The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-21 00:00:00

MEMORIAL TO THE LATE LORD
LAWRENCE.

There WM a large attendance at a public meeting held at
the Mansion House, London, on Friday in last week, in
furtherance of the proposed memorial to the late Lord Law-
rence. The Lord Mayor occupied the chair. The Earl of
Darby, the Earl of Northbrook, the Marquis of Ripon, Sir
Henry Norman, Dean Stanley, the Rey. Canon Harvey, Six
G. Lawrence. Mr Justice Stephen, and others were present.
The Eirl of Darby, in moving the first resolution, said:—
I have come here to discharge a duty, in many re-
slants agreeable, and assuredly honourable, but yet
which is not without its difficulties. I am to ask you
to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of an emin-
ent public servant—of one who was more than an
eminent public servant, for, with a great intellect, he
combined a singularly fine and unselfish character.
(Cheers.) The language of panegyric is not easy
to use : partly because from that tendency
which we all regret, but which we all share,
praise even of the dead is apt to be less in-
teresting than criticism; pertly because tho greatness
of a human character is ill described in the current
phrases of popular speech; partly also because, while
in most cases the language of unmeasured eulogy
sounds unreal and rhetorical, any reserve or qualifica-
tion falls tamely and coldly on the ears of those who
have come to reverence and to admire. But these
difficulties trouble me but little to-day, for it is of
Lord Lawrence that I have to speak. (Cneers,)
Malin, itself never fastened on his career the imputa-
tion of one discreditable incident or unworthy act.
His task is done, His name can now excite no envy,
except so far, it may be, as his dead greatness
overshadows the living, and a friend need not fear
to speak in terms of too warm sympathy about a
life which offers absolutely no one topic of detrac-
tion to an enemy. (Hear, hear.) I cannot claim to
have known Lord Lawrence as intimately as many
who, happily, are still living, and perhaps present, but
I was his guest at Lahore twenty-eight years ago, when,
with his brother, he governed the Punjab; I was his
colleague in the India Office six years later; and it
was otten my privilege in more recent times to discuss
with him or, rather, to gather his opinions upon
questions that arose concerning Indian affairs. There-
fore, without claiming any special intimacy, I may
say, as the world goes, that I knew him well; and
the impression which his character and conversation
always left on my mind was that of what I can
only describe as a certain heroic simplicity. (Hear,
hear.) If his opportunity had never come, if he had
never had a chance to do an historical act, you
would still have felt that you were in the presence of
man capable of accomplishing great things if they
were wanted, and capable also, as it seemed to me, of
leaving the credit of them to anybody who chose to
take it, (Hear, hear.) Ido not believe that any man
was ever so successful in reaching the highest prizes of
life who struggled less for them. He said to me once
that if as a young man he had had enough to live upon,
however poorly, at home, be never should have gone
out to India. He took his place where he could find
it ; he did his duty as it came to him to do, and be could,
I think, have felt that the doing of it was reward
enough, even if fame and honours had not fol-
lowed, (Hear, hear.) I need not remind you
of the leading facts of his career, for that would be
merely to repeat one of the most famous chapters
of Anglo-Indian history. When theinsurrection broke
out in 1857 he was in charge of the Punjab, a newly-
conquered province, inhabited by, perhaps, the most
warlike race in India, full of old soldiers who within
ten years of that date had fought for independence,
and therefore, as might be supposed, likely to go
against us. An ordinary ruler might have been excused
if, in [these circumstances, he had kept back every
available soldier for defensive purposes. But Sir John
Lawrence knew better, He was confident, on the one
hand, that a wise and just administration had recon-
ciled the Sikhs to English rule; he knew on the other
hand that the crisis was at Delhi, not at Lahore, and
there can be no doubt now that he was right. Even
with the help sent hone the Punjab the forces round
Delhi were barely strong enough to succeed, Without
that help the seige would have been hopeless. and I
have 'never met an Indian who doubted that if the
resistance at Delhi had been prolonged, if the seige
had in consequence been raised, if the cause of the in-
surgents had even for a few weeks appeared to be
-the winning cause, many of the native chiefs who were
wavering and watching events would have taken part
against us, and the struggle would have assumed a far
more formidable character. It is therefore hardly an
exaggeration to say that the action of Sir J. Lawrence
saved India. (Hear.) At the lowest, it averted, in
all probability, the continuance of the war for two or
three years, with the resalt of bankruptcy to the
Indian Exchequer and incalculable suffering to the
Indian people. And in saying this Ido not lessen nor
disparage the merits of Lord Canning. Communica-
tions were interrupted; and Sir John Lawrence, like
every other Governor of a distant province, had to act
on his own responsibility. (Hear, hear.) Of the
administration of Lord Lawrence as Governor-
General I will not speak in detail, because it
is equally my duty and. my wish to avoid
touching on any controverted question of policy.
