raja and the governor-general met at Rupar on the banks of the Satlej.
Bentinck was still governor-general when the East India Company's Charter Act of 1833 was passed, whereby he became the first 'governor-general of India;' he and his predecessors having been 'governors-general of Bengal,' although vested with control in certain matters over the minor presidencies of Madras and Bombay. During the latter part of his government Bentinck's health became seriously impaired, and he was spending the hot season on the Nilgiris, the mountain sanatorium of the Madras presidency, when the change in the constitution of the supreme government took effect in India. He was there joined by Macaulay, the new law member of council, with whom he speedily contracted a warm friendship. He resigned the government and embarked for England on 20 March 1835, much regretted both by Europeans and natives, with the former of whom his early unpopularity had yielded to a sense of his singleness of purpose, and of his earnestness and capacity as an administrator. After his departure a statue in his honour was erected at Calcutta bearing this inscription from the pen of Macaulay: 'To William Cavendish Bentinck, who during seven years ruled India with eminent prudence, integrity, and benevolence; who, placed at the head of a great empire, never laid aside the simplicity and moderation of a private citizen: who infused into oriental despotism the spirit of British freedom; who never forgot that the end of government is the happiness of the governed; who abolished cruel rites: who effaced humiliating distinctions: who gave liberty to the expression of public opinion; whose constant study it was to elevate the intellectual and moral character of the nations committed to his charge, this monument was erected by men who, differing in race, in manners, in language, and in religion, cherish, with equal veneration and gratitude, the memory of his wise, upright, and paternal administration.' Whatever may be thought of the foregoing eulogium, there can be no question that Bentinck's Indian administration must be regarded as a marked era in the history of Indian progress. He was the first British statesman entrusted with the government of India who declared and acted upon the policy of governing India in the interests of the people of that country. Of his numerous reforms some have been improved upon by his successors, but none have been abandoned. Two great qualities, perfect indifference to popular applause and high moral courage, he possessed in an eminent degree. Singularly simple and unostentatious in his habits, irreproachable in his private life, he and Lady William Bentinck set an example which, coming from persons placed in the high station which they filled in India, could not fail to inspire respect. It has been said that Bentinck too often exhibited mistrust of those who served under him, and that at times, in pressing forward his measures, he was unduly regardless of the interest of individuals. Of the first of these failings there are some indications in the letters of Lord Metcalfe, written when the two men first came into official relations; but it is evident that in this case the mistrust on the part of Bentinck, to whatever extent it may have existed, speedily disappeared, for nothing could have been more cordial than his subsequent friendship for Metcalfe, with reference to whom he used the memorable expression that 'he never cavilled upon a trifle, and never yielded to me on a point of importance' (Life of Lord Metcalfe, ii. 233, edition of 1858). By the three most eminent historians of British India Bentinck's government is characterised in terms of high praise. James Mill, writing to a friend shortly after Bentinck's return from India, describes him as 'a man worth making much of, I assure you. When I consider what he is, and what he has done in a most important and difficult situation, I know not where to look for his like.' Horace Hayman Wilson, who had been Bentinck's most formidable opponent in India on the question of the abolition of suttee, in his continuation of Mill's history after reciting Bentinck's principal measures, affirms that 'a dispassionate retrospect of the results of his government will assign to Lord William Bentinck an honourable place among the statesmen who have been entrusted with the delegated sovereignty over the British empire in the east.' And Marshman says of Bentinck's administration that 'it marks the most memorable period of improvement between the days of Lord Cornwallis and Lord Dalhousie, and forms a salient point in the history of Indian reform.'
Bentinck survived his retirement from the government of India little more than four years, dying at Paris on 17 June 1839. He was elected member for Glasgow in the liberal interest at the general election of 1857, and retained the seat until a few days before his death. He had previously been offered, but had declined, a peerage. He was married in 1803 to Lady Mary Acheson, second daughter of Arthur, first earl of Gosford, who survived him. He had no issue.
