The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

f it z r a t urt. Dacoitee in Excelsis ; or, the Spoliation of Oude by the East India Company. Faithfully Recounted, with Notes and Documentary Illustrations. London ; Taylor. THE work of which the above is the title is an octavo volume of two hundred and fourteen pages, in which is set forth the case of the King of Oude. This has been drawn up with great cleirness and ability; embodied in it is a statement of the rules of international law as applicable to the case in the shape of an opinion by the eminent civilian Dr. Travers Twiss ; and the whole exhibits the iniquity of the annexation in the clearest possible light. Crimes of this kind, whether perpetrated by nations or by individuals, seldom pass long unpunished ; and in the present state of India we are reaping the bitter fruits of a policy which common sense as well as common justice bad condemned. With the views of the author on the subject of Lord Wellesley's proceedings towards Oude we do not agree. Valid grounds were not wanting in the then state of India, and in the then state of our relations with the province, to justify the conquest of it, had Lord Wel -1 esley so willed ; and if he chose to waive this right the Nawab vizier could hardly have room to complain of the terms which he im posed. But what might have been then allowable had long ceased to be so ; for never had a dynasty—as even Lord Dalhousie ad mits—performed towards us more faithfully the obligations which they had pledged them selves to fulfil. Lord Wellesley's policy, in deed, in regard to subsidiary alliances was speedily diverted from its proper objects after it had ceased to be guided by his master-hand. The system which, if bona fide carried out, would have been equally beneficial to our Government and to the princes and people concerned, was soon converted into an engine of extortion by the Company and its agents at the subsidiary Courts. Wo know, ourselves, how anxiously his lordship felt on this subject towards the termination of his life. Ho was grieved to think that his system should be so misjudged, as it evidently would be, by history, when tested by its later fruits. To any one who really knew Lord Wellesley's disposition these afforded sufficient proof that his principles had been widely departed from, for it was im possible for him to have intended anything that was faithless, or sordid, or mean. It is to be regretted deeply that he is not now living to stamp with his honest reprobation, and to repudiate indignantly—as we are sure he would have done—all community of senti ment with the late Governor-General, who affects to have followed in his footsteps, to have succeeded to his mantle, and to have ivalled his Indian fame. The case of the King of Oude, as far as the annexation is concerned, really lies in a nut shell, and in a very few words may be told. In 1837, the occasion of a disputed succession afforded the then Governor-General, Lord Auckland, the usual opportunity of interfering and obtaining new concessions in exchange for his support of the uncle's in preference to the children's claim. Accordingly, a new treaty was entered into, by which the claimant so supported contracted to pay a large sum for the maintenance of a contingent, receiving a guarantee for his possessions in return. But it was stipulated, that if gross and systematic oppression, anarchy, and misrule should there after at any time prevail within the Oude dominions, such as seriously to endanger the public tranquillity, the British Government reserved to itself the right of appointing its own officers to the management of whatever portions of the Oude territory, either to a small or to a great extent, in !which such mis rule as that alluded to might have occurred, for so long a period as it might deem neces sary—the surplus receipts in such cases, after defraying all charges, to he paid into the King's treasury, and a true and faithful account rendered to his Majesty of the receipts and expenditure of the territories so assumed. And it wal further agreed, that in case the THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857. Governor-General should bo compelled to resort to the exercise of the authority vested in him by this article, ho should endeavour, as far as possible, to maintain (with such improve ments as they might admit of) the native institutions and forms of administration within the assumed territories, so as to facili tate the restoration of them to the Sovereign of Oude when tkie proper period for such re storation should arrive. Whether such misgovernment had taken place or not as to justify the interference herein conditionally agreed to by the King's predecessor, is a disputed point. But amid the conflicting statements put forth by the King and by the late Governor-General it may be observed that three things are very clear : First—that whatever misgovernment had taken place in Oude it had not exceeded, if indeed it had equalled, the misgovernment, as por trayed in the missionaries memorial, that had taken place within Lord Dalhousie's own more immediate government of Bengal. Second— That to any misgovernment in Oude the British agents of the Governor-General had been for the most part parties, even if they had not., as alleged by the King, been the chief occasion of it. And third—That, whether the government of Oude was good or bad, it was preferred by the people there to the govern ment of the Company, as the present universal rising to throw the latter off proclaims. In any case, however, the interference of the Governor-General was limited by treaty to the temporary assumption of the reins of power on behalf of and as trustees for the King—accounting to him duly for the surplus revenues, and maintaining the native institu tions and forms of administration intact. Had the interference of Lord Dalhousie been bounded by the conditions which this treaty laid down, there can be little doubt that the royal family would have acquiesced in it, as would the nobility and people of Oude. But this would not suit the avaricious policy of this grasping peer, who, if he had an eye, as he alleges, to the condition of the people, appears to have had another, and a far sharper one, to the benefit the imperial treasury would derive from the surplus