The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MAY 15,1858.

people of England did not know the truth in regard
to the government of India. Not more than a year
ago a widespread rebellion broke out in India, and
they heard of their countrymen, countrywomen, and
children falling victims to an indescribable fury on
the part of the natives, the reason assigned being
that we had treated the natives with too much kind-
ness. God forbid that he should ascribe what had
occurred in India to any party, military or civil ; he
ascribed it solely to a system. Almost the first
native gentleman that he met in India, on being
asked what was the cause of the rebellion, said,
" While the English Government was just and
honest God gave them prosperity, but when the
Government became unjust and severe God afflicted
them with adversity, which generated discontent and
rebellion." Ho asked the same question of a young
native, who said that the mutiny had arisen because
the Government had become immoral. The extent
of the rebellion was much greater than had been
represented to the people of England. The letters
of Colonel Millman proved this fact. He was told, in•
deed, that some of the native princes had been faithful
to us—such as Holkar and Scindia ; but had their
troops been faithful to us ? And what were those troops?
Not, as in England, the idle portion of the popula-
tion, who by becoming soldiers cut themselves off
from the community, but they were men who, after a
certain period of service, looked forward to return to
their homes, their farms, and their villages. The
rise, therefore, was not from any military cause. If
the natives were loyal, as had been asserted, why did
not the Government dare raise a native regiment to
put down the mutiny ? He might be asked what
object the Indian Government could have in deceiv-
ing the English public as to the cause and extent of
the rebellion. To the best of his belief the reason
was, that when the mutiny first broke out the civil
servants committed themselves to the assertion that
it was merely a military mutiny, and they afterwards
would not retract that assertion ; but there could be
no doubt that this was a far wider movement than
that of a military mutiny. The greased cartridges
might have afforded a pretext, but the causes of the
outbreak lay much deeper, and had been operating
for years. Two causes chief( were assigned for the
rebellion by persons with whom he had conversed at
Benares—viz., the annexation policy and the treat-
ment of the natives. It was his conviction that the
system of annexation had been the great moving
cause of the present mutiny in India. He was told
that the Government of India did not recognize
annexation as a fixed policy, and a portion of its
system; but he denied that assertion. When Sir
Richard Hamilton placed Holkar, who was a minor,
on the throne, he was reprimanded for doing so, as
it prevented the Indian Government from
pursuing a course of annexation which it had
laid down to itself. Between the years 1851
and 1856 Lord Dalhousie annexed no less a popula-
tion than 10,558,943, and an area consisting of 146,000
square miles. These figures were according to a
return made to Parliament; but it was a fallacious
return, as it did not contain the assigned districts,
such as Hyderabad, Sattara, and others. He could
safely state that Lord Dalhousie had annexed terri-
tories containing 15,000,000 of inhabitants to our
dominions in India. One of the most important of
these annexations, and one from which they had
most bitterly suffered, was that of Oude. He need
hardly call the attention of the meeting to the well-
known despatch of Sir James Outram, in which an
account was given of his interview with the King of
Onde, when that Sovereign, after alluding to the
fidelity of his family to the British rule for many
generations, placed his crown upon his knees, and
said that he bad no more hope in the justice of
England after having been told that a treaty which
had existed for twenty years, and which he con-
sidered to be good, lawful, and binding, was no
longer binding, because it had been disapproved by
the Court of Directors. He would not dwell upon
the fact of dispossessing the landed proprietors of
Oude; but this he would say, that nations never
committed great crimes without ultimately suffering
from them, and Oude might be to India what I'oland
and Hungary had been and were to Russia. The
hon. gentleman then adverted to the non-observance
of treaties by the Indian Government with the native
Princes, particularly instancing the case of the
Nizam and of Nagpore. A native Prince once said
to him—" Is there one way or two ways of reading
a treaty? You make it only one way, and
that is your own." In regard to the system
of annexation, one objection was, our territories
would be so extended by it that we should not
be able to govern them. Prince Metternich once
observed that we had not the material power to do
it. How were they to govern 180,000,000 of people
that were now under their sway ? Another evil
result of annexation was that they were obliged to
employ military men in the civil service, and thus
leave the regiments without officers. Another griev-
ance of which the natives had to complain was the
appointment or the Commission of Emans, as it was
called—a sort of inquisition into the titles of men to

