The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-29 00:00:00

290

person or property, actual or reversionary,
of custom or of moral obligation, expressed
in writing or understood? Will the eighteen
hundied thousand pounds, for instance, in-
vested by the King in Indian public securities,
not be confiscated as was done in the case of
the Rajah of Coorg? Will the interest be
paid punctually t 0 him and to his heirs ?
Will the rest Of his Alsjesty 's personal pro-
perty, his treasures and hisjewels, be left to
him—propel ty which is as much his own per-
soLal right as the jewels purchased by the
Esterhazy family out of the rents of their
principality, or the diamonds bought by Lady
LONDONDERRY from the produce of her estates?
Will the property of the other members of
the Royal family be confirmed to them also,
including the possession, as private individuals,
of their various houses and lands 9 Are the
public functionaries and the servants of the
Crown generally to receive fair compensation
for the abolition of their offices, unless in
cases where their offices happen to be retained
by them under us? Will the various pen-
sioners of the State continue to be paid by
us. and will the claims of the public creditor
be respected in case there be found to be an 3
public debt in Oude?
As regards the nobility and jaghiredars or
feudatories of the kingdom, will the same
honours and privilegesibe confirmed to them
under our Government as they enjoyed under
the King's ? Will their estates be continued to

them intact; and will such estates, as were in
practice, if not in form, estates of inheritance
be allowed to descend in perpetuity to their
heirs? Will mortgages on the land be recog-
nised by us in eases in which the estate may
he resumed ? Will the zemindars be con
Called in possession of their lands at the ex.
istiug rents ; and will all Enams and rent-free
grants and dues chargeable on the land
revenue in favour of individuals or of heads of
villages, or of templ,es, colleges, and mosques,
be held sacred as if the King still ruled?
Will the several claims by custom of the rural
population be respected? Will no new taxes
be introduced, or will not the ryots be com-
pelled, as in the Punjaub, to commute their
present corn rents into cash rents fixed arbitra-
rily by the Government surveyors against their
consent? Will the only increase to the land
revenue be sought in the legitimate mode
pursued by a Government truly anxious for
ine welfare of the people,—that is, by giving
fresh inducements to cultivation, and so in-
creasing the area liable to rent?
Will no flight of human locusts be let loose
upon the people, and set to devour their sub-
stance in the shape of the offscourings of the
revenue and police official underlings of
Bengal? Will such seeres of torture be
enacted as have always been rife through-
out our whole territories in India, though
only exposed officially at Madras ? Will
European supervision, admitted to be every
where else so ineffectual for the protection
of the people, be a reality only in Oude ?
Will the scandal of corrupt and inefficient
courts of justice, rife elsewhere in India, be
there unknown? Will the oppressive salt tax
remain long a stranger to the people, with all
the staff of informers, the inquisitorial pryings.
and the monstrous penalties which are the
unfailing accompaniments of this most cruel
and inhuman tax? Will the opium monopol.%

not be introduced into Oude, or the tob;ceO

tax, or the drug tax, or the enormous tax on
justice, raised by compelling every petition,
atfi 'avit, and exhibit of every kind, to be on

•
stamped paper, when application is made foi
justice to the Company's courts? Will the
duties on spirits not be imposed there; and
will not, as throughout the rest of the Com-
pany's territories, the rural population be led
on to drunkenness by the establishment of
liquor-shops in every village, in order to in-
crease the revenue to the uttermost obtainable
from this source ? The defenders of the
annexation say that the revenue is to be
quadrupled : will they tell us from what
source the money is to come, unless it be
from those which we have here described?
If the Preiiiiient of the India Board can answer

these questions satisfactorily, we shall be able
.to see bow far an anxiety for the welfare of the
people maybe allowed to outweigh the grave con
siderations adverse to this enormous public

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