The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-19 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS-(YESTERDAY).

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.. _

The Bishop of CORK presented a petition from the Ro-
man Catholic and other clergymen in his diocese in favour
of united education.
The Earl of ABINGDON presented a petition from the
Protestant Dissenters of Victoria Chapel, Windsor,praYing
for a measure detclaring Dissenters eligible for the manage-
ment of trust funds.
Earl GREY presented several petitions raying for in-
quiry into certain recent circumstances that had taken
Place at Hong Kong..
THE IRISH MAGISTRACY.

In reply to the Marquis of LONDONDERRY,
The Earl of DONOTJGHMORE said the letter of the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, addressed to the Lieutenants of
counties relative to the revision of the last list of Irish ma-
gistrates, was merely intended to obtain information as to
the efficiency of the magistracy in general.
After a short conversation, in which the Marquis of
,Clanricarde, the Earl of St. Germans, and Lord St. Leo-
mards took part, the subject dropped.
EDUCATION IN IRELAND.
The Bishop of DOWN and CONNOR presented a peti-
tion, asking her Majesty's Government if it was intended,
during the present session, to introduce any measure with
reference to education in Ireland ?

The Earl of DERBY said the subject of education in
Ireland was under the consideration of the Government,
but it was one surrounded with much difficulty. He could
not promise that any measure would be introduced during
.the present session, but he begged to assure the right rev.
prelate that the subject was one that would not be lost
sight of. •

TIM TRADING COMPANIES WINDING-UP ACT.
This bill passed through committee and was reported
without amendments.

PRIVATE BILLS.

Lord REDESDALE moved that no private bill brought
from the House of Commons should be read a second
time after Tuesday, the 12th day of July next ; that no bill
confirming any provisional order of .the Board of Health,
or authorising any enclosure of lands under special report
of the Enclosure Commissioners for England and Wales,
or for confirming any scheme of the Charity Commis-
sioners for England and Wales, shall be read a second
.time after Tuesday, the 12th day of July next : That when
a bill shall have passed this house with amendments these
orders shall not apply to any new bill sent up from the
House of Commons which the chairman of committees shall
report to the house is substantially the same as the bill so
amended.—Agreed to.
THE WATER-COLOUR EXHIBITION.
Lord ST. LEONARDS asked her Majesty's Govern-
ment if any attention had been paid to the claims of the
Water-Colour Society for a portion of ' Burling-
ton House ? The artists in water colours had
up to the present time received no assistance from the
country, and as so much had been done for the painters in
oil, he thought the claims of the water colour painters ought
not to be disregarded.
The Earl of DERBY was quite ready to admit the ser-
vices rendered to the arts by the Society of Painters in
Water Colours. He thought it very undesirable that
that society should be placed in a sort of rivalry
with the Royal Academy. As to the application for grant-
ing a portion of Burlington House, he must remind the
house of the very many claims that had been put forward
by different learned and scientific bodies for accommodation
in that building. With respect to the negotiations on foot
he trusted that some formal arrangement would shortly be
come to

ESTATES IN OUDE.

