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trader ; ba&'likewise been iil * treated . "Should the Governor-General ' have waited until an j / Vmerican squadron commanded the : Irra-. nrcatMy ^ andiiin / American settlement arose on ¦ the ' -eastern shores of the 'Bay of Bengal ? Iiord iD . Ai . JaotrsiE -was not the man to incite ;« uch ja contingency . Notwithstanding the jieeble -counsels "and dilatory movements of the rprecedents ^ ovmg General , the war was ibrought to a successful issue , and the protrince of j Pegu : aain © xed to the British Empire . Q ? Ms has Jbeen stigmatized as an act of usurpaitiffin . . An opposite course was pursued on cfcbe <«© nclusion ' of the first Burmese war , ' and
ostigmatized' ^ as a < disgraceful abandonment of i-tlie-unfortunate inhabitants who had espoused our cause . 'Pegu , it must be remembered , wasrnofran integral portion of the Burmese Empire . It was a conquest of comparatively ; recent date , and 'the people were still unreconciled to their conquerors . They had gladly welcomed the force under Sir Archi-¦ b aXiT ) i OAMPBEiii / , and afterwards suffered for the assistance they had afforded the invaders . ZEbe lesson was not lost upon them : for a fcbsfe they held aloof from General Godwin , until assured that they would not again be left to the tender mercies of a barbarous
court . They then rendered every aid' to the British troops , and hailed the chance of annexation with loud and joyous acclamations . Ithsafl 1 been Urged that 'Pegu is an unprofitable addition of mere territory . OPhis allegation is already disproved . Notwithstanding the bettvy expenditure incidental to the occupat ion ^ and settlement of a new country , there is-actually an excess Of revenue . Labour is also becoming inore plentiful , and the important natural resources of i # ie' district will thus soon be turned to good account . ¦
The next increase of territory was by the Cession of Berar , in payment of the immense arrears of debt due by the Nizam . This is one of the most fertile districts of India , in a high state of cultivation , arid inhabited by a -simple and industrious race . Only two months afterwards the province of Nagpore devolved to the British Government , through the extinction of the reigning family . Until
v « ry recently the native princes were wont ; fco > adopt the child of a favourite retainer , or concubine , as ; the heir to the musnud , when the hereditary stock had ceased to .. put forth ibranch . es . The practice was fraught with " much inconvenience , and oftentimes led to fraud , violence , and bloodshed . It was there-! fore decreed—no doubt arbitrarily—that , in ( d efault of the ruling family , the British Government Should be deemed heir-at-law . to
all native states under its protection . We now come : to the last great act of Juord Damcoiisie ' s vicerovalty , ; and one that has been more commented upon than any of » theipreceding . Accordiugto somereasoners , he is 'as worthy of impeachment « s Waebbn Hastings was . in 1787 ; while others maintain : that when ; his Lordship resumes his seat among the Peers of England , the House ought to receive him as they did AVabuen Hastings thirty years afterwards , upstanding and uncovered . Both parties overstate the case . Lord Daxiiotjsie had little or ' no
discretion . It is true , ho might have go-Vjeraed Oude nominally through tho king , and . virtually through a Resident . But thia could not . long have endured . Such a courBO would have led to perpetual wrangling and dissension . The king would have boon , though a ; mero puppet , both able and willing to in ) j > edo tho action of tho Resident , and tho people would lmvo been scarcely better governed than under tho odious system that ; prevailed aforetime . Half-measures are seldom palatable to men of Lord DAiaiousiE ' s stamp . Ho , therefore , determined upon enforcing tho treaty of 1801 . Komouatwuice
Ignorant persons * are apt to say that tMs repeated extension of territory must eventually weaken the empire , and then they quote Borne under the emperors . Illustration , however , is not argument : the two cases are in no way analogous . The limits of the British Empire are not extended by the absorption of these various states . The result is one of
had been tried , and failed . &o"the fiat wimt forth , -and civilization began to dawn upon the wretched people of Oud © . The king ^ vra $ deposed , ithe soldiery entered the ranks ^> f the British army , magistrates and revenue officers spread a net-work of justice and finance over f the country , and men of all classes knew that from that hour they were safe in person and property .
