Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/21

 CHAPTER II

Lord Auckland's Domestic Policy

On the 20th of March, 1836, the new Governor-General took the usual oaths of office in Government House. At the farewell banquet given him by the Court of Directors, Lord Auckland had avowed his exultation at the opportunity thus afforded him of 'doing good to his fellow-creatures, of promoting education and knowledge, of improving the administration of justice in India, of extending the blessings of good government and happiness to millions of her people.' These phrases had not then lost their novelty, nor had those who heard them any cause to doubt the speaker's good faith. They felt that Bentinck's successor honestly meant to carry on the work which Bentinck had begun.

In India everything seemed to betoken the continuance of a peace which had lasted already for ten years. From the Sutlej to Cape Comorin, from the Castle-Palace of the Mughal at Delhi to the Nizám's Capital at Haidarábád, not a cloud appeared above the political horizon. Beyond the Sutlej our old and faithful ally, Ranjít Singh, had lately abandoned his