The Press.
London, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

The New York Herald, speaking of the chances of
war, says, the assertion of the English press that, as
John Bull has got a fleet and nothing for it to do, he
would be glad to go to war with us, is absurd. Eng-
land is against a war with the United States—that is,
the great conservative middle class is against it—the
head and tail, the Government and the mob, favour a
war :

It must be as easy in London as it is in New York to
see that England can make nothing out of this American
quarrel, and that the only persons who will gain credit by
embittering it are Lords Palmerston and Clarendon, who
will pass for men of great spirit, and not at all such blun•
derers as the war and the peace negotiations might have
led men to suppose; but have we lived to the year of grace
1830, and reached our present pinnacle of enlightenment
and civilisation, to see the peace of the two Anglo-Saxon
countries interrupted for the mere glorification and emolu-
ment of two demagogues like these ? Has England learnt
nothing from her own history—nothing from ours—that
she should be ready to plunge headlong into war once more
in order that a political mountebank—for as such will Lord
Palmerston be classed in history—should retain his office,
and have his quip and his jest at the Tories? In all Great
Britain—from Caithness to Land's End—is there no sense
anywhere ?

With respect to Central America a project is under
discussion to form an alliance with Nicaragua.

INDIA.
ANNEXATION OF °UDE.

THE annexation of Oude is accomplished. Gene-
ral Outram, who left Calcutta early in January,
arrived at Cawnpore on the 28th, when 12,000 men
were collected. The next day the brigades crossed
the river and marched upon Lucknow. No resistance
was made. The King had ordered the forts to be
dismantled, the garrison to be disarmed, and had
shut himself up in his palace.
On the 4th February, General Outram, accom-
panied by Captain Hayes and Captain Weston, ob-
tained an interview with the King, to urge his
Majesty to sign a deed of abdication. This the
King positively refused, saying that he would appeal
to England, and go in person to London. Upon this
General Outram issued a proclamation deposing
the King and annexing the country.
The proclamation first sets forth that, by a
treaty concluded in 1801 between the Company
and the Sovereign of Oude, the latter engaged,
in consideration of protection by the former against
enemies, whether foreign or domestic, to es-
tablish " such a system of administration, to be car-
ried into effect by his own officers, as should be con-
ducive to the prosperity of his subjects and calculated
to secure the lives and properties of the inhabitants."
This pledge of protection on the part of the Company
the proclamation declares to have been religiously
kept down to the present day, while every successive
Government of Oude has "deliberately and systema-
tically violated" its share of the compact. By rea-
son of this violation of the compact, continues the
proclamation—
The British Government might long since have justly de-
clared the treaty void, and have withdrawn its protection
from the rulers of Oude. But it has hitherto been reluc-
tant to have recourse to measures which would be fatal to
the power and authority of a royal race who, whatever their
faults towards their own subjects, have ever been faithful
and true to their friendship with the English nation.
Nevertheless, the British Government has not failed to
labour during all that time, earnestly and perseveringly,
for the deliverance of the people of Oude from the grievous
oppression and misrule which they have suffered.
Many years have passed since the Governor-General,
Lord William Bentinck, perceiving that every previous en-
deavour to ameliorate the condition of the people of Oude
had been thwarted or evaded, made formal declaration to
the Court of Lucknow that it would become necessary that
he should proceed to assume the direct management of
the Onde territories.
The words and the menace which were employed by
Lord William Bentinck were eight years ago repeated in
person by Lord Hardinge to the King. The Sovereign of
Oude was on that day solemnly bid remember that, what-
ever might now happen, " it would be manifest to all the
world " that he " had received a friendly and a timely
warning." _

But these friendly intentions, it is asserted, have
been wholly defeatad by the " obstinacy, or incapa•
city, or apathy of the viziers and kings of Oude," the
incompetency, corruptions, and tyranny of whose
government are set down as follows :

That the King, like most of his predecessors, takes no
real share in the direction of public affairs.
The powers of government throughout his dominions
are, for the most part, abandoned to worthless favorites of
the Court, ar to violent and corrupt men, unfit for their
duties and unworthy of trust.
The collectors of the revenue hold sway over their dis-
tricts with uncontrolled authority ; extorting the utmost
payment from the people, without reference to past or pre-
sent engagements.
The King's troops, •rith rare exceptions, undisciplined
and disorganised, and defraunded of their pay by those to
whom it is intrusted, are permitted to plunder the villages
for their own support ; so that they have become a lasting
scourge to the country they are employed to protect.
Gangs of freebooters invest the districts. Law and jus-
tice are unknown, armed violence and bloodshed are daily
events, and life and property are nowhere secure for an
hour.

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271

Hence the time is announced as having at length
arrived when the British Government could no longer
tolerate such evils and abuses :
Fifty years of sad experience have proved that the treaty
of 1801 has wholly failed to secure the happiness and
prosperity of Oude, and have conclusively shown, that no
effectual security can be had for the release of the people
of that country from the grievous oppression they have
long endured, unless the exclusive administration of the
territories of Oude shall be permanently transferred to the
British Government.

