RESULTS OF.THE TWO-YEARS INQUIET INTO THE .
GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON.
'We have already mentioned that an article on "the Mysteries of Coy- ion," in the Quarterly Review for December, presents an admirably lucid sketch of the events which led to the Parliamentary Committee of in- .quiryinto the bloodless "rebellion" of Ceylon in 1846, and the bloody sigeniasexerebsed by Lord Torrington after tranquillity had been fully restored there.. The _article is intended as some counteraction to that Fabian dexterity: whir& has hitherto .nearly smothered the main results or the inquiry, and which would yet veil, its disgraceful termination. We shill offer Some assistance to this good object by epitomizing the article flit. our readers, as a preface to the further proceedings in Parliament which will no doubt be taken in the coming session. , In 1846, when perhaps the resignation of Sir Colin Campbell, after a long, peaceful, and prosperous administration, was already foreshadowed by signs in the official sky, Sir Emerson Tentent had signalized himself by the pre- paration of an elaborate report on the financial and _social position of Ceylon*. the remarkable ability of which Earl Grey confessed himself struck with. tir Emerson had been equally happy in history, in illustration, and in pro- .iniective advice. He hid concluded that the time had at last arrived for re- snoring "the old and vicious system of colonial taxation," and for imposing 4! a Sounder and healthier system," which if prudently matured would .tender Ceylon "Vic. most Wealthy and independent colony of the Crown." An Rsperienced a* master-hand would, however, be necessary in the de- lleate -task of refOthation ; for'unbtliing Could 'be mons 'dangerous or -pre- ridielal" than 'Ai& or 'theoretical meddling unguided by local experience and a thorough acquaintance with the habits and genius of the people,
" who, although enervated and apathetic, are remarkab various racer of India for their adherence to ancient custom." To encourage the beginner, these were the the treasury had "a large accumulated fund actually , the revenue would yield "a considerable annual surplus.
The experienced andmaster-hand selected was a nobleman who had spent his youth in the Seventh Fusiliers as a subaltern, and some maturer years as an amateur experimentalist in the rearing of commodious cow-sheds in Kent, varied by severer financial exercises as chairman of one of the most criticised of the railway schema which were extemporized in 1845 ; but who at the age of forty had manifested no disposition to take a part in the unpaid public business of the nation. Viscount Torrington, the first cousin of the Premier, was selected to try his 'prentice-hand at government in the distant and lucrative post of Governor of Ceylon. But on reaching Ceylon, his Lordship discovered a state of financial affairs the very reverse of that which the ardent and imaginative Sir Emerson had described. The " accumulated fund " consisted of promises to pay—partly in the hands of the public, and therefore liabilities and not credits, and partly unissued at all, and therefore on no better footing as money than the blank paper on which they were printed ; and the yearly surplus was a fond imagination. A state of things "so contrary to banking principles and to commercial policy" must be remedied promptly. For remedy the quondam railway-director invented seven new taxes ; of which four only need be al- luded to,—a road-tax, a shop-tax, a gun-tax, and a dog-tax. It so happens that you could scarcely select four taxes comparable with these for violating " the genius and habits" of the Ceylonese, and those "immemorial cus- toms ' , which the Ceylonese are " remarkable even amongst the various races of India for their adherence to." Sixteen of the leading firms of Co- lombo immediately presented a petition to Lord Torrington correcting his errors by their local experience, and respectfully praying the revocation of his steps. They explained that the road-labour would be regarded as a re- newal of the odious Raja-karaya, a system of compulsory labour only re- cently abolished by the chiefs in concession to the universal feeling of the people ; and furthermore, that the Buddhist priests, who were equally subjected to the law, are forbidden by their religion from labouring, or from possessing money. They showed that the short-tax would be an addition of twenty per cent to the rent of some shops; that the gun-tax, with other taxes on guns recently imposed, would take away as much as the whole value of the gun in the third year ; and that the dog-tax would be totally impracticable in the country districts. Lord Torrington forwarded this petition to Earl Grey, with the simple statement that it proceeded from deluded natives or disloyal and bankrupt Europeans, and was altogether unworthy of notice. On the 6th July 1848, however, a large body of unarmed Cingalese flocked into the town of Candy with the avowed object of complaining to the Go- vernment agent 'residing there. The police, panic-stricken, called in the military. The Cing,alese went home quietly, on receiving a prounee that Sir Emerson Tennent would, receive a deputation. The deputation was met on the 7th, and Sir Emerson so completely pacified thesis by his interpreted eloquence, that on the 12th, Lord Torrington wrote home, that the colony was peaceful, prosperous, and contented. Mr. Hawes, in the House of Com- mons, especially. lauded the tact and eloquence of Sir Emerson, as the in- struments of theisdelightful