The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-10 00:00:00

CONFISCATION OT OUDB.-CENSURE OF
LOAD CANNING'S PROCLAMATION.

On Friday were printed, in compliance with an
order of the House of Commons, a letter from the
secretary to the government of India with the Go-
vernor-General, to the secretary to the Chief Com-
missioner of Oude, dated March 3, 1858 ' • accom-
panying Lord Canning's proclamation, which we
published on Friday ; together with the letter from
the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of
the East India Company to the Governor-General
of India in Council, dated April 19 last, relating

to that proclamation.
From G. F. Edmonstone, E. q., Secretary to the
Government of India with the Governor-Gene-
ral, to G. Couper, Esq., Secretary to the Chief
Commissioner of Oude.
ALLAHABID, March 3.

q* lam directed by the Right Hon. the Go-
vernor-General to enclose to you a copy of a pro-
clamation which is to be issued by the Chief Com-
missioner at Lucknow so soon as the British troops,
under his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief,
shall have possession or command of the city.
2. This proclamation is addressed to the chiefs
and inhabitants of Oude only, and not tol the
sepoys.
3. The Governor-General has not considered it
desirable that this proclamation should appear until
the capital is either actually in our hands, or lying
at our mercy. He believes that any proclamation
put forth in Oude in a liberal and forgiving spirit
would be open to misconstruction, and capable of
perversion, if not preceded by a manifestation of
our power ; and that this would be especially the
case at Lucknow, which, although it his recently
been the scene of unparalleled heroism and daring,
and one of the most brilliant and successful feats of

arms which British India has ever.witnessed, is still
sedulously represented by the rebels as being
beyond our power to take or to hold.
4. If an exemption almost general, from the
penalties of death, transportation, and imprison-
ment, such as is now about to be offered to men
who have been in rebellion, bad been publicly pro-
claimed before a heavy blow had been struck, it is
at least as likely that resistance would have been
encouraged by the seeming exhibition of weakness,
as that it would have been disarmed by a generous

forbearance.
5. Traunlationa of thu pivaimation into Hindeo
and Persian accompany this despatch.
6. It will be for the Chief Commissioner, in coni-
nianication with his Excellency the Commander-
in-Chief, to determine the moment at which the
proclamation shall be published, and the manner of
disseminating it through the province ; at also the
node in which those who surrender themselves
under it shall be immediately and for the present
dealt with.

