Background
Educated at Harrow and Christ Church College, Oxford, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1837, but on his father's death in 1838 he inherited the earldom of Dalhousie and retired to the House of Lords. In 1845 he was made president of the Board of Trade and desired, but failed, to get the government to exercise some planned control over the building of railroads; he gave full support to Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1847 he was appointed governor-general of India. He was faced almost at once with the murder of two Englishmen in the Punjab, an act that led to the second Sikh War and the annexation of the Punjab. This was followed by trouble with the kingdom of Burma, which resulted in the conquest of the province of Pegu in 1853. With a view to uniting the East India Company's scattered possessions in India, Dalhousie pursued the policy of annexing Hindu native states where there were no legitimate male heirs, and just before he retired in 1856 he solved the problem of the constant and gross native misgovernment in the kingdom of Oudh, by removing the king and annexing that province also. Parallel with this policy was his care for communications: telegraphs and railways were organized, roads and bridges built, a post office system was established. The Ganges Canal provided valuable irrigation; public education was improved; and attempts were made to put the army on a better basis and to improve the condition of the civil service. Dalhousie was one of the great governors-general, not only a builder of the Indian Empire, but also a first-class administrator, profoundly interested in the welfare of the people over whom he ruled. He returned to England in 1856 and died at Dalhousie Castle on Dec. 19, 1860.