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Leader (1850-1860), 17th December 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 1366, Untitled Article

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      that his inability to halt under a pursuit caught "tip by successive columns becomes as ruinous as defeat . These districts have been disturbed long enough , and it is time the . rebels should feel that native sinews are no match for European organisation . — Friend of India .

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      THE PROBLEM SOLVED IN OUDE . On the 22 nd October the Governor-General , surrounded by a splendid cortege , and followed by a large escort , entered Lucknow in state . We leave the description of the procession ^ the plaudits , the stately ceremonial , the investiture of the princes ¦ with insignia , the smooth speeches and smoother obeisances , to the pens which delight in such details . Suffice it to say , Lord Canning entered the capital of Oude in the true position—as conqueror , as well as Viceroy—and went through-the reception-of the nobles-without that mock humility ' -which so often deforms our ceremonial observances . On the following Monday all landholders of Oude were received in open durbar , and the Governor-General uttered the following address : —

      " Talookdars of Oude , —I am glad to find myself in your country , and amongst you , and to have this opportunity of speaking to you in the name of the Queen , jour Sovereign . " A year 1 ms not passed away since this province was the seat of anarchy and war . The conduct of its people had been such that the Government was compelled to lay a-heavy-hand upon it . But peace and order are now restored to every corner of Oude , and I am come to speak to 3 'ou not of the past , but of the future . " You have , all of you who are here present , received yesterday the grants-of those estates which the Government has restored to you . " You will have seen by the terms of those grants ihat the ancient talookadaree system of Oude is revived and perpetuated . . ;

      ' 'Be assured that so long as each one of you is a loyal and faithful s ' ubject , and a just master , his rights and dignity as a talookdar "will be upheld by me , and by every representative of your Queen , and that no man shall disturb them . " ' -will also have seen by those grants that the same rights are secured on the same conditions to your heirs for ever . " Let this security be an encouragement to you to spend your care , and time , and money , upon the improvement of your possessions . . t has been to

      " As the Governmen generous you , so do you be generous to those who hold under you , down to the humblest tiller of the soil . Aid them , by advances of money and other indulgences , to increase the productiveness of the land , and set them an example of order and obedience to your rulers , " Let the same security in your possessions encourage you to bring up your eons in a manner "befitting the position which they -will hereafter occupy as the Chiefs of Oude . -Learn yourselves , and teach them , to look to the Government as a father .

      ' ? Talookdars : I trust that there are none amongst you who are so infatuated as to believe that the Government has had designs against your religion . Even if there be any such I will not condescend to repeat the assurances -which they have already received on this head . I lea , ve it to time , and experience , nnd their own senses to dispel their perverse suspicions . But for their own sakes , I warn them not to be led into acts of opposition , or . distrust towards the Government by the false tales of designing men .

      " Lastly , Tnlopkdars , -whenever on any matter you have doubts to be resolved or wishes to make known , address yourselves to the Chief Commissioner . Ho will tell you tho truth in all things . He is tho high and trusted representative of tho Government in Oudo , and depend upon it , ho will be your best adviser and your truest friend . " I wish that I could speak to you in your own language . That which I have said will now be interpreted to , , you , and I enjoin you to bear it in your memories . "

      We Tend nnd road again that speech with over increasing surprise . Were not the policy of Lord Canning a kind of mirage of statesmanship , always promising and always delusive , his present action in Oude might atone for many of tho errors which , for the past two years , havo roused tho scornful ¦ wonder of his countrymen . If the words uttered at the Durbar mean anything—and uttered in such a place , at such a time , they should be as binding as an Englishman ' s honour—the problem of Oude is solved . Stumbling and groping along , knocking down much of priceless , value in his path , Lord Canning has blundqrod into light . The true polioy for India , repudiated for fifty years by tho Court of ^ Directors , feared and calumniated by every old Indian , has been allowed free play once more , for 1 tte flxnt Umo since Lord Cornwallis was buried a *

