The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-19 00:00:00

°* er retain of this additional proof of that warm inte-
rest and watchful care which he has never ceased to
manifest for the welfare and aivancement of all classes
of our native subjects, and for the preservation, to the
princallalities in alliance with the East India Company, of
those indefeasible and most cherished rights, upon which
each fearful inroads have of late years been made, under
no other sanction than that of the irresistible means
which a succession of military triumphs has at length
placed at our disposal, for enforcing such not less impo-
litic than unjust exercises of an assumed right. After
those lucid expositions of the Hindoo law, and
usages as regards succession by adoption, by which
this Court has of late been edified, proceeding as
as they did from many of its most experienced, most
enlightened, and best informed members—after the
unqualified recognition by the British Government in the
fifteen cases so pertinently quoted, and so ably
commented upon by the mover of these resolutions,
in practical illustration of the inviolability of the
rights thereby conveyed,— unwilling as I feel
to occupy the time of the Court by any further cita-
tions of a like tendency, there is one so remarkable
from the pre-eminsnt authority in which it rests, and
from the important result to which it led, that I do not
think, on such a review, it should pass unnoticed. I
allude to the case of the tributary principality of Kur-
noul on the death of the Nabob, in the year 1821, with-
out male heirs, and to the memorable minute by the late
Sir Thomas Munro, fully concurred in by Lord Hastings,
which was to the following effect :
" I think we have no right to meddle in the affairs of
Kurnoul on the pretence of malatlininibiration on the
sufferings of the people, or on any other grounds
than those of securing our own rights of pescush and
military service, and the peace of our own districts. I
think we ought to wait quietly for the Nabob's death,
and to acknowledge for his successor the person of his
family who by his choice, and the support of his officers,
may be enabled to assume the government."
Upon this case, Mr. Chairman, too much stress cannot
be laid, from its having led, after three years' consider-
ation, to the authoritative adoption of a fixed principle
by the Court of Directors for the future guidance of the
Government of India. Your Honourable Court, on
the review of a similar tranaction elsewhere, so long
back as the year 1819, thus' disposed of the
question of succession by adoption in your letters to
Dena!, dated 1824, which direct as follows:—" It does
. not appear Ito us, that the treaty of Bhopal affords a
warrant for all this interference; it is not provided by
that treaty that you shall have either the power of inter-
fering with the appointment of a Nabob, that of choos-
ing le minister, or that of dismissing any of the Nabob's
attendants." Can, gentlemen, language be stronger
confirmatory, except when by treaty it is otherwise ex-
pressly provided for, of the absolute right of every
native principality to provide for its own successor?
It remains for me to point out that this disavowal by
the first authorities, bath of England and India, of all
claims on the part of the East India Company to in-
terested interference with the usages of succession in
default of male heirs in the direct line, among our de-
pendent and tributary states, is in perfect unison, not
with the speculative opinions, but with the well-founded
convictions of all your most eminent governors and
statesmen from the date of our earliest alliances with
the native powers. Warren Hastings, so long back as
1774, thus expresses himself:—
" The general principle upon which we have acted,
and which we mean to make the rule of our future
policy sad conduct, is, no other than that which your
authority and that of the Legislature have equally pre-
scribed to us, to maintain peace in India. The preser-
vation of power necessarily includes the vigorous defence
of your possessions with such parts of the dominions of
your allies as are guaranteed by treaty; it excludes
every idea pf conquest, much less could we suffer the
small states which look up to you for protection to be
swallowed up by the great ones."
In the same unmistakable language the late Mar-
quis of Wellesley, thirty years afterwards, thus expressed
lit resell:—
" Every principle of true policy demands that no
effort should be omitted by the British Government to
establish a permanent foundation of general tranquillity
by securing to every state the free enjoyment of its just
rights and independence, and by frustrating every pro-
jr-ct calculated to disturb the possessions or to violate the
"rights of the established powers of Hindoatan and of the
Deccan."

After a lapse of nearly forty years the same distin-
guished Nob:eman thus-expresses himself:—
" No further extension of our territory is desirable in
India, even in the event of war, for conquest, if that
could be justified or were legal, as the law most wisely
. etends." While, as regards some other meditated inno-
vations in Bengal, he has enjoined in the same letter,
" pieta non numere."
That pre-eminent statesmen the Hon. Mountstuart
Elphinetone, when interrogated by the Legislature 'flair-
. teen years after- our conquest of the Mahratta country,
thus replied:— .
, . . "It appears tome to be our interest as well as our
duty to use every means to preserve the allied Govern-
meets; it is also our interest to keep up the number of
: independent powers; their territories afford a refuge to
all those whose habits of war, intrigue, oe depredation
12131. e them inseparable of remaining quiet in ours."
