The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-17 00:00:00

THE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT

IN OUDE.

JANUARY 1.

The following despatch, indicating the general
policy intended to be pursued by the Government
in Oude, has just been put in circulation among the
district officers:—

" FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.
(No. 5,209.)

" FROM G. F. EDMONSTONE, ESQ, SECRETARY TO THE
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA WITH THE GOVERNOR-GENE-
- RAL, TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER, OUDE, DATED
ALLAHABAD, DEC. 13, 1858.
" Sir,—Certain questions having been referred for the
consideration of his Excellency the Right Hon. the Gover-
nor-General, respecting the interpretation to be placed, and
the course of action to be taken, upon some of the points of
the amnesty declared in the Royal proclamation, I have
the honour to communicate to you, for your information, in
continuation of my letter No. 4,444, dated the Bth ult., the
following observations on the subject, which have been
elicited by the reference.
" 2. The first question is as to the meaning of the term

' British subjects,' as used in the proclamation—whether it
is to be understood in its restricted sense, as limited to Eu-
ropean British subjects, or in its wider sense, as extending
to all the subjects of the British Crown.
" With regard to this point, I am directed to subjoin an
extract (paragraphs 6,7, 8 and 9) from a letter addressed
under date the 18th ult., No. 549, to the Government of
Bombay, conveying the opinion of his Excellency the Go-
vernor-General as to the construction of the term British
subjects.' You will be guided by his Lordship's interpre-
tation until otherwise advised :

" ' 6. With reference to paragraph 5, there is no doubt
that, literally and legally, the murder of British subjects in-
cludes the murder of those who are natives of India as well
as of those who are English. But the Governor-General is
strongly of opinion that, in justice and in policy, some dis-
tinction is to be drawn between the two cases. Many na-
tives have lost their lives by acts which were undoubtedly
acts of murder, but which originated in old quarrels or
party feuds, or were brought, about without premeditation,
and committed at a time when the restraints of law and
government were removed, among a people who have ever
been careless of their own lives and of the lives of their
neighbours, although they had hitherto learnt to respect
the life of an Englishman.
" 7. In such cases to pursue inquiry respecting every
rebel suspected of being a partner in murder would be to
keep numberless towns, villages, and districts in a ferment,
and would inspire the community generally with little con-
fidence in the true value and spirit of the proclamation,
and, as conviction would be very difficult, the country
would in most places be kept in agitation without any sa-
tisfactory result.
" ' 8. Therefore the Governor-General requires that, as
a general rule, officers of Government should not closely
investigate cases in which life has been taken under cir-
cumstances such as I have described, but that they should
allow tho suspected rebel to benefit by the amnesty.

9. In cases where the act has been committed without
provocation, in a cold-blooded, deliberate manner, or with
circumstances of peculiar aggravation, his lordship would
wish it to be dealt with as at any other time.

" 3. Tho Governor-General has not felt that the Go-.
meat is at liberty to give a more restricted sense to the
term in question, because, although one effect of such an
interpretation would be to reduce the number of punish-
able persons, another effect would be to make the spirit of
the proclamation more exclusive, and to exhibit the Crown
as less considerate of the lives of its Indian subjects than
the literal and, as his lordship believes, legal meaning of
the words used by the Crown warrants, and this not only
as regards its Indian subjects of pure native birth, but also
as regards those of mixed blood and of • the same faith with
ourselves, who have suffered certainly in no less a degree
than their fellow-subjects of pure English birth.
" 4. Still it is practicably impossible, and, for reasons of
policy, most unadvisable, to pursue each case of murder,
committed upon a native or-to hold in hand punishment for
all perpetrators of such crime. And it is this consideration
which guided the instructions to the Government of Bom-
bay as above cited.
" 5. The second question is as to the precise sense of the
words ' directly taken part in the murder, &c.'
" The Governor-General attaches the utmost importance
_ _

to the word directly in the above passage of the proclama-
tion. In a hypothetical case of a regiment whose officers
were shot down by the men, though it cannot be proved
who fired, although his lordship does not consider it neces-
sary that a Sepoy should be proved to have fired his musket
at an officer in order to bring him within the scope of the
word directly,' his lordship does consider it necessary
that something more should be proved against him than the

Fact of his having been present in the ranks at the time of
the murder. His Excellency thinks it should be shown
that the Sepoy took an active part in aiding and abetting
the murder.

" In the opinion of the Governor-General it certainly
is not in the spirit of the amnesty that the guilt of the act
should be spread over those who were neither perpetrators
nor instigators of it.
gi 7. In cases of murder, other than those of murder of
officers by mutineers, the same rule should govern the appli-
cation of the words 'directly taken part ;' the spirit of the
term ' directly' being in all cases carefully kept in view, in
order that mercy may not be stinted.
"8. Many civil officers, however, may have no means of
ascertaining what took place on a particular occasion of
mutiny at some disiant stations, and the Governor-General
is of opinion that it will probably be necessary hereafter to
institute inquiry by a special tribunal into the cases of the

murder of officers by their regiments.
9. In_connection with the subject of the treatment of
men belonging to regiments whichmurdered their officers, I
have to refer you to the enclosure of my letter No. 5,061.
" 10. The third question is as to the admission of suits,
criminal and civil, on account of wrongs done to individuals
during the rebellion.
" The ninth paragraph of the letter addressed to the Go-
vernment of Bengal, a copy of which was enclosed in my
letter to you, No. 4,444, dated the Bth ult., deals with this
point. Wherever such acts of wrong have been done in
prosecution or support of the rebellion the Governor-Gene-
ral is of opinion that they should be pardoned and ignored.
" 11. In the case of villagers who have lived on plunder
for months, and whom, upon their return to their villages,
their plundered neighbours may wish to sue and to have
punished, it being implied that the acts of plunder were
I Committed in a district where rebellion was at the time un-