with administrative
powers only, Bentinck was in failing health, and he soon afterwards
returned home. On his resignation in 1835, Metcalfe became provisional
governor-general, but his liberal policy displeased the court of
directors, and Lord Heytesbury was selected by the short-lived
government of Peel as Bentinck's successor. Palmerston, however, on
resuming the foreign office, was believed to have used his influence to
set aside this nomination, and to procure the appointment of Lord
Auckland, then first lord of the admiralty. The supposed objection to
Heytesbury was his known sympathy with Russia, at a moment when distrust
of Russia's designs on the north-west frontier was about to become the
keynote of Anglo-Indian statesmanship. During the interregnum between
Bentinck's retirement and Auckland's accession, three more remedial
measures were carried into effect, the wisdom of which is not even yet
beyond dispute. These were the complete liberation of the Indian press,
the abolition of the exclusive privilege whereby British residents could
appeal in civil suits to the supreme court at Calcutta, and the definite
introduction of English text-books into schools for the people. For all
these reforms Macaulay was largely responsible, but the impulse had been
given by Bentinck, and was accelerated by Metcalfe.

During the years 1835-37 domestic affairs occupied much less space in
the counsels of Indian statesmen than schemes for counteracting the
growth of Russian influence at Tihran, and securing the predominance of
British influence in Afghanistan. For a time their anxiety was
concentrated on Herat, which the Shah of Persia was besieging, with the
intention of penetrating into the heart of Afghan territory, while the
Afghan rulers themselves were suspected of secretly conspiring with
Persia against our ally, Ranjit Singh. Since Persia, having again lost
faith in British support, was drifting more and more into reliance on
Russia, this forward movement was regarded as the first step of the
Russian advance-guard towards India. The fate of India was felt to
depend on the defence of Herat under Pottinger, a young British officer,
who volunteered his services without instructions from home. The siege,
conducted under Russian officers, lasted ten months, and its ultimate
failure was hailed as a triumph of British policy, for Herat was
recognised, since the days of Alexander the Great, as the western gate
of India.

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