The Marquis of CLANRICARDE stilled their lord-
ships' attention to the proclamation, despatches, and letters
which had been interchanged respecting the settlement of
the land question in Oude. Lord Canning was supposed
to have announced a measure of universal confiscation, but
no such extreme measure was ever contemplated by the
Governor-General. He wished to know if any informa-
tion had been received upon the subject, or what were the
intentions of the Government with respect to the tenure of
land in thatportion of our Eastern empire?
The Earl of DERBY said he hardly knew what question
he was called on to answer, and having listened with the
greatest attention to the observations of the noble marquis
he did not exactly see the point of his remarks, and still less
the policy and expediency of entering on the various topics
.to which the noble marquis had referred. In the first place,
the noble marquis was mistaken inand had misapprehended
the expressions of the despatch of Lord Stanley when he
said that it stated that Lord Canning had reversed his
policy and cancelled his proclamation. He (Lord Derby)
regretted that this question which had been raised last
year with regard to Lord Canning had not been suffered to
rest by all parties who desired to see that mutual respect
and confidence which ought to exist between the Govern-
ment in this country and the Governor-General of India
maintained, and he could not but think that the recurrence
to such a subject was not calculated to promote the good
understanding which ought to be maintained between the
Government and the Governor-General. There was a dis-
tinction between the proclamation of Lord Canning and the
course he had practically pursued, and it was on that ac-
count that his noble friend (Lord Ellenborough) had just
taken exception to that proclamation. Lord Canning by his
proclamation declared a universal confiscation, with six ex-
,ceptions only, of the whole of the land of Oude. It was to
that sweeping system of confiscation, which, if it had gone
forth in the proclamation, would have prevented the natives
from coming in and submitting to the Government, that
his noble friend objected ; and he (Lord Derby) had never
ceased to regret that the expression of his noble friend's
opinions in his despatch had been prematurely made public,
and which had caused some strong feeling in many quarters.
As regarded the imprudence of the language of the procla-
mation, as it appeared in its naked ani unexplainedlorm, he
(Lord Derby) had not altered his opinion, and he still main-
tained that the form in which the proclamationi was drawn
was not the best calculated to attain the object desired. But
when the noble marquis charged Lord Stanley with stating
that Lord Canning had reversed his policy, ho charged him
with that which was not the case. What Lord Stanley said
was, that practically, and in effect, Lord Canning had acted
on a policy opposite to that laid down in his proclamation,
inasmuch as he had made confiscation the exception and not
the rule—and it was even admitted by the noble marquis
himself that Lord Canning had acted sparingly on the prin-
ciple of his proclamation. Lord Canning had in the first
instance put forth a policy which consisted in a sweeping
confiscation, but he had acted on a principle the reverse
of such a system. If, in the opinion of the Government,
the course taken should have been the other way, and
that opinion had not been shaken by the very able argu.
ments used by Lord Canning in his reply to the despatch
of his noble friend, the noble marquis, he thought, could
not say that in the despatch of the Secretary of State for
India to Lord Canning to which he had alluded there
was anything inconsistent with the utmost respect. The
despatch stated—" I do not propose to follow, paragraph
by paragraph, the elaborate arguments containe in
these letters. They have been considered with the atten-
tion which was due to the high character and the distin-
guished position of your lordship ; and I observe with satis-
faction that the policy indicated in the document adverted
to, as regards the claims of the talookdars and other pro-
prietors in Oude, has not in practice been adopted by you,
and-is declared, on your own authority, never to have been
intended to have been carried into effect. However indis-
criminate' and unsparing may have been the sentence of
confiscation which your proclamation pronounced, that
sentence has not been put in force ; and the issuing of it
would appear to have been merely a menace, designed to
strike awe into the minds of those still arrayed in arms
against the British Government." Lord Canning in all
the instructions which he gave to his various officers had
universally shown an intention that though there had
been a threat of universal confiscation held out, it was not
to be practically carried into effect. He said in the 38th
paragraph of his despatch :—" I afterwards had occasion
to send my military secretary, Colonel Stuart, to head-
quarters, and I took the opportunity to explain to the Chief
Commissioner that I wished him to give the most libe-
real interpretation to the proclamation : that, for instance,
the proclamation left it free to notify to any talookdar who
was deserving of consideration, that if he made submission
and supported the Government the confiscation of his lands
would not take effect, and that his claims to property of
which he might have been deprived upon the annexation of
the province would be reheard ; and that in the case of
their having been resumed by him he might retain them
until the rehearing." If those instructions and such ex-
planations had accompanied the draft of his proclamation
to England, and if it had been accompanied by such a
glossary and such explanations when it was conveyed to
the knowledge of the natives of Oude, no doubt the despatch
of his noble friend (Lord Ellenborough) would have been
much modified ; but the proclamation was not accompanied
by such explanation as was said to have been contained in
the private letter which had never been communicated to
the then President of the Board of Control. Her Majesty's
Government concurred in the policy of Lord Canning as it
had been acted on and carried out but they said that that
policy was not that which was indicated m his proclama-
tion; but that, on the contrary, he had there laid down con-
fiscation as the rule and not as the exception. That was
precisely the policy that those who were now the Govern-
ment had recommended all along, but it was not that which,
judging from his proclamation, it could be supposed that
Lorg Canning intended to pursue. Therefore it was that
Lor Stmley stated that he was glad to perceive, not that
Lad Canning. had changed his views, but that he pursued
practically and in effect a course different to that which he
had laid down in his proclamation as the principle by which
he was to be winded. The Government did not charge Lord
Canning with havingm entertained any other intentions than
those which ho had carried out, but all they said was that
his proclamation conveyed avoery different, as they thought
t
a dangerous, impression as the policy by which he was
to be influenced.
He thought that it would be perceived
that in Lord Stanley's letter he stated that the proclama-
tion was liable to be interpreted in Oude as it was inter-
preted in this country. and was calculated to produce an in-
jurious effect; but the noble marquis must, he thought,
cls) Lord Stanley the justice to admit that that opinion was
conveyed in a friendly spirit, and that he expressed the satin -
faction which the Government felt at the course which Lord
Canning had pursued, and the confidence which
_it the Go-
vernment reposed in him. He (Lord Derby) hopedwas
consistent with entire respect and perfect uniformity of
action and confidence, that the Government should be allowed
to express a difference of opinion with Lord Canning, and he
hoped that that expression of feeling with regard to the
Governor-General of India having been an ill-used and in-
jured man, which was at one time so prevalent, would not
be revived, or any attempt made to interrupt the friendly
and' confidential relations which existed between that noble
lord and the. Government. If any such impression still pre-
vailed with regard to the relations which existed between
Lord Canning and the Government., it might perhaps be
satisfactory to the personal friends of that noble lord to
know that some months ago he (Lord Derby) directed it to
be stated to him that it was her Majesty's pleasure that the
grand cross of the Bath should be conferred upon him, and
that so soon as it should be in his power to announce the
con,plete pacification of Didia his services would be re-
warded by an advancement in the grade of their lordships' '
house, to which he hoped they would all see the noble lord
return in health and honour. He hoped that the country of
Oude was rapidly settling down into peace and repose, and
that it would be shortly in the power of the Government
to a anounce the entire pacification, not only of Oude, but
of ho whole of Indic. Nothing 'had done saia much to-
wards the attainment of that roost desired object as her
Majesty's gracious proclamation, and he was sure that no-
thi ag could tend more to unsettle and to disturb the present
cor dttion of affairs in India than the existence of any idea
that a difference of opinion prevailed in this country with
regard to the policy to be pursued. He was convinced that
Lord Canning was acting on the principles laiddown
her Majesty's proclamation, and he was in
convincedthat
by au adherence to those principles all traces of the
late ,struggle would ere long be obliterated. If we were to
retain. a hold upon Oude, if it was desired that the state of
that country should be tranquil and undisturbed, we must
govern -
through and by means of the people in that country,
and i
thro ugh the influence of the talookdars, who however
and iu w.hatever manner they mighthave obtained their pro.