and our own laws, no matter what may be the effect either upon us, or upon you, or upon the empire at large." That is their reply, and they say further: "If you English will not grant us this demand, we will carry disorder and destruction into your ancient Parliament; we will ruin Irish society by terror and intimidation; the queen's courts of justice shall be brought into general contempt and ridicule throughout the land; and crime, outrage, robbery, and wrong-all undetected, all unpunished-shall turn Ireland into a howling wilderness, and shall make the name and the fame of the British people stink in the nostrils of the nations." That is the reply of the National League to the demand and the appeal of the Unionist party, and it is with that reply Mr. Gladstone has identified himself. It is to encounter and nullify the effect of that most formidable menace, which with Mr. Gladstone's assistance they at the present moment have some power to carry into effect, that we Unionists call upon the British people to support the government which is carrying out their decision, to come to the back of the Parliament which they created only a few months ago. 312. How the English deposed the ruler of the Punjab CHAPTER XXVII THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Section 88. The Extension of British Dominion The following agreement imposed in 1849 by the British upon the ruler of the Punjab, Maharajah Dulleep Sing Bahadoor, illustrates the manner in which they treated the Indian princes whom they deposed and whose territories they one after another annexed. Terms granted to the Maharajah Dulleep Sing Bahadoor, on the part of the Honorable East India Company, by Henry Meirs Elliot, Esq., Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, K.C.B., Resident, in virtue of full powers vested in them by the Right Honorable James, Earl of Dalhousie, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, one of her Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, Governor General appointed by the Honorable East India Company to direct and control all their affairs in the East Indies, and accepted on the part of his Highness the Maharajah, by Rajah Tej Sing, Rajah Deena Nath, Bhaee Nidhan Sing, Fukeer Noorooddeen, Gundur Sing, Agent of Sirdar Shere Sing Sindhanwalla, and Sirdar Lall Sing, Agent and son of Sirdhar Uttur Sing Kaleanwalla, Members of the Council of Regency, invested with full power and authority on the part of His Highness. 1. His Highness the Maharajah Dulleep Sing shall resign for himself, his heirs, and his successors, all right, title, and claim to the sovereignty of the Punjab, or to any sovereign power whatever. 2. All the property of the State, of whatever description and wheresoever found, shall be confiscated to the Honorable East India Company, in part payment of the debt due by the State of Lahore to the British government, and of the expenses of the war. 3. The gem called the Koh-i-noor, which was taken from Shah Shooja-ool-Moolk by Maharajah Runjeet Sing, shall be surrendered by the Maharajah of Lahore to the queen of England. 4. His Highness Dulleep Sing shall receive from the Honorable East India Company, for the support of himself, his relatives, and the servants of the State, a pension not less than four and not exceeding five lakhs of the Company's rupees per annum. 5. His Highness shall be treated with respect and honor. He shall retain the title of Maharajah Dulleep Sing Bahadoor, and he shall continue to receive, during his life, such portion of the above-named pension as may be allotted to himself personally, provided he shall remain obedient to the British. government, and shall reside at such place as the Governor, General of India may select. Granted and accepted at Lahore, on the 29th of March, 1849, and ratified by the Right Honorable the Governor General on the 5th of April, 1849. In a lengthy document dispatched by Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of India, to the king of Oudh in 1856, he describes the general conditions of the native kingdom as they appeared to the English officers, and sets forth the reasons why the kingdom of Oudh was summarily annexed. annexing It has been my anxious and earnest desire, ever since 313. English I assumed the government of India, to uphold the honor and reasons for dignity of your Majesty's exalted station, to see the country, Oudh over which you rule, prosperous and flourishing, and the (condensed) people, who are your subjects, happy and contented, in the enjoyment of peace and of all the blessings which flow from The British will not tolerate misrule Financial a wise, liberal, and beneficent administration. For eight years I have watched with much solicitude the progress of affairs in your Majesty's kingdom, in the hope that the unceasing warnings and remonstrances addressed to your Majesty by my predecessors and by myself, and earnestly pressed upon your Majesty by the able and zealous officers who have held the office of Resident at your court, might have the effect of awakening your Majesty to a sense of the duties and responsibilities of your royal station, and of the solemn engagements imposed upon your Majesty's government by the treaty of 1801. It has now become my most painful duty to inform your Majesty that the British government, influenced by a regard for its reputation among the nations, and still more by the obligations which, many years ago, it took upon itself in relation to the people of Oudh, can no longer lend its countenance and support to a government whose existence is the fruitful source of misrule, oppression, and misery to all who live under its control. There is a strong body of concurrent testimony to prove corruption that corruption reigns paramount in the fiscal department of your Majesty's administration, even from the highest functionary to the lowest subordinate, and that, though your Majesty's revenue receipts have been diminished, this has brought no relief to the Ryot, who is crushed by the weight of the exactions levied upon him to satisfy the arbitrary demands of your Majesty's dishonest and unscrupulous servants. The same advices further tend to confirm the impression which has long rested on my mind, that your Majesty's finances are in the last degree disordered and embarrassed. . . . Inefficient police Turning from the revenue administration and the financial condition of the kingdom, to the administration of civil and criminal justice, I find even a darker picture,- a state of things even more discreditable and injurious. Life and property are insecure on the roads and rivers, in the towns and villages. With the exception of the frontier police, which is under the direction of British officers and under the immediate control of the Resident, hardly any police force is maintained throughout your Majesty's extensive dominions, and such establishments as do exist are, in the last degree, inefficient and corrupt; apt to seize and mulct the poor and the weak under false and frivolous pretexts, but powerless to restrain bad characters or to check the universal prevalence of heinous crime. . . . convict The corruption and servility of what are called courts of The courts justice in your Majesty's kingdom were flagrantly exemplified will not in the case of the murder of Ramdut Banday by Mahomed murderers Husein, the Nawab of Bharaitch, who, in the face of the clearest proofs of his guilt, was acquitted by your Majesty's court at Lucknow... At the present day the police management and the administration of criminal justice are as inefficient as ever. Criminals escape the penalty of their misdeeds; crime and violence of every complexion reign unrepressed throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom; and neither life nor property is secure. Week after week I receive reports of atrocious murders, of the wholesale destruction of villages by fire, and the enormous sacrifice of human life which attends such calamities; of daring and open robberies; of violence uncontrolled in every shape; and I am overwhelmed with sentiments of sorrow and commiseration for the people, who thus suffer from the weakness and the venality of your Majesty's administration. Not less corrupt, I grieve to add, are the courts of civil jus- Civil courts tice. These exist only in the capital, and there justice is openly are corrupt bought and sold. Notwithstanding the earnest expostulations of the Resident, and notwithstanding your pledge to exclude singers and fiddlers from offices of trust and responsibility, your Majesty is known to have placed one of this obnoxious class in a position of actual authority over the civil courts. in vain Wherefore, having maturely considered the course of events Warnings in Oudh since the treaty of 1801, and more particularly since have been your Majesty's accession; having seen that every means of persuasion have been tried without effect; and having observed that advice, remonstrance, and warning have been exhausted in vain, I feel that the government of India, which I represent, would be guilty, in the sight of God and man, if it were any longer to aid in sustaining, by its countenance and power, an administration fraught with suffering to millions. |