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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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T།༑།T།CO. 88?

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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4325. Did you order Mr. Somerset to send in any recommendation?—I gave no other order upon that sub- ject than that which I have now mentioned.

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Mr. Wodehouse is asked (4634): "Did propose these measures, or suggest this very de- sirable object?—No, I did not do either the one or the other." (4635) He was travelling about the country at the time; remonstrated afterwards with Mr. Somerset for writing the letter without com- municating with him. Mr. Wodehouse subse- quently produced a private letter from Sir E. Tennent, of the 17th February, stating that the

Executive Council have this day approved, and ordered to be published in the Gazette on Saturday next, as their act, a notice addressed to the occupants of the encroach- ments, &c.

If the Committee will refer to the letter I have put in, they will see there is no allusion there to the fact of its having come through the Government Agent's office; it is there stated to be done by the Executive Council as their act; and the whole drift of this letter is to tell me not to temporise or flinch, but to act vigorously,

Sir E. Tennent, in explanation, says he did not mean to convey the impression that the measure had originated with Mr. Wodehouse.

It was necessary as a form, that the notice should come through the head of the department, or rather through the office. The head of the department, Mr. Wodehouse, as I stated, being in the interior, his assistant was the person who performed all his ordinary duties in his ab- sence. The duty was of the most ordinary and routine character.

It appears from this letter, which is fully set out between questions 4659 and 4660 (1850), that at the time it was written, Sir E. Tennent entertained the hope of succeeding Sir C. Campbell as Gover- nor of Ceylon, and that he held out to Mr. Wode- house the prospect of his succeeding to the office of Colonial Secretary. Fees would be payable to

the Colonial Secretary on each verandah grant.

In reference to this, Sir E. Tennent treats the verandah measure as one which I hope equally concerns you and myself."

Mr. Wodehouse says of this letter:

I must, in justice to myself, say from the time that I received that letter respecting the verandaha, which has been put in, and which I do not think any gentleman ought to have been subject to receiving, I never had any confidence in Sir J. E. Tennent sa a public servant, and Sir J. E. Tennent was perfectly aware of it.

Evidence, June 1, 1850.

4682.

June 1850.

4659.

June 3, 1850. 4682.

4782a.

4785a.

4660.

June 3.

4748a.

Papers, 1850. Evidence, 1850.

No. 23

7805—7858.

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This evidence was given after the production of Lord Torrington's private letters, and is here intro- duced because of its reference to an antecedent fact which may have influenced Mr. Wodehouse in producing them.

For the same reason, it may be stated here, that Mr. Wodehouse had heard, that in consequence of his evidence in 1849, Lord Torrington and Sir E. Tennent had fomented charges against him, that he had been guilty of malversation in his office of Government Agent, and had borrowed money of a native who was the cashier in his office; and he was aware that Sir E. Tennent, in reference to these charges, had fallen into two very incorrect expres-

Papers 1850. No. 23, pages 17, 18. sions, which might have conveyed an erroneous notion of the facts. He had also received private letters which told him that he was to expect no mercy from either Lord Torrington or Sir E. Tennent.

Pages 30, 32; and Evidence, 1850. 7814.

4515.

3271, 8971.

The circumstances necessary to the introduction of the second question in this have now been

paper stated.

These circumstances are undoubtedly sufficient to justify a close scrutiny of Mr. Wodehouse's conduct in the production of letters which might compromise either Lord Torrington or Sir J. E. Tennent.

On the other hand, it is but just to state that his evidence in 1849 appears to be characterised throughout by moderation and candour, as well as great intelligence.

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Direct answers are given to all questions, except in one or two instances in which a feeling of deli. cacy has obviously restrained him in making communications to the disparagement of Lord Torrington." "I was brought here," he says, the 27th May, immediately on my landing, with scarcely any papers of any sort to refer to, and I had to give my evidence entirely from my recollec tion of what took place." His evidence had been sent to Ceylon, and there diligently criticised and sifted by persons best acquainted with the matters to which he had testified. In the following year he was opposed day after day by a witness who had come from Ceylon with counter-evidence, laboriously collected and well-considered, and even printed to a great extent, at the confidential press of the Govern- ment, for the purpose of controverting him-; and

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