revenues of Oude. There were not wanting warning voices at the time to point out the delusion under which be laboured as to the supposed facility and safety of the proceeding, and the pecu niary advantages that would be gained. But on his ears the voice of wisdom and experience ever fell in vain. The annexation was made. Instead of riches we have reaped only mas sacres and dishonour; and while the British nation lasts the memory will continue of the ferocious vengeance taken by the natives for the spoliation of Oude. How far the King personally has been a party to this savage out break it is of course impossible to say, but the idea seems hardly compatible with the cha racter of him which the late Governor-General and his agents portrayed. It seems at least as reasonable to assume that it has sprung from the indignation of the people at the treatment of their sovereign, and from resent ment of the personal injuries inflicted on them selves. For the annexation was followed at once by the introduction of the Company's system, or, in other words, by universal spolia tion and confiscation of pensions, salaries, and proprietary rights in laud. Indeed, if the story be true that no less than forty thousand peti tions wore presented against the proceedings of our officials by sepoys of our own army alone (petitions which are said to have been wholly disregarded), there is sufficient cause shown for all that has occurred, without necessarily assuming the personal complicity of the King. Of course the work under review was written before this bloody protest against the policy of Lord Dalhousie and Lord Pahnerston had been made, and the author leaves his cause to the justice of the English people, to whom alone he contemplated an appeal. Other elements, however, have now entered into the question, and these will have a larger share than any . consideration of legal right or title in the final disposal of Oude. Meantime, deep is the responsibility of the Ministry that has sanctioned a spoliation so unjustifiable, and which has led to such disastrous results. It is the Ministers, far more than the mutineers at Delhi, whom the uatioa has to thank for the cruel position in which it is now placed —a position in which the millions of money wasted are but a secondary consideration to the out rages which our fellow-count►ywomen have suffered, and to the blood of our noblest soldiers that has been spilt. The incapacity which led to our drifting into the war with Russia, and the mismanagement which filled the Crimea with our dead, were but trifling matters compared with the misgovernment which has maddened into demons the soldiers from the Oude province that filled our ranks in Bengal. Yet England still tolerates the sway of the authors of these evils, as if uncon scious of the wrong. In the men whose imbecility has brought about the present crisis, and who have all along misconstrued and underrated it, they look for that vigour and sagacity by which alone the honour of the nation can be retrieved. Ministers who have proved themselves unequal to the arrange ment of a cap cover are supposed competent to the war duties of the most eventful period the nation has ever seen. Men who broke down under six miles want of road in the Crimea aro expected to operate with success at the distance of nine hundred miles from their base in Bengal. That British pluck will do wonders we doubt not, and it will, we hope, even overcome the obstacles to success occa sioned by being superintended by such Minis ters as these ; but vast will be the sums the nation will have to pay for their incompe tence, and many are the families that will be placed in mourning by their neglect. England will triumph, but it will triumph at a cost at which posterity will stand aghast ; and our sons, in after times, when referring to the most disastrous period of their history, will turn to the Ministry of Lord Palmerston, and to the massacres, and dishonour, and financial embarrassment he brought down upon us by his unrighteous spoliation of Oude. North America: its Agriculture and Climate. By Robert Russell. Edinburgh : Adam and Charles Black. Tills useful volume bids fair, we think, to be come a standard authority upon the subjects of which it treats. The route taken by the author was such as to afford him the best op portunities of judging; and the knowledge of a practical agriculturist, as it seoms to us, has enabled him to condense and systematise his results - . _ _ . Starting from Boston, Mr. Russell took his • way north to the confines of West Canada, as far as Toronto and Quebec. Then turning south, he came leisurely down through New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, as far as Cincin nati. Then bending eastward through Vir ginia and Carolina, he again reached the coast at Charleston. From the town of Savannah he sailed across to Cuba, returning by way of New Orleans, whence he travelled northward again to Washington, and back to Boston, after a tour of six or seven months' duration. From the above sketch it will be seen that our author visited all the principal districts of all the principal crops in which agriculturists are interested ; that he inspected the cultiva tion of cereals and grasses, rice, sugar, cotton, and tobacco ; and we may add that his obser vations upon each will be found highly in teresting to. the majority of English readers, and to those who contemplate emigration in valuable. In the northern districts ho principally notices the scarcity, and consequent high price, of labour. This prevents the land from being thoroughly tilled, and has in many places caused its premature exhaustion from the nnessity of growing the same crop over and over again. Wheat cannot be alternated with turnips or other vegetable crops from want of hands, and the only alternative is to sow red clover among the corn, or sometimes to leave the land fallow for several seasons. This system, however, answers better in America than it would do in England. The clover is usually ploughed in and makes ex cellent manure. We subjoin some extracts which show the method of farming pursued both in arable and pasture lands : Ou one of the Riga farms which we visited, extending to 230 acres, we found R 0 acres in wheat, 111 in barley, 14 Indian corn, 20 woods, the rest pasture and clover, In 896