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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PLEC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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resting discussions have taken place within the last few weeks. The question of a loan even has been anxiously considered.”

To meet the financial difficulties, a loan was proposed. Various officers of the Government were called upon to report upon the state of the finances. These reports clearly show their embar- rassed state. The following passage is extracted from the report of Mr. Wodehouse:

"The amount of the loan to be raised must be fixed, if my proposition be adopted, with refe- rence to the amount of our debts and the state of the cash balances in the hands of the different accountants. It may be stated roughly that we are now indebted to the different Governments of India about 22,000%, that a demand was received by the last mail for repayment of the sum of 10,0001, and that in the course of the year the agent for the colony in London must be furnished with 40,0001., making in all 72,0001., against which may be set advances made on account of Queen's pay to the troops, for which bills have not been drawn, amounting to 15,000l., leaving a balance of 57,000Z. to be provided for."

"From a statement submitted with Sir J. Emerson Tennent's despatch No. 19* of the 10th May, 1847, we learn that the balance in favour of the colony, on the 1st January, 1846, was 216,8601., which at the close of that year had fallen to 141,9921. The following may be stated, with very little allowance, as our position on the 31st January, 1848:

Balance of cash in the cash chests of the island,

31st January, 1848 Balance of agent in London, 31st December,

1847

£

£

97,824

2,051

Balance in favour of the colony for Queen's

pay, 81st January, 1848

5,699

Amount due to Indian Governments, 31st De

cember, 1847

105,074

21,191

83,883

"It will be seen that in the two years and one month from the 1st January, 1846, the expenditure of the colony has exceeded its revenue by no les than 132,977/."

• Vide Parliamentary Paper, "Reports on Blue Books," 1847.

Mr. Wodehouse's Report to

Governor :

March 31, 1848.

Messrs. Templer and Wodehouse's

Report to the Governor; April 10, 1848.

Corroborated by Sir E. Tennent's Evid., July 11, 1850, 9289.

Commercial Condition

Financial and Commercial Con- dition of Ceylon on Lord Torrington's arrival.

Memorial of the Chamber of

Commerce;

August 5, 1848. Parliamentary Papers, p.

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The commercial condition of the island is thus described by the merchants:

Your memorialists do not question the propriety of the principles on which these taxes are based; they are the substitution of a direct for an indirect taxation, and were the island in a more prosperous condition than it now is, your memorialists believe they would have excited little discontent; but at present, as your Lordship is well aware, both the agricultural and commercial interests are labouring under the most severe depression. Plantations are daily being abandoned from the insolvency of the pro- prietors, money is exceedingly scarce, and all business at a stand-still.

Merchants find themselves compelled to reduce their establishments, thus throwing out of employ a numerous and respectable class, who have long been dependent on them, and are now in the greatest distress; in fact, such is the depressed state of the colony at the present moment, that unless relief is granted, it must soon revert to its former position of a mere military dependency of the Crown.

Such was the financial and commercial condition of Ceylon in the first year of Lord Torrington's government.

Immediately upon his arrival, from the infor- ⚫mation that reached him, his Lordship issued the

following circular:

(Circular.) Sir,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Colombo, June 3, 1847.

I am directed to convey to you his Excellency's in- structions, that you will immediately make every arrange- ment to reduce to the narrowest limit the expenditure of the votes and balances at your disposal, the available amount of treasure being so far reduced as to engender the necessity for the most prompt and vigilant economy.

His Excellency has no reason to apprehend any per- manent embarrassment in this particular; but the recent decline in the revenue of the colony from intelligible and temporary causes, has rendered it impossible, for the pre- sent, to sustain the expenditure on the liberal scale of late years. His Lordship trusts to your discretion to extend this principle of reduction, without loss of time, to those heads of expenditure in which its application will create the least inconvenience; and in every instance where it is practicable, without actual loss or injury to the public service, you will suspend or postpone outlay for any pur- pose not urgently required.

I have, &c.

W. D. RYDER.

To Heads of Departments.

(Signed) I

These instructions were followed by decisive results.