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    of Oude should be guaranteed in possession of their estates and rewarded , that actual murderers should be excluded from mercy , that persons of all classes making their submission early should be secure of "life and honour , " " that those who aided 'the Government would be entitled to its superior consideration , and that , with certain , exceptions , the territory was conditionally confiscated , or Tather held in pledge , until the authority of the British

    Commissioner had been completely re-established , and due investigation made into the armies of the rebellion . "We dare not be so rapid in our verdicts as Lord Eiii / ENBonoTTGH , and are therefore unable for the present to weigh every point in this manifesto ; our information , to say the truth , is vague and unsatisfactory . It may prove that the menace of confiscation was impolitic , or it may be shown that Lord Canning followed the wisest course open to him . That is a problem not yet to be solved by political critics at home . But there are

    certain known facts which may help us to a conclusion . In the first place , a number of the great landowners in Oude are not of that class for whom any appeal can legitimately be made on . the ground of hereditary possession . They had acquired their estates at a period compai'atively recent by the plunder and murder of their weaker neighbours , and , as Colonel Sleemait ascertained , these were the favourites and most strenuous adherents of the dethroned dynasty . The assumption of the country by Lord Baleodsie , and the exaction of arrears from the territorial

    lords , arrayed against us a large proportion of that powerful order , and this hostility was of course aggravated when the Governor-Oeneral proposed to supersede the talookdar "by the village system . The scheme was never very largely developed , and Lord Cak-UiNG , upon his accession to the administration of India , set his face against it . It was not until after the revolt , with its accumulation of horrors and atrocities , that he believed liimself entitled to resume for the

    Government the disposition of the land— -a privilege which , we are convinced , lie never intended to employ to any oppressive extent . Why , however , did he send home without explanation a document so easy to misinterpret and so sure to be attacked ? This , we think , was a blamable omission . "We are in a position to speak of Lord Oanning with candour and independence , "We have not at all times approved his policy . At the commencement of the mutiny he

    was demonstrably wanting in foresight ; lie dealt perversely with the suggestions of men who were competent to instruct him ; he confounded the English with the native press ; he appeared to parade his contempt of the European community ; . he contracted a fatal habit of undertaking too much , and was dissatisfied if , in addition to being his own council , he was not also his own clerk ; but we are forced to say that he met the appalling difficulties of his situation with cool

    and steady courage , and it is a testimony to his consistent calmness that those who once inveighed against his clemency at present denounce his rigour . He has kept an even course , and has therefore offended extreme opinions on both sides . So far as to Lord Canning . Taken for all in all , his policy has been sound , and its wisdom has been

    evidenced by its success . To Lord Ellenbohougui no such congratulations apply . Ho came into office when the worst of the crisis had passed ; ho found Lord Canning with the w » ost delicate and complex of all responsibilities upon lua hands —that of following with vigorous and cautious acts of administrative policy the subsidonce of the insurrection , Sir Ooi , in Campbei ^ i , and his

    brigadiers were beating the rebels . The Governor-General was taking charge of the rescued provinces . He issued a Proclamation designed to quell the turbulent and win over the timid , and , whatever flaw that document may contain , Lord Canning neither did , nor could do , anything so rash or perilous as was done—and done in good faith , no doubtby the Earl of EiiLenborough . His despatch to Lord Canning was an edict , and a propensity to edicts has been his official ruin . It was a mistake to impose a check so abrupt upon the administration of the

    Governor-General , who naight have been presumed to act with full knowledge of the circumstances , and of the influence likely to be exerted by his Proclamation . But to pass the " secret " despatch from hand to hand , to raise a discussion upon it , to transmit a copy to Mr . Joek Bbight . and to announce emphatically in Parliament . that Lord Canning had been visited with an . official censure , was a complicated act of -weakness aud folly committed by Lord Elie ^ bobotjgh : in common with the other members of the Cabinet . It was the President of the Board of Control who

    made himself responsible for publishing the state-paper in which he went far in an argument to justify the Oude rebellion and exalt it as a patriotic war ; but Mr . Pisuaeli declared from his place on the Treasury bench that the CAtfNrN'G Proclamation was by him , and by his colleagues , " condemned ia every sense , " so that , straightforward , manly , and generous as the . conduct of Lord Ellenboeottgh has been , w . e cannot think that he has exonerated the rest of the Government .

