CO882-(1-2) — Page 214

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

سلساليس

Reference :-

C.O. 882

1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

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should take place, that the property, or the proseeds of ity after deducting incidental expenses, had been restored to the parties where they returned to claim them, or to their representatives in cases where the owners had suffered death by sentences of court-martial, and I fully understand that so much as had not been then applied was, at the date of your despatch, only held in trust for a similar future application. Although measures such as these do not appear to fall within the ordinary courge of martial law, yet they are such as may very probably have been neces- sary, and which it was fully competent to the Legislature to place under the safeguard of indemnity. But the clause which I have quoted goes, probably through inadvertence in the framers, much farther than this, and much farther than necessity or justice could warrant.

If the property of persons sentenced by courts-martial for insurrection, but who had in no legal way incurred forfeiture, had been seised and sold for the benefit of Government; nay,

if persons only suspected of rebellion had been thus despoiled, the words of the law seem sufficiently large to cover such arbitrary proceedings.

It is therefore only by interpreting the words of the ordi- nance by the accompanying despatch, and trusting that although powers are thus taken of an extremely large description, it is intended to apply them only to the legiti- mate objects of Government compelled to adopt the ordi- nary course of martial law for its profection, that I have been able to advise its confirmation.

I am not insensible to the inconvenience of allowing a law to remain in force which might even possibly give protection to acts from which it ought to be withheld; but on the other hand, it has appeared to me that still greater evil might be done by refusing to sanction this enactment, thereby incur- ring the danger of disturbing by fresh questions a tran- quillity just restored. The objections I should otherwise have had to advising Her Majesty to confirm this ordinance, have further been diminished by the consideration that the law is one so entirely of a special and temporary character, that it will give no sanction to acts hereafter to be done; and no report has reached me of any abuse having been committed, or of the extraordinary powers assumed by the local Government, for which it will thus be indemnified, having been exercised for any other than the very proper objects mentioned in your despatch.

4. Subsequent diş- * May 31, 1849.

duct generally.

cussion as to con~

Committee Papers, 1849, p. 458.

Dated September 25, 1848.

Dated September 30, 1848.

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Some months* afterwards a despatch was received from Lord Torrington, respecting the charges which had been brought against the military, of undue severity in the execution of martial law.

Lord Grey replied to this despatch, amongst others, that he must postpone all expression of opinion, as the affairs of Ceylon were under the consideration of a Select Committee of the House of Commons.

Lord Torrington's despatch and Lord Grey's reply are as follows:

Pavilion, Kandy, April 13, 1849. WITH equal surprise and regret I have learned that comments have been made in public by gentlemen who must have laboured under a misapprehension of the facts with respect to a supposed leaning towards undue severity, which it is assumed that I exhibited on the occasion of the recent disturbances in this island.

It is satisfactory to me to be able to forward to your Lordship copy of a letter addressed by me to Lieutenant- Colonel Drought, commanding the troops in the Kandyan country, and of his reply, having reference to the measures adopted by the officer commanding at Matelle for the punishment under martial law of persons taken with arms in their hands in open rebellion against the Government. The tone of these documents will, I trust, satisfy your Lordship that nothing short of the absolute necessity of the case would have induced me to continue martial law in operation until the pretended King was captured, and that the military authorities had every wish and inclination to temper justice with mercy whenever it could be justified by circumstances.

I have now again requested the deliberate opinion of Colonel Drought upon the whole subject, after the excite- He states most ment of the period has passed away. emphatically, that, looking back to the disturbed state of the country, the known designs of the leaders of the move- ment and the difficult and responsible position in which the officers were placed, they discharged the painful duties which devolved upon them with leniency and with mercy. He is unable to call to mind a single act done by the military, of whatever nature, that was not absolutely and distinctly necessary for the safety of the country and the preservation of property. The vigorous and determined measures adopted to prevent the spreading of disturbances to other parts of the country proved to be really merciful, in the most obvious manner, to the great men of the people. And he further adds his distinct conviction, that if the operation of martial law had bees sooner terminated, the capture of the pretended King and the restoration to 8