Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/106

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98
DALHOUSIE'S WORK IN INDIA

good. It was on Sir Charles' suggestion that the Punjab military police was formed. It consisted of 7000 men in six regiments of foot and twenty-seven troops of horse. But Lord Dalhousie, instead of giving the command of the force to British military officers, as in Sind, placed it under the orders and at the disposal of the District Magistrates.

Lord Dalhousie also gave the control of the Frontier Force to the Civil Government of the Punjab. This force was a creation of his own, based upon an idea of Sir Henry Lawrence, and starting from a nucleus which Sir Henry had formed in 1846. Lord Dalhousie expanded it into a frontier force, always in motion; its sole baggage train being the saddle of the trooper, and the back of the foot-soldier. Behind this living fence of steel Lord Dalhousie massed over 50,000 regular troops as an army of occupation in the Punjab. His masterful arrangements gave umbrage to Sir Charles Napier, who complained that he had no patronage and but little voice in the defence of the Punjab.

But, as usual, Lord Dalhousie's most serious difficulty arose not from the fiery exaggerations of the old Commander-in-Chief, but from the inability of Sir Henry Lawrence to heartily carry out the Governor-General's orders. Lord Dalhousie was not content with disarming the people, he deter-