The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, OCTOBER 9, 1858.

intention to take this matter into his own personal ma-
nagement.
41. On the 20th of April the Chief Commissioner wrote
to me, in an unofficial letter, as follows :-
1 inclose a memorandum just given me by Captain Barrow,
which will show your lordship the names of talookdars who
have attended in person or by vakeel. Generally speaking,
indeed invariably, the feeling shown by the men who come in
is excellent. They express groat sorrow at the past, and seem
grateful for the consideration shown to them.
A copy of the memorandum is inclosed.
It contains the names of twenty-six chiefs of note and
influence, in various quarters, some of them at a great
distance from Lucknow, who had either openly tendered
their allegiance to the Government, or had taken the first
steps towards doing so. So far as lam aware, only one of
these has swerved from his first intention.
At the date of this memorandum, little more than a
month had elapsed since the first appearance of the pro-
clamation in Lucknow.
42. On the 22nd of May, the Chief Commissioner sent
me a further memorandum from Captain Barrow, which
is also under this cover.
It describes the progress made and the state of feeling
prevalent.
It is right, however, that I should observe that, of the
three powerful talookdara named in this memorandum.
one only (Mann Singh) has aided with us actively. Of
the other two, one (Malhoo Singh) is inactive, and the
other ( Benee Macßae) is in arms against us.
43. From this last date the Chief Commissioner has
furnished weekly reports, which have been forwarded to
your bon. committee in regular course.
44. Latterly, these have become less favourable. The
rebels, under the leadership in some cases of talookdars,
have approached nearer to Lucknow, have threatened, and
in some places destroyed, the civil stations which we had
established, and have killed some of the native guards.
But I am not, neither is the Chief Commissioner of Oude,
disheartened by a temporary check iu the progress which
had been rapidly achieved.
In a letter received from Mr. Montgomery as I am
writing that gentleman says :
I had settled some 6.010 villages, and everything was pro•
grassing moat favourably, when a combination of circumstances
prevented the progress of the settlement.
But he adds :
I still say that the mass of the people are well inclined to us.
I get secret letters and messages, but they dare not come
forward in the face of the armed bodies which are hostile to us.
45. In an earlier part of this despatch I had occasion
to speak of these bodies, which, although without cohe-
sion and combination, are none the leas capable of
intimidating and persecuting those whom they believe to
be well disposed towards the Government. They have
latterly been greatly aided in this by the influx of fugitives
from Rohilcund and Calpee, who have either joined them
or set up as independent marauders.
46. I never expected it to be otherwise, I never ex-
pected that, with the capture and occupation of Lneknow,
the province would become submissive ; and my anticipa-
tion of the contrary is recorded in the letter which, on
the 16th of January, the Governor• General in Council
addressed to the commander•in-chief, recommending that
his Excellency's operations should, notwithstanding, be
directed against Lucknow. Those operations were carried
out with a skill, bravery, and success which have won
the admiration of the world. But it is no disparagement
of the work of the great soldier who achieved that success
to say that the chastisern-nt thereby inflicted upon the
loose bands of mutineers, rebels, and plunderers, who were
collected in and about the city, was not such as to expel
them from the limits of the province, or to deter
them from persevering in their work of murder and pillage
in other districts of it.
47. It is not in reason that, what with the pressure of
the mutinous sepoys, now congregated in various parts of
the province on the one hand, and the arts and threats of
desperate adventurers acting ss leaders on the other,
violence and rebellion should not be kept alive, and that
those who are well inclined to make their peace with the
Government should not thereby be deterred from doing so.
48. No man is better aquainted with the eastern districts
of Oude and their inhabitants than Mr. Wingfield, who is
at present acting on that frontier of the province as Special
Commissioner of Goruckpore. Writing on the fith of
June Mr. Wingfield says :
Unsupported by the presence of British troops there are many
talookdars who, to my certain knowledge, are deterred from ten-
dering their allegiance, which is their sincere wish. Had the
garrison of Lucknow only been distributed about the province
three•fourths of the talookdars would, under the promises held
out by the proclamation, have been entirely on our side by this
time.

Unfortunately, the garrison of Liicknow could not be
spared, nor any body of troops at all approaching it in
strength.
49. But when the season shall arrive at which the troops
can again move rapidly over the country, when tie large
police force now being raised by the Chief Commissioner
at Lueknow shall have reached its complement and received
further organization, and when it shall be manifest that we
have the means of protecting or supporting those who
return to their allegiance, I cannot doubt that the spirit in
which the proclamation has been accepted in many
quarters will declare itself generally throughout the
province.
W). I have now described to your hon. committee the
whole course of my proceedings with regard to the proclu•
motion of the 15th of March. 1 have at the same time ex-
plained the policy which has guided me, and I have
informed yon generally of its results.
I respectfully await your judgment.
I have the honour to be, with the greatest reapect,
Hon. Sirs, your most faithful, humble servant,
Allahabad, June 17. CANNING.

