CO882-(1-2) — Page 100

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

1

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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where, after six weeks' concealment in the jungle, he was at last taken prisoner by a party of Malay soldiers, under command of Captain Watson, the Commandant of Matelle.

In the meantime, the country in all directions was roused, and every surrounding district was eagerly watching the progress of events; armed,

tion.

and prepared to avail themselves of the first suc- Effect of Martial Law in prevent- cess to join the Pretender. And had their doing ng the extension of the Insurree- so depended merely on the issue of the two conflicts with the military, my firm belief is that they would - not have been discouraged by mere discomfiture, but that they would have crowded in, in prodigious numbers, in the confidence of converting the first defeat to ultimate victory. And, in my opinion, nothing prevented this catastrophe, except the apprehensions occasioned by the unexpected pro- clamation of martial law in two instances, first at Matelle, and almost simultaneously at Kornegulla.

They saw that each district, as it pronounced, would be instantly placed under the dreaded ad- ministration; and they pansed in consequence.

The followers of the Pretender, terrified at their own defeat, and disappointed in their hopes of re- inforcements from the surrounding Korles, dispersed in dismay; and the Pretender, deserted by his army, had no other resource but escape and con. cealment.

Censure has been passed upon Lord Torrington, because, in this emergency, he acted on his own anthority as Commander-in-Chief, and issued his own orders direct to the military officers employed; and, relying on his own judgment, that he ab- stained from consulting military officers of great experience in the colony, who were well qualified to assist him by their advice at such a crisis.

The senior officers here alluded to are Colonel Fraser, Colonel Charlton, and Colonel Braybrook, in command of the Ceylon Rifle Corps; but of those, the one for omitting to consult whom Lord Torrington has been chiefly blamed is Colonel Fraser.

Untrue statements as to Lord Torrington's neglect to consult tut Senior Military Officers.

Major Skinner says, that had Lord Torrington 7026, 7026

consulted Colonel Fraser on military matters, "he

could not have erred, inasmuch as Colonel Fraser

is as able an officer as any in Her Majesty's ser- vice, with thirty or forty years' experience of the

7631.

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colony, and his advice could not be questioned by any man."

Major Skinner concurs in the regret that he should not have been consulted, and says if he had been, "the Committee may rest perfectly confident that the advice which he would have given would have been the most judicious."

I am not disposed to dissent from the opinion of Major Skinner, or in any way to undervalue the abilities and high reputation of Colonel Fraser; but he was a junior officer-holding a Staff ap- pointment under the Major-General commanding, with whom Lord Torrington was of course in daily communication; and it was not incumbent on the Governor to consult the Major-General's junior when he himself was present.

Colonel Fraser is an officer who greatly distin- guished himself in the Peninsular war, and when I was leaving England for Ceylon, Sir Howard Douglas spoke to me in the highest terms of his abilities and judgment. He has been uninter- ruptedly employed in Ceylon for the last thirty years latterly in the Quarter-Master General's De- partment, and no man living has a more accurate knowledge of every district of the Colony. He has been actively employed in the suppression of every rebellion since 1817; and that of 1823 was put down under his immediate command.

He is also a large proprietor of estates in the coffee districts, so that no man has a deeper interest

in the tranquillity of the colony, and none a more

thorough knowledge of the Kandyans, their habits and customs, their political feelings, condition, and mode of warfare..

Mr. Anstruther has stated to the Committee, that it was from the want of information of this kind, and of the advice of such experienced men as Colonel Fraser, that the Government went astray, and that the military measures adopted, and the proclamation of martial law, were errors into which Lord Torrington was led by the igno- rance of those who were associated with him in the Government- ignorance as profound as that of any gamb nan in London ---and that in a “ panin procesting firan ignorance" of the people, their customs and their country, martial law wAI proclaimed to put down a “riot” (7628), which