,

their property. If the parties could not show a tide
hr one hundred years the property was taken from
tb"'n altogether. No country in the world would
t°,lertle such a system. The parties were told that
they bad a right of appeal, but how could those
unhappy men
go to Bombay to enforce that right?
It was a nlocasry. In this case the Indian Govern-
ment had gone agsinst the very principle of the law,
which said that no man should be a judge in his own
cause. Why not appoint an Indian commission to
investigate these titles ? He remembered hearing a
young man state that he ought to have promotion
because he had been the means of getting 80,0001.
for the Government by means of these inquiries into
titles. It might be said that it was only the great
barons who suffered, but that was not true. The pea-
santry and all those who lived by the expenditure
of the owners of these properties equally suffered.
The last cause of discontent was Lord Dalhousie's
procedure in regard to converting the five-per cent.
loan into a four-percent. loan. The natives said to
Lord Dalhousie, "You have ruined our faith in your
credit, and you are now ruining our faith in your jus-
tice." He admitted that the East India Company
had done well. Their arrangements were good, but
the Government of the East India Company had not
made a prosperous or happy people. The faith of the
natives of India in us had broken down. It no
longer existed. Lord Dalhousie was accused of
having been the chief cause of this. Certainly the
principles of government upon which he acted—
whether he or the country were responsible he cared
not to inquire—but the annexation of Oude and the
confiscation of the estates of the people had been the
cause of the rebellion in India. When he asked any
natives a question in which the name of Lord Dal-
housie occurred, they held up their hands and said,
"For God's sake don't speak of him." When that
nobleman left the shores of India there were no ad-
dresses of congratulation presented to him. When
Lord Canning assumed the government of India
everything seemed to be in a perfect state of quietude,
but he had scarcely taken upon him the reins of go-
vernment before the whole thing was blown up. He
was surrounded by a weak Council. We had no
able men—giants in their days. It was unfair to say
that Lord Canning was thwarted at Calcutta.
He was not. The people saw imminent danger,
and every man offered himself, volunteering to
sacrifice life and property to serve the Govern-
ment, but their offer was refused ; but he could not
have known the extent of the danger, and under the
circumstances Lord Canning did not deserve the blame
that had been cast upon him. A great deal had
been said about Mr. Colvin'a proclamation, but Sir
Henry Lawrence had issued a proclamation even
more merciful than that of Mr. Colvin. He did not
wish to deny or palliate the atrocities that had been
committed in India. God knew they were horrible
enough, but they were taunted for wishing that the
truth should not be spoken, and because they felt
that if those horrors really had existed it would
be Christian charity to throw over them the veil.
With respect to the alleged cases of mutilation, after
the most vigilant inve,tigation, be had not been able
to find out one authenticated case. In India it was
a great rising of the people, and he believed that
they meant to exterminate man, woman, and child,
but they did not mean V) insult or mutilate. What
said Mr. Russell in the Times 1 He stated that there
were 500 native Christians in Lucknow that
were not molested. He would not touch
upon party contentions. "For God's sake
let us forget party when an empire is at stake.
He would not ask whether it was prudent or wise
to publish a certain document, but this be would say,
that whoever was at the head of the Government of
India ought to be guided by the two principles laid
down in the concluding paragraph of that despatch,
which ought to be written in characters of gold, and
put up in every public place in India. We shall
conquer India again. Our skill and science and the
indomitable courage of our troops will do it; but,
when we have reconquered it, what shall we do with
it? There is no doubt as to the course we should
pursue. Whwever may be the result, it is our duly
to pursue it. It is all very well to see the statesmen
of a great nation quarrelling for party purposes when
they are about to lose a vast empire. You may have
a Council, and must have a Council which shall
control your Indian Government at home, but India
itself must be governed in India. You must open
your Council not only to a European, but to an
Indian element. You have already done it on a
small scale in Ceylon. There you have a population
raised from 700,000 to 4,000,000. You have planters
raised from 13 to 13(X); you have a council founded
upon liberal and civilized principles, where Indians,
even Buddhists, and almost native half castes, are
represented. The experiment has been most sue.
cessful. That experiment you must try in India.
If you do, and if you lose India, it will be no dis-
honour and no disgrace to you that future
should say that you made the people of India
lized, prosperous, and happy, and, if it can be P
by our example, let me add Christian.

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cheering, in which the voice of Mr. Rright was a-
cially audible.)
A vote of thanks to Mr. Layard was then prrPosed
by Lord BURY, seconded by Sir E. PEx.stY, and
carried by acclamation.

