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C.O. 882

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passages in their books, and taught them to believe that the long-wished-for period had dawned, and the

of the strange nation was to cease. supremacy They told them of the important fact that the relic was already in the hands of the Kandyan nation, and even impressed the ignorant population with the belief that the bullets of the English would shower on them as harmlessly as water, while their own fire would, on the contrary, be attended with murderous effect. (Letter to Colonial Secretary, 10th October, 1849, page 50.) (See also Letter of Mr. Staples, pages 17, 18.)

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All these facts are so notorious throughout False Statements as to the origin Ceylon, that the public there learned with astonish. of the Rebellion.

ment that evidence had been given before this

Committee to the effect--

1. That there was in reality no organised rebel- Mr. Anstruther, 7619.

lion in the Kandyan provinces.

2. That it was a mere riot, excited by ma- 4261, 4281, 7624.

rauders in search of plunder.

3. That it was got up by Low Country Singha- 4261, 4274, 4281.

lese. And,

4. That no Chiefs, and only a few priests, were 4253, 4256, 4262, 4263, 7623, implicated in the movement.

Mr. Anstruther, in reply to questions 7627 and 7628, says "the people connected with the Rebellion were people of very little consequence, many of them robbers," and that the whole affair was "a riot, to put down which the proclamation of martial law was unnecessary.”

7614.

Mr. Wodehouse affirms "that he had not the 5674. slightest belief" in the alleged disloyalty of the Chiefs.

I use the expression advisedly when I say that these assertions were received in Ceylon with sur- prise; and, for my own part, till I read them as coming from Mr. Anstruther and Mr. Wodehouse in the Committee, I never heard of a single in- dividual in Ceylon who entertained meh opinions -nor have I since been able to ascertain that any one individual concurs in or adopts them, except a few gentlemen connected with the Observer news- paper.

I shall very briefly, therefore, place before the Committee, such proofs as, in my opinion, are cal- culated to demonstrate their uttar unsoundness. First, as to there being “No Rebellion."

As to there being “sa Rebellion.

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The facts I have already laid before the Com- mittee, may, perhaps, be considered sufficient on that point.

But there are the declarations of some indi- viduals, whose opinions are entitled to much weight, to which I would beg to direct attention.

The District Judge of Kornegulle, Mr. Gibson, has shown that such was by no means the opinion of the natives themselves, who, in all the evidence and depositions and confessions of prisoners taken before him, uniformly spoke of the movement as a "Rebellion," as a "War against the English," as a combination to "drive the English out of the country," As a series of engagements, in which they eagerly asked, "Who got the victory, the English or the Singhalese?”

He spoke of "taking the country for their own King;" and exclaimed, “Our own King is come, and we are afraid of no one now!”—(Letter, 13th October, 1849, page 140.)

The expressions of the Pretender after his coro- nation were, that "the British Government had coased.”—(Deputy Queen's Advocate, page 14.)

Mr. Wilmot, a barrister in extensive practice; and who defended the prisoners on all the trials for treason in 1884, 1843, and 1848, wrote to Lord Torrington on the 8th November last, to say that, now “his profesional duties on behalf of the pri- soners recently tried had ceased,” a sense of justice to the Government of the colony prompted him, unsolicited, to offer an opinion in relation to the assertion before the Committen, that there had been "no rebellion, but a mereriot, in the Kandyan provinces; and to state his firm and unalterable conviction, that there did exist a widely-ramited and extended conspiracy among the priesthood and chieß, to drive the British out of the province, and Kandyan-throm

was to be

law.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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not adequate to the crisis; and the proclamation of martial law was imperatively demanded; nor do I think it remained in force an hour longer than was essentially requisite for the entire suppression of the rebellion.

"It ensured the capture of the King-a fact which I had from his own lips; and until his capture had been effected, the rebellion might have been indefinitely protracted, to the total cessation of all mercantile and agricultural pursuits, and to the almost certain destruction of life and property."— (Letter, page 244.)

Mr. Templer, the Assistant Agent at Kornegalle, and now at Matelle, gives a distinct opinion on the nature of the rebellion (page 174); and remarks, that the appointment of Adigars and Ministers by the King was a proof of the intention to subvert the Government, as these offices and titles are un- known to the constitution of the colony.

Mr. Stewart, the Deputy Queen's Advocate, and the highest law officer of the Government in the Kandyan province, who was resident there before and during the rebellion, has written 22nd No- vember, 1849, to me to express his surprise at the assertions and misapprehensions as to the real character of the insurrection, the facts and events as they came before him in evidence were abun. dantly sufficient to remove all doubt "That there existed a conspiracy to overthrow the existing Government, (page 8) the concourse of 700 or 800 armed men to see the Pretender inaugurated at the great temple of Dambool, to take part in the cere- mony, and do homage to the newly crowned king. The crowds from distant villages who rushed to his standard from all sides, armed with and swords,

guns as he approached Matelle on his way to lay siege to Kandy, (page 11) the rising on the same day at Kornegulla, 40 miles to the westward, and the almost simultaneous capture of that town, aud that of Matelle, and whilst these events were in actual pro- greas, the movements in a third district in the east- ward to barricade the roads, and cut off the com- munication to Trincomalee."

"I take it as incontrovertible," says Mr. Stewart, "that every feature in the late disturbanos renders it clear that an organised rebellion existed. The conduct and expressions of the Pretender himself,

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render it difficult to come to any other conclusion. He declared himself the descendant of a king, and The assumed the character and powers of one. British Government was declared to have ceased. The armed people followed him in hundreds to Matelle, to take and plunder the town, and pursued their march towards Kandy, where they encoun- tered, engaged, and were defeated by the Queen's

troops Kornegalle was entered by the rebels about the same time, and thus we have two consi- derable towns sacked by armed men, thousands

in number, with a proclaimed king at their head, firing on the Queen's troops, and bidding defiance to all authority. These proceedings from beginning

to end present but one aspect, and that indicative throughout of Rebellion." (Letter, 22nd November, page 14 and 15).

The confessions and statements of the Priests, and especially of the High Priest of the Dambool temple, where the king was crowned, leave little room to doubt what was the nature of the move- ment. The co-pretender, captured at Kornegalle, declared that he and his followers were engaged in "raising Rebellion," and, in fact, it seems like embarrassing the evidence to accumulate further proofs of the existence of a widely-diffused and dangerous rebellion-they are contained in abund- ance in the testimony of every European officer and resident in the Kandyan country, and of numerous natives, which are now on the table of the Commit- tee, and which establish the utter unsoundness of the assertion that the recent insurrection was not a national movement, with the comprehensive object ----extruding the British authority from the ancient Kandyan Kingdom.

One thing is certain, that there existed through- out Ceylon the most unanimous and unusual alarm and apprehension; the authorities, civil and mili- tary, on the alert,-every man acquainted with Kandyan olsztofer and manifestations convinced of a great

Mil imperating danger.

| fed intor Kandy from all the sur-

hand the natives in the remokait

mtities prepared by one

"so prepare for War."

› Commandant of Kauky, Oslonal Drought, observed, “It is unreasonable to stippčna that men

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