The chief result of the Indian Mutiny was to end the government of India by the East India company. It was felt that a system of administration which could permit such a catastrophe was no longer desirable. On the 2nd of August 1858 the queen signed the act which transferred the government of India to the crown. On the 1st of November Lord Canning, now viceroy of India, published the noble proclamation in which the change was announced, and a full amnesty was offered to all the rebels who had not been leaders in the revolt or were not guilty of the murder of British subjects. Even before the fall of Delhi, Canning had been adversely criticized--"Clemency Canning" he was scornfully called--for announcing his intention to discriminate between the guilt of various classes of mutineers. But a wiser view soon prevailed, and the natives of India at large gratefully accepted the queen's proclamation as the charter of their lives and liberties. See G. W. Forrest, _History of the Indian Mutiny_ (1904), and _Selections from State Papers_ (1897); T. R. E. Holmes, _History of the Indian Mutiny_ (1898); _Kaye and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny_ (1864-1888); R. S. Rait, _Life of Lord Gough_ (1903); Sir W. Lee-Warner, _Life of Lord Dalhousie_ (1904); Sir H. Cunningham, _Lord Canning_ ("Rulers of India" series), (1890); Sir Owen Tudor Burne, _Clyde and Strathnairn_ (1895); Lord Roberts, _Forty-One Years in India_ (1898); and Sir Evelyn Wood's articles in _The Times_ in the autumn of 1907.