The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-10 00:00:00

haunting the chambers of that home of Indian administration. It has been said by the eulogists of Lord DALHOUSIE that our Eastern empire has never been administered by so able a Governor since the days of WELLESLEY Whether this be true or untrue, it. is not for us, amongst the passions and commotions of the present moment, to hazard an opinion. political events, like pastoral prospects, require combi nation to exhibit their true characteristics ; and in the same way the historian, like the artist, requires to be removed some distance from his objects in order to appreciate their beauties or detect their deficiencies. But there are some points of view which strike the untutored eye, as well as the skilled, immediately; and no one can survey the administration of 1797 to 1805, and that of 1848 to 1856, without perceiving singular re semblance both in duration, and spirit and policy. On the matter• of finance the oppo nents of the latter• Marvia will justly take exception to any parallel being dvawn with his predecessor ; but as we are not now writing apologetically for any one, we may at once confess our own opinion that the weak point in the administration of Lord DALHOUSIE was the adoption of the crude schemes of his Secretary in the Financial Department ; which proved a complete failure, and shook the con fidence of the money market in India. Let it be admitted that this was what in politics is assumed axiomatically to be worse than a fault —namely, a blunder. In other respects, though we are not going to assert that Lord DALHOUSIE was a rival, or a servile imitator, of the Marquis WELLESLEY, there cannot be a doubt that he endeavoured to revive the traditions of his Government and policy. Three or four years ago, when the Embassy from Burmah waited on the Governor General in Calcutta to take their leave, they intro duced at parting the object with which they bad sought their meeting with Lord DAL HOUSIE. In the name of the Golden Foot they demanded back the territory which had been acquired by the forces under General GODWIN. In pei feet keeping with Eastern fashion and figure, Lord DALHOUSIE pointed to the sun ,and told them, that while it shone in the heavens, the flag of England should wave over the town of Rangoon. This fact exhibits the Governor- General's faith in the advancement of British acquisition in the East. It may be said that our sun has been under a cloud, or perhaps it has suffered a partial eclipse. But at this moment we are with stedfast gaze waiting to see the close of this imperial occultation. The storm that raged in so many directions l*s come to a centre in Oude, and upon that spot all eyes are fixed, waiting, as Gloucester has it, to see " the "winter of our discontent made glorious " summer by the sun of"— victory. Oude and Annexation have in some mouths became convertible terms; and the evil of the late Governor-General's system of administra tion will be considered by many to be proved by the simple fact, that the rebellion has established its head•quarter•s in the scene of the last annexation. This is pretty and plausible, but is it true ? In the Indian warfare, which may at this moment be terminated, it is impossible to help observing that not ,r swot d is drawn or a word uttered in favour of the deposed Royal Family of Oude. If injustice was perpe trated, it was perpetrated upon that family, and nut upon the people ; for the people were reduced to such a condition of misery, that when at one moment it was proposed in the Supreme Council to withdraw our troops from Oude, and leave the Court to its iniquities, the mea sure was negatived through fear of the people rising in immediate rebellion. These people can hardly consider that a great wrong bas been done to a family on whose behalf they do not strike a blow or speak a word. They have had the opportunity, and have observed a profound silence. The rebels having cumulated at Lucknow we believe to be the result of a geographical accident. It was the best position to fall back upon and defend behind Delhi ; for the north was guarded by LAWRENCE, and the south was increasingly occupied with the rr H t PRESS, APRIL 10, 1858. advancing reliefs from England. Moreover, a great proportion of the people have been soldiers, and very naturally remain on their own soil to defend themselves, while a vast amount of our late sepoy army was recruited from Oude ; and in rebelling, these men have centred there because Oude was their home. As to the deposed princes, there was infinitely more sympathy shown for that Royal Family by those vulgar starers who love a fresh "Lion" in society, or a new " Horror" at Madame Tussaud's, and who crowded last year " to have a good look " at the Queen of DUDE, than by all the natives who are supposed to be exasperated by the sufferings and indignities of their discarded rulers. As we have said, Eitgland is at this moment anxiously expecting the particulars of the closing scene in this war of rebellion. No one doubts that by the issue Oude will become prac tically, as well as nominally, a portion of the British empire in India The deed of annexa tion will be ratified. At this moment, there fore, it is worth while to recal some of the facts connected with that State, and to observe how the policy of Lord WELLESLEY in 1801 animated his successor in 1856. It bas often struck us as singular that no one has asked so very natural a question as this, " What is the history of the kingdom of Oude?" It would be found that, like the great Earl of WARWICK, we have employed ourselves there not only in king-unmaking, but in king-making. Oudo has been one of those nine-pins of native Courts which the East India Company set up, and which, in the inevitable course of the game, it has been compelled to bowl down. The King of OUDE (in the supposition of many) is descended from a long line of royal ancestors, who reigned in Lucknow