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

he appears to consider that a period might arrive when
the publication of this despatch would be desirable.
(Cheers.) I cannot help thinking that my noble friend
believes there is a possibility of such an explanation
being given by Lord Canning of the nature and charac-
ter of the proolamation as might render the publication
of the despatch desirable. My noble friend was perfectly
justified in presenting these resolutions to your lord
ships,. under the impression that the publication of
this despatch had been an act of her Majesty's Govern-
mop' t, and that it was liable to censure ; but I should
have thought that after the manly and noble declaration.
of my noble friend the late President of the Board of
Control—(cheers)—the other night, in which he assumed
to himself any blame that might attach to that publica-
tion, and in which he for the first time announced to his
colleagues the noble sacrifice which be had made of him-
self, my noble friend, under one of those generous im-
pulses— (loud cries of Hear, hear)—which charac-
terise him, would instantly have risen to abandon the
sagtiOD of which he had given notice. (Cheers, and come
cries of " No, no.") My noble friend, on the contrary,
has endeavoured, under the altered state of circum-
stantial, to justify himself for persevering in his motion,
and has suggested a metaphysical analogy of personal
identity, and insisted upon that which nobody ever dis-
Fmted—the unity and combination of a Cabinet, and its
responsibility for all the acts of all its members, I should
appeal from the metaphysics of my noble friend to com-
mon sense, to which my noble friend the late President
of the Board of Control also appealed. With respe
ocpo
the responsibility of a Cabinet for the acts of each its
members, I apprehend that responsibility must cease
when any particular member of a Cabinet assumes to
himself the blame of any acts, and quits the Cabinet in
oonsequence. (Hear, and also from one noble lord an
expression of dissent.) A. noble lord seems to intimate
some dissent. I should like to know whether the noble
lords on the Oppositionbenches would like their Govern-
ments to be tried upon a different principle—whether
they think that any errorof an individual member should
attach to the whole of the Cabinet, and that the whole
of it should be visited with the punishment of resigna-
tion. I think that the principle of responsibility can be
pushed to this inconvenient and absurd extent—(bear)
because to hold that any person who selects the mem-
bers of a Cabinet is to be so thoroughly responsible for
every act which they may perform, to bs so bound up
with them, that if they commit an error in any respect
he must justify and adopt it, and in consequence resign,
appears to me to be a principle which would be produc-
tiie of the greatest possible inconvenience to the public,
and which could not be carried out without rendering
united Government impossible. (Hear.) I pass from
this to approach more nearly to the consideration of the
question which is immediately before your lord-
ships. I shall not follow the noble duke near
me in any consideration of the propriety or impropriety
of the annexation of the territory of Oude to the
British dominion, but there are circumstances con
*Noted with the population of Oude which appear to Me
to have a most important bearing upon the consideration
of the policy of this proclamation. Your lordships are
aware that the principal part of the Indian army was re-
cruited from the population of Oude ; that they consti-
tuted the best part of our Sepoy force ; that the greater
part of those persons were hereditary landlorders in the
territory of Oade ; that they generally left their wives
and children, and their native country ; th3t they joined
our ranks, that they served us with apparent fidelity, but
at the same time. with a constant reference to the end of
all their labours and all their dangers—namely, when
their service was past to return home, and to settle them-
selves again upon their native soil. Persons who had
these local attachments and early associations connected
with the soil of their country were likely to feel an at-
tachment to native rule, even although it might not have
been such as a European might desire ; and there was
nothing so likely, not merely to shock their feelings, but
to irritate their minds, as to transfer the sovereignty of
their country from the native rulers to the British do,
minion. Their country was forcibly taken away from its
rulers, and transferred to British dominion. All their
early attachments, all their local associations were rudely
invaded, and they were driven into that revolt which
has brought so much misery with it and desolated so
many of the fairest provinces of India. They fell bef
the irresistible power of British arms. They were sub-
dued, and they lay humble and prostrate before us.
The principal question was how we were to deal with a
people thus circumstanced, how they were to be treated
consistently with justice, humanity, and policy. Jus-
tice, unhappily, required a few terrible examples ; but
with regard to the mass of the people, I am not
afraid to confess that I think great allowance ought
to have been made for men who were driven
into revolt by some of the strongest motives which
actuate the human breast. (Cheers.) I believe that this
opinion is shared by every member of the Cabinet.