Foreign Department, Allahahad, July 4, [Kis,
TILE HON. THE COURT OF DIRECTORS O THE EAST

I

INDIA COMPANY.
Hon. Sirs,-1. Your despatch, No. 20, of the 18th of
May reached me two days ego.
I beg your hon. court to accept my warmest thanks for
the assurance of your continued confidence which that
despatch, and the resolution of your hon. court embodied
in it, convey.
2. Such an expression of the sentiments of your hon.
l
court would be to me a source of gratification and jest
pride in any circumstances ; but the generous and timely
promptitude with which you have been pleased to issue it,;
and the fact that it cu..veys approval of the past as wel
as trust for the future, has greatly enhanced its value.
Your hon. court have rightly judged that, in the midst of
difficult times, no support is so cheering to a public ser-
vant, or so strengthening, as that which is derived from a
declared approval of the spit it by which his past acts have
been guided.
3. 1 believe that the expectations expressed by your hon.
court as to the spirit in which the proclaimed confiscation
of proprietary rights in Oude would he used will nut be .
disappointed, when you shall have had cognizance of the •
despatch which I had the honour to address to the secret
committee on the 17th ult., and which, as being the sequel
of correspondence already in the hands of your hon. court,
will no doubt have been laid before you.
4. Your hon. court observe that 1 must have been well
aware that the words of the proclamation, without the
comment on it which you trust was speedily afforded by
the actions of the Government, must have produced the
expectation of much more general and indiscriminate dis-
possession than could have been consistent with justice or
with policy.
Undoubtedly this is so. But it was not without delibe-
ration that, in framing the proclamation, I useJ the posi-
tive, peremptory, and, so to speak, enacting words which
declare that the proprietary right in the soil of the pro-
vince is confiscated to the Government, which will dispose
of that right in such a manner as it may deem fitting.
A. As this point was scarcely touched upon in my
above-mentioned despatch to the secret committee, I will
take leave to add a further brief explanation upon it. I
have said that it is in the nature of those to whom the
proclamation was addressed to care very little for the
threats, but to have a great respect for the distinct orders
of superior authority. A rebel landholder, to whom no•
more should be said than that, if he did not make submis-
sion soon, his rights would be liable to confiscation, would
be likely to trust fur his escape to the chapter of accidents,.
and to the chance of avoiding or defeating criminatoty
evidence, and so to delay submission and cling to the cause
of those whose immediate influence might be nearest End,
strongest ; whereas, if he should be made to feel that the
withdrawal of his rights is already decreed, that it only'
remains for the executive officers to give effect to it by
placing another proprietor in possession, and that the best
hope left to him is to work out as large a claim to prof-
fered indulgence as possible while there is yet time, his.
manifestation of allegiance would assuredly be quickened.
6. It was my business to consider what would most
stimulate and hasten a return to peace and loyalty on the
part of those addressed, and I was of opinion that this•
would best be done by making it clear and plain that the•
rewards actually conferred for fidelity were very large, thee
the punishment actually decreed for rebellion was very'
heavy, but that from this punishment a door of escape was.

still open.
7. To attempt to define more precisely the conditions,
and degrees according to winch indulgence should be
awarded and punishment tempered appeared tio ins most
inexpedient. It would, I submit, have been, nupoesilale
to put into the proclamation any mitigating or eoncilite-
tory words to this effect without incurring the pretest risk-
of raising false hopes and giving ground for mistaken
claims, the disappointment of which hereafter would have
gone far to confirm in the minds of many the reproach
which the rebel leaders have sedulously thrown out against
the English Government of a want of good faith, a reproach
to which no colour or shadow of truth shall ever be given
by any act of mine.
8. 1 therefore left the way of escape and the amount of
obtainable indulgence to be learned from the treatment
which those who should first come in would receive. No
explanation in words would have been so certain to spread
through the country with little chance of perversion as this.
No other course would have left the Government so free to•
use wise discrimination in the remission of punishment.
9. Your hon. court will of course bear in mind that the•
proclamation was addressed to a province in arms, through-.
out which we had not at that time a surviving friend or'
interest to defend, and that therefore any fear of danger
from an outburst of resistance by which matters should be)
made worse was imaginary.
10. Upon a careful and, I hope, dispassionate review eff
the s hole subject, I cannot but think that the words iru
which the proclamation was couched were those ascot
befitting the Government of India in its relations with its
rebellious province, and best calculated to effect eventually
a real and sure pacification. But the question was one of
very great difficulty, and I entreat your hon. court not to
suppose that I am so presumptuous as to deprecate criti-
cism of the mode in which the difficulty was met.
11. The reports lately received from Lncknow and de-
spatehed to your hon. court by this and by the preceding
mail show that one of the Chief Commissioner's greatest
embarrassments is the want of sufficient means to pro-
tect the landholders, who are eager to tend
sr their alle-
giance, but whom we cannot in some place effectually
defend until the bands of the more desperate rebels and
mutineers which still harass the province shall have been
subdued and destroyed—an object which can be attained
only by moving the troops through the country et &suitable
season. Accordingly, in the cases of many who have
declared their desire to make submission, Mr. Montgomery

has found it necessary to advise them to remain passive
for the present.
12. The delay is to be regretted, but the fact furnishes
proof that the spirit of the proclamation has not been mis-
understood, and that the temper of the province is gra-
dually tending towards order and allegiance.
have, dtc. CANNING.

