The kingdom of Oude is "sequestrated," and by that simple
act one nest of corruption and disorder in India is abolished. The act does not violate the objection to expanding our Indian territory, which is in fact rendered more compact ; and it is justified by the most obvious dictates of prudence and. hu- manity. The King of Oude held his throne by the weakest ten- ure which is conceivable—neither by descent, nor conquest, nor appointment. After the break-down of larger states, the king- dom of Oude was created by the East India Company, and a King was appointed. The King just deposed was not the son of his predecessor, except by adoption ; the British authorities having in some eases sanctioned that Hindu practice. Instead of justifying the imperfect tenure by which he held his throne, the King did his best to render himself a torture to his subjects, a disgrace to his patrons. He carried profligacy to a degree paralleled only by the monsters of the Lower Empire. He turned society upside down ; placed in posts of distinction and power men and women of the most degraded classes, upon whose elee- mosynary protection men of high caste sought a precarious de- pendence, only to be stripped of property or life. The whole- sale slaughters exceed fiction. To add to the absurdity of his reign, the King had lately encouraged a fanatic rebellion, which would have equally outraged Hindu rights and British rule. General Outram had been specially appointed, as a man of the highest intelligence and vigour, to keep the burlesque monster in order ; but this he found impossible. To continue the king- dom of Oude, was to keep up a school of barbarity, treachery, and rebellion. The King is declared to have forfeited his tenure, and the territory lapses to British rule. The abolition of the separate state consolidates British authority and government in that quarter. The most questionable incident of the measure is the allowance of 100,000/. a year to the degraded King ; whose only claim to such compensation is, that he wore a crown which he used as the badge of licence for felony.
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