1 ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES, 577
2 measurement, the training of village accountants, the registration of
3 rights, the interior professional survey, the census of the population, the
4 preparation of statistics, the arrangements for the great highways, the
5 erection of caravansarais and supply-depéts, the improvement of the breed
6 of cattle, the planting of trees, the pursuit of agricultural science, geologi-
7 cal researches, and, lastly, the supervision of finance. A civil code sufii-
8 cient to meet the growing requirements of a commercial and agricultural
9 population was compiled by the joint efforts of Messrs. Montgomery and
10 ‘Temple, and revised by the Chief Commissioner. A sanitarium was estab-
11 lished in the hills for wounded or invalid soldiers, and for the worn out
12 civilian to recruit his health. In short, within a brief period of five years,
13 the Panjab was quite changed, The whole face of the country told its own
14 tale. In the force and vigour of its police, in the simplicity and precision of
15 its civil justice and in the popularity of its municipal arrangement, the
16 Panjab vied with the best regulated provinces in India. Such were the im-
17 provements effected in the Panjab by its first Chief Commissioner, Sir John
18 Lawrence, with the help of his able coadjutors. Most of the schemes had
19 been already inaugurated under the Board of Administration, but the
20 credit of the working out of these measures was due to the able Government
21 of Sir John Lawrence.
22 Early in January 1857, Sir John Lawrence held aconference with Amir
23 Dost Muhammad Khan of Kabul, at Jamrud near Peshdwar. The Dost,
24 with his venerable white beard, and clad in a garment of coarse camel’s hair,
25 entered the darbdr tent, accompanied by two of his sons and his most trusted
26 sardars, At this meeting a subsidy of twelve lakhs of rupees a year was guaran-
27 teed to the Amir so long as the war with Persia, then pending, should last, or
28 it should please the British Government to continue it, the promise being
29 accompanied with a present of 4,000 muskets. After the articles of agree-
30 ment had been signed and sealed in the Amiz’s tent, His Highness exclaim-
31 ed: “ Witness it, Alléh, and His Prophet! I have now made an alliance with
32 the British Government: come, what may, I will keep it till my death;” and
33 he was as good as his word; for to the day of his death his pledge to the
34 British remained unbroken. The Shah of Persia, observing the attitude of
35 the ruler of Afghanistdn and the renewal of his alliance with the British,
36 renounced his pretensions to Herat, and withdrew his army from Afghdnis-
37 tan, and, the war being then speedily terminated, the necessity of an Afghan
38 army meeting the Persians in the field was avoided. Meanwhile, the Panjd&b
39 prospered under the fostering care of the British statesmen on whom had
40 devolved the pleasant, but onerous, duty of its administration. But an event
41 now happened which not only engrossed the attention of the British Govern-
42 ment, but which taxed the exercise of its energy and resolution to the utmost.
43 In May 1857, the storm of the great Sepoy Mutiny burst. The first
44 intelligence of the revolt at Meerut and the massacre of the Europeans at
45 Delhi was flashed to Lahore, the seat of the Panjdb Government, on the
46 morning of the 11th, The Chief Commissioner was absent at Rawalpindi,
47 and the chief civil officer present at the capital of the Panjdb was Mr.,
48 afterwards Sir, Robert Montgomery, the Judicial Commissioner. He saw at
49 once the immensity of the danger, and, with a wisdom and foresight equal
50 only to his energy, came to the conclusion that the emergency admitted of no
51 delay. Accordingly, he convened forthwith a conference of the leading civil
52 and military officers of the station, viz., Mr., afterwards Sir Donald, McLeod,
53 Financial Commissioner, Mr. A. A. Roberts, Commissioner, Major Ommaney,
54 Chief Engineer, Colonel Macpherson, Military Secretary, and Captains Law-
55 rence and Hutchinson. At this meeting the Judicial Commissioner proposed
56 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary
57 The Panjab Civil
58 Code.
59 A Sanitarium estab-
60 Hshed in the hills,
61 The Panjab becomes
62 a model province,
63 The labours of Sir
64 Johu Lawrence and his
65 able colleagues,
66 The conference of
67 Sir John Lawrence
68 with Amir Dost
69 Muhammad Khan at
70 Peshawar, January,
71 1857.
72 The Shah of Persiq
73 gives up his preten-
74 sions to Herat,
75 The Sepoy Alutiny
76 of 1857.
77 The intelligence
78 received at Lahore,
79 The action taken by
80 Mr, Montgomery.
81 He holds a confer-
82 ence of the leading
83 Civil and Military offi-
84 cers at Lahore.
85 NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com