trader these circumstances a proclamation was brought
to their attention, which proclamation appeared to thirn
to violate every principle upon which they thought the
Governor-General ought to act. That proclamation was
as my noble friend, the late President of the Board of
Control, has described it. It was a proclamation of
wholesale, sweeping, indiscriminate confiscation. It may
be very easy to criticise the terms of this proclamation,
but it is impossible to assume that it only applied to a
limited extent, or to a limited number of persons. It
declares most distinctly that, with only five or six exo-p •
Cons, the proprietary right in the soil, not merely of a
portion, but of the whole of the province of Oude id con-
fiscated to the British Government, which will dispose of
that right in such manner as it may think best. Can
anybody doubt that to the persons to whom it was ad-
dressed this would go forth as a measure of discriini-
Mate confiscation ? (Hear, hear.) Even yocr lordship
with all your ingenuity, can pat no other certain inter-
pretation upon it than that I have stated ; and could
those persons have received any other impression thaa
that they lay entirely at the mercy of the British Goveim-
ment—that they were not merely en-eosed to confiscation,
bit that the sentenot had actually gone forth against
them I (Cheers.) The restraining clause adverted to
by the noble earl (of Shaftesbury) shows, as my nold
friend (the Earl of Ellenborough) distinctly explained,
that the confiscation must have taken place, because it
speaks of restitution. (Hear.) What, then, was to he
done under these circumstances ? Here was a procla-
mation virlsting every principle upon which her Majes-
ty's Government were disposed to act with regard to the
natives of India. Were they to remain silent ? Were
they patiently to wait for explanations of which they
had not the slightest intimation ? (Hoar, hear.) I quite
admit that if at the time the proclamation was sent over,
or shortly afterwards, Lord Canning had intimated that
it required an interpreter—that some explanation w.s
necessary, and that he would furnish it at the earliest
opportunity—the Government would have been much
to blame if they had not waited for such explanation be-
fore they sent out the despatch. But no suggestion of
this kind being received from eny quarter, it seemed ne-
cessary to the Government to prevent immediately the
mischievous consequences which they believed would re-
melt from the issue of the proclamation, and accordingly
the despatch which has been so much criticised, but to
which I subscribe in every part, wa., on the 26th ,f
April, sent out to my noble friend. Now the noble duke
is extremely humourous on certain passages of that de-
spatch. I can only assure him, however, that his light
opinions on this subject are not shared in by the public.
I believe it is this particular part of the despatch which
one person says ought to be written in letters of gold.
At the risk of exposing myself to the censure of the
noble duke I will read those two passages again, and aek
your lordships whether they deserve the character he has
affixed to them :

" We desire to see British authority in India rest upon
the willing obedience of a contented people. There cannot
be confiscation.
contentment where there is general Go-
vernment cannot long be maintained by any force in a
countey 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 ha desired."
These are the sentiments which actuate the
Govern-
ment in the despatch so severely criticised or ric 'ieiled by the noble duke. But, my lords, 1 think a fallacyhas run through the whole of the discussion thie evee-
lug. The resolutions condemn the publication of this
despatch. But my noble friend (the E tri of Ellen.
borough) has generously, and in the most mails
and straightforward manner, assumed the whole
blame of that publication. Surely, then, corntnon
sense and fairness and justice require that the Goverc-
ment, as a Government, should be exonerated from re-
sponsibility. (Cheere ) If this is so, then it must be
. assumed that they did not intend to publish the docu-
ment, and that it was a secret despatch. Yet the whole
argument of my noble friend (the Earl of Shaftesbury)
has turned upon the mischief which would arise from
its publication in India in weakinirg the authority Of
the Governor-General, whereas if it were intended as a
secret despatch it was not open to criticism at all. Of
course some of your lordships, if the duty had devolved
upon them, might have written the letter with a great
deal more mildness and forbearance, Many who did
feel the danger of this proclamation so stronghly as my
noble friend might have expreibed thamselves in more
guarded language. But my noble friend felt the neces
city of immediate action, and he expressed hirrself in
the manly and honest manner which characterises him.
(Sear, bear.) I have admitted that the Government
would have been to blame if, expecting any explanation
from Lord Canning, they had not waited to ascertain
the real grounds on which he issued the proclatnatioo."
.Now, there was one individual, at least, in this country
who bad received notice cf his lordship's intention to
furnish such an explanation, but who most unhappily
did not think it part of his duty to communicate it to
the Government. My noble friend the Foreign Secre
,t_tr7. made the other evening a graceful acknowledgment
thef readiness of the noble earl near me (the Earl of
Clarendon) in communicating any publfc letters received
by him after his retirement from office ; and I appre-
hend that
it is
eucce-scr all the the duty of a minister to present to his
_r information which he tbus receives.
The conduct of
0.,+ Earl
of VernonEi Smith, however, to my
noble friend th
lenhorough) certainly presents
a remarkable contrast to what seems to be the practice
in these cases. A. noble marquis,
not now in his place
(the Marquis of Lansdowne)
ithe
explainedltto your lordships
the circumstances under w
the lettee"nunicatica
of this important paesage in
escaped the attention of the right hoewere- grfireauyti emh rne.
Making every sort of allowance,h
however, for the
domestic affairs in which he was engaged, it:
that the right hon. gentleman actually eZ,Faetr
oated with Lord Palmerston as to the propriety of trap's.-
milting this particular passage to the President of the
Board of Control. [earl Granville here interposed et,
observation which did not reach the gallery.] The noble
earl says that the right hon. gentleman stated nothing of
the kind.
Bear! GRANVILLE—No 1 I said that the right hon.
gentleman stated something of the kind.
The LORD CHANCELLOR—I am quite content
with _`f something of the kind." (Cheers and laughter )