The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

THE COMPANY AND OUDE.

THE most marked peculiarity of the East
India Company, as at present constituted, is
the entire absence of scruple in the prosecution
of its objects, and its utter disregard of the
dictates of either public faith or truth. Suc-
cess appears to be the only animating senti-
ment with it ; and success for the time is not
very difficult with rulers who have three hun-
dred thousand bayonets to back them, and
who allow neither the engagements of their
predecessors nor the terms of public treaties
to operate as restraints. Rapine and violence
are easy operations when dealing with States
which have been lulled by a reliance on cove
wants into an implicit confidence, and which
must therefore necessarily fall an unreststig
prey. In the long run, however, it does not
answer, and that (passive as the people of
India are in general supposed to be) it is
not improbable we shall shortly find. Al-
ready to the discerning eye there are not
wanting symptoms that portend a storm
which it will require all Lord CANNING'S
sagacity to weather. Supposing, however,
that such measures were certain to prove
as successful as they are likely to be the re-
verse, this would afford no justification for the
violation of those principles which more than
her armies constitute every nation's power—
the great principles of public faith and truth.
To pretend that the assumed welfare of any
people can justify the open violation of our
treaties with the rulers of them, is in fact to
assert the very principle which has made the
Jesuits to be treated, even in Catholic States,
as the public enemies of mankind. For, all
that they have ever alleged is that oaths may
be broken when, in the opinion of the persons
bound by them, good would come of their
violation,; there never having been a casuist,
even among them, who would pretend that
oaths were not binding in the contrary case
The doctrine has most justly been stamped as
an abominable one, because opening an easy
path to every kind of villainy, and destruc-
tion of all confidence between man and man,
between sovereign and subject, and between
independent rulers of different States ; yet, in-
famous as it is deemed in Europe, our ,repre-
sentative in India revives it under the sanc-
tion of the Company, and boldly breaks
through, on similar pretences, our most solemn
stipulations with the Sovereign of Oude.
As a deviation from the broad path of truth
in one instance is generally found to require a
deviation from it in others to cover the first
lapse, so it will surprise no one to discover
how totally fact has been departed from and
fiction adopted in the proclamation of the
Governor-General annexing that kingdom to
our rule. His Lordship will be found laying
it down as a justification for his proceedings
that, though it was insisted on in our treaty
with the Sovereign in 1801 that the kingdom
was to be governed in such a manner as to
conduce to the prosperity of the people, the
successive rulers had continually disregarded
that so-called chief and vital stipulation, and
this notwithstanding the continued exertions
of successive governors-general in their be-
half. Astounded at the assertion, we natu-
rally turned to ;history for verification of our
own impressions ; and of our investigations
this is the result. The King of OUDE is there
stated to be our most ancient ally, we having
guaranteed his dominions to him as early as
1765. Guaranteed them, not be it remem-
bered as a special and gratuitous mark of
favour—(as Lord DALHOUSIE, in the case of all
our guarantees to native States, would seek to
make out)—but guaranteed them because the
then Sovereign was strung comparatively, and
we were relatively weak, and it was of vital im-

