and provided for the preservation of ancient monuments. He held that an essential condition of progress was the full power of the people to appeal to principles of justice. The judicial system of British India was, he considered, ‘too refined and elaborate, and too difficult of access for general utility in ordinary cases.’ ‘A system of law,’ he wrote, ‘is to the social system of a country as the skin rather than the clothing to the animal frame; not only an appendage which may be made to fit, but one which must grow with the frame and accommodate itself naturally to the peculiarities and even the deformities of the body to which it belongs.’
In 1850 the chief commissionership of Sind, vacant by the resignation of Mr. Pringle, was in the appointment of the government of Bombay. The territory, nearly as large as England and Wales, was bordered on the west by some of the most turbulent tribes in existence; the inhabitants were idle and debauched, and in the case of the Sayyids violent and revengeful; and the country was still in the throes of annexation. An important party in the Bombay council desired the appointment of a military man accustomed to deal with turbulent populations; but Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general, deemed a civilian better fitted for the post. Lord Falkland, the governor of Bombay, decided to appoint Frere, and his colleagues threatened to resign if the appointment were not ratified. In a minute on the subject Lord Falkland wrote: ‘The commissionership of Sind requires an union and balance of qualification which, in my opinion, are not possessed in a like degree by a member of the civil service senior to that gentleman [Frere], who is a civilian of sixteen years' standing, and whose firmness of purpose, mild disposition, and conciliatory manners cannot but insure for him in the exercise of his official functions the ready co-operation and respect of the military authorities.’ Never was a forecast more happily fulfilled. Frere found his province distracted by factions and the people grossly ignorant. The dispossessed amirs claimed the sympathy of their former dependents as victims of foreign usurpation. Frere's first care was therefore to deprive the amirs of claims to commiseration by pensioning them off. Twenty-two families were thus treated, and by timely courtesy and consideration were converted into loyal supporters of the British government. He next turned his attention to the development of the province. He improved the harbour at Karàchi and gave municipal institutions to that and nineteen other towns. He established a library and museum at Karàchi, and, after the manner of Warren Hastings, ordered every deputy-collector in the province to forward each season specimens of the raw products of their districts for exhibition in the museum. He improved and multiplied the roads and canals, built bungalows, baths, and places of shelter for travellers, and caused a topographical survey to be made of the province. He established village schools, a written language, and a judicial code. He built barracks for the troops and opened recreation grounds for the public. He thus gradually converted the people into an industrious and law-abiding peasantry. His attention was equally demanded by the political condition and social requirements of the tribes on the western frontier. He might either ignore them or endeavour to impress upon them a recognition both of the strength and amiable intentions of the British government. The first course would save immediate trouble, but in case of an outbreak in India would leave Sind exposed to a possibly hostile force on the frontier. It is needless to say that Frere adopted the second alternative. He opened relations with the khan of Khelat and established fairs at Sukkur and Karàchi, to which the frontier tribes were invited. The institution of these fairs is in accordance with the best traditions of oriental policy. The Chinese have long held similar gatherings on the Tibetan frontier, and with most beneficial consequences. The tribes mixed in the bazaars with the Sindis, and learned to respect the justice of English rule and the weight of English power. In Frere also they found a firm and just governor. With an even hand he punished the predatory hillman and the overbearing British subject. In cases of outrages committed by the tribesmen he demanded from the chiefs the rendition of the culprits alone and abstained from all retaliatory measures on the tribe generally. The consequence of this policy was that the culprits became outcasts among their own people, and in some instances surrendered to the British authorities, finding themselves cut off from the society of their fellow-men. At the end of five years, spent in teaching the native races industry and forethought, and in introducing into their midst the arts of civilised life, Frere came to England (1856) for the benefit of his health. After a well-earned rest of a year he returned to his post and was met on his landing at Karàchi in May 1857 with the news of the mutiny. Frere recognised the vitally serious nature of the outbreak, and at once called for a return of the British forces in Sind. It appeared that for the control of this vast territory there were only 1,350 sabres, four native infantry regiments, one Belooch
