From the outset of the Mutiny, Lucknow had been a main centre of rebellion; for many months a British force had been besieged there; for many months it had defied the English rulers of the country. The entire Province had joined in the rebellion. The landowners, with hardly an exception, had turned against the Government, and sent their retainers to aid the besiegers at Lucknow. The peasantry, too ignorant or too feeble to appreciate the efforts of the British officials in their behalf, had followed their Chiefs. Lucknow now lay at the conqueror's mercy; the subjugation of the Province was a mere question of time. It was necessary to announce to the inhabitants the terms on which the Government was ready to accept their return to allegiance. Lord Canning had learnt by experience that Proclamations are not the surest or safest mode of influencing the natives of India. He would have preferred, had it been possible, to communicate the intentions of the Government by instructions issued to officers attached to the columns marching through the country. This being impracticable, a Proclamation was necessary, and the question was as to the terms which would best meet the ends of justice and conduce to the pacification of the Province. The conclusions arrived at by Lord Canning were: — First, that all questions of punishment with death, transportation or imprisonment of rebels, however inveterate and unnecessary their hostility might have been, ought, in the special circumstances of the Oudh population, to be set aside: next,
