PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
I T
Reference :-
C.O.885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
24
No. 2.
EXTRACTS from a DESPATCH from Lord TORRINGTON to Earl GREY, dated September 14, 1848, No. 164.
THE chief conspirators have not yet been apprehended, although there is strong suspicion against many influential parties. The pretended King and his brother have hitherto eluded, though with extreme difficulty, all the efforts made to capture them, They have been surrounded, and hunted from place to place and from cave to cave; but they are still at large; and, considering the insignificance of the individual, his low caste, and that he is actually neither a Malabar nor a Kandian, but a low-country Singhalese, the singular fact of the success of his efforts to avoid being captured is not a little remark- able.
Under these circumstances I do not yet feel myself in a position to surrender the advantage of Martial Law; but on the meeting of the Legislative Council, which I propose to propose to call together in the first week of October, I shall lay upon the table a Bill of Indemnity, as before mentioned, for bond fide acts done during the suspension of the ordinary law of the island, together with a Bill of Attainder against certain parties convicted of treason, whose property it may be necessary finally to confiscate.
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The sessions of the Supreme Court for these special trials was opened on the 28th ultimo, but was adjourned until the 4th instant. On that day four of the priests of the ancient Temple of Dambool were arraigned for high treason, and the evidence went to prove that they officiated at the ceremony of installing or crowning the pretended King in the temple named. A severe cross-examination failed to shake the evidence of the principal witnesses. The only defence set up for them was that they must have been actuated by fear; but no evidence was adduced to show that compulsion was used, or, if used, that it was resisted to the utmost. They were, however, found "Not guilty," to the surprise not less of the counsel than of the public, and were accordingly discharged. The trial lasted three days.
The effect of this unlooked-for verdict was calculated to be exceedingly injurious to the public interests, as the cases against these men were remarkably strong; but happily the certainty and the wholesome terror inspired by Martial Law will, I hope, have sufficed to counteract the inefficiency, under circumstances like the present, and in a country such as this, of trial by jury before a Civil Court.
No. 3.
EXTRACT from a DESPATCH from Lord TORRINGTON to Earl GREY, dated October 14, 1848, No. 185.
I FEEL persuaded that, if Martial Law had not been proclaimed at the outset, and a wholesome fear instilled into the minds of the evil-disposed, while encouragement and protection were at the same time held out to the peaceable and industrious portion of the inhabitants, there would have resulted from the social disorganization which would have ensued the most lawless system of plundering and violence, the Indian coolies would have been driven away or deterred altogether from coming to gather in the crops, and the ruin of the coffee plantations and their proprietors would have been inevitable. The crisis was one of those in which hesitation or doubtful measures would have been profitless or inexcusable; and I can have no hesitation in attributing to the military authorities the utmost desire to temper justice with merey; and I am fully convinced that å stern sense of duty, under very trying circumstances, compelled them to adopt those vigorous measures which could alone lead to the tranquillization of the country, and the general security of Her Majesty's subjects in the Kandian province.
The good result is already strikingly apparent in the present peacefulness of all parts of the Colony; and it is gratifying to learn that the coolies are again coming over for the crop season, and that confidence and industry are rapidly resuming the ordinary signs of their development.
25
No. 4.
Cory of a DESPATCH from Earl GREY to the Right Hon. Viscount TORRINGTON,
(No. 303.) MY LORD,
Downing Street, Octolfer 24, 1848.
I HAVE received and laid before the Queen the various despatches enumerated in the margin, containing the intelligence of some riotous proceedings which took place at Colombo, and of the subsequent attempt at insurrection in the province of Kandy, which your Lordship states to have been promptly suppressed.
2. The Queen has learnt with regret that the public peace of the colony had been disturbed, and that a part of the native population had been excited to acts of rebellion by false representations industriously circulated as to the intentions of the local Government, and as to the nature and objects of the Ordinances recently passed to sanction the imposition of certain new taxes which had been rendered necessary, by alterations in the financial arrangements of the island, involving a large reduction of objectionable taxes, for the benefit and encouragement of its trade and commerce.
3. I have, however, great satisfaction in conveying to your Lordship Her Majesty's approbation of the measures taken to restore tranquillity, and maintain the authority of the Government and of the decision, promptitude, and judgment with which you acted in putting down the attempts which were made to disturb the peace of the island, and to set up an usurped and illegal power.
4. Her Majesty has also observed with satisfaction that you were cordially and energetically supported by the civil and military authorities of the colony. You will direct the Major-General commanding the troops to signify to Colonel Drought, and to the officers and men who were employed. Her Majesty's approbation of their services. The speedy suppression of the insurrection seems to have been in a great measure due to the able and judicious manner in which Colonel Drought availed himself, in the first instance, of the small force under his command, and to the courage and steadiness with which both officers and men acted against the large numbers of the insurgents.
5. In conveying to your Lordship Her Majesty's approval of the measures taken to suppress this attempted revolt, I must express the satisfaction with which I have observed that these measures have also been properly appreciated by many of the colonists, as appears from the resolutions adopted at public meetings at Kandy and at Colombo, which you have transmitted to me. I have further to add, that it is not merely your exertions at the moment of danger which seem to me entitled to approval, and that my confidence in the policy you had previously adopted, and which is alleged to have been the cause of these disturbances, is in no degree shaken by the occurrences to which I have referred.
6. In another despatch I propose to enter somewhat fully into the grounds on which I have come to a conclusion favourable to the principle of your recent financial measures, and it is gratifying to me to find in the papers before me, and especially in the speech of Sir II. Maddock at Kandy, and in the interesting communications of Sir E. Tennent, abundant evidence to show that these disturbances cannot be attributed to anything really oppressive, either in the nature or in the amount of the taxes imposed by the recent Ordinances. If therefore, it is true, as has been asserted, that these Ordinances were the immediate cause of the outbreak, they can only have been so in consequence of the studied misrepresentations of their effect which had been deliberately disseminated by European agency, and in the native language.
7. Your Lordship, with the aid of the Executive and Legislative Councils, will, I am sure, carefully weigh every practical objection to these laws, and be anxious to remove every injurious provision calculated to press with any harshness or injustice upon either classes or individuals; and I rely upon your not losing sight of the importance of remedy- ing defects whether in the Ordinances in question, or in the general administration of the law, and, above all, that you will apply yourself to the correction of what seems to me the principal fault in the system of government now existing in Ceylon, which has been brought to light by these transactions; I mean the absence of sufficient opportunities for the natives in some districts freely to communicate with the various Agents of the Govern- ment, in order that their representations mey be carefully and candidly considered (especially in reference to such measures as those lately adopted), so that any grievances they may justly complain of may be promptly redressed, and any unfounded apprehensions they may be led to entertain by erroneous notions as to the intentions of the Government may be removed: Nothing, it is obvious, can so effectually contribute to this important object as a knowledge of the native languages on the part of the agents and servants of