The same omnivorous activity, and it must be added imperious will, characterised Lord Dalhousie's work in every department of the Government. 'There is the master, and we are the little boys under him,' said the Chief Justice when Lord Dalhousie laid down the rules for the remodelled judicial procedure. Lord Dalhousie claimed absolute obedience, not only by virtue of the authority committed to him, but by right of the infinite trouble he took to ascertain the facts of each case, and of the precision of his personal orders upon it. Nor would he be satisfied with any half-hearted compliance. 'In cases where he had a right to be masterful,' wrote Sir Richard Temple, 'he was prompt to vindicate authority; and whenever he received a provocation justly to be resented, he had quite a special faculty for making his displeasure dreaded[1].'
The obedience which Lord Dalhousie enforced from those under him, he loyally yielded to those under whom he himself was placed. 'He was invariably courteous and respectful to the Court of Directors,' says Sir Richard Temple in the work above quoted — a work to which I am under many obligations — , 'while he evidently felt grateful for the support so consistently afforded by them...
It is creditable to Dalhousie's tact and discretion that
- ↑ Men and Events of my Time in India, by Sir Richard Temple, Bart., p. 124, ed. 1882.
