The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-22 00:00:00

THE PRES THE WEEK. A document of the very highest importance has just been laid on the table of the House of Commons, and it was published by the printer to the House yesterday afternoon. It is a correspondence between Sir Jamss OUTRAM and Lord CANNING, through their respective Secretaries, on the subject of the " Confiscatory Proclamation." The great fact which it reveals is, that Sir JAMES OUTRAM, a statesman, and a man of great Indian experience, remonstrated with the inexperienced Governor-General in the following emphatic manner : FROM GEORGE COUPER, ESQ., SECRETARY TO THE CHIEF COMMIS SIONER OF OUDE (SIR J. OUTRAM), TO G. F. EDMONSTONE, ESQ., SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. (Political.) D. Camp, Chimlut, 8 March 1858. " Sir,—l am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 191, dated 3rd instant, inclosing a Proclamation to be issued to the landholders, chiefs, and inhabitants of (hide, upon the fall of the capital. " 2. In this Proclamation an hereditary title in their estates is promised to such landholders as have been steadfast in their allegiance, and with these exceptions, the proprietary right in the soil of the province is confiscated. _ _ _ _ -------- " 3. The Chief Commissioner desires me to observe that in his belief there are not a dozen landholders in the province who have not themselves borne arms against us, or sent a representative to the Durbar, or assisted the rebel Government with men or money. The effect of the Proclama tion, therefore, will be to confiscate the entire proprietary right in the soil, and this being the case, it is, of course, hopeless to attempt to enlist the landholders on the side of order ; on the contrary, it is the Chief Commis sioner's firm conviction that as soon as the chiefs and talookdars become acquainted with the determination of the Government to confiscate their rights, they will betake themselves at once to their domains, and prepare for a desperate and prolonged resistance. "4. The Chief Commissioner deems this matter of such vital impor tance, that, at the risk of being deemed importunate, he ventures to submit his views once more, in the hope that the Right Honourable the Governor- General may yet be induced to reconsider the subject. " 5. He is of opinion that the landholders were most unjustly treated under our settlement operations ; and even had they not been so, that it would have required a degree of fidelity on their part quite foreign to the usual character of an Asiatic to have remained faithful to our Government under the shocks to which it was exposed in Oude. In fact, it was not till our rule was virtually at an end, the whole country overrun, and the capital in the hands of the rebel soldiery, that the talookdars, smarting as they were under the loss of their lands, sided against us. The Chief Commissioner thinks, therefore, that they ought hardly to be considered as rebels, but rather as honourable enemies, to whom terms, such as they could without loss of dignity accept, should be offered at the termination of the campaign. "If these men be given back their lands they will at once aid us in restoring order, and a police will soon be organized with their co-operation, which will render unnecessary the presence of our enormous army to re establish tranquillity and c onfidence. "But if their life and freedom from imprisonment only be offered, they will resist ; and the Chief Commissioner foresees that we are only at the commencement of a guerilla war for the extirpation, root and branch, of this class of men, which will involve the loss of thousands of Europeans by battle, disease, and exposure. It must be borne in mind that this species of warfare has always been peculiarly harassing to our Indian forces, and will be far more so at present when we are without a native army. " 6. For the above reasons the Chief Commissioner earnestly requests that such landholders and chiefs as have not been accomplices in the cold blooded murder of Europeans may be enlisted on our side by the re storation of their ancient possessions, subject to such restrictions as will protect their dependents from oppression. If his Lordship agree to this proposition, it will not yet be too late to communicate his assent by electric telegraph before the fall of the city, which will probably not take place for some days. Should no su c h commun i ca ti on b e rece i ve d, t h e Chi e f Commissioner will act upon his present instructions, satisfied that he has done all in his power to convince his Lordship that they will be ineffectual to re-establish our rule on a firm basis in Oude.