Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 47.djvu/260

. Dalhousie's proposal did not in this case commend itself to all his colleagues. Mr. Dorin and John Peter Grant advocated the immediate annexation of Oudh. Colonel Low, who had strongly opposed the annexation of Nagpur, but who, as resident at Lucknow, had been an eye-witness of the terrible misgovernment of Oudh, supported the governor-general's proposal, as did Mr. (afterwards Sir Barnes) Peacock [q. v.] with some modification. The court of directors, however, and the cabinet decided in favour of annexation, which was proclaimed a few weeks before Dalhousie left India.

The question of replacing Mysore under native rule, from which it had been removed by Lord William Bentinck [q. v.] in 1831, owing to the misgovernment of the rájá, came before Dalhousie at the close of his administration, and was decided by him in the negative. A similar decision had been given by Lord Hardinge, and was confirmed by Dalhousie's three successors, Lords Canning and Elgin and Sir John Lawrence. It was upheld by the home government until 1867, when the secretary of state, Sir, afterwards Viscount Halifax, suddenly ordered the re-establishment of the native sovereignty.

The last three years of Dalhousie's rule were overshadowed by the death of his wife, to whom he was devotedly attached, and his own ill-health. Lady Dalhousie had been compelled by the state of her health in 1852 to seek a change of climate in the mountains of Ceylon. Early in 1853 the same cause, and the desire to see her children, led her to sail for England by the Cape route, but she suffered from sea-sickness throughout the long voyage, and died of exhaustion within sight of the English shores. This heavy blow did not interfere with Dalhousie's attention to his work, which, until his eldest daughter went out to him at the end of 1854, was the only solace of his grief. It was in this year (1853) that his projects for railways and telegraphs for India became accomplished facts. In the following year he was called upon to organise the new legislative council, provided for in the East India Company's charter act of 1853, and to establish the new lieutenant-governorship of Bengal; and later in the year he had to give effect to the celebrated education despatch of July 1854, of which he wrote that it contained ‘a scheme of education for all India, far wider and more comprehensive than the local or supreme government could have ventured to suggest.’

Dalhousie's tenure of office had been already extended, at the request of the court of directors, for two years beyond the usual time. He was now requested by the same authority to stay on for one year more, a request with which he complied, notwithstanding strong remonstrances from his medical advisers, feeling that he would not be justified in resigning his trust until the Oudh problem had been solved.

One of his latest official acts was to place on the council table, for transmission to the home government, nine minutes on various points connected with the Indian army, including proposals for an increase of the European and a reduction of the native force. He had previously, on the occasion of two British regiments being withdrawn from India for service in the Crimea, made a vigorous protest against any reduction of the British garrison. Notwithstanding this protest, British regiments were withdrawn both for the Crimea and for the Persian Gulf, and when the mutiny took place one of the charges preferred against Dalhousie was that he had neglected the military question altogether.

During these later years Dalhousie's health was steadily declining. In 1855 he spent several months on the Nilgiri Hills in the Madras Presidency, but without deriving any permanent benefit from the change of climate. It was there that he wrote his minute on the Oudh question. On 29 Feb. 1856 he made over the government to Lord Canning and embarked for England on 6 March. His departure was signalised by a concourse of the inhabitants of Calcutta, of all classes, apparently animated by one feeling of admiration of his services, of regret at losing him, and of sincere sympathy with his invalid condition. During the voyage home he completed the review, already referred to, of the principal measures of his government and of the condition of India—a document which, whether regard be had to the comprehensiveness of its contents or to the circumstances in which it was penned, the greater part of it written in pencil and the writer lying on his back as he wrote, is probably unique as a state paper. He landed in England on 13 May 1856, and on the following day was voted a pension of 5,000l. a year by the directors of the East India Company. A year later the mutiny of the Bengal army took place, and then there occurred in many quarters a most strange revulsion of feeling regarding the administration of the great proconsul. It was alleged that his policy of annexation and his blind confidence in the native army, coupled with his omission to provide for the maintenance of an adequate British force, were the main causes of the mutiny. It is needless to say that this opinion