    There are grounds for a parliamentary vote of reprobation ; but it must be morbifying to public opinion in a constitutional country to observe the frenzy of selfish excitement into which the expectant factious are thrown , when , through a gap in the Indian policy of the Ministers , they perceive a chaiice of rushing back to office . This has been the discreditable aspect of the week ' s discussiou , and we are sorry to believe that Mr . Oahdwejx went to Cambridge House to enrol himself

    among the men whose desperate fidelity to Lord Palmehston far surpasses their loyalty to any public interest or political principle . This we say with the less reserve , and with the more pain , inasmuch as , whether with or without a dissolution of Parliament , a new Government is all but inevitable—as the Daily News has explained—within the next few mouths . It is impossible that Lord Debby can long cling to office at the head of a minority , scarcely numbering more than

    one-third of the House of Commons , and at variance with the mivjority on so many important questions . ¥ e have a Premier who admitted to Mr . SrootfEB that Maynooth had failed , yet declined to support his motion for inquiry ; who objected to Mr . Loo ice Kisra's County Franchise Bill , yet instructed his lieutenants in the Lower House not to divido against it ; who is a champion of church rates , and sees the majority led by Sir Jomsr Tbela . wn : t ; who considers marriage with a deceased wife ' s sister incestuous , and cannot prevent the second

    reading of Viscount Buiiy's bill ; who believes that the Legislature will be unchristianized by the admission of a Jew , and is to meet Baron Hotiisguild in conference , under the compulsion of a parliamentary vote ; and who , having abandonod his India Bill , abandons his India Minister . "What is the result , but that both Houses are stultified , and that , while factions are gravitating , now to Xord Paimbrston , now to Lord John Russell , all possibility of honest and effective legislation is destroyed ? India lins been totally sacrificed in the midst of tlieae party squabble-a , tlicao threats of consuro ,

    these evolutions of political leaders , these Cambridge Hlouse gatherings , these calcul ations by Sir "William Joliefe and Sir William Blayteb , these doubts of the Liberals whether they shall wear the London or Tiverton cockade .

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    THE INDEPENDENT LIBERAL PARTY . A hundred and twentt members of the House of Commons consider themselves to be sufficientl y agreed upon the principles of a Liberal policy to cohere as an independeiit party . They now understand , we should imagine , of what importance it is to . them that their strength and unity should be manifested . Already , the demonstration thev have made has pro&itced a visible impression in and out of -Parliament . The Conservative prints insinuate the most flattering appeals to the Hundred and Twenty not to throw away their support upon the Whigs . The Whig organs point to the . process of

    . Liberal organization as a sign that , if there be one growing party in the House of Commons it is not the Conservative . And tlie Hundred and Twenty -well know that not only the present hut any future Cabinet must depend upon them if only they have a common basis , an intelligent and indefinite course of action , and such a systematic method of representing themselves and public opinion as will not only give them weight m the House , but render them the nucleus of Liberalism throughout , the country . Allowing the Conservatives two hundred and seventy votes in the Commons , the Liberals

    number three hundred and ninety . From the latter take the hundred and twenty now endeavouring to organize themselves , and resolved , as they declare , to insist upon , a Government of progress and sincerity , and what is left to the Whigs ? Two km . dred and sixty-five votes—a combination which , without the aid of the hundred and twenty who enrol themselves as independent members , the Conservatives might at airy time overthrow . There is no necessity for drilling- a Brigade or a Brass Baud to exercise a domineering terrorism over Ministers by threatening to leave them in a minority whenever a Liberal proposal is refused , hut we do say

    ¦ with Mr . Headlam that the party has been unfairly treated , while we go beyond him in saying , that the par ty deserves what it has suffered . Even now public opinion is so i-ncredulous of any union or persistency among the Liberal members of the House of Commons , that in many quarters it is whispered that Mr . Headlam's complaint was tlie cry of a stormy petrel , and that independent legislators have been fluttered by the fear of a dissolution . And -well may they dread to go before their

    constituents with an account of their good and evil works since the last general election . Who of the new men has distinguished himself ? Where arc all the promises , prophecies , and hopes that , in ] $ 37 , showered from the hustings ? Where is the organization that was predicted ? and what have the Liberals done for themselves or the principles Ihcy are ^ supposed to represent ? They arc only now beginning to remember that they form tlie materials of an influential party , and they might do something for their cause if they were not jealous , divided , and indifferent .

    At the first meeting of the independent members resolutions were carried declaratory of their intention not to support any future Government established on the narrow Whig basis . r It was proposed to vote that " inore earnest zeal" in favour of Reform must be displayed by the next Cabinet appealing to the confidence of the Liberal parly ; but the word " more , " upon a motion to that cll ' cct , was struck out , and a hundred and twenty members of the House of Commons thus declared unanimously that , no liberal zeal whatever had been exhibited bj Lord Pahncrston or Lord John Russell . This important resolution— "That no future Government will bo woTthy of support which does not

    manifest earnest zeal and sincerity in promoting measures of improvement and reform" — might operate as a warning ; and stimulus to the chick of the Opposition , could they bo , convinced tlmt ( lie movement is not a mere ' flash in the pan—could they see a party organizing and a policy developed by the independent Liberals—could they sec ihem communicating directly and regularly with the public , as other sections do , -with far more confidence in themselves , though with far inferior claims to popularity . What does Mr . J . Clay confess ? That lie and his friends have hitherto pursued a course which has rendered them " useless m the Houso of Commons , " and . must shortly

    Untitled Article

    468 THE LEABEB . [ Ko . 425 , May 15 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 15, 1858, page 468, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2242/page/12/