-1 have, &c. " (Signed) G. Courmt, Secretary to Chief Commissioner. " Chief Commissioner's Office, Camp, Cbimlut, 8 March." The Indian newspapers which have just come to hand are unanimous in the expression of their apprehensions of the evil effects of Lord CAN NING'S Proclamation. We make one or two extracts from the Bombay Standard of April the 24th : " We regret to learn from our Lucknow correspondents that the pre sent condition and prospects of Oude are most unsatisfactory. On this point their testimony is unanimous. They differ, however, materially as to the functionaries on whom the responsibility of this state of matters rests. Some my intl;n that had Lord CANNING carried out the policy pressed on him by Sir COLLN CAM MILL, and, by a generous treatment of the talookears and great zemindars of Oude, detached them from the rebel ral ke before the commencement of the operations against Lucknow, we should not only have reduced the numerical strength of the enemy by more than two-thirds, but we should have recruited our own force by a veuable irregular and police contingent of many thousands, and have closed up nearly every one of those points to which the dispersed sepoys S, MAY 22, 1858. and budmashes have made, and at which they are now reorganizing them selves." _ _ . " If," writes a Lucknow correspondent on the 14th of April, " this pro vince be not the theatre of disaster and humiliation, to Mr. MONTGOMERY will the praise be due—not to Lord CANNING. Mr. MONTGOMERY is de termined to carry out that policy which Sir COLLN CAMPBELL recom mended, and of which I believe Sir JOHN LAWRENCE, Sir JAMES OUTRAM, and Sir HERBERT EDWARDES have been the earnest advocates "We have letters from Lucknow to the Ist instant. Things were settling down into a state of melancholy propriety and regulation hum drum,' according to one of our correspondents. We presume he refers exclusively to the city, for in another letter we read that the province is in a very ticklish state. The great talookdars do not like Lord CANNING'S proclamation, and are shy. The dispersed sepoys and budmashes are abroad, and the roads are not safe in any direction. Dacoities, it is to be feared, will be rife.' " CABINET-MAKING. A PICTURE IN THREE COMPARTMENTS. SCENE I.—Cambridge house. Lord P.'s Study. Lord C—DON (loquitur). Yes, yes ! that's all very well for you, HarrEtt, and I dare say you're right when you doubt about our majority. But we may succeed, and Lord DERBY may go out, and then it would be a pity not to be prepared. Lord P— (interrupting). Prepared, my dear fellow ! I am per fectly prepared ; ready to construct a Cabinet to-morrow--choice mate rials—dovetailing and French polish in the first style of workmanship. Lord C—CARDE (regarding him with admiration). Well ! by Jove you are a clever fellow! Like the dog in Captain What's-his-name's book, that was always getting buried and coming to life again just at the right time. So, you see no difficulty ? Lord P—. Well, I don't quite say that—there is a little difficulty, though I hope to get through it or over it somehow. There are lots of men—homines, eh ? LEWIS, if not viri—and a fair allowance of patronage, if we make the most of India. But lam not quite sure what my principles are to be. Sir G. C. L—. Surely, an enlightened Liberalism— Lord P—. Edinburgh Review, eh ? The principles of our glorious revolution, and all that sort of thing. That's Lord JOHN'S trick—the high constitutional dodge ; but it doesn't take now. As many Whig Ministers as you please ; but the country has outgrown a Whig Ministry. Put that in your best meerschaum, CLARENDON. No, I must take a decided line; and I'm not quite sure whether Radical or strong Conservative will pay the best. The Globe recommends the former, the Post the latter. Which would you advise, HAYTER ? Sir W. G. H—. I hope I shall not offend your Lordship if I beg you to consider my feelings. I have had frightfully up-hill work these ten days in talking over those Independent Liberals, and of course I had to vouch for your advanced views on Reforms of all kinds. A few of them believed me, or I should have small hopes of a majority : and now to fling them over— Lord P—. Well, well, I don't say it would pay ; but I could come out strongly as an old Tory. However, I suppose it must be as you say — a Cabinet on some sort of Liberal principles. Now about the men. Lord C—DON. Well, my dear PALMERSTON, I should not mind re turning to the Foreign-office. Lord P—. But, my dear fellow, what am Ito do with RUSSELL ? I don't mean to put him over my head; and you see he knows nothing about foreign affairs, and made a mull of it at Vienna. So, of course, that is the only place he'll care to accept. The Right Hon. V. S—. Well, if incapacity is to be the qualifi cation— Lord We shall see you Minister for India, eh ? No, mon cher—l stick by my friends, as you and C CARDE here can tell; but I can't afford to pay the penalty as I did before. There's the Household, now—you might be some sort of Stick in Waiting, and C---CARDE might be Lord Chamberlain, and look aft er th e mora l s o f th e Theatre. Lord C---cAnDE. Would that give me a free pass behind the scenes? If so, I should not mind. (At this moment the D_ o f A— and Lord H—Y are announced, and exit the Noble Marquis abruptly with Lord C—DON . B hat.) The D— of A— (after formal greeting, and a short silence). I hope the withdrawal of the Nobleman whom we passed on the staircase may be taken as a good omen for our intended Cabinet. It was a mere tempting Providence to place him amon g men o f character and abilities, and I solemnly protest— Lord G—. Please don't. Let Exeter-hall alone—l hate poaching. Come now, we are quite enough for business. What do we go in for, and whom are we to have ? Our Cabinet, I presume, will be Sir G. C. L—. Progressive and enlightened. D. of A—. Dignified and capable. Lord C —POINT, Conservative-Liberal.