SATURDAY,

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theo s e cnuhrieetfh eoff r itehnedtshhen i aenxdi s
tsitinp6;
native St
assltauli.tnibeessttis.od
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ftlhe t7h7ifiet3vnfetohruuehr Ceduron
imdotrpfeiationneyuotdn:sevoseuf ionsgrainenaen.dd
some
annualtmeaidni
pounds. The latter also agreed to maintain a
brigade of troops for our support. In 1775
the British Government undertook to defend
the Oude territories against all foreign ene-
mies, the Nuwab making large cessions of
territory on that account. In 1781, and 1797'
and 1798, further cessions of territory were
made by the Nuwab, and the annual subsidy
paid by him was increased to seven hundred
and fifty thousand pounds. In 1801 the treaty
was made which Lord DALHOUSIE quotes, and
by which, in consideration of the British Go-
vernment undertaking the defence of his terri-
tories against all enemies, whether foreign or
domestic, the Nuwab ceded to the Company,
in lieu of all subsidies, territory of the annual
value of thirteen hundred and fifty thousand
pounds.
Lord DALHOUSIE affirms that the vital stipu-
lation of this treaty, that regarding the good
government of the people, has been habi-
tually violated in spite of our representa-
tions, and he talks of villagers constantly
plundered and establishments habitually un-
paid. A reference to history, however, will
show that as a rule remonstrances have
been only made by us as preludes to some
pecuniary demand, and that if the people
of Oude have been really plundered (though
it is very clear from their condition that the
reverse of this is the case) the East India
Company has been at any rate by far the
largest participator in the spoil. No less
than four millions seven hundred and thirty-
nine thousand pounds sterling have been
drawn by the Company in the interim from
the King and his predecessors, iu the shape of
gifts or loans ; and in consideration of a por-
tion of this, not only was a large district made
over to the then Nuwab'of Oude, in 1816, but he
was afterwards induced by us to assume the
higher and more independent title of King.
The district was an unprofitable one, and the
bargain was of course an excellent one on our
side. But the lands made over were not a de-
sert; and if Oude was really as shamefully mis-
governed as Lord DALHOUSIE and the Company
now aver, how infamous must have been the
conduct of the Governor-General and the
Directors of those days, who so deliberately
sold so large a portion of their own subjects to
the then Sovereign of it, in consideration of
the payment of a million sterling down. On
either horn of this dilemma Lord DALHOUSIE,
the Company, and the Ministry must be con-
tent to rest. Either the allegations of the
proclamation are wholly groundless, or a load
of infamy is thrown upon the preceding Indian
Governments, and upon the East India Coin.
pany, as a body, from which it is impossible
that they can hone to escape.
For our parts, knowing well the high honour
of the Marquis of Hasrisas, under whom these
things took place, -eve have no hesitation in
proclaiming his memory to be entirely free
from so deep a stain. His removal of the then
Resident at Lucknow, and the course pursued
by him generally towards that State, show
that he was not a believer in the wholesale but
interested denunciations of the King of DUDE.
Nor was a personal visit which Lord AstitEasT,
a subsequent Governor-General, made to
Lucknow, in 1826, productive of a different
impression on that nobleman's mind. The
King appealed to the flourishing appearance
of his country in proof of the success of his
administration : and in truth the lands were
covered with cultivation, the pe 'pie appeared
to be contented, the assessment was light, and
the revenues were levied without difficulty.
The unfavorable accounts were found to have
been much exaggerated, and to have originated
principally in the turbulent spirit which pre-
vailed on the confines of the British districts,
where a race of refractory landholders,
Rajpoots by tribe, and soldiers by profession,
considered it a disgrace to comply peaceably
with the demands of the State. The villages
were populous, no complaints of over-assess-
ments were heard, and the face of the country
was a perfect garden, equal to the best culti-
vated districts in the Company's territories, as

r

APRIL 12, 1856.

indeed it is very well known to be at the
present time. Such is the account, not in-
vented by ourselves, but taken from the pages
of WiLsos's " Continuation of Mill." These
are facts which are amply sufficient to meet the
charges of interested persons who, if the welfare
of the people were really held by them so much
at heart. have quite enough to do in that respect
in the districts long since subjected to our rule.
The true objects of tho annexation are the
plunder of the Royal Family, the robbery of
their treasures and their jewels, the seizure of
districts supposed to be the richest in India,
and the opening up a vast field of patronage in
every department of the State. These are the
true grounds of this iniquitous proceeding,
and it is idle to put forth others, which, if
damaging to the King of OUDE, must be utterly
damning to the Company themselves. It is a
farce for them to talk of misgovernment in a
dynasty to whom, in the very height of its
alleged misgovernment, they sold territory to
the extent of a million sterling, and in whose
exactions, if they were exactions, they have
participated in the shape of loans and gifts to
the extent of four millions seven hundred and
thirty-nine thousand pounds.