During this time great changes were effected by Lord Dalhousie in the government and civilisation of India, and iu the development of its resources. A yearly deficiency in the revenue was converted into a surplus until the years 1853.54 and 1854-55, when, chiefly in conse quence of the vast public improvements undertaken. there was a deficiency of nearly half a million. The shipping of India doubled in tonnage, a Legislative Council was organised, the civil service was thrown open to competition, the annual accounts were expedited, and prison discipline was improved under the superintendence of Mr. Thomason. A system of uniform cheap postage was also introduced by Lord Dalhousie ; a large portion of the Peninsula intersected by railways, and all the large towns brought into immediate connection by means of the electric telegraph, laid down by Dr. O'Shaughnesey, 4000 miles having been constructed and placed in working order between November 1353 and February 1856. The manufacture of salt, the production of cotton, tea, and flax, the breeding of sheep, and the improvement of agricultural implements—none of these points were too trivial for Lord Dalhousie's attention. The develop ment of the resources of the country in iron, coal, and other minerals, is a matter on which he bestowed peculiar care; and measures were also taken for the preservation of the forests, and for making their produce available. At the same time a new and uniform survey of the ceded districts was commenced, and the limits of subject states accurately defined. Irrigation on a large scale was effected in Scinde, Ma Ira% and Bombay ; the navigation of the Ganges, Indus, Nerbudda, and Burrampooter was improved; grand trunk roads were carried to Delhi, through the Panjab, and to Patna, and others made in Pegu and Scinde. A road is also being constructed from Hindustau to the frontiers of Tibet, commencing from the plains of the Sutlej; and another is in progress from Arracan over the Yomah ridge to Pegu.
The most stupendous work however which signalised his government was the Ganges Canal, carried out by the skill and energy of Sir Proby T. Cautley. Under his vigilant authority also the department of public works was reformed throughout, and a college founded to train young men specially in civil engineering. Schools and colleges were established and placed under government inspection, and the education of female natives provided for. The most strenuous efforts were at the same time made for the eradication of the systems of Suttee and Thuggee, and the practice of infauticide. The condition of the European soldiers was likewise greatly improved. Provision was also made for both Protestant and Roman Catholic worship, on equal terms, and extensive changes were made is matters of criminal and civil justice. Lord Dalhousie was also the author of another important alteration in Indian administration : he required the govern ment of each presidency, each lieutenant-governor, and the chief officer of every province, to send in to the governor-general an annual report of the chief events that occurred within their several juris dictions, in order to test the progress mado by the nation at large.
For his successes in the Panjeb, Lord Dalhousie was raised to a marquisate in 1849; and on his return to England in May 1856, with shattered health and a broken constitution, the East India Company settled on him a life pension of 5000/. a year. He had previously been appointed to the Wardenship of the Cinque Porte on the death of the late Duke of Wellington in 1852.
(Lord Dalhousie, Minute, reviewing his administration in India.)