Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/68

 CHAPTER III

The Conquest of the Punjab

Lord Dalhousie, the youngest ruler of India since Clive, and with his only administrative experience gained from a few years' work in the English Board of Trade, succeeded a veteran soldier and statesman as Governor-General. On the 12th of January, 1848, Lord Hardinge, the friend of Wellington and one of the heroic figures of the Peninsular War, closed his four years of eventful administration. The old soldier made over India to the young civilian in a state of profound peace. The nearly ten years of warfare which followed the aggression of Lord Auckland upon Afghánistán, had ended in what promised to be a permanent calm.