Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/53

Rh During the following year and a half he allowed the strong man, whom he had chosen for the charge of the united Burmese provinces, to carry out his views. Having thus given time for his system to be brought into working order, he proceeded at the end of 1855 to inspect for himself the results. Once more, now alas the wreck of his former self, he sailed from India to Burma, visiting not only the busy emporium which his energy had created at Rangoon, but also the island of Negrais, and the new harbour that had sprung up near the mouth of the Bassein River, and which still bears his name. If ever a conqueror earned, by personal labour, the right to govern a newly subjected country, and to impose his will upon his subordinates in the execution of the task, it was Lord Dalhousie.

For by this time the cares of empire, and all worldly pomps and successes, had become to him merely a matter of stern duty. The clouds of desolation had during the previous two years fallen heavily upon his soul. Himself 'bowed down and crippled by an exhausting disease,' he had been stripped one by one of the consolations which had cheered him amid his own infirmities and suffering. In the spring of 1852 Lady Dalhousie's health compelled her to leave her husband, to seek a chance of recovery in the hill climate of Ceylon. The following year was the saddest in Lord Dalhousie's life. One of his most trusted lieutenants in the