consolidation . It would be as sensible * to complain of the annexation of the county of Durham , if that district had previously been independent of the British Grown . Others object that when the process of absorption shall be completed , the natives -may unite under some great man , and throw off the foreign yoke . This objection can be raised only by ' those who are not aware that the population of'India consists of many different races , agreeing ; in no one point , - except in
detesting each other more fiercely than they do the Feringhi . Differing in religion , in . language , in customs and institutions , 'they will never-submit to any one of themselves . Besides , how is the deliverer to arise when no nucleus 'for rebellion any longer exists ? A third party battle about the immorality of the whole proceeding , and assert that the present difficulties of Oude have been promoted by former Governors-General . To a certain extent , this is true . But then , to be consistent , we ought to restore Uohilcund , and
all the large sums of money extorted unoer various pretexts in the olden time . Are they prepared to do this ? If not , they are not justified in blaming Lord DaIiHOTjsib for accepting the situation as it sj *) od in his time . He is clearly not answerable for the acts of his predecessors . In 1856 he found Oude to be in such a state that he could no longer avoid enforcing the due execution of the treaty of 1801 . He did enforce that treaty , and Oude is annexed . The government of nations is not a subject for copy-book morality . It is a hard , harsh ' thing ; and depends upon the concatenation of circumstances much more
than tipon the Ebenezer demonstrations of Exeter-hall . Perhaps even Exeter-hall will receive as a honeyed sop the consideration that Oude will pat as an investment . We have dwelt , at such length on the political events of'Lord DAiiHousiE ' s viceroyalty , that we have left ourselves no space to do more than enumerate the great civil achievements of his ; administration . To him alone
is duo tho cheap postage of India . Until within the last three years the postal rates were ruinous , and virtually prohibited correspondence between distant friends and relatives . His lordship reduced them to ono uniform charge of one anna— -three halfpence —for letters and newspapers . Taking into account the vastness of " tho empire , and the difficulties of communication in some parts , this is a'bolder measure than the adoption of
the penny postage in England . The construction " of the electric telegraph throughout tho i empire , so that a merchant at Calcutta may converwo at the same time with his agents at Madras , Agra , Bombay , and Pcshawur , is mainly attributable to Lord DAi , irousuo , without derogation to tho great merits of Dr . O'SiiAuaiiNJSSSY . To tho Biimo discriminating patronage must bo ascribed whatever has been done in
railways , and still moro tho establishment ol iron furnaces to supersede tho necessity of procuring rails from England . Under hia
iTeignaiso the Ganges Canal was opened , the i ( strand Trunk Bead completed , the Roorkee ' GbUege » for > GiviljEngineers established in the north-West . dkTore < immediately his own work has ibeen itfae abolition of fthe commissariat jand military boards— -the haxxe of the India service . The former brought <»* riminal action against the man who'had fed the < army in an arduous campaign . ( Eke latter objected to every ¦ improvement , prevented , all enterprise ,
and converted the army-into 1 an unthinking machine . One other tuait , and we fearlessly leave the late Governor- ? € teneralof tlndia to the verdict of his countrymen . IJord ~ DaIj - housie possesses ; an intuitive knowledge of character . He ; has seldom been mistaken in his choice . < To distant and difficult posts he sent the ablest men in the two services . < The inferior and plastic characters he kept near himself .
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of aTBfitish legation in Borne , as a means of communication 1 between the liberal statesmen of ^ England . and the reformers in all the provinces of Italy . It is not a mere avowal of sympathy on the part of the British representatives that will satisfy the Sardinian Cabinet . A conflict is inevitable , and is universally foreseen , between the Powers that virtually occupy the Italian arena These Powers are Austria and Piedmont . Prance has
FRANCE—ITALY—AUSTRIA . The Sardinian plenipotentiaries , in their memorial to the Congress 6 £ Paris , did not confine themselves , as the public has been told to believe , to a plan for the ^ secular government of the Boman Legations , and for their relief from the presence of an Austrian army . They demanded the practical recognition of England , for the liberal party in the 'Pontifical States , no less than in the Legations . They suggested the establishment
an exotic influence on the soil , and interposes a foreign barrier between the conquerors of Venice and Lombardy and the centre of the Catholic world . But the real struggle we witness , and which may soon take the form of a revolutionary war , is between Vienna and Turin , between Liberalism and the Concordat , between the nation of Italy , the priests of Home , and the soldiers of Southern Germany . This crisis , prepared by forty years of treachery and oppression on one side , and forty years of anger and suffering ^ on the other , is now the great problem of
Europe . It is no longer the Ottoman Empire that appealsto the 'West for protection . When Count Cavoub went to 'Pans to aid in negotiating a peace with Russia , he understood the dangers that were rising in Italy , and sat in the Conferences -with a double object iu view . Besides 'participating in tho reconciliation of the belligerent Powers , he was charged by ! his ' Government to explain , in the face of Europe , the unfortunate condition of Italy , and to apply for an alliance of the liberal Powers in behalf of Italian
rights . We do not say that this determination was communicated to Lord Cuaiiendon before tho first session of tho plenipotentiaries . Certainly , however , Count ; Oavour presented an elaborate document to tho Conference , and , probably , he anticipated the nature of Lord Ci , akendon ' 8 reply . A few days afterwards , a second memorial was appended , with a note annexed , the not © being a plea for the intervention of the plenipotentiaries and tho memorial a dose historical summary of the whole question . This succession of state protests against tho maladministration of the Roman
territories , and against th © damm «« nj * g armies of Austria , seems to prove that tho Government of Sardinia h « s entered deliberately upon a course in . which-it is resolved to-persevere . Tho revolution is approaching in
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7 M ^ Jh % 3 L 8 BBJr ] T 39 C CE Ii E A ( Bl & . 4071
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1856, page 471, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2141/page/15/
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