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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O. 882

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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might have been avoided: it is no use going back." Those words I propose to put in as supporting my answer to Out of the other letter I that question, and no more. wish to put in the words, "I wish sooner I had known you better."

me,

""

Lord Torrington's letters to Mr. Wodehouse are throughout of a most friendly and familiar charac ter. The letter of the 14th April, 1849, contained one passage only about Sir E. Tennent: "Tennent has written a handsome letter to Peel about matters, and allowed me to read it." The letter in which were the words relied upon by Mr. Wodehouse in support of his answer 4601, conveyed Lord Torrington's best wishes for Mr. Wodehouse's safe voyage to England, and that his future might be all that was bright and fortunate;" and then continued, “that in is my most sincere wish. Perhaps I may say, the words of poor Miggs, when she took leave of I wish sooner I had known you better.' In Lord Torrington's letter of the 3rd May, 1848, the words omitted by Mr. Wodehouse between the two extracts tendered in support of the same an. Bwer were, Lies, slander, and treachery, from a certain gentleman, and I wonder I have escaped so well." Mr. Wodehouse also omitted these words, which immediately followed his last extract from the same letter: "It is no use going back. Ever since you left-not a fortnight, I have found out one or two matters sufficient to disgust any man. Appearances I must keep up; but not even an idle word is safe to be uttered in his presence. My letters by the mail are satisfactory, except indeed scandalous reports of me, such as, I beat my wife and child, and such trash, much of which I can prove comes from Ely House, if I had a mind.”

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On the same day Mr. Wodehouse was asked by Mr. Hume:

Whom do you understand to be referred to as a certain gentleman, against whose lies, alander, and treachery the Governor has had to contend ?—I really think this is a very hard question to put to me, considering that I put forward this letter with no sort of reference to this expres- sion, and merely to show that Lord Torrington was aware of there having existed previous differences between him- self and me; for no other purpose did I allude to the letter. I had not the most distant idea that the produc- tion of it would be insisted on, nor at the time did the Committee appear to suppose that it would be necessary. It was only with the greatest reluctance, upon having the

Evidence, 1850.

4741a.

4742a.

4746a.

4747a.

Evidence 1850.

4757a.

4757a, 4777a.

Page 9 of No. 26, Part II.

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alternative offered to me of either depriving myself of the benefit of all allusion to it, or of producing it, that I was driven to produce it. I must say, in answer to the ques- tion, that I undoubtedly considered it to apply to Sir Emerson Tennent; if I could have entertained any doubts about it they would be removed by the expression which comes afterwards about Ely House.

He then states that Ely House was Sir E. Ten- nent's residence.

He is afterwards asked by Mr. Hume--

Have you had any letter from the Governor subse-

quently to the 3rd of May?—Yes; I had letters in June and in the beginning of August.

Would any of those letters enable you to explain what is meant by

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one or two matters sufficient to disgust any man" having occurred?—I do not recollect that they do.

The subsequent letters, about which Mr. Hume inquires, were written in the same friendly strain as the letters which Mr. Wodehouse had produced, and they contained passages in ridicule and dis- paragement of Sir E. Tennent, and even to the prejudice of his character. These letters were pro- duced on the 25th June, upon another point arising in the evidence. It is to be remarked that Mr. Wodehouse did not volunteer their production upon this occasion.

On the 6th June, 1850, Sir E. Tennent says- I find that in order to my own vindication I am left no course but one, against which I wish to state in the most emphatic manner, that my every feeling as a gentleman revolta.

He then produced other private and confidential letters of Lord Torrington, addressed to himself "before the period" of the two letters to Mr. Wodehouse, " at the very period,” and “at sub- sequent periods," to show that he had "uninter. ruptedly shared his confidence, and received proofs and expressions of his unqualified good feeling."

In the course of Lord Torrington's correspondence with me during 1848, he mentions in his letters to me the efforts that were made at that early period by Mr. Wode- house to undermine me in his confidence and esteem.

The letters produced by Sir E. Tennent did not prove this last allegation. But, as regarded himself, they were all of a most friendly character. A few only will be noticed, and short extracts from them given.

March 17, 1848. I shall always feel grateful to you for all the advice and great assistance you have given me. T

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Wodehouse, &c., are none of them men of the world. You stand in so high a position, &c. I only endeavour out of the Wodehouse set to get what good I can. I have no love for him; and in joking I have pointed out to how difficult a man he is to deal with; and I said, when

- was saying how ill --had behaved to him, that for my own part I did not consider Mr. Wodehouse could get on with me if he had been the Colonial Secretary.

May 6, 1848. As to Mr. Wodehouse, I don't think he is acting right by you. As to any rude remark about him I didn't care the least; but I will do battle for Bernard, who is my most sincere friend, and who has never given me wrong advice. To compare him and Wodehouse together is absurd to a degree.

February 7, 1849. Never mind the social atmosphere of Colombo. Nobody escapes its malice. Of course you could not any more than I have done. Trust to me, that no person to my knowledge, or in my presence, shall ever say a word against you, that I will not reply to in a man- ner that will astonish him.

case.

April 15, 1849. Sir H. Maddock knows much of my Mr. Wodehouse will do nothing wrong by you or 1. May 3, 1849.

The A short friendly note. letters were continued down to the latter end of the

year.

On a subsequent day, the 9th July, 1850, Sir E. Tennent referred to another letter of 1848 from Lord Torrington to himself:

With regard to Wodehouse and Sims, which I men- tioned in my letter, I only wished to say that I have no love for them; but that I must use them or nothing, they being the only tools I can find.

On the 25th June, 1850, Mr. Wodehouse ob- served upon these letters (except, of course, the last mentioned, which had not then been produced), that they bore out his statement that at one period he had little or no influence with Lord Torrington; and in disproof of Sir E. Tennent's statement that he, Mr. Wodehouse, had undermined him in the confidence of the Governor, he further observed that the first letter produced by him from Lord Torrington, of the 14th April, spoke well of Sir E. Tennent; that Lord Torrington's dislike of Sir E. Tennent did not appear to have commenced until after Mr. Wodehouse's departure from Ceylon, and that this feeling continued until Lord Torrington had heard of the evidence given before the Ceylon Committee in 1849; and in support of this view, Mr. Wodehouse produced three other letters from

Evidence 1850.

9095a.

4819a.

4831a.