After an avowal, gentlemen, of those sentiments, Can an
, iota of doubt he entertained in the mind of any reason-
able man what would have been the result of a refer-
ence to such prescient, authority - regarding the - recent
' anneiatiou 0: the Samara territory? That practical and
feraseeing statesmen, and that best of triends which the
natiVet ot our osvn vriitory, as well as the principalities
of Italia ever had, the late Sir John Malcolm, thus ex-
- ' preSscs himself in their, behalf, when on -the same occa-
sion interrogated:—
"'The wars to which we hare been compelled from our
condition have left us sole sovereigns of this vast terri-
tory; but they have involved us in great, though not it
retrievable embarrassment; the pressure of financial
difficulties recommends every measure which promises
imtuediete relief, but that to be permanent must be
. 'weight, not in the future annexation of territory,
but in the improvement of what we pos-
sess, and in the general revision and reduc-
,tion of our establishments. To enable us to effect
- •
- them objects we must not cast away one iota of., good
• • feeling or meti.• for allegiance. that exists, or which we
hove a prospect (1 creating in the minds of our native
subjects. We must maintain to thautmostnf our power
the. higher orders of the comeaueity, for on their being
'conciliated to our rule, the futere peace of this empire
infest greatly depend, and with it our power to -lessen
- , the expenses of its Government. . . _ . ~ We
cannot admit our right to carry the privilege of
' giving itivice, and a modified interference, stipulated by
treaty, to go under any circumstances short of hostilities,
extreme public danger, or. the violation of faith, to the
establishment of a right to assume the government of
the country, with the power of which our treaties .are
' contracted." .
' In'a leiter to the Court of Directors, of the 25th April;
1827, on the occasion of his leaving England to take
upon hiMself the Government of Bombay, the same die:
tiogui,hecl officer, in accordance with the views of those
high authorities before cited; and aware of the cone-
Spondieg sentiments of those to whom he was addressing
' iiimeelf, thus again states— •
" The petty e:tres can cherish no hope of resisting the
.power of the British Government of which they are the
-tritutariee and dependants, and if we can succeed in
placing their minds at repose, as to the conti-
nuance of 'their power over their respective tribes
' and territories, I have no doubt .but that, by
their gradual reform, we may establish a system
calculated teyond any we have yet adopted to -give
permanence to our power, and to reconcile the upper
as well as the lower ranks of society to our Goverment."
"That, experienced officer and political functionary,
' ' Colenel J.: :item), thus expresses himself on the. all-
.
'lmportant matter under discussion:—
The mode and extent of our interference must de.
reed . upon the circumstances and character of the allied
is' reed
and Governments, and must rest very much on
i'eh;-; judgment and discretion of the British Resident and
.x Government. To procure the choice of an able and
`../;1, dive Minister, and to guide and support his pro.
' 66titt will often be the policy ot the British
- PeVertiteetit, connected with, assiduous endeavours to
, -•
4' ,
jc outlet ei.,etiet r_a_t is, and maintain the dignity of the Prince.
e iteupoitcy equally dictete the necessity of avoid-
''iing every occasion that might.lead us• to take terri-
Vella(' piessiesSion of the -dominions of any
Ultied states; for it is of high importanceof the
to retain &base
'n'a'ive Governments, on the ground, withoutt reference
to either reasc.ns, of their givin
trust, eneoluneent, , and. dignity, to giving situations
tia"s of
,natives in
general, and' especially 'to the higher classes of them."
Upon' such an occasion, I am not less unwilling to omit
whet has been prominently noticed by that is expe-
rienced and most distinguished of your pub'. ' : its
in the political department both in the Co • • . ~
land and India, the late Mr. Neß.Edmonston•, who this
expresses himself :7-. - . ,
" It must be bile -endeavour to conduct our relations
with the allied states as much as possible in - Cy
air
to the professed principle of their foundation. st,
etidesivour to render the chiefs what in words yMt
treaty we recognise them to be, the absolute rulers of
their cotintry.'
least, that distinguished historian and
,pTholiotiliegahl functionary,last t
the late Colonel Todd, thus ex-
'presses himself on the same occasion:—
"If the impression should become general-4f no
'me-
thod benee the Bajpoot states that ul-
,
limate'devised to convince
is not our object, what can we
'expect but the conversion of our best friends into our
bitterest foes?"
Such,- gentlemen, are the authorities on which this
appeal is now made to your sense of justice, for the
athill,ints of some legislative enactment, for arresting
the progress of encroachment upon the hereditary and
indefeasible rights of the tributary and dependent states
with whiels we have formed alliances. Upon an occasion
like' the present, I could not but feel it a duty in-
enthbent upon me as e
forward in their behalf. member of this Court to come
I have done so, gentlemen, ac-
tuated.by nolections spirit of hostility towards our re-
opected executive. I have done so with aview not of
lowering but of elevating the reputation for moderation
end 'good faith of the'Britili
et Government.nI have done
so; gentlemen,
with the view of
arr those to whom
such a large share of their authority if .delegated, in a
. careereof harshuess, selfishness, end injrincusticipaleite,ywthhirochughhas„.
it'i sf: aken the confidence of every principality through
.out India in our probity and honour, and.
Created the greatest alarm and anxiety, lest aerywhere
fate to that which has befallen the Satta ra .similar
dynasty
hOillt.l await them and their families.
'ree CHAIRMAN then rose and said, that he should not
attempt, neither did he think that it would be expected
front him, to follow the Hon. Mover and Seconder
throughout the whole of the long arguments which they
lied used on the present occasion. The first part of the
mu. Mover'. address consisted merely in a aeries of
eulogies on the manner in which our government had
been carried on, and it must be quay unnecessary for