guilty either of mutiny or of complicity in the terrible outrages against women and children, but strongly supporting him in his brave and determined opposition to vindictive fury against the natives at large, in which too many of the English in India were tempted to indulge.
When the worst of the Mutiny was over, August, 1858, and an Act had been passed transferring the Government of India from the East India Company to the Crown, the time had arrived for the issue of a Royal Proclamation to the inhabitants of India. The draft of this Proclamation reached the Queen when she was paying her first visit to her newly married daughter in Prussia. It will throw a little light on those who think that the function of a Sovereign in a Constitutional monarchy is simply to indorse everything submitted by the Ministers, to learn that the Queen on reading this draft felt that neither in spirit nor in language was it appropriate to the occasion. Her objections were set forth in detail to Lord Malmesbury, who was the Minister-in-Attendance, and the following letter was written by the Queen to the Prime Minister, Lord Derby:—
Babelsberg, 15th Aug., 1858.The Queen has asked Lord Malmesbury to explain in detail to Lord Derby her objections to the draft of the Proclamation for India. The Queen would be glad if Lord Derby would write it himself in his excellent language, bearing in mind that it is a small Sovereign who speaks to more than a hundred millions of Eastern people on assuming the direct Government over them, and, after a bloody civil war, giving them pledges which her future reign is to redeem, and explaining the principles of her Government. Such a document should breathe feelings of generosity, benevolence, and religious toleration, and point out the privileges which the Indians will receive in being placed on an equality with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity following in the train of civilization.
Lord Malmesbury's memorandum which accompanied this letter goes more into detail. Referring to
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