Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/187

Rh Any attempt to adequately state the methods by which Lord Dalhousie solved this triple problem, territorial, ethnical, and political, would involve a lengthy history of the times. It may be my privilege hereafter to make that attempt, and to trace the steps by which Lord Dalhousie converted the stationary India of Lord Wellesley into the progressive India of our own day. In the present volume I can only very briefly indicate a few of the main lines by which he advanced towards the accomplishment of his great task.

The British India which Lord Dalhousie bequeathed to his successor, was between a third and a half larger than the India of which he had received charge when he assumed the Governor-Generalship. He realized that in this new India the political centre of gravity had profoundly altered. He saw that it was no longer possible to hold the British dominions from the sea-board. The Governor of Bengal had, by a series of historical developments, grown into the Governor-General of India. Until Lord Dalhousie's rule the Governor-General was also Governor of the Lower Provinces of the Ganges, and responsible for their administration. His permanent seat of government had been Calcutta. When the Governor-General was absent from that capital, the senior member of his Council became Deputy-Governor of Bengal for the time being. But, except during