considering that we shall

7. This last question,
not be in firm possession of any large portien of the
province when the proclamation begins to take
effect, and that the bulk of our troops, Native
as well as European, will be needed for other pur-
poses than to keep guard through its districts, is one
of some difficulty. It is clear, too, that the same
treatment will not be applicable to all who may
present themselves.
8. Amongst these there may be some who have
been continuously in arms against the Government,
and have shown inveterate opposition to the l'st,
but who are free from the suspicion of haVing put
to death or injured Europeans who fell in their way.
1. To these men their lives are guaranteed and
their honour • that is, in native acceptation, they
will neither be transported across the sea nr placed
in prison.
10. Probably the most easy and effectual way of
disposing of them, in the first instance, Will be to
require that they shall reside in Lucknow under
surveillance and in charge of an officer appointed
for that purpose.
11. Their ultimate condition and place, of resi-
dence may remain to be determined hereafter, when
the Chief Commissioner shall be able to report fully
to the Governor-General upon the individual cha-
racter and past conduct of each.
12. There will be others who, although they
have taken up arms against the Government, have
done so less heartily, and upon whom, for other
causes, the Chief Commissioner may not see reason
to put restraint. These, after surrendering their
arms, might be allowed to go to their homes, with
such security for their peaceable conduct as the
Chief Commissioner may think proper to iequire.
13. One obvious security will be, that of mak-
ing it clearly understood ley them, that the amount
of favour which they shall hereafter receive, and
the condition in which they shall be re-established,
will be in part dependant upon their conduct after
dismissal.
14. The permission to return to their homes
must not be considered as a reinstatement of them
in the possessions of their lands, for the deliberate
disposal of which the Government will preserve
itself unfettered,
15. There will probably be a third class, less
compromised by acts of past hostility to the Go-
vernment, in whom the Chief Commissioner may
see reason to repose enough of confidence to justify
their services being at once enlisted on the side of
order, towards the maintenance of which, in their
respective districts, they might be called upon to
organise a temporary police.
16. The foregoing remarks apply to the talook-
dare and chiefs of the province. As regards their
followers who may make submission with them,
these, from their numbers, must of necessity be
dismissed to their homes. But before this is done,
their names and places of residence should be re-
gistered, and they should receive a warning that
auy disturbance of the peace or resistance of autho-
rity which may occur in their neighbourhood, will
be visited, not upon any individual offenders alone
but by heavy fines upon the villages. ,
17. I am to observe that the Governor-General
wishes the Chief Commissioner to consider what
has been above written as suggestions rather than
instructions, and as indicating generally the spirit
in which his lordship desires that the proclamation
shall be followed up, without tying down the action
of the Chief Commissioner in matters which may
have to lea judged under circumstances which can-
not be foreseen.
18. There remains one more point for notice.
19. The proclamation is addressed to the chiefs
and inhabitants of Oude, not to mutineers.
20. To the latter the Governor-General does not
intend that any overtures should be made at present.
21. But it is possible that some may surrender
themselves, or seek terms, and it is necessary that
the Chief Commissioner should be prepared to meet
auy advances from them.
22. The sole promise which can be given to any
mutineer is that his life shall be spared • and this
promise must not be made if the man belongs to a
regiment which has murdered its officers, or if there
be other prima facie reason to suppose that he has
been implicated in any specially atrocious crime.
Beyond the guarantee of life to those who, not
coming within the above stated exception, shall
surrender themselves, the Governor-General cannot
sanction the giving of any specific pledge.
23. Voluntary submission will be counted in
mitigation of punishment, but nothing must be
said to those who so submit themselves which shall
bar the Government from awarding to each such
measure of secondary punishment as in its justice
it may deem fitting.—l have, In.
(Signed) G. F. EDMONSTONE.

LORD ELLENBOROT_TGH'S REPLY TO LORD

CANNING'S PROCLAMATION.

The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors
of the East India Company t) the Governor-
General of India in Council.

ri, 185 8.
will
Our letter of the 24th of MarApch, l 19
have put you in possession of our general views
with respect to the treatment of the people in the
1858 ,
event of the evacuation of Lucknow by the enemy.
2. On the 12th inst. we received from you a
copy of the letter, dated the 3d March, addressed
by your Secretary to the Secretary to the Chief
Commissioner in Oude, which letter enclosed a
copy of the Proclamation to be issued by the Chief
Commissioner as Flom as the British troops E, h. mild
have command of the city of Lucknow, and con-
voyed instructions as to the manner in which he was
to act with respect to different classes of persons,
in execution of the views of the Governor-Geueral.
3. The people of Oude w;11 see only the Pro-
clamation. _

thatthe wills;x
4. That authoritative expressione e
?f
of the Government informs the pep
persons, who are named as having been steadfast
in their allegiance, are henceforward the sole here-
ditary proprietors of the lands they
iv ld 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 he
established will have conferred upon them a pro.
po
' rtionate measure of reward and honour ; and
that with these exceptions the proprietary right in
the soil of the province is confiscated to the British
Government.
5. We cannot but exnress to you our apprehen-
sion that this decree, pronouncing the disitibelison
of a people, will throw difficulties almost insur-
mountable in the way of the re-establishment
of peace.
6. We are under the impression that the war
in Oude has derived much of its popular charactet
from the rigorous manner in which, without regard
to what tile chief landholders had become accus
tomed to consider as their rights, the summary
settlement had, in a large portion of the province,
been carried
anieldout by your officers.
dh landholders of India are as much at-