow. Almost immediately afterwards the Indian Mutiny broke out. For

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