POSTSCRIPT.

SATURDAY.

India occupied a prominent place in the proceedings of both Houses of Parliament last night. In the House of Peers the Earl of ELI:M.:BOROUGH laid on the table papers connected with certain proceedings in Oude. Earl GRANVILLE found great fault with the Government for the course they had taken with regard to Lord Canning. He would reserve his opinion upon the Oude proclamation because he had wanted more information. But the Government, by sending through the Secret Committee a despatch dis- approving the conduct of the Governor-General, and then publishing it, seemed to him to have taken an astonishing and unprecedented course. He hoped Lord Ellenborough would state whether he intended Lord Canning to retire, and whether any preparations had been made to re- place him ? The Earl of DERRY said Lord Granville himself had demanded the in- stant production of the papers. Mr. Disraeli could not, under the cir- cumstances, refrain from stating his opinion in reply to the question put. The whole private property of Oude had been confiscated, and the Go- vernment felt that it was their duty to state that Lord Canning's policy was most impolitic and injurious. By driving the Oude people to despe- ration the struggle would be protracted. The people of Oude are' not mutineers; their offence is comparatively trifling ; Dude should be dealt with like a country conquered in legitimate war. He hoped that Lord Canning had mitigated his edict in the execution, and had thus obviated some of its injurious consequences. The Duke of ARGYLL defended Lord Canning. The Government had thrown him over in the most offensive manner. The Court of Directors knew nothing of this despatch, which was at the time in the hands of

private Members. ..

The Earl of ELLENBOROUGH said the despatch would never have been known had not the proclamation. been published, and had Lord Canning yielded to the reclaniations of the Government. No Government would deserve to survive twenty-four hours that did not look with disapproba- tion upon the confiscation of the proprietary rights of a whole people. Ile did not, however, desire,—he did not fear the return of Lord Canning ; he had made pravision for any unforeseen vacancy of the office of Go- vernor-General; and the provision suggested by himself, he found had

been adopted by the late Government. •

Earl GREY would express no opinion on the policy of Lord Canning, but he disapproved of the course taken by the Government in making their censure upon him public. It is not desirable that the Geveinor- Generalship should go into fresh hands at this time, or that Lord Can- ning's authority should be impaired. If he were inclined to put un- favourable constructions on the conduct of public men he might almost believe that the premature and ill-advised declaration of the viewS'Of the Government, these rounded periods appealing to the principles of justice and humanity, were dictated by a desire to gain a little popularity."' Ile rejected that supposition. But if their conduct had not arisen from an extraordinary inadvertence he could not account for it. Here the matter dropped.

The House of Commons went into Committee on the Indian resolu- tions somewhat late in the evening, and managed to get through the se- cond resolution. The resolution proposed that the duties of the Court of Directors should be transferred to one of her Majesty's Secretaries of State. Mr. Rim moved instead; the words "a President of Council for the government of India." Some members of the Committee went again into a discussion on the propriety Of legislating at all, but they met with no support. There was a disinclination to discuss the question of the part the Council should play before naming the Minister. The' whole conversation turned upon the naming of this Minister—should he be a President or Secretary ? The difficulty of deciding was overc6me by adopting a phrase suggested by Mr. VERNON SMITH, that the- duties should be performed "by one of the responsible Ministers of the Crown." The resolution, thus amended, was agreed to. The third resolution was omitted, and then progress was reported.

Earlier in the evening one or two matters of interest were discussed, on the motion for the adjournment till Monday. Mr. KINGLAKE, asking for further papers in order that the House might understand how the Cag- liari question stood, insisted that England is bound to offer Sardinia not the cold hand of good offices and good advice, but a genial and cordial support. Mr. DISRAELI declined to produce the papers. The Court of Sardinia has accepted Lord Molmesbury's proposal :that this vexed question shall be submitted to "arbitration." Lord Jou"; RessEia. ap- proved of the judicious course of the Government. But wyat'about the crew of the Cagliari ? England ought not to allow those ni/n"to'rerilain in prison. Mr. SEYMOUR' FIT;GERALD said that the Govenarnelf desired to extend their geed office i on behalf of the crew. • Minister's, wilrdo.no- thing to justify the imputation that they have abandoned a bravo and generous ally. Mr. GLanirOien'aPpreved of the course now taken by Go- vernment in terms which implied that he was watching it closely to Pre- vent any backsliding. • . ••• • • ' A lively conversation took place on recent appointments of justices of the peace in boroughs. Mr. LOCKE complained that two persons who gave money to voters at Canterbury elections had been appointed magis- trates. Mr. WALPOLE said the Lord Chancellor, as soon as he found that out, took steps to procure their resignation. He then read a list of recent appointments in various, boroughs, showing that Lord Chelms- ford had been pretty generally, appOinting Conservative Magistrates in order to bring their numbers to a leiel with that of the Liberals. The consideration of the Lords' Amendment to the Oaths Bill was postponed until Monday.