A new engagement is therefore offered to the King,
whereby the exclusive government of the country
shall be vested in the hands of the East India Com-
pany, ample provision being allowed out of the re-
venue for the support of the King. This arrange-
ment having been refused by the King, he is declared
to have ceased to reign :
Inasmuch, then, as his Majesty Wajid Ali Shah, in com-
mon with all his predecessors, has refused, or evaded, or
neglected, to fulfil the obligations of the treaty of Itiol,
whereby he was bonnd to establish within his dominions
such a system of administration as should be conducive to
the prosperity and happiness of his subjects ; and inas-
much as the treaty he thereby ►Mated has been declared
to be null and void ; and inasmuch as his Majesty has re-
fused to enter into other agreements which were offered
to him in lieu of such treaty; and inasmuch as the terms
of that treaty, if it had been maintained in force, forbade
the employment of British officers in Oude, without which
no efficient system of administration could be established
there; it is manifest to all that the British Government
had but one alternative before it.
Either a must altogether desert the people of Oude, and
deliver them up helpless to oppression and tyranny, which ,
acting under the restrictions of treaty, it has already too
long appeared to countenance; or it must put forth its own
great power on behalf of a people for whose happiness it
more than fifty years ago engaged to interpose, and must
at once assume to itself the exclusive and permanent ad-
ministration of the territories of Oude.
The British Government has had no hesitation in
choosing the latter alternative.
Wherefore proclamation is hereby made that the go-
vernment of the territories of Oude is henceforth vested
exclusively and for ever in the Honourable East India
Company.

The arrangements consequent on the change of
government are put forth as follows :

All amils, nazims, chuckedars, and other servants of the
Durbar, all officers civil and military, the soldiers of the
State, and all the inhabitants of Oude, are required to
render henceforth implicit and exclusive obedience to the
officers of the British Government.

If any offictr of the I)urbar, jageerdar, zemindar, or
other person, shall refuse to render such obedience, if he
shall withhold the payment of revenue, or shall otherwise
dispute or defy the authority of the British Government,
he shall be declared a rebel, his person shall be seized, and
his jageers or lands shall be confiscated to the State.
To those who shall immediately and quietly submit
themselves to the authority of the British Government,
whether amils, public officers, jageerdars, zemindars, or
other inhabitants of Oude, full assurance is hereby given
of protection, consideration, and favour.
The revenue of the districts shall be determined on a
fair and settled basis.
The gradual improvement of the Oude territories shall
be steadily pursued.
Justice shall be measured out with an equal hand.
Protection shall be given to life and property ; and every
man shall enjoy henceforth his just rights, without fear of
molestation.

General Outram then ordered the Minister to
bring to the residency all the chief officers of
State. At noon, the Minister Ally Nucky Khan ;
the Revenue Minister, Rajah Bal Kissen ; the
Custom-house Darogah, Shurf-ood-Dowlah ; the City
Kotwal ; and all other officers of the different branches
of administration, waited upon General Outram, who
ordered the Revenue Minister to give in the whole
accounts of amount of revenue and the details of
Purgunnahs. The Kotwal was directed to furnish
the list of Thannahs to Captain Weston. The
Resident then placed guards over the office of the
Revenue Min;ster and Custom-house, directing that
all should be allowed to go on as usual, but that no
money nor papers were to be removed. The King
then sent a circular to all zemindars and amils, in-
forming them that the Company had taken charge of
the kingdom, and directing them to collect and pay
all rent to the officer sent by the Resident. The
King, by the latest accounts, kept his palace gates
closed, and declared that he would never sign the
razeenamah. An allowance has been appointed to
him of 150,0001. a year.

According to tho Bombay Times, the future admi-
nistration will be conducted under General Outram,
as chief commissioner, with four commissioners, Mr.
Wingfield and Mr. Christian, of the civil service, and
Colonel Goldney and Major Banks, of the Bengal
army. Mr. Cooper, deputy secretary to Government,
is to be secretary to the chief commissioner, and
Captain Hayes military secretary. The following
are spoken of as deputy commissioners :—Messrs.
Dennison, Forbes, Simpson, Boileau, Martin, Benson,
Pollock, J. B. Thornhill, C. W. Cunliffe, G. Law-
rence, Gonne, and Block. The above, with Mr. M.
R. Gubbins as financial, and Mr. Ommaney asjudi-
eial commissioner, complete the list up to the present
e." (

272

time. A contingent of 12,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry,
and four companies of artillery, will be raised at
once.
The intelligence from other parts of India is not
very tranquillising. The Santhals are again in arms.
The old revolted tribes were still wandering unsettled
about the jungle, and some fresh tribes in the
north had broken out and ravaged the country around.
There have been, also, some slight disturbances on
the Punjaub frontier among the mountain tribes.
The Oodeypoore question appears likely to be
amicably settled between the Rana and his recusant
chiefs without our interference.

In the affairs of the Nizam, Lord Dalhousie had
declined to interfere. Mr. Bushby, the Resident at
Hyderabad, had proposed to burrow four millions to
pay off all claims against the Nizam Government,
to ship off all the Arab Guards of the Nizam, and
reduce his army to 25,000 men, to be offloered by
Europeans. 30,000 of our men to be employed in
effecting these changes, and, to insure the payment
of the charges for which and the interest of the loan,
the Nizam to cede a certain portion of territory worth
300,00u1. per annum. It is considered probable that
the plan will be carried out.
At Burmah matters were quiet.
Lord and Lady Canning reached Madras on the
14th Feb., en route to Calcutta.
Lord Dalhousie was in so precarious a state of
health at Calcutta as to have desired that Lord Can-
ning should be telegraphed to hasten his arrival.
WEST INDIES.

The usual West Indian mail, with dates to 25th
February from Chagres, 27th Jamaica, and 3rd March
St. Thomas's, has arrived. The intelligence from
the islands is unimportant, but serious disturbances
between the negroes and the Portuguese emigrants
appear to have occurred in British Guiana. The
interference of the troops was necessary to suppress
the riots.
There was no political news from Chili. The
Presidential election in Peru would, it was antici•
pated, be attended with many difficulties.