CO882-(1-2) — Page 71

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

LC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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without a single exception, they are precisely the same acts and system of rebellion adopted by the insurgents at Matelle and Kornegalle in 1848.

They were:-

1. Conspiring to levy war and depose the Bovereign.

2. To set up a pretended King, and alter the Government.

3. Looking to France and other foreign coun- tries for aid.

4. Raising contributions, and suborning military assistance.

5. Intent to subvert and destroy the Govern- ment, and restore the Kandyan monarchy, evenu e system, compulsory labour, and all other Kandyan royalties and customs.

6. To seduce the native officers of Government

from their allegiance.

7. Holding pinkamas and seditious meetings, and making treasonable harangues to excite the people to rebellion.

8. Attempts to tamper with and seduce the mili-

tary from their allegiance.

9. Administering treasonable and unlawful oaths.

10. Design to possess themselves of the sacred tooth.

11. Design to seize the Fort of Matelle, attack Kandy, and raise general insurrection.

These were the points of identity between the treason of 1884 and that of 1848.

But there was one feature in their plan of a peculiarly revolting character, and which evinces the feeling of the Kandyan chiefs at that period; a feeling which though vastly modified, is not I fear altogether removed; it was intended to facili- tate ulterior movements by cutting off at one blow the principal officers of the civil Government as well as the military authorities; and the plot by which this was to be accomplished was thus de- tailed by two Buddhist priests who had been taken into the confidence of the conspirators. One of the chiefs stated to the witness "that from the time the English Government was established til then, no entertainments had been given to the English gentlemen and soldiers at the same time; therefore that preparations should be made for an entertainment by collecting money from all classes,

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rich and poor. Then to have the sanction of Go- vernment for such an entertainment, and to have a large quantity of beverage prepared: and that whilst they were getting intoxicated, poison could be given by putting it into the beverage. I said 'What an immense quantity of poison must be given to poison such a large number of people!' He said, 'I have heard that when the country was once taken, and poison put into toddy by giving it to the soldiers, great numbers of people were destroyed.' I asked him, 'If this Government is discontinued, who is to govern?' and he then said that among the low country headmen there is still a prince concealed, and a king will be esta- blished in the Kandyan country, and establish it as before."

But the main point on which the treason of 1834 and that of 1848 differed is, that in the one case the conspiracy ripened into actual revolt; whereas in the former, it was discovered and arrested before it had time to explode.

Had any actual revolt taken place in 1884, and had it been suppressed by force of arms, it is more than probable that we might have been spared the insurrection and sanguinary scenes of 1848.

Because such formidable visitations are likely to be remembered, and to have their effect.

Whereas civil proceedings, however solemn at the moment, and with whatever awe they may impress the bystanders on the spot, are both limited in their moral effect, and speedily forgotten amongst an uneducated people, who have no records or books, and whose only means of information upon passing events are the interested and dis- torted representations conveyed to them by their chiefs.

There was likewise another untoward circum- stance which defented and neutralized any moral impression calculated to be produced by the State Trials of 1884.

Notwithstanding the clearest evidence, the ma jority of the jury acquitted all the prisoners indis- criminately.

The jury was composed of seven native and six English gentlemen; and it was understood that the latter were as unanimous for a conviction, as the majority were unanimous in favour of acquittal.