The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-18 00:00:00

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General, and a despatch was addressed to him, calling
upon him to cancel a treaty which be had entered into
with the King of Oude. (Hear.) Well would it bays
been if that despatch bad been published. [Ur. BRIGHT
—"Hear, hear.''] The King of Oude would then have
known how the treaty was regarded in this country, and
he would not on a late occasion have appealed to a treaty
which in England had no existence, and which Lord Auck-
land, Lord Hardinge, Col. Sleeman, and Lord Dalhousie
said had never been properly explained to him, nor had be
been made to understand that it was annulled. (Cheers.)
But how did the Government of 1839 deal with Lord
Auckland ? He would tell them in Lord Auckland's
own words :
"I cannot fully express how deeply I must regret that a
et aurs me, of u
tnuc
place t ai n
our
measure admitted to be so vvelletimed'and beneficial by the
great majority of judges in this country, a measure which,
geared
irielladtiisuotraderwithproomudiuseudn,
a 8
ssiLahple-
ty
and practicable footing, just and usafulalike to the British
Government, to the king, and to his people, should have
been so unequivocallycondemned and nEngland,
without l• without permitting to the Government in
India even
the
opportunity of ono explanatoryrepresentation. (Cheers.)
This condemnation has not only been announced to us
but it has been declared publicly, and it remains for me only to act as best becomes the obligations of my duty in
the difficult circumstances in which I am situated;'
(Cheers.) He would only say in passing that the exam-
ple here set him was one which Lord Canning would do
well to 1.11)W. (Cheers.) And what was the answer of
the Government ? They did net condescend to give their
leas ins for thus placing is Governor-General in so ignos
minions a position, but they confirmed their previous de-
cision in the roost peremptory language. They simply
said, " We have only to observe that we adhere to our
former instructions, and direct that they may be forth-
with carried into effect." (Cheers.) He had, therefore,
bet right to say that the noble lords who sat on the oppo-
site benches, and who appeared so anxious to cross over
—(laughter)--had been parties to condemning a Gover-
nor-General of India without waiting for one explana-
tory remark, and the publishing in the House of Lord.
what they had done.
He might add that Lord Auck-
land did not resign. (Hear, hear.) The proclamation of
Lord Canning could not be confined to the kingdom of
Oude. In the neighbourhood there was a district, Re-
hilcund, where there was a peculiar tenure of land—a
joint family tenure. Several members of a family held
the same piece of land ; and as it was not often suf-
ficient to support them ail, some of them took service
in neighbouring provinces, and under tho Eaet India
Company. Would it not be thought that the procla-
mation applied to them? (Hear.) Would not the
people of Rohilcund ask one another, "If such things
are done in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?
—if the Btitiah Government treats the inhabitants of
Oude in this manner, what will it not do to us, who are
confessedly under its rule (Cheer.) Again, the procla-
mation would be peculiarly grievous to the Hindoos ;
for they held that unless they had land which they could
charge with payments on accunt of sacrifices for their
souls their eternal welfare as well as their temporal in-
terests would be compromised. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr.
Hardy) would ask his hon. and learned friend (Mr.
Roebuck) what was the object of this motion ? (Ch. era.)
Was it England or in India? (Renewed cheers.) If
in India, he could only nay that serious as would be the
t ff,ct of the proclamation, a majority in favour of the
resolution would be still more fatal. (Cheers.) It ap-
peared from every newspaper of tl ae day that, as re-
garded the result e f the-proclamation there was but one
osenien in India. (Cheers.) He would quote a few
lines from an article which appeared en the 6th of May
in what was called "the leafing journal," but which he
hoped would not lead the public much longer—it led
themin many contrary directions. (Laughter and cheere.)
A. fortnight ago the journal in qu :stems wrote—" All
the authorities concur in affirming that we might come
to terms with the inhabitants without any trouble at
all. Neither landhclders nor peoplo even in Gude, have
any objection to our rule or supremacy ; but the former
class desire a satisfactory tenure of their estates, and
the latter look for assistance and piotection." (Laugh.
ter.) Very different was this fr en the course that great
journal had since taken. (gear, hear.) Ile (Mr.
Hardy) had received or bad seen many letters, which,
however, he would not produce, because he should be
called upon to read them ; and that he had no autho.
rely to do. This, however, he would state, namely,
that they entirely cot:finned the statements in the In-
dian newspapers, and showed that the proclamation was
condemns from ono end of India to the other. (Hew.)
He would venture to say that if thee proclamation was
crrried into effect, they would require not merely rein•
forcements for the troops in India, but a new army of
20,000 men. (Loud cheer. He read in the Friend of
Indix, which had just arrived :
All the authorities who describe the impediments to a
forcible subjugotiou of Oude concur in affirming that we
might come to terms with its inhabitants without any
trouble at all. Neither landholders nor peopls, even in
Oade, have any objection to our rule or supremacy; but
the former class desire a satisfactory tenure of their es-
tates, and the latter look fur assurance, and protection."
