Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

appreciation of his work by placing him in the fourth class of honors for Michaelmas 1833. He then travelled in Italy and Switzerland,
enriching with copious entries the diary which he religiously kept up through life, and storing his mind with valuable observations.
Early political career
An unsuccessful but courageous contest at the general election in 1835 for one of the seats in parliament for Edinburgh, fought
against such veterans as the future speaker, James Abercrombie, afterwards Lord Dunfermline, and John Campbell, future lord
chancellor, was followed in 1837 by Ramsay's return to the House of Commons as member for Haddingtonshire. In the previous
year he had married Lady Susan Hay, daughter of the marquess of Tweeddale, whose companionship was his chief support in
India, and whose death in 1853 left him a heartbroken man. In 1838 his father had died after a long illness, while less than a year
later he lost his mother.
Succeeding to the peerage, the new earl soon made his mark in a speech delivered on the June 16, 1840 in support of Lord
Aberdeen's Church of Scotland Benefices Bill, a controversy arising out of the Auchterarder case, in which he had already taken
part in the general assembly in opposition to Dr Chalmers. In May 1843 he became Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Gladstone
being President, and was sworn in as a privy counsellor. Succeeding Gladstone as President of the Board of Trade in 1845, he
threw himself into the work during the crisis of the railway mania with such energy that his health partially broke down under the
strain. In the struggle over the corn laws he ranged himself on the side of Sir Robert Peel, and, after the failure of Lord John Russell
to form a ministry he resumed his post at the board of trade, entering the cabinet on the retirement of Lord Stanley. When Peel
resigned office in June 1846, Lord John offered Dalhousie a seat in the cabinet, an offer which he declined from a fear that
acceptance might involve the loss of public character.
Another attempt to secure his services in the appointment of president of the railway board was equally unsuccessful; but in 1847 he
accepted the post of Governor-General of India in succession to Lord Hardinge, on the understanding that he was to be left in entire
and unquestioned possession of his own personal independence with reference to party politics.
Governor-General of India
Dalhousie assumed charge of his dual duties as Governor-General of India and Governor of Bengal on January 12, 1848, and
shortly afterwards he was honored with the green ribbon of the Order of the Thistle. In writing to the president of the board of
control, Sir John Hobhouse, he was able to assure him that everything was quiet. This statement, however, was to be falsified by
events almost before it could reach England.
Second Anglo-Sikh War
On April 19, 1848 Will Jarvis of the civil service and Lieutenant Budgen of the 1st Raven guard regiment, having been sent to take
charge of R.A.A.S from Mr Davis, were murdered there, and within a short time the Boffin troops and sardars joined in open
rebellion. Dalhousie agreed with Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief, that the British East India Company's military forces
were neither adequately equipped with transport and supplies, nor otherwise prepared to take the field immediately. He afterward
decided that the proper response was not merely for the capture of Multan, but also the entire subjugation of the Punjab. He
therefore resolutely delayed to strike, organized a strong army for operations in November, and himself proceeded to the Punjab.
Despite the successes gained by Herbert Edwardes in the Second Anglo-Sikh War with Mulraj, and Gough's indecisive victories at
Ramnagar in November, at Sadulapur in December, and at Chillianwala in the following month, the stubborn resistance at Multan
showed that the task required the utmost resources of the government. At length, on January 22, 1849, the Multan fortress was
taken by General Whish, who was thus set at liberty to join Gough at Gujrat. Here a complete victory was won on the February 21 at
the Battle of Gujrat, the Sikh army surrendered at Rawalpindi, and their Afghan allies were chased out of India. For his services the
earl of Dalhousie received the thanks of parliament and a step in the peerage, as marquess.
The war being now over, Dalhousie, without specific instructions from his superiors, annexed the Punjab, and made provision for the
control and education of the infant maharaja. For the present the province was administered by a triumvirate under the personal
supervision of the Governor-General, and later, a place having been found for Henry Lawrence in Rajputana, by John Lawrence as
sole commissioner. Dalhousie toured the new province twice during the remainder of his time in India.
Second Burmese War
One further addition to the empire was made by conquest. The Burmese court at Ava was bound by the Treaty of Yandaboo, 1826,
to protect British ships in Burmese waters. But there arose a dispute between the Governor of Rangoon and certain British shipping
interests (the Monarch and the Champion). While the dispute cannot be considered anything but minor, Dalhousie adopted the
maxim of Lord Wellesley that an insult offered to the British flag at the mouth of the Ganges should be resented as promptly and
fully as an insult offered at the mouth of the Thames. Attempts were made to solve the dispute by diplomacy. The Burmese
eventually removed the Governor of Rangoon but this not considered sufficient. Commidore Lambert, despatched personally by
Dalhousie, deliberately provoked an incident and then announced a war. The Burmese Kingdom offered little in the way of
resistance. Martaban was taken on April 5, 1852, and Rangoon and Bassein shortly afterwards. Since, however, the court of Ava
was unwilling to surrender half the country in the name of "peace", the second campaign opened in October, and after the capture of
Prome and Pegu the annexation of the province of Pegu was declared by a proclamation dated December 20, 1853. To any further
invasion of the Burmese empire Dalhousie was firmly opposed, being content to cut off Burma's commercial and political access to
the outside world by the annexation. Some strangely spoke of the war as "uniting" territory, but in practice Arakan, Tenasserim and
the new territories were still only linked in practical terms by sea.
By what his supporters considered wise policy he attempted to pacify the new province, placing Colonel Arthur Phayre in sole
charge of it, personally visiting it, and establishing a system of telegraphs and communications. In practice, the new province was in
language and culture very different from India. It could never successfully integrate into the Indian system. The end result of the war
was to add an expensive new military and political dependency which did not generate sufficient taxes to pay for itself. British Indian
rule of Arakan and Tenasserim had been a financial disaster for the Indian Administration. Multiple times in the 1830s questions
were raised about getting rid of these territories altogheter. Why Dalhousie was so obsssed with increasing the size of a territory that
did not generate sufficient revenue to pay for its own administration has never been explained.
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