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