His policy was one of rigid economy, because '
he knew—few men knew it so well—the abject
poverty, the csnstant struggle against destitution,
which characterize the life of the Indian peasant, and
it seemed to him cruelty and crincie to throw on a class
so heavily weighted the added burden of unnecessary
taxation. It was a policy of peace, because war,
which means promotion to the Anglo-Indian .leer
and fresh appointments to the English Clvil servant,
means increased suffering to the native cultivator.
And it was the same dominant feeling, the same
intense appreciation of the sufferings with the poor,
joined to the orderly instincts of a financier, which led
him to show a somewhat modihed and imperre,..i
sympathy, in general, with Indian princes and chiefs,
He was otters thought to lean to the side of severity
where their interests were concerned. I am not dia-
-1 posed to argue how far he was wrong and how far
right in that respect. I am only explaining a
tendency which was known to all who knew
him. He thought that as a rule they were
enjoying wealth without fully recognizaig its
responsibilities, that they were often drones in a
hive not too well stocked with honey, and when
a question of right arose between them and the
paid, ilifed workiug class his sympathies were very
decidedly with the latter, though a sense of justice
might be stronger than even his sympathy. (Hear,
hear.) With that feeling was connected also his view
of our position in the East. tie not merely saw, not
merely acknowledged in words but recognized in
action that our only possible justification before the
world and our own consciences for being where we
lay in the wretchedness of the masses under rulers
who were continually at war with one another, and in
our power to make their condition at least more
endurable by maintaining that external peace and
order which may ha the long run enable them
to work out their own form of civilization in their
own way. That solid and substantial benefit to
humlifhity was, in his mind, worth struggling for;
apart from that, I think he valued mere glory-hunt-
ing as a little for his country as he did for himself.
(Cheers.) During five years he administered India—
working hard, as all Governor-Generals must work—
living plainly and simply—as it is better, in my mind,
a Governor-General should live—not, perhaps, wholly
approved by the showy and fashionable part of
soma}, which is to be found in Calcutta, as well as in
London, but respected by the services as a man who
knew their work as well as they knew it themselves,
venerated by the natives, whom he understood as no
Governor-General has understood them before or
since, His time for retirement came, and he withdrew,
then verging on old age—for men live fast in the
tropics—and with weakened health. Nearly 40 years
of service had been crowned by the highest personal
promotion and the highest hereditary honour—a vice-
royalty and a peerage. He had earned the right to
rest, if evet man earned it; or, if absolute rest was not
compatible with his still active habits, he might have
selected some kind of work which would have kept
him before the eyes of the public without involving
laborious drudgery in matters of detail. But that
was not his view. He was offered the chair of
the London School Board—a heavy, a thankless, and,
compared with those which he had filled, an obscure
post. He saw his way to be pf use, and he took it, and
there
n x.ine
heare
easivfhirsolyi he
might g
mhadhdt seem t
depended
ofonrhyiesaerxsehrteiown°srke.Fio
have descended in point of official dignity; but some-
thing would have been lacking to the completeness of
Lord Lawrence's life if that last proof had not been
given of his absolute indifference to the mere look and
show of things so long as any publicly useful
result was to be obtained. Many of you may re-
collect that his brother Sic Henry Lawrence, when
dying, desired that his epitaph might be, "Here lies
Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty." On
the tomb of the younger and more fortunate of the two
brothers, the inscription might well have run, " Here
lies John Lawrence, who did his duty to the last."
(Loud cheers.) I have little more to add, but it may
be notic.a Vt..uish .1(.1 nona over leas
went out of his way to court or conciliate the favour
of those with whom he worked—for he was blunt and
plain of speech even to a fault—no man whom I have
known made warmer friends or more enthusiastic and
devoted adherents. They worked with an almost
passionate energy for a man who if he never spared
them (and certainly that was the case), never bleared
himself either, and under whose often rugged manner
they well knew lay a warm and affectionate heart.
(Hoer, hear.) Gentlemen, I have done, you have
other speakers to hear, and they will fill up
the outline which I have but feebly sketched.
Two wishes only I may express—one that the
monument which we raise may be such as will show
that even in this bustling age we do not quite forget
noble service rendered to England because it was ren-
dered a few years ago; the other that some one com-
petent for the work may give us a worthy record of
the life of Lord Lawrence, in order that so illustrious
an example may not be lost, and that those who come
after us may know something of the man in whom so
many of his contemporaries saw one of the best and
finest types of the patriot and of the atatebmr.n. (Loud
cheors, ) The noble each concluded by moving
"That John, Lord Lawrence, was a etatestuan of
whom England is proud, and that he deserves an
honourable memorial at the hands of his countrymen."