      Ghazeepore . Native society is permitted to develop in its own way , that way being , we inay remember , also ours . A strong native aristocracy is replaced in power , and protected -from poverty by a perpetual settlement . They are to grow rich undisturbed by the tax-gatherer , and dreading only a revolution , which may make it possible for a native Prince to re-arrange their tenure . The people are consigned to their natural lords , to men whom , when society had broken up , they themselves reappointed , and who with all their vices are at least subject to restraints unfelt by native officials . They may beoppi-essed , but they will also be protected ; they may be heavily taxed , but the fruit of that taxation

      will at least be spent among themselves . Henceforward , if we may trust the precedent of Bengal , Oude will at worst remain politically passive . The landholders may continue to hate the Europeans . They may chafe at their exclusion from politics , at that interruption of all careers which necessarily results from conquest . They may fret at what seetns to them the insolent familiarity of the brusque Englishman , or the rapid rise of the low born vermin who hang around our courts . But chafing or satisfied , fretful or content , they know that no native Prince would respect the settlement an hour , and the settlement is their Golden Bull . It is not the rich who make revolutions .

      We write , of course , on the assumption that the apparent is also the true meaning of the Governor-General ' s speech . If it is not , if the sentence which promises a perpetual settlement , is to be kept like the sentence which promised Englishmen exemption from the severities of the Press Act , the effect of the concession will be rendered null . The discontented class will then have been made the strongest , and the landholder , subjected to . an everr varying taxation , will still sigh for the ruler under whom wealth may at least be accumulated by intrigue . We do not , how e , believe there is any arriC-re pensee in the matter . The Perpetual Settlement is conceded to Oude .

      We will not mar our thorough approval of the measure . by an analysis of its bearing on the Oude Proclamation , and the recent despatch to Lord Stanley . It is enough for us that India benefits by a wise policy , however recently adopted , and we remember only with a smile that the men now enriched for eVer , raised permanently to the rank of nobles , are the same wfcom the same ruler doomed one short year since to expiate a " common crime by a common retribution . "—Friend of India .

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      LATEST INDIAN INTELLIGENCE . By the arrival of the Overland Mail we have received advices from Calcutta to Nov . 8 . The papers are much taken up with Lord Canning ' s tour through Oude and the Upper Provinces . On Oct . 29 the Governor-General and the Commander-in Chief departed for Cawnpore . The show and ceremonial of the week are stated to have been successful , but it is said that they have given great offence to Europeans at Lucknow . The rules for compensation to sufferers by the mutiny have been issued . The loss , in support of which primd facie evidence was laid before the commissioners , amounts to Rs . 2 , 07 , 83 , 214 , and there are further claims to

      the extent of Rs . 32 , 67 , 783 , which are doubtful . To meet this it is expected the sum of Ks . 80 , 000 , 000 will be sufficient , but on no account is more than a million sterling to be given , which sum is to bo remitted to India in the course of tliis cold season . A distinction is made between real and personal property . In the case of real property , where tho amount of the admitted loss shall not exceed Ks . 2 , 000 , one-half shall be awarded , and where the loss exceeds that sum , Us . 1 , 000 shall bo given , and one-third of tho surplus . Losers of porsonul property are to receive onerthird of the admitted loss , but in no case shall more than Us . 5 , 000 be granted . Compensation commissioners have been appointed in Bengal , the NorthiWost , the Punjaub , Oude , Kajpootana , and Central India , to conduct tho necessary

      inquiries . Not later than two months after closing the inquiries the amount conceded will be paid . Insurance companies receive nothing . No question of tho loss of profits can bo entertained . A bank will receive only a third of the vnlueof its buildings . If the full million is really given , it is believed , with such important oxeoptions as these , most of tho claims will bo met , Of the Waghers there is llttlo further to record . The assault on Beyt socins to have boon sadly mismanaged . One account says there wore only 130 men in the fort . But tho whole strength of tho pirates is centred in Dwarka . and there the strugglo Is expected to bo deadly . The forco landed on tho 20 th of October . Up to tl > o 24 th , boyond tho oajpture of a small fort , nothing had been dono . Wur stores had boon cent for from Bombay and Kurraohee . The campaign in Bundleound has begun . Jferazo Shah , Furzund Ali , and Rum must Singh are in a

      dense jungle on a bend of the Cane river which runs in a north-easterly direction from the frontier of the Saugor . and Nerbudda territory to the Jumna between ChutterpoTPe and Punnah . By the last intelligence , Brigadier Wheeler and his staff had arrived at ^ agode and assumed command of the head-quarters column , . consisting of the 2 nd Sikhs two companies of her Majesty ' s 43 rd , and the Biinour Rajpoot Levy . . The . plan , for scourinc the jungles is likely to be successful . From the touth and west , three columns under Colonel Primrose her Majesty ' s 43 rd ; Colonel Oakes , 12 th . Royal Lancers ; and Colonel Nott , 19 th Madras Native Infantry , are marching on them . From Saugor Colonel Iloss advances with his Camel Corps , and ' from Bauda , Colonel Turner of the 97 th . Alexander ' s Horse guards the road from Ghysnbod to H-uttah . Preparations are being made for a

      campaign on the , Oude frontier . Most circumstantial accounts of the death of Nana Sahib again abound

