Indian Affairs.

Colonist, Issue 89, 27 August 1858, Page 4

Indian Affairs.

THE OMITTED PARAGRAPHS IN LORD ELLENBOROTJGH'S DESPATCH.

The attention of the reader is especially directed to the singular circumstances connected with the publication of the despatch of Lord Ellenborough to the GovernorGeneral of India, respecting the recent proclamation issued by that high functionary in Oude. This despatch, together with the proclamation in question, and a letter from the India Board to the Secretary of the Chief Commissioner of Oude, upon the same subject, will be found in another column of The Observer; and the reader will not fail to be struck with surprise, as much at the character of its contents as at the peculiar circumstances under which it has been published. On Friday night Lord Ellenborough laid before the House of Lords a copy of this despatch—stating, however, that certainparagraphs, five in number, were omitted, as it was deemed their publication would be inconsistent with the interests of the public service at the present moment. These paragraphs, he said, contained reasoning upon the'subject in question, which it was not, m the opinion of the Government, expedient to publish. Yesterday morning the despatch in question was published in ac- Icordance with the order of Parliament; and, 10, and behold! it contained the very paragraphs which Lord Ellenborough and the Government had specially excepted from publication. . The explanation of this singular fact is not easy, more particularly as the paragraphs proposed to be omitted, but subsequently given to the public, involve the whole scheme of British policy in the East, and quite prejudge the question now at issue in Oude. In other words, they admit without reticence or concealment of any kind that the policy of England as regards Oude has bsen wrong from the beginning; that the course we pursued in originally annexing that kingdom was not a lawful course; that the annexation was an act of political ingratitude towards a faithful political friend; and that substantially the people of that country were justified in opposing a rule thus forced on them when the opportunity for so doing offered itself. All these fatal admissions it will be seen are made in the paragraphs in question, and there cannot be a doubt therefore that the empire at large will socn resound from end to end with angry and animated discussion on the subject. That these paragraphs were published by the Government is beyond the possibility of doubt. It only remains, therefore, to divine the cause of their publication; to ascertain, in fact, whether it was intentional or accidental. If it were accidental only, it involves a laxity of discipline in the offices of the Board of Control, which, as it may lead to the continuance or even renewal of the internecine war now raging in India, and most certainly to a postponement of the pacification, of Oude, cannot be too loudly denounced or too strongly condemned. If, on the other hand, it was the deliberate act of the Government, what can be thought of men who not only throw such a firebrand into the midst of a combustible population like that of India—a population still in arms against British supremacy,- —but who do so in contravention of their own solemn statements ? ■