Allababad, July 4, 18.58.

(Lout ano itas4ton.

THE COURT iS still at Balmoral. Her Majesty, the
Prince Consort, and the junior branches of the
Royal Family are in the, m of excellent
health.
THE PRINCE OF WALES returned to the White
Lodge, in Richmond • park, last week, from
Balmoral.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE
leaves town to-morrow, for Manchester, on a visit of
inspection. During his stay his Royal Highness will
be the guest ot General Sir Harry Smith, com-
manding the northern district.
PRINCE ADALDERT OF PRUSSIA arrived at Plymouth
on Saturday night, from Falmouth, in his steam
yacht GriUe.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE DE MALAKOFF With
Mlle. de la Paniega will be celebrated in the chapel
of the Palace of St. Cloud, in presence of a great
number of persons of distinction, on Monday.
LORD AND LtDY JOHN RUSSELL left Pembroke
Lodge, on Wednesday, on a visit to Harpton,
Hereford, the seat of Sir G. C. Lewis ; and on
Monday they proceed from that place to Liverpool.
THE RIGHT HON. J. H. WALPOLE, M.P., Home
Secretary, is now in Belfast, with some members of
his family, on a visit to Mr. Richard Davison, M.P.,
at the Abbey. He purposes to make a short tour in
the north of Ireland, and will afterwards pay a visit
to Dublin.
THE COUNT DE FLANDRES left Grillon's Hotel, on
Friday evening ( week), en route for Balmoral, on a
visit to her Majesty and the Prince Consort.

Volt It t al.

SIR G. C. LEWIS, M.P., AND SIR JOHN
WALSH, M.P., IN RADNORSHIRE.
THE annual meeting of the Radnorshire Agricultural
Association took place on Saturday, at Knighton,
under the presidency of Sir G. C. Lewis. The
meeting was largely attended by the gentry and agri•
cultarista of the surrounding districts.
The usual loyal toasts having been drunk,
Sir G. C. LEWIS, M.P., proposed " The Army and
Navy," and after expressing his gratification at the
almost entire suppression of the mutiny in India and
tae restoration of pacific relations with China, thus
gave his impressions on Cherbourg :
Wo have been somewhat frightened lately at Cherbourg,
and a number of alarmists have represented that Cherbourg
has been intende 1 by the Emperor of France and the
French Government as a sort of Sebastopol against
England, to threaten our shores and endanger our indepen-
deuce. The danger of Cherbourg mainly rests upon whether
we can suppose that there is a settled determination and
desire upon the part of the French Government, or a large
portion of the people of France, to attack the shores of
England, anti attempt to destroy our independence as a
nation. I must be permitted to say that, judging from all
the opportunities which we have hail of forming ajndgment
with respect to the disposition of the French Emperor, I
entirely believe in the sincerity of his desire to maintain
pacific relations with this country. 1 believe that lie un-
derstands the character of the Government and of the
people of this country, an advantage, allow me to say,
which not many rulers of France have possessed. I believe
he is able to appreciate the sincere desire which unquestion-
ably pervades the whole body of the people of this country,
to maintain an uninterrupted peace with France and, in-
deed, with the u hole of Europe. More especially are they
desirous to maintain peace with France, because they know
that a war between that country and England would be the
signal for a general struggle throughout the civilizt.d
world. I cannot doubt that the Emperor of France is
quite sincere in his often expressed and declared wish to
maintain a cordial alliance with this country. What we
hart ask nursels es is whether there is any large portion
of the French people who wish to go to war with England
!About any provocation being given them, without our
insulting them, without injuring their interests? Is there,
in short, any large body of people in France who, without
any justifiable ground at all, would wish to make a piratical
descent upon our coasts ? That is the position of those who
tell us that we are in such imminent danger. From all the
ofortnation I have been able to obtain my belief is that the
great majority of the people of France entertain pacific
dispositions towards this country, whether it be persons
engaged in peaceable pursuits or not. Indeed, persons
engaged in commercial, manufacturing, or agricultural in-
diner), would naturally wish for a continuance of peace, in
order to enable them to continue their pursuits in tran-
quillity. There is in France, as in all continental States,