(Cheeers.) And again--
- "All efforts to conciliate the people round Lueknow hare
hitherto proved unavailing. They will neither return to
the city, nor provide our troops with supplies. Not one of
our men dare wander far from the main body. It makes
every man in Oule a declared enemy, and does not exhibit
any means of coercion. (Loud dime's.) As an amnesty, the
boon conferred is ridiculous; for what power have we to
put to death five millions of human beings? But the In.
than treasury has been for some Wine exhaneted ; the pros
cleination cannot refill it. Lucknow cannot be put up to
auction, nor the castles of the taloeekdars sold to thehiehest
bidders. Oude cannot be parcelled out into small farms and
lot to aliens, fe,r interlopers would as soon take possession
of the forfeited estates as an Irish gauger of a Tipper Ty
estate in a year of famine, or a church missionary of a liv-
ing under the Neapolitau Government. The reports that
the proclamation wilt give sue to will be endless. The
British Government will be held up both as weak and rapa-
cious; as weak, in offering the life it has not the power to
take ; as rapacious, in seizing estates to which it has uo
right."
(Loud cheers ) The right hon. gentleman (Mr. V.
Smith) told the house that it bad no information upon
which to pronounce an ornioo upon the meaning of the
proclamation ; but the gentlemen opposite, in some of
their speeches, had pu,-, an interpretation upon it which
no one in England had a right to put, and which the
people of Oude bad not put. (Chet); s.) But this, forsooth,
was not a party question—this was not a question that
affected thee tenure ef office He did not know with what
feel ngs hoe, gentlemen regarded those (the Ministerial)
benches—and, for himself, the sooner he Was tuned out
the better it weal i be for his eaee and c older. (Laugh-
ter.) But there were rights to be vindicated and a duty to
be done. (Cheery.) He should with his right hand might
wither if ever he held it up in support of anything that
octraged harnaei'y ; but he was proud to say that he
could on this occasion hold it up in the common inte-
rest both of Eug'and and of India. He did most firmly
believe that when the rec >lie mien of pary struggles had
passed away, it would be admitted that the noble lerd,
the late President of the B card of Control, though
he ringlet have been injudicious, had been octal. ed
by nothing but an hottest desire to promote the
good of the people f:r whose sake ho had sacrificed 30
years of his life. (Loud cheers.) If hon. gentlemen op-
posite succ cried in their attempt to reoccupy the Trea-
sury benches, they would have done so without pro•
claiming a policy. (I laugh answerer by loud cheers )
They would not have declared whether they intended to
maintain the pi ocl unettion or whether they intended to
disavow i%; and the public would justly say that they
had taken office under false pretences. (Lou,! cheers.)
Lord DUNKELLIN hoped the house would extend
to him its usual forbearance to a new member, while he
expressed his opinions upon a question of painful and
pecuthir intertst to him. (fLar, bear.) He fslt wish the
learned SelicichoreGeneral that it was impossible to di. -
cuss the subject before them without referring to the do-
cuments which were supposed to have been published in
India. Ani yet, it could not be ant painful to the Go-
vernor-General to be told that the House of Commons
had censured documents as emanating from him, with-
out any certainty that such was the case. The precis-
illation had been condemned as too severe—as being too
sweeping—on the supposition that the people of Oude
were not in rebellion. Now, he begged to deny at once
the very foundation upon which that argument rested.
Not only were the people of Oude in rebellion, but in a
rebellion of the very worst kind. Oude had long since
been annexed to the British dominion*, and it formed a
portion of our territory in India when the present Go!
vernor-General assumed his office. The outbreak com-
menced at Meerut, far away from the confines of Gude,
and it had raged at its height before it burst upon that
kingdom. Lord Cunning's proclamation wee not a
measure of confiscation, it was intended to place theo
and
without rights of Oude upon a right footing, d
without which there would never be peace in the
country. It had been suggested however, that Lord
Canning's proper course would have
heern to have
issued an amnesty. No doubt such an amnesty might
have been issued, and
_probably
its
immediate effect
would have been to have producedthe
Governor-General
of quietness. But, although
might have consulted his
in adopting that
own ease
eminently unworthy of him,
having regard t
course, it would have beenfuture
interests at stake, and tor the
career of those o who the
ere to succeed him in the govern-
havew followed such a policy. He
world vote for t
rnent of India, to
he
resolution of the right hon. gentle-
man the member for Oxford, because be believed the
policy of the Government to have been unjust as well as
•
detrimental to tee hest interests of our Indian empire.
(Hear.) OVAINE having been on terms of conside-
rable Lord L. .
th Lord Canning, confessed the intimacy wi .
• hest possible opinion of his merits. ad-
'win the fog
'
mired his • firmness as well as his humanity ; nor had he
been slack j
injustification of his noble friend. He also
very much regretted the publication of the despatch, at
the sum© time that there was no overlooking the fact
that it was useless to attempt to suppress it. However,
the real question before them for discussion was, what
was to be their future policy towards India, and whether
it was right to have issued such a proclamation—which,
let them mark, must be read unmitigated and uninter-
preted by any of those private instructions which would
never reaeli the bulk of those to whom it was directed.
(Hear, hear.) Attempts had been made on every aide
to gloss over the subject of the wholesale confiscation.
Now, one thing was certain, that whenever previously
the tide of conquest had swept over India the property
in the soil had invariably remained where it was. The
latest accounts from India showed how the proclamation
had been interpreted in India. Much had been com-
plained of the sending out such a despatch at such a junc-
ture to the Governor-Geueral. Now, he would recall to
the house that during the progress of the Crimean
war a Minister in office did not hesitate to forward
letters to the Crimea actually impugning the
(Hear, honour
and the veracity of the commander-in-chief.
left un-
questioned hear.) Well, were civil governorshfe of our armies were
to be
i questioned when the gallant c
thus unmercifully dealt with in the midst of unparalleled
difficulties ? He honestly confessed,
issuing
of that bad Lord Can
nine asked his advice as to the hie proclama