PROMOTION TO COMMAND OF THE GUIDES. 139 



and last, not least, there are four young gentlemen 

 who have each his fancy, and who often give more 

 trouble in transacting business than assistance in 

 doing it. However, I have no right to complain, 

 for I am about — yes, quite — the most fortunate man 

 in the service ; and have I not the right to call 

 myself the happiest also, with such a wife and 

 such a home ? " 



In February of this year, 1853, Sir Heury Law- 

 rence quitted the Punjab for ever, to the grief of 

 all who had served under him. The time had come, 

 in Dalhousie's opinion, for remodelling the govern- 

 ment of his new provinces and placing a single 

 man at its head. Sir Henry, therefore, took up the 

 duties of agent to the Governor-General in Rajput- 

 ana, while his younger brother John became Chief 

 Commissioner for the Punjab. Sir Henry, however, 

 amidst his own personal grievances, did not forget 

 the friends he had left behind him. On the 13th 

 of July he wrote : — 



"I hope Mrs Hodson and yourself are alive. 

 Pray inform me of the fact and of your where- 

 abouts, &c., &c. 



" By last mail I wrote to Lord Hardinge ^ and 

 asked him to get you brevet rank. You had 

 better write to Sir C. Napier (but don't use my 



1 In the letter to Lord Hardinge Sir Henry said: "The Guide 

 Corps you raised at my request has held its ground as the best 

 irregular corps in India. The present commander is a young fellow, 

 Hodson by name, whom you gave me at Lahore in 1847. He is a 

 first-rate soldier, and as your lordship likes young officers in com- 

 mand, I beg to bring him to your notice for a brevet majority. Sir 

 C Napier thinks highly of him, and, I believe, held out to him 

 hopes of the rank. Hodson is a most ambitious and most gallant 

 fellow, and very able in all departments." — Merivale's 'Life of Sir 

 Henry Lawrence.' 