The following is the despatch containing the censure of the Govern- ment on Lord Canning for his Oude proclamation. It will be seen that five paragraphs are omitted. The despatch bears date April 19, and has been sent through the Secret Committee to the Governor-General.

"Our letter of the 24th of March 18.58 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 3d of March, addressed by your Secretary to the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner in Oath, which letter enclosed a copy of the Proclamation to be issued by the Chief Commissioner as soon as the British troops should have co:nmand of the city of Lucknow, and conveyed instructions as to the manner in which he was to act with respect to 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 the Government informs the people that six persons, who are named as having been steadfast in their allegiance, arc licuceforward the sole hereditary proprietors of the lands they held when Oude came under British rule, subject only to such moderate assessment as may be imposed upon them ; that others in whose favour like claims may be established will have conferred upon them a pro- portionate measure of reward and honour ; and that with these exceptions the proprietary right in the soil of the province is confiscated to the British Government.

"5. We cannot but express to you our apprehension that this decree, pronouncing the disherison of a people, will throw difficulties almost in- surmountable in the way of the reestablishment 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 landholders 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.

"14. We must admit that, under these 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 re- garded with indulgent considerstion than made the objects of a penalty ex- ceeding in extent and in severity almost any which has been recorded in history as inflicted upon a subdued nation. "lo. Other conquerors, when they have succeeded in overcoming resist- ance, 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 a different principle. You have reserved a few as deserving of special favour, and you have struck with what they will feel as the severest of 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 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 a general confiscation. "20. Government cannot long be maintained by any force in a country where the whole people is rendered hostile by a sense of wrong ; and if it were possible so to maintain it it would not be a consummation to be de- sired.'

A meeting of Liberal Members was held on Wednesday in one of the committee-rooms of the House of Commons, to consider the present dis- organized state of the party. Very erroneous reports of this meeting have been made public, but today one appears in the Times. Mr. Head- lam was in the chair ; about 120 Members were present. The reso- lutions adopted declared that "no Government will be worthy of con- fidence which shall not manifest zeal and sincerity in reforming our institutions, and our administrative departments; and which shall not rest upon a basis wider than that of recent Governments." Another re- solution pronounced it "desirable" that two gentlemen should "under- take the duty of sending circulars to Members who may wish to receive them, givine:° notice of any matter in Parliament likely to interest the independent Liberal party, and that Mr. Forster and some gentleman selected by him be requested to perform the duty."

The Queen held a Court and Privy Council yesterday at Buckingham Palace. At the Court, Sir Henry Bulwer had audience on his return from the Danubian Principalities. Mr. Henry George Howard, British Minister at Florence, had audience to take leave. The Marquis of Bath had audience. Mr. Watson Parker, late Principal Secretary of New South Wales, was presented to the Queen and knighted. At the Privy Council the Duke of Devonshire was sworn into office as Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Derby. The Earl of Dalkeith was sworn in as Lord- Lieutenant of the county of Dumfries. A proclamation was issued for the election of a Scotch Peer in the room of the late Lo-d Morton.

The Queen has appointed the Right Honourable Edward Cardwell, William Miles, Esq., William Deedes, Esq., Edward Christopher Eger- ton, Esq., 'William Nathaniel Massey, Esq., William Henry Walton, Esq., Robert Marshall Straight, Esq., Robert Upperton, Esq. and Acton Tindal, Esq., to be her Majesty's Commissioners to inquire into the costs of prosecutions generally, and also into the fees payable to Clerks of the Peace and Clerks to Justices, allowances to constables, and expenses of Coroners inquests.

Lord Neaves has been appointed one of the Lords of the Justiciary, in the room of Lord Handyside. Mr William Penney has been appointed a Lord of Session.

A telegraphic despatch from Paris states that the Queen of Spain "suddenly and definitely" prorogued the Cortes yesterday ; and that "some of the Ministers have tendered their resignations." [Is there to be a coup d'etat ?1