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      Savagert in Modern Warfauk . —Mr . Mclendez gives the following accotmt of an action between the Spaniards and Moors , from the letter of a friend of his who was au eye-witness : — " Echagtie ordered a square to be formed ; and , at the impetuous charge of the Moors , the soldiers of the square retired . The enemy , imagining that they were flying , rushed impetuously against the square ^ which , opening itself of a sudden , disclosed a . battery : More than 200 Moors perished . Another division came then , and prevented the Moors from escaping .. The tight became a horrible butchery ;• the Moors threw away their muskets and fought with their peculiar long daggers , called ' -gumias : " The Spanish soldiers

      found themselves quite at ho-tn £ in this sort of struggle . They also threw away their rifles aud seized their navajas . Nothing could equal the ferocity of the combatants . My friend says it is impossible to form ari adequate idea of thisfi |> ht . A Spanish soldier slew three Moor ' s with his knife , and yet he had his face dreadfully cut by the " gumias . " Many had their entrails hanging on their lejjs , and went on more fiercely than ever . Not : i shot was then to be heard . Spanish artillerymen , chasseurs , and even officers were . fighting knife in hand . 200 Moors were killed in this savage combat , and nearly a thousand fearfully wfeunded . The . Spanish loss ¦ was also very great .

      Another Royal Betrotuai .. —The Prince of Orange , who lias been sojourning at Vienna , is publicly announced to have entered into an engagement with Archduchess Maria Theresa , the daughter of Archduke Albrecht , Viceroy of Hungary , and one of the more intellectual princes ' of Hamburg . The nows was thought likely to create some sensation in ¦ England , the Prince having for some time past been looked upon as the bridegroom elect of one of the fair daughters of Queen Yictorin . That the Nctherlanders will bo anything but satisfied at the prospect of a Roman Catholic Queen is undoubted . The young Archduchess has not yet reached her sixteenth year . ot

      The Povt-uvrioN or China . — The lust census China gave 414 , 080 , 904 ; nnd tho more wo learn ot tho Chinese empire the less reason does there nppear to think that the number of its enormous population has been exaggerated by its native authorities . From Arboiton dcr liussk'ehen Gcsadt-schuf t : u re / iiny ubcr China , it appears that tho population ^ the empire has been steadily increasing . In 1757 , the census gave only UM . JMtyWfcS ; in 1780 , it gave 277 , 548 , 431 ; in 1 B 12 , thero vvoro 3 < il , fl ! K . l , 17 !> , und m 1841 , tho second last census accessible , H : S , 1 . "> 7 , ;) 11-Itisnot easy to reconcile tlioso facts with tin ; notion so often expressed , that China- is in a state of decadence , and requires to have its life renewed by fin infusion of fipreigu cleiacnts . If sudi be tlio case—if it should turn out that thcro lius

      been a largo decrease of tho population during tho last seventeen years , when lurelgji elomonts have boon so largely alleotlngit , then i » fiylc bo concluded that those , which arc to restore Uiina to health and vigour , have boon , in the lh-flt maUncc , the causes of its illness anil decay . It il »< - 's not ™" low that when a country ' s population increases , us prosperity increases also , anymore than that a sneop improves whon it changes from ones nninml into «¦ thousand maggots . Tho quality of tho pupulul on is , of course , also to bo tnkun into account ; ana u country ljko England is in u more prosperous condition , which has only a few millions of uWo mm well principled men , than one liko I » ula whlcu niw its loss powerful myriads , But with the lucroiwe oi TJomilatiori in China durlnor tho last century , tlioro

      has not boon , so far as indications oxist , any corresponding deterioration of tho individual . llon «» It seonis that up to 1842 , and for at least a century boforo , China was in a flourishing ami progressive etuto .

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      1366 THE LEADER . [ No . 508 . Dec . 17 , Lgg Q

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      FOREIGN INCIDENTS .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1859, page 1366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2325/page/10/