for centu ries before the English, with their writers and factories, intruded upon the soil. No doubt he deduces his birth, in the vulgar imagina tion, from progenitors who were illustrious when the Kings of Englat d only " made their marks." No idea could be more absurd WARREN HASTTNOS found Oude a pert of the empire of Delhi; and it was to weaken the influence of the Imperial Court that it was subsequently made independent, and the Nabob raised to the kingly dignity. The royalty of Oude, therefore, is a thing of yes terday. We have no need to trace the history of that period ; for, as Mr. BURKE said, the facts are open to every one, even as far as John o' Groat's seat. What has followed is nothing but what might have been expected, and is too well established by the evidence before Govern ment. The transformation into royalty in Oude was as surpt to some of the performers in the piece as it was to Christopher Sly to find himself, by " profession a tinker," elevated into a lord : Am T a lord? Or do I dream, or have I dreamed till now ? . . . 1 see, I hear, I speak ; T smell sweet savours. ar:d I feel soft things. Upon my life I am a lord, indeed, And not a tinker. Christopher Sly's ideas, even when he was in lordly attire, turned to "a pot of small ale," and to " the flesh and the blood." So it was with the Royal Family of Oude. They re signed themselves to debauchery and every possible indulgence, coupled with oppression. In 1801, such was the condition of Onde that the Marquis WELLESLEY contemplated compelling the Royal Family to resign and at once annexing the country. His policy, after half a century, has been carried into effect. Lord DALHOUSIE preserved the traditions of the Wellesley Administration ; and in the same council-chamber where one Marquis, in 1801, designed the annexation, another Mar quis, in 1856, executed it. The causes which operated in 1801 operated in 1856 ; and at various periois during the present century many persons have been astonished they did not bring matters to a crisis. We have now traced the erection of the king dom and its con•li'ion. With such facts before it, the Government of India during half a cen tury has from time to time contemplated the 341 undoing of an evil, which had been created by itself. It had carved the kingdom of Oude out of the empire of Delhi ; and having made kings, it protected them and their acts, to the ruin of the country. From the birth this strange creation proved itself a Frankenstein ; and so those who brought it to the birth at last have put it out of the way. Our policy with reference to Oude has been a blunder from the beginning. HASTINGS layed the nest-egg of difficulties, Lord WELLESLEY incubated, and the Marquis of DALIIOUSIE has hatched it. THE IMPENDING CONFLICT. THERE never was a period in the constitu tional history of this country, so far as we can remember, at which such serious respon sibility devolved upon the House of Commons, and especially upon those Members of the House who are described under the general term of " Independent." The state of parties and tho position of political Leaders, with and with out parties under their command, has for some years been such that no one party nor any one statesman has the power to govern Parliament, in the sense in which govern ment was understood in the days of Pr•rr, nor co dictate to the House of Commons the de tailed provisions by which a general policy shall be carried out. The power, and with the power the responsibility, is in the hands of the independent members of Parliament. It would be absurd and mischievous not to recognize the fact. Lord DERBY, with great wisdom, has done so, and having frankly accepted the great stewardship intrusted to him by the Crown, has determined to administer Public Affairs to the best of his ability, with such materials as he finds within his reach,—at all events till new circum stances or the appearance of new phases in public opinion enable him to put the organi zation of parties upon such a footing as may restore the modes of transacting Parliamen• tare business to the condition with which we and our forefathers were familiar. This, at least, is our interpretation of the course which Lord DERRY has stated he is prepared to take with regard to his India Bill. It is for the independent members of the House to support him in that course—a course which, as we need scarcely point out, must needs have involved great self-denial and great command of temper and of feeling, espe cially in the face of the conduct adopted by the Minister whom the House of Commons has just displaced. Lord PALMERSTON thinks, evidently, that he sees in the India Bill of Lord DERBY an opportunity for party divisions and for personal triumph. His successor, with a frankness of policy and an openness of conduct which the astute member of a dozen Cabinets of differing principles would laugh at and contemn as a false move in the game, has placed his measure upon the table of Par liament, under the most unfavourable circum stances, on the very eve of a sixteen days adjournment—an absolute and unprotected cock•shy for writers in public journals, and speakers at public meetings. Few measures that have ever been pro posed, especially measures affecting a sub ject so difficult, so delicate, and in its nature so complicated, could have passed such an ordeal unscathed. There are, un doubtedly —we feel it ourselves, highly as we think of the statesmen who have framed it, and high as is our opinion of the general views of the principles of government exhibited in the Bill of Lord DERBY'S Cabinet—there are undoubtedly one or two questionable points which it is not easy for ob servation to miss. These points—we allude particularly to the provisions of the 12th clause in the Bill—have been the sub ject of remark, n.it only from the declared opponents of Lord DicaßY—not only from those who, although owning no allegiance to him as declared partizans, are not unfriendly,