CABINET COUNCILS were hold on Saturday and
Wednesday, and again yesterday, at the official
residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
in Downing-street. The Ministers present on
each occasion, with the exception of Lord Ellen-
borough on Wednesday and Friday, were, the Earl
of Derby, the Lord Chancellor, the Marquis of
Salisbury, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Mr. Secretary Walpole, the Earl of
Malmesbury, Lord Stanley, General Peel, Sir John
Pakington, the Earl of Ellenborough, the Right
Hon. J. N. Henley, and Lord John Manners.
THE RIGHT HON. THE SPEAKER gave his twelfth
parliamentary full-dress dinner on Saturday evening,
the Bth inst. The following were present :—Lord
Dunkellin, Lord Alfred Spencer Churchill, Sir Henry
Cotterell, Colonel Stuart, Colonel Freestun, Mr.
Thornhill, Mr. Gurdon, Mr. Jackson, Mr. John
Locke, Q.C., Mr. Phillips (Haverfordwest), Mr.
Knatehbull-Hugessen, Mr. C. W. Grenfell, Mr. J.
H. H. Foley, Mr. Warre, Mr. Devereux, Mr. Arthur
Russell, Mr. Waldron, Mr. Biggs, Mr. Mackinnon,
jun., Mr. Brady, Mr. Henry W. Foley, Mr. Sutton
Western, Mr. Hatchell, Mr. Wyld, Mr. Maguire, Mr.
Dillwyn, Mr. Roupell, Mr. M'Mahon, Mr. Gregory,
Mr. Dent, Mr. Davey, Mr. Hardcastle, Hon. George
Waldegrave, Rev. Henry Drury. Sir Richard Levinge
was prevented by severe domestic affliction from attend.
ing. And at his thirteenth parliamentary full-dress
dinner on Wednesday evening, the, following mem-
bers were present :—Viscount Goderich, Sir William
Dunbar, Sir Thomas E. Winnington, Sir James
Anderson, Sir Joseph Paxton, Mr. F. Dundas
(Orkney), Mr. Colville, Mr. Wingfield, Mr. Thomas
Mills (Totness), Mr. Duncombe Shatto, Mr. Barnard
(Bedford), Mr. Samuel Gurney, Mr. De Vere, Mr.
Orme Foster, Mr. Mellor, Q.C., Mr. F. North, Mr.
Morris, Mr. Steel, Mr. F. W. Russell (Limerick),
Mr. R. J. Bagsbaw, Mr. Loftus Bland, Q.C., Mr.
Woods (Wigan), Mr. Campbell, Mr. Calcutt, Mr.
Salisbury, Mr. Isaac Butt, Q.C., Mr. White, Mr.
Wood (Pontefract), Mr. Ewing, Hon. eorge
Waldegrave, and Rev. Henry Drury.
A DEPUTATION OF MILITIA SURGEONS had an inter-
view with the Earl of Derby at his official residence,
Downing•street. The deputation comprised the

following militia surgeons; viz. :—Mr. Hansard,
Oxford ; Mr. Childs, Royal London ; J. M'Cann,
M.D, 3rd Middlesex; Mr. Barr, Northampton ; T.
Gny, M.D. 3rd West York; Mr. Mitchinson, North

Lincoln ; M'Cormack, M.D., Bedford ; Mr. Isaacson,
Huntingdon ; R. H. Courtney, M. 8., Donegal ; Mr.
Fernely, South Lincoln ; J. G. Harrison, 6th
Lancashire; Mr. Curtis, East Kent; and Thumas
Macoall, M.D., Edinburgh. They were accompanied
by the Duke of Buccleucb, Marquis of Londonderry,
Lord Claud Hamilton, the Hon. W. Tollemache,
M.P., Lord James Stuart, M.P Colonel Stuart, Mr.

Watson Taylor, M.P., the Duke of Cleveland, Mr.
Ker Seymer, M.P., Mr. Price, M.P., the Marquis of
Salisbury, the Earl of Bandon, Colonel French,
M.P., Mr. Fagan, M.P., Mr. Adams, M.P., Major
Sibtborpe, M.P., Mr. Beecroft, M.P., Sergeant Deasy,
M.P., Sir Montague J. Cholmeley, M.P. Captain
Gray, M.P. Mr. Wethy, M.P., Colonel La Touche,
Mr. Hassard, M.P., The O'Donoghae, M.P., the
Duke of Buccleuch, Mr. M'Carty, M.P., Mr.
Hatchell, M.P., Mr. Darby Griffiths, M.P., Sir M.
Stewart, Mr. Brady, M.P., the Marquis of Donegal',
Colonel Barnard, Mr. Heard, M.P, Colonel Duncan,
and Colonel Smyth, M.P. General Peel and Colonel
the Hon. P. W. Talbot were present with the Earl of
Derb) at the receptitm of the deputation.
DESPATCHES were received on Thursday at the Colo-
nialoffice from the Governor of the Falkland
Islands.
THE WAR DEPARTMENT.—The Right Hon. the

Secretary for War has been pleased in appoint Mr.
Charles M. Clode, of Gray's-inn, solicitor to the War
Department, in place of Mr. C. J. Banister, deceased.
SIR MERRY BtLWER has been appointed to succeed
Lord Stratford de Itedcliffe as Ambassador at Con-
stantinople.