PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTTTTC.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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had just conferred such signal benefits on the mass of the people, but further inquiry constrained them reluctantly to admit the truth; and on that occasion extensive arrests were made, and in 1835 the prisoners were brought to trial for high treason at Kandy, when they were acquitted.
Their acquittal excited astonishment throughout the country, and the Government, probably with a view to satisfy public inquiry on the point, caused an authorized copy of the evidence to be printed.
That evidence I now produce, and I think an examination of it by the Committee will satisfy them of the truth of what has been stated in the despatches of Lord Torrington, that in all its leading features, its origin, its alleged motives, its authors, its agents and its arrangements, the rebellion of last year was identical in every respect with that of 1834.
In 1834 as in 1848, the design originated exclu- sively with chiefs, who invoked the aid of the Buddhist priesthood.
Of the six prisoners put on their trial, three were chiefs, and three were priests.
A priest who was one of the witnesses stated State Trial, 1834, p. 48.
on the trial of 1834, that there "was not a chief
or a headman entitled to wear a cap who did not
participate in the general disaffection."
And Mr. Turnour, the Government Agent of the State Trial, 1884, p. 18.
province, declared that of all the Kandyan chiefs and headmen in Government employment, only one had given him any assistance to investigate the conspiracy and defeat the aim of the conspirators.
In 1894, as in 1848, the people were driven by the chiefs into hostility to the Government, and one of the witnesses on the trial avowed that being once ordered by their chiefs to take up arms, "they dared not refuse."
In 1848, the Chief Justice from the bench de- clared that the people had been "driven like sheep" into the insurrection at Matelle, by the orders of their chiefs.
In 1884, the intention of the conspirators was to raise the standard of rebellion at Matelle and Kornegalle.
This was stated by a non-commissioned officer of the Ceylon Rifles, whom it was attempted to seduce, and it was explained in detail by one of the wit. nesses, a priest, that the plan of the chiefs was ot raise a rebellion at Matelle, and that there was
State Trial, 1834, p.
State Trial, 1894, p. 61.
State Trials, 1894, p. 54.
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Kandy in one direction, and Trincomalee in another, and Kornegalle in another, and that the people of Welasse were to be roused and join.
In the rebellion of 1848, each and all of these very places was included in the movement; it burst out at Matelle, extended to Kornegalle; an ad- vance was made upon Kandy; barricades were raised to cut off the communication with Trincoma- lee, and the people of Welasse were all prepared, and only waiting for the signal to bear their share in the tumult.
In 1848, it has been incorrectly stated that the low country Singhalese were implicated in the plot, and actively engaged in its execution. This is entirely untrue; and in this particular again, the rebellion of 1848 corresponds with the prior de- monstration in 1834, when it was expressly urged, as one of the grounds of disaffection and incite. ments to revolt, that the nationality of the Kan- dyans had been invaded by the measure adopted
on the recommendation of the Commissioners of 1883, by which a portion of the Kandyan districts was incorporated with the lowland division of the maritime province; a proceeding over which the chiefs declared in a representation to Sir Robert
W. Horton, the Governor, that "they would never cease to grieve and repine"-(Appendix to State Trials, pp. 103. 105)—and besought him to "save their country from dismemberment," so that it might continue to exist in its ancient integrity as the Kingdom of Kandy, and retain its celebrated name of Singala, the country of Lions.
It was this intense feeling of violated nationality that operated to drive the people into insurrection in both cases.
And the evidence taken in 1884, records pre- cisely the same list of grievances put forward by the discontented chiefs of 1848.
The Judges of the Supreme Court in 1834 de- clared from the Bench that the "only alleged canses of discontent which had come out in evi- dence were of a purely selfish description, paltry and affecting only the privileged chiefs and sups. rior priests, opposed to the interests of the people, and leading to the conclusion that the conspiracy
of was directed primarily against the supremacy o the British Government, but secondarily and prin-
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