LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S LETTER.

Colonist, Issue 89, 27 August 1858, Page 4

LORD ELLENBOROUGH'S LETTER.

The Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company to the Governor-General of India in Council.

April 19,1858

1. Our letter of the 24th March, 1858, will have put you in possession of our general views with respect to the treatment of the people, in the event of the evacuation of Lucknow by the enemy.

2. On the 12th instant, we received from you a copy of the letter dated the 3rd of March, addressed by your secretary to the secretary of the Chief Commissioner in Oude, which letter enclosed a copy of the proclamation to be issued by the Chief Commissioner as soon as the British troops should have command of the city of Lucknow, and conveyed instructions as to the manner in which he was to act with respect to the different classes of persons, in execution of the views of the Governor-General.

3. The people of Oude will see only the proclamation.

-4. That authoritative expression of the will of Government informs the people that six persons, who are named as having, been steadfast in their allegiance, are henceforward the sole hereditary ; proprieto^ r of the lands they :held when Oude came under

British rule, subject only to such moderate assessments as may be imposed upon them; that others, in whose favor like claims may be established, will have conferred upon them a proportionate measure of reward and honor; and that with these exceptions the proprietary right in the soil of iheprorvince is confiscated to the British Government, s. r-

5. We cannot but express to you our apprehension that this decree, pronouncing the disinherison of a people, will throw difficulties, almost insurmountable : in the way of the re-establishment of peace. 6. We are under the impression that the war in Oude has derived much of its popular character from the rigorous manner in which, without regard to what the chief landholders had become accustomed to consider as their rights, the summary settlement had, in a large portion of the province, been carried out by your officers. 7. The landlords of India are as much attached to the soil occupied by their ancestors, and are as sensitive with respect to the rights in the soil they deem themselves to possess, as the occupiers of land in any country of which we have a knowledge. 8. Whatever may be "your ultimate and undisclosed intentions, your proclamation Will appear to deprive the great body of the people of all hope upon the subject most dear to them as individuals; while the substitution of our rule for that of their native sovereign has naturally excited against us whatever they may have of national feeling. [9. We cannot but in justice consider that those who resist our authority in Oude are under very different circumstances from those who have acted against us in provinces which have been long under our government. 10. We dethroned the King of Oude, and took possession of his kingdom by virtue of a treaty which had been subsequently modified by another treaty, under which, had it been held to be in force, the course we adopted could not have been lawfully, pursued; but we held that it was not in force, although the fact of its not having, been ratified in England, as regarded the provision on which we rely for our justification, had not been previously made known to the King of Oude. 11. That sovereign and his ancestors had been uniformly faithful to their treaty engagements with us, however ill they may have governed their subjects. 12. They had more than once assisted us in our difficulties, and not a suspicion had ever been entertained of any hostile disposition on their part towards our Government.

13. Suddenly the people saw their King taken from amongst them, and our administration substituted for his, which, however bad, was at least native; and this sudden change of government was immediately followed by a summary settlement of the revenue, which, in a very considerable portion of the province, deprived ;the most influential landholders of whaUhey-degmed to be their property —of what, certainty,had long given wealth, and .distinction, and power to their families.] / ; 14. We must admit that, under the circumstances, the hostilities which have been carried on in Oude have rather the character of legitimate war than that of rebellion, and that the people of»Oude should rather be regarded with indulgent consideration than made the objects of a penalty, exceeding in extent, and in severity, almost any which 'has been recorded in history as inflicted upon-a subdued nation. 15. Other conquerors, when they have succeeded in overcoming resistance, have excepted a few persons as still deserving of punishment, but have, with a generous policy, extended their clemency to the.great body of the people. ■16. You have acted • upon :j a different principle. You have reserved a few as deserving of special favor, and you have struck, with what they feel as the severest punishment, the mass of. the inhabitants of the country. ; 17. We cannot but think that the precedents from which you have departed .will appear to have been conceived in a spirit of wisdom superior to that which appears in the precedent which you have made. 18. We desire that you will mitigate in practice the stringent severity of the decree of confiscation you have issued against the landholders of Oude.

19. We desire to see British authority in India rest upon the willing obedience of a contented people. There cannot be contentment where there is general confiscation.

20. Government cannot long be maintained by any force in a country where the whole people are rendered hostile by a sense of wrong; andif it were possible, s,q .to. maintain it, it would not be a consummation to be desired.

"We observe by the London papers," says the Malta Times, that the correspondence of the Times, containing the intelligence from Lucknow of the 15th of March, reached Suez via Calcutta by the Candia, on the 2nd of April, was received next day at Alexandria, whence it was immediately despatched to Corfu, where it reached at 11*50 a.m. on the 7th, per Austrian steamer. By 2 p.m. on the same day it was telegraphed to Malta, and thence to Cagliari by 4 p.m., by submarine cable; reached London during the night, and was published in the early morning edition of:the Bth ; and the journal containing it reached Malta by ordinary post per French steamer on the afternoon of the 13th of April, exactly six days from the time it was despatched from Malta, and 26 days from its leaving Lucknow. We reckon that this telegram alone, containing some 650 words, cost the proprietors of the Times in its transmission not less than £150. ~ --V

In consequence of the low value of agricultural produce, the landed proprietors of Hungary are unable to pay their taxes; while other classes are exceedingly poor. •,