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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference -

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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the main items of receipt in the colonial budget, should be largely reduced, while the state of trade generally made a repeal of the export duty on coffee and other articles a matter of equally impe- rative necessity.

In these circumstances it is obvious that both the imposition of new taxes and retrenchment of the public expenditure had become necessary, nor is it surprising that in this situation the Governor (who is always held responsible for the distress expe- rienced by individuals) should soon have become exceedingly unpopular, and that an outcry should have been raised against the measures which it was impossible that he could escape from adopting.

The insurrection which unfortunately occurred afforded but too favourable an opportunity for clamour. It was immediately asserted that this outbreak was the result of the new and tyrannical taxes imposed by the Governor, but all the evidence which has been collected clearly proves that there is no ground for this assertion. The utmost that can be said is that the imposition of new taxes afforded an opportunity to those who were pre- viously discontented to misrepresent to the igno- rant population the intentions of the Government and thus to drive them into rebellion, but the discontent of the priests and of the chiefs is of

causes.

far older date and attributable to very different It arises from the natural dissatisfaction of these classes at finding their importance gradually fading away under the influence of British domi- nion and civilization, and had already on more than one previous occasion led to disturbances, and more especially in the year 1843, when several persons were punished for the attempt to create just such a rebellion as took place in 1848.

Hence it may I think fairly be concluded that Lord Torrington is not responsible for having by

his measures produced the insurrection; but when

it took place there is no doubt that it was entirely

owing to the vigour and energy with which he acted that it was so promptly suppressed and with

so little loss. This is the opinion of Sir H. Mad- dock, a Member of the Supreme Council at Bengal, who was in Ceylon when the insurrection took

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place, of all the military authorities, and of the merchants and planters assembled at a public meeting at Kandy; and when it is remembered that the interior of Ceylon is a most difficult country for military operations, and that in the very district in which this insurrection broke out it required not many years ago a force of 10,000 men employed for three years at a vast expense to put down a rebellion, it must I think be admitted that we are not a little indebted to Lord Torrington for having at once extinguished the beginnings of a conflagration which if it had been allowed to gain

a head might have proved a most serious calamity. Lord Torrington is blamed for having allowed so many as eighteen persons to be shot by the pen- tence of courts-martial in consequence of this abortive rebellion. Upon this point I have to observe that Lord Torrington cannot be held re- sponsible for the number of capital punishments inflicted, inasmuch as the trials took place at Kandy while he was at Colombo, and the sentences were carried into effect without allowing time for any reference to him, and also that I do not believe that in a case like this a British officer would be likely to act with undue severity; and that as far as it is possible to form a judgment at

so great a distance upon a subject of this kind, my opinion is, that Colonel Drought in dealing thus severely with the rebels acted with real humanity by creating a wholesome terror which will prevent

a repetition of the rebellion. Upon the subject of Ceylon I have only to add, that it appears by the latest accounts, that Lord Torrington is pro- ceeding with great vigour in the work of retrench- ment which before the insurrection he had been directed to undertake, and reports that he has already succeeded, notwithstanding the unlooked-for expenses of the insurrection in bringing down the expenditure for the first three quarters of 1848 to within 90001. of the income in the same period, and that I have no doubt of their being speedily equalized.

In conclusion I have to remark that I have not adverted in this paper to our possessions in the Mediterranean because they are rather garrisons

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than colonies properly so called; but I ought not

to omit to mention that Mr. More O'Ferrall since - his appointment to the Government of Malta has introduced

reforms which were urgently many required; and corrected abuses of very long stand- ing, and that after much private correspondence with me he is now prepared officially to recommend a plan for the qualified introduction of the principle of Representation into the Government of Malta which I have reason to believe will give the greatest satisfaction to the colonists.

Colonial Office,

G.

February 8, 1849.