The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 4, 1858.

to fall a victim to the arts of adventurers to whom
honour is unknown.

MUTINY.

(From the Morning Post)
We are not called upon to determine the motives
that induced the Emperor of the French to confer
a free and unasked pardon upon Comte de Monta-
lembert, but we may be allowed to express our ex-
treme satisfaction- with that act of clemency, and
to express a hope that it May have the effect of
proving that in the course his Majesty has pursued
he has been guided solely by a deep impression of
what was necessary to the tranquillity of France.
He vindicated the law because it had been violated;
he pardoned the offender because, having no vin-
dictive feeling towards him, he considered the fact
of a conviction sufficient.

PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE INDIAN

(From the Daily News.)
We published yesterday a very remarkable com-
munication from a native gentleman residing in
Central India. The writer is a person of very con-
siderable ability and experience, intimately ac-
quainted with the working of the British adminis-
tration in India, and thoroughly versed in the sen-
timents with which that administration is regarded
by his countrymen. The Queen does not possess
among her subjects in Hindostan a more loyal or
devoted adherent. In the worst days of 1857 his
-firmness and sagacity were of essential service in
retaining an important province in its allegiance.
and he is at the present time employed in a re-
sponsible situation under the 'British Government.
The opinions of such a man as to the causes of the
great insurrection, and the general unpopularity
of the British Government must be well deserving
of respectful attention. Even where his views
may not command unqualified assent, they are
calculated to supply material for anxious reflection.
The first cause assigned by this well-informed
writer for the dislike entertained for our dominion
is one which more, especially affects the highest
classes of our Indian subjects ; it is the system we
have•pursued in usurping native principalities, and
arbitrarily seizing the personal property belonging
to-the families of former native rulers. This part
of the case is stated in language whose guarded
moderation produces- an effect more powerful "than
the most laboured invective :-7-" After the establish-
ment of the British suprefaaey many large and
small estates belonging to the nobles and landlords
of Hindostan, which had been acknowledged as
hereditary property during the rule of both Hindoo
and Mussulman dynasties, were attached by the
British authorities, and title deeds (sunnuds) re-
quired for each separate estate, large or small ; up
to that period no sovereign or governor had ever
attempted such proceedings. And these regulations
and theSe proceedings are in active operation still.
Even sovereign provinces, who had always lived in
friendly alliance, and indeed in perfect submission
to the Honourable Company, and the hereditary
succession of whose principalities was firmly
guaranteed by treaties in which it was said that
the sovemignty should descend to their heirs and
successors, have not been exempt from the confis-,
cation of their rights. From the time that the
British Government began to be most firmly es-
tablished, the process of extinguishing native
sovereignties began to be put in force ; and even
their accumulated wealth, and their jewels and
other property, which ought to have been the in-
heritance of their widows and children, have in
many cases been disposed of by public auction, and
the proceeds placed in the Company's treasury."
There is too much reason to fear that many of these
allegations are substantially well founded. Human
nature being what it is, the dominant native
classes of India necessarily came to regard a supre-
macy thus exercised with disguised dislike and
rooted suspicion. In the forcible language of the
writer Whose views it is our business to illustrate,
" all people commenced to have doubts of the jus-
tice and good intentions of Government ; and more
especially men of noble birth and ancient lineage,
being completely ruined and degraded, thought
that even death was preferable to such a life."