The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-15 00:00:00

LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S DESPATCH•

THE SECRET COMMITTEE OF THE COURT OF DIRECTORS
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY TO THE GOVERNOR-
GENERAL OF INDIA IN COUNCIL.
April 10, 18.58.
Our letter of the 24th of March, lIKA, will have put you
in possession of our general views with respect to the treat-
ment of the people in the event of the evacuation of Luck•
now by the enemy.
2. On the 12th instant we received from you a copy of
the letter, dated the 3rd of March, addressed by }our secre-
tary to the secretary to the Chief Commissioner in Oude,
which letter inclosed a copy of the proclamation to be
issued by the Chief Commissioner, as soon as the British
troops should have command of the city of Luckoow, and
conveyed instructions as to the manner in which be was to
act with reepect to different classes of persons in execution
of the views of the Governor-General.
3. The people of Oude will see only the proclamation.
4. That authoritative expression of the will of the
Government informs the people that six persons, who are
named as having been steadfast in their allegiance, are
henceforward the sole hereditary proprietors of the lands
they held when Oude came under British rule, subject
only to such moderate assessment as may be imposed upon
them ; that others, in whose favour like claims may be
established, will have conferred upon them a proportionate
measure of reward and honour; and that, with these ex-
ceptions, the proprietary right in the soil of the province is
confiscated to the British Government.
15. We cannot but express to you our apprehension that
this decree, pronouncing the disinherison of a people,
will throw difficulties almost insurmountable in the WILY
of the re-establishment of peace.
6. We are under the impression that the war in Oude
has derived much of its popular character from the rigo-
rous manner in which, without regard to what the chief
landholders had beoine accustomed to consider ax their
rights, the summary settlement had, in a large portion of
the province, been carried out by your officers.
7. The landholders of India are as much attached to
the soil occupied by their ancestors, and are as sensitive
with respect to the rights in the soil they deem themselveof
to possess, as the occupiers of land in any country
which we have a knowledge.
8. Whatever may be your ultimate and undisclosed in-
tentions, your proclamation will appear to deprive the
great body of the people of all hope upon the subject
most dear to them as individuals, while the substitution
of our rule for that of their native Sovereign has naturally
excited against us whatever they may have of national
fooling.

9. We cannot but in justice consider, that those who
resist our authority in Oude are under very different cir-
cumstances from those who have acted against us in pro-
vinces which have been long ander our government.
10. We dethroned the King of Oude, and took posses-
sion of his kingdom, by virtue of a treaty which had been
subsequently modified by another treaty, under which, had
it been held to be in force, the course we adopted could
not have been lawfully pursued ; but we held that it was
not in force ; although the fact of its not having been
ratified in England, as regarded the provision on which we
rely for our justification, had not been previously made
known to the King of Oude.
11. That Sovereign and his ancestors had been uniformly
faithful to their treaty engagements with us, however ill
they may have governed their subj,cts.
12. They had more than once assisted us in our diffi-
culties, and not a suspicion had ever been entertained of
any hostile disposition on their part towards oar Govern-
ment,
13. Suddenly the people saw their king taken from
amongst them, and our administration substituted for his,
which, however bad, was at least native; and this sudden
thane of government was immediately followed by a
summary settlement of the revenue, which, in a very con-
siderable portion of the province, deprived the most in-
fluential landholders of what they deemed to be their
property ; of what certainly had long given wealth, and
distinction, and power to their families.
14. We must admit that, under these circumstances,
the hostilities whioh have been carried on in Oude have
rather the character of legitimate war than that of rebel-
lion, and that the people of Oude should rather be regarded
with indulgent consideration than made the objects of a
penalty exceeding in extent and in severity almost any
which has been recorded in history as inflicted upon a sub-
slued nation.

J 5. Other conquerors, when they have succeeded in
overcoming resistance, have excepted a few persons as
still deserving of punishment, but have, with a generous
policy, extended their clemency to the great body of the
people.
16. You have acted upon a different principle. You
base reserved a few as deserving of special favour, and you
have struck with what they will feel as the severest of
punishment the mass of the inhabitants of the country.
17. We cannot but think that the precedents from which
you have departed will appear to have been conceived in a
•spirit of wisdom superior to that which appears in the pre-
.cedent you have made.
14. We desire that you will mitigate in practice the
,stringent severity of the decree of confiscation you have
issued against the landholders of Oude.
19. We desire to see British authority in India rest upon
!the willing obedience of a contented people ; there cannot
ibe contenteatnt where there is a general confiscation.
20. Goverment cannot long be maintained by any force
ia.a country where the whole people is rendered hostile by
a sense of wrong; and if it were possible so to maintain
it, it would not 'be a consummation to be desired.