Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/22

14 Punjalb, Sikkim, a part of Cachar, Lower Burma, Sátára, and a part of Sind, marked the magnificent circumference of his conquests and annexations: Oudh, the Central Provinces, Baghát, Sambalpur, Jaitpur, Udaipur, Jhánsí, the Berárs, and part of Khándesh, represent the vast territories with which he filled in the centre. I should be merely begging the question with which this book will try to honestly deal, if I were in a preliminary chapter to utter one word of praise or blame regarding the policy that so prodigiously augmented the dominions and the responsibilities of England in the East. It suffices if we realize at the outset that it was Lord Dalhousie who made the modern map of India.

To lay any stress in these preliminary remarks on mere extension of territory would prejudge the whole question as to the merits or demerits of Lord Dalhousie's rule. For an increase of territory may be only a damnosa haereditas of political robbery, prolonged popular resistance, and financial strain. Lord Dalhousie would himself have desired that the causes and circumstances which led to each conquest or annexation should be accurately set forth, before any credit was claimed for it. He conscientiously believed that such title as he might have acquired to the gratitude of his countrymen was based, not upon the extent, but on the justice of his acquisitions. Whether he was right or wrong in this belief, I