Dean Stanley, in seconding the motion, said he had
little to add to what had been uttered by Lord Derby.
He was but imperfectly acquainted with Lord Law-
rence, and their pursuits in life were widely different.
He knew sufficient of the late peer and of his career,
however, to be able to express an opinion that in
him the country had lust a servant in whom a sense
of duty transcended every other feeling, whether of a
political or personal character. (Hear, hear.) It was
not, therefore necessary in the course of the present
meeting to refer in any way to party politics; the
n. ore so in his ewe, for such questions as referred
S. our domestic political struggles were almost as
rigidly excluded from India, where Lord Lawrence
llabour.d, as from Westminater, where as Dean he (the
speaker) performed the obsequies of the late Viceroy.
(Rear, hear.) The great glory of our Indian states-
manship was, as a rule, that it was followed in a i.pirit
far sb vs personal ambitions and local interests, and
the knowledge of this fact must by reflection tend to
the advantage of our own home administration.
Among the most striking features of Lord Lawrence's
character were his presence of mind, courage, and
promptitude in doing that which he deemed best.
trnese features in his character procured for him the
name of "Iron John ; " but—and this was the most
important consideration—he was a man who followed
the doped strongest, and at the same time the
in ,

simplest form the dictates of the Christian religion;
and it had been said of him that through his life "he
feared man so little because he feared God so much."
(Cheers.)
The motion was carried amid cheering.
Other resolutions having been adopted in favour of
the object in view, the proceedings terminated.

The Times on the above subject devotes a leader,
from which we extract the following
Englishmen are not wont to be backward in undertakings
of this kind. They are proud of the men who have illustrated
their name in different parts of the world, and when the
levelling hand of death has obliterated the dissensions which
divide the living, they unite with no distinction of opinion
or party to render the honour which is due to all who have
deserved it at their hands. The name of John Lawrence "of
the Puejab" is one which cannot but live in the grateful
memory of his couttrymen. What his services were both to
India itself and to the vast empire of which it forms a part
were told in sufficient detail both by ourselves and
others when his death was recorded a few months ago. His
name has now been inscribed in the long roll of famous men
who belong without dispute to England's history. The im-
partial judgment of his countrymen was pronounced when
burial was accorded to him among the nation's worthies in
in Westminster Abbey. . . . His whole life had been
devoted to the establishment and maintenance of our
Indian empire. He had rendered to it services of
unsurpassed value by organizing the Punjab and in the
suppression of the Mutiny. These are the services which
all men must remember when they are asked to raise a
national memorial to Lord Lawrence • it is but a pitiful im-
agination which falls to be impressed by them because they
were rendered thousands of miles away; and if later
political differences should stay in some quarters the flew of
national recognition, we shall all do well to remember that
political difference are begotten only of the fleeting present
and pass into oblivion with it, while Lawrence's noble career
already belongs to history and to posterity.
These are the general grounds on which the proposal for
a national memorial to Lord Lawrence deserves the cordial
support of all generous Englishmen. He served his country
long and devotedly, and his energy and determination suc-
coured it at a momentous crisis of its fate. But there are
other and more special seasons why Lord Lawrence's career
should be held deserving of signal and ungrudging recogni-
tion. In honouring him we do especial honour to the
service of which he was one of the most conspicuous
ornaments. Unlike many Governors-General, who have
won the name of statesmen in England, before they
have gone to the East to rule over no mean fraction of
the human race, Lord Lawrence was a statesman trainel
and bred in the Civil Service of India. By sheer force of
character and efficiency of service he won his way upward
from the position of a simple cadet to that of the responsible
ruler of many millions of mankind. And yet, as Lord Derby
truly said at the meeting, his character, like that of so many
of those from whose ranks he rose, was marked by a certain
heroic simplicity. "If his opportunity had never come, if he
had never had a chance to do a historical act, you would
still have felt that you were in the presence of a man capable
of accomplishing great things if they were wanted, and
capable also of leaving the credit of them to those who
chose to take it He did his duty as It
came to him to do, and he could have felt that the
doing of it was reward enough, even if fame and hononrs
had not followed." It would be difficulties to describe the
spirit of a great and noble service in more appropriate
words. It is the spirit which gives to the English rude in India
its political sanction no less than its moral authority.
There are thousands of men in the position from which
Lord Lawrence rose who are striving as he did to do their
duty as it comes to them, and to do it with very little thought
of honour or reward. They will feel that their efforts
are honoured in the recognition accorded to his
services. It may not be given to many of them
to pacify a province, and they can hardly wish it
to be their lot have to save an empire. But the
determination, the energy, the uprightness, the manful
assumption of responsibility, where to decline it would be
fatal, which were all so conspicuous in Lawrence, are no less
othersni ze his I
who
n o
are
characteristic of the service to which he belonged. To
servicesrecog-
strivingis
,thetroeffoorlleo,wanistriebxuanite
ptole.theamneeeridsts
no
nice balancing of political feeling or party attachment to
render this kind of homage to achievements of which all
Englishmen are justly proud. The men who have made and
are still making India what it is are one and all entitled to
our gratitude, and they will feel that no more fitting honour
can be paid them than an Impartial and ungrudging national
tribute to the memory of John Lawrence.