The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-15 00:00:00

THE POLICY OF LORD CANNING.

In Parliamentary papers published yesterday we
find the reply of the Secretary of State for India to
Lord Canning's defence of his Oude proclamation.
Lord Stanley writes as follows, under date of Dec. 9:
" My Lord—Your lordship's despatches, No. 261,
to the Secret Committee of the East India Company,
dated the 17th June, and No. 17A, of the 4th July,
to the Court of Directors (in the Foreign Depart-
ment), having been considered by her Majesty's
Government, I now proceed to offer such remarks
upon them as they appear to demand.
" The first of these despatches is a reply to the
letter of the Secret Committee of the 19th of April,
commenting upon the proclamation issued on the 3d
of March to the talookdars and other landholders
of Oude, after the re-occupation of Lucknow by
British troops ; the second is in reply to the let-
ter of the Court of Directors of the 18th of May,
conveying a resolution of confidence in your lordship
passed by the court on the 10th of that month. In
both of these despatches you explain and vindicate
the course of policy which you adopted in issuing
the above-mentioned proclamation to the land-
holders of Oude. _ _ _

I do not propose to follow, paragraph by para-
lraph, the elaborate arguments contained in these
letters. They have been considered with the atten-
tion which was due to the high character and the
distinguished position of your lordship; and I
observe with satisfaction that the policy indicated
in the document adverted to, as regards the claims
of the talookdars and other proprietors 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. How-
ever indiscriminate and unsparing may have been
the sentence of confiscation which your proclama-
tion 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.

" Though anxious to support your authority, and
to regard in the most favourable point of view any
explanation of your public conduct which you
might have to offer, her Majesty's Government
cannot alter their previously expressed opinion with
regard to the policy which, in this instance, you
have pursued. They cannot think it wise for a
Government, either in Asia or in Europe, to utter
threats on which it is not meant to act; and they
apprehend that the tendency of such threats, when
addressed to insurgents in arms, is to drive into
desperate and hopeless resistance some, at least, of
those who might be induced to submit by an invita-
tion couched in more lenient terms. They are,
however, glad to receive and ready implicitly to
accept your assertion that the practical effect pro-
duced upon the minds of the people has been but
small. They learn with satisfaction the personal
explanations, to which you refer as having been
given by your desire through the officers of
your Government, have dispelled the alarm which
its contents were likely to excite. And the whole
tenor of your lordship's administration in India,
and the moderation of language and of action which
you have ' known to preserve in circumstances of
unusual difficulty and universal excitement, confirm,
if confirmation were needed, the assurance which
you have given of your intention to deal in a spirit
of mercy and justice with those whose rights ap-
peared to be imperilled by the language of your
official declaration.

" While her Majesty's Government adhere to the
opinion expressed by them respecting that declara-
tion, it seems to them needless further to comment
on a document which has been practically cancelled
by yourself; and whilst regretting what they can-
not but consider as a mistaken act on your part,
they desire publicly to express their full approval
of your general policy, and their confident hope
that the measures taken by you for the suppression
of insurrection in India will at no distant period
lead to the entire pacification of that country.—
I have, &c.,

(Signed)

" STANLEY."

Orders have been forwarded from the Horse
Guards to the head-quarters of the Royal Engineers
establislunent at Chatham, directing a surveying expedi-
tion of the Royal Engineers to be held in readiness to pro-
ceed to Montenegro, for the purpose of making an accurate
survey of the boundary line to Constantinople. The officers
named to accompany the expedition are Captain Cox and
Lieutenant Sitwell, R.E. Another expedition of the Royal
Engineers is also in course of formation, for the purpose of
proceeding by the overland route to Persia, to survey the
Turkish and Persian boundary line. This expedition is
likely to be absent from England three years.
FEARFUL GALE ON THE CUMBERLAND COAST,
AND Loss OF LIFE.—One of the heaviest of the many gales
that have this winter dealt death and destruction on the
Cumberland coast, commenced on Thursday afternnoon,
when the sloop Hope, Robert Charnley, master, from Liver:-
pool for Whitehaven, when near Ravenglass, struck on
Selkirk Rock and immediately went down, the captain and
all hands perishing. Another vessel, a schooner, was seen
to go down near the same place, but further out at sea,
name unknown ; all hands lost. On Friday the Mary Jane,
of Fleetwood for Newhaven, was driven by the violence of
the gale on shore. The vessel being light, and the tide at
flood, she ran up on the beach high and dry, at Braystones.
Several vessels have put into that port, some dismasted,
others with loss of sails, &c. Altogetb.er the gale, especially
on Friday, is described by old sailors as one of the most
fearful they ever witnessed.--21/anchester Examiner.