The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-08 00:00:00

THi REVOLT OF OUDE.

The following is a copy of the despatch laid on
he talA of both houses last night :

" The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors
of the East India Company -L., the Governor-
General of India in Council.

" April 19, 1858.
" Our letter of the 24th of March, 1858, will
have put you in possession of our general views
with respect to the treatment of the people in the
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
,py of the Proclamation to be issued by the Chief
Commissioner as soon as the British troops should
have command of the city of Lucknow, and con-
veyed 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-General.

"3. The people of Oude will see only the Pro-
clamation.

" 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 here-
ditary proprietors of the lands they held when
Oude came under British rule, subject only to such
moderate assessment as may be imp sed upon them ;
that others in whose favour like claims may be
established will have conferred upon them a pro-
portionate measure of reward and honour ; and
that with these exttvtions the proprietary right in
the soil of the province is confiscated tt, the British
Government.

"5. We cannot but express to you our apprehen-
sion that this decree, pronouncing the digit' hetison
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 character
from the rigorous manner in which, without regard
to what the chief landholders had become accus-
tomed to consider as their iiv,hts, the summary
settlement had, in a large portion of the province,
been carried out by your off.:ors.
"7. The landholders of India are as much at-
tached to the soil occupied by their auceitors, and
are as sensi ive with respect to the rights in the soil
they deem themselves to possess, as the occupers
of land in any country of which we have a know-
ledge.

"8. Whatever may be your ultima'e and undis-
closed intentions, your Proclamation will appear
to deprive the great body of the people of all h•ipe
upon the subject most dear to them as individuals,
while the substitution of our rule fo, that of their
native Sovereign has naturally excited against us
whatever they may have of national feeling.

" 14. We must admit that, under these circum-
stances, the hostilities which have been carried on
in Oude have rather the character of legitima e war
than that of rebellion, and that the people of Oude
should rather be regarded with indulgent conside-
ration than the made the objet's of a pi-nalty ex-
ceeding in extent and in severity almost any which
has been recorded in history as inflicted upon a
sut.dued nation.

" 15. Other conquerors, when they have suc-
ceeded in overcoming resistance, have excepted a
few persons as still de-erving of punlshinent, but
hare, with a generous policy, extended. their cle-
mency to the great body of the people.
" 16. You have acted upon a different principle.
You have 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 precedent you have made.

" 18. We'desire that you will mitigate in prac-
tice the stringent severity of the decree of confisca-
tion you have issued against the landholders of
Dade.

"19. We desire to see British authority in India
rest upon the willing obedience of a contented
people ; there cannot be contentment where there
is a general confiscation.

"20. Government cannot long be mlint lined by
any force in a country where the while people is
tendered hostile by a sense of wrong ; and if it
were possible so to maintai❑ it, it would not be a
consummation to be de=iced."

The following is tie Proclamation which is thus
c3ndemned :

" PROCLAMATION.

"The army of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief is
in possession of Lucknow, and the city lies at the mercy of
the British Government, whose authority it has for nine
months rebelliously defied and resisted.
" This resistance, begun by a mutinous soldiery, has
found support frlin the inhabitants of the city ant of the
province of Oude at large. Many who owed their pro-
sperity to the British Government, as well as those who
believed themselves aggrieved by it, have joined in this
bad cause, and have ringed themselves with the enemies
of the State.
" They have been guilty of a great crime, and have sub-
jected themselves to a just retribution.
" The capital of their country is now once more in the
hands of the British troops.
"From this day it will be held by a force which nothing
can withstand, and the authority of the Government will
be carried into every corner of the province.
" The time, then, has come at which the Right Hon.
the Governor-General of India deems it right to make
known the mode in which the British Government will
deal with the talookdars, chiefs, and landholders of Oude
and their followers.
" The first care of the Governor-General will be to re-
ward those who have been steadfast in their allegiance at
a time when the authority of the Government was partially
overborne, and who have proved this by the support and
assistance which they have given to British officers.
"Therefore the Right Lion. toe Governor-General
hereby declares that
" Drigliejjie Singh, Rajah of Bulrampore;
Koolwunt Singh, Rajah of Pudnaha ;
" Rao Hurdeo Buksh biugh, of Kutiaree ;
" Kaeheepershatid, Talookdar of Sissaindee;
" Zuhr Singh, Zetnindar of Gopaul Kheir ; an 1
4, eh eneteeloll, Zernindar of Moraon (Baiswarah)
are henceforward the sole hereditary proprieto:s of the
lands which they held when Oude came under British rule,
subject only to such moderate assessment as may be im-
posed upon them, and that those loyal men will be further
rewarded in such manner and to such extent as, upon con-
sideration of their merits and their position, the Governor-
General shall determine.
0 A proportionate measure of reward an 1 honour accord.
ing to their deserts will be conferred upon others in whose
favour like claims may be established to the satisfaction of
the Government.
"The Governor-General further proclaims to the psople
of Onde that, with the above-mentioeed exceptions, the
proprietary right in the soil of the province is confiscated
to the British Government, which will dispose of that right
in such manner as it may seem fitt;ng.
" To those talookdars, chiefs, and landholders, with their
followers, who shall make immediate submission to the
Chief Commissioners of Oude, surrendering their arms and
obeying his order, the Right Hon. the Governor-General
promises 'hat their lives and honour shall be safe, provided
that their hands are unstained with English blood murder-
ously shed.
" But, as regards any further indulgence which may be
extended to thm, and the condition in which they may
hereafter be placed, they must throw themselves upon the
justice and mercy of the British Government.
" To those among them who shall promptly come for-
ward and give to the Chief Commissioner their support in
the restoration of peace and order this indulgence will be
large, and the Governor-General will be ready to view
liberally the claims which they may thus acquire to a res-
titution of their former rights.
"As participation in the murder of Englishmen and
Englishwomen will exclude those who are guilty of it from
all mercy, so will those who have protected English lives
be specially entitled to consideration and leniency,
"By order of the Right Hon. the Governor-General of
India.

" G. F. EDMONSTONE,
Secretary to the Government of India.
" Allababad, March 14."

ALMACK'S REVIVED.—These highly attractive re.
unions wi.l be revived during the present se.son uncer
the highest patronage. The success of the ball given
in honour of tie wedding of the Princess Royal, in
January last, wag so complste that it has been al rarge i
to t ive a series of three tolls this year on the following
dit3s :—Thursday, May 27 ; nuisday, June 17 ; and
Thursday, June 24.
FULL COURT OF DIVORCE.—This Court, whioh alone
has Prisiiction to dissolve the marriage contrac';, will
open on Monday n< xi, the loch inst. Lord Campbell
will preside, the Lr.rd Chanceliar heir.g unable to attt
The Court, to be "full," requires three judges at least,
but there may be more.
DARING ROBBERY.—As the brougham of Col. the
Right Hon. William Tighe was proceeding up Palk-
about 11 o'clock on Thursday evening, a man let
down the blind fgt.(' abstract d the cushions. He was
seen by a gentleman who called to the coachman, but
the thif f
CHEQUES ON BANKERS.—A rigiundsrstanding appear-
ing ts, prevail that the adhesive stamps of applicable
to rec ipts or draughts on demand will not be useable
for chsques on hankers drawn within 15 miles of the
place of payment hen the duty themon shall become
payable we are autheri,ed to state that it will be entirely
optional with the public to u..e either the adhesive stamps
above-mentioned or an impressed stamp, in the same
way as they may now do, and have hitherto done, on
cheques drawn beyond 15 miles.