consummation. But on the 9th of August arrived Lord Torrington'a despatches, stating that Ceylon, with its million and a half of natives, was in full insurrection, under a "pretender" to the national sovereignty, who with twenty thousand armed bloodthirsty rebels had already met her .Majesty's forces in the field. Five days afterwards, came word that Lord Torrington had sent a police- inspector into the interior to see what was the matter. On his way, the inspector had met Mr. Waring the resident Magistrate and his police, in full retreat, and fortunately all uninjured : these fug:4,in s reported that the rebels were sacking the public stores and destroying the public buildings. Her Majesty's armies were at once set in motion, on the apparently forlorn business of defending the British Executive from an insurgent nation lathe midst of which it stood. Two hundred soldiers marched all night; there was a battle in the jungle ; in a few minutes upwards of two hundred of the rebels were killed, and the British supremacy had been upheld at the cost of one Englishman wounded in the thigh by a spent ball "from the field of battle "—after the battle one supposes, one friendly native found tied neck to heels "in a very disagreeable manner," and a few buildings and plantations plundered after they had first been abandoned by their protectors or owners. At Kumegalle whence the police retired "under an under- standing" with Mr. Bernard, the private Secretary of Lord Torrington, that the natives should be unchecked "till they had committed some disturbance which should enable the authorities to bring them to justice," [a parenthe- tical point which suggests the flagitious principle of tIle whole proceedings,] there was a similar display of English chivalry : at that place "one officer and twelve men of the Ceylon Rifles" killed twenty-six wounded several, and took twenty-three prisoners, out of a host of four tiiousand armed In- surgents."
Thus the angalese insurrection was subdued by British anus ; and the military credit of the feat should be duly apportioned. Major-General Smelt, the commanding-officer of Ceylon, remained quietly at Colombo during the whole campaign • four or five field-officers, all senior to Lieutenant- Colonel Drought, all 'acquainted with the localities and with the character and language of the natives, were equally unemployed ; it was all done by Lord Torrington and Colonel Drought alone : the performance is the more striking considering that neither had the assistance of two years' experience in the country which they so completely subdued.
After military subjugation, there succeeded the vindication of trans- gressed law. For between two and three months after the rebellion had been crushed, the state of martial law was preserved. The result was, that eighteen persons were shot to death, nineteen were transported across the sea, (a more terrible sentence than death to the Asiatic,) seventy-two were imprisoned with hard labour, and fifty-eight were flogged. One of the most brilliant of the vindicatory exploits was the execution of "an influential priest, in full robes," for administering or being privy to the administration of treasonable oaths. But this very exploit, which Lord Torrington paraded with exultation before Lord Grey, and which Lord Grey declared to be "highly satisfactory," was one of the atrocities winch first astomshed and arouses' public opinion at home. The Queen's Advocate for the colony had become satisfied that the witnesses against the priest were perjured, and that the very identity of the priest was totally unestabliahed : he had remon- strated, but lord Torrington had said, "By God, Sir, if all the lawyers in Ceylon said that the priest WAS innocent, he should be shot tomorrow." The priest was shot, and not in official robes. When the echo of English indignation had sounded over the East and entered Lord Torrington 's ear he proposed measures to his Council for the indemnification of himself and his military; and one of the points he made was that "it was utterly im- possible , at the time" to be always certain "who were the exact parties m- illiar4s:4 or not." Indeed, there Seems to have been a total uncertainty not only aa.to who ought to be shot, but as to who was or was not shot. Twice did Lord Torrington officially communicate to Bari Grey that "the pretend- er" had been abote-that he had been put to death on two occasions ; yet it proved at last, that "the pretender" had never been killed even once ; and it being found that he still remained on hand, he was "flogged and tnun- ported for life." The Council passed the act of indemnification only by a :majority of one vote—the casting-vote of Lord Torrington himself. As the -indemnity act was in a sense his sole act, it was fitting he should be in a sense the sole administrator of it : its essential clause therefore established that his Lordship and Colonel Drought—himself and himself—were to be the sole parties who should decide what acts should come within its indemni- fying scope.
Having thus subdued rebellion, vindicated the outraged law, and indem- nified the vigorous actors who had stepped beyond the law, Lord Torrington turned to prospective policy. Communicating to his Council Earl Grey's approval of the four objectionable taxes, he repealed one as ineffectual for
• its objects, abandoned a second as impracticable, surrendered a third on the remembered representations of the respectable deputation which had been previously contemned, and amended the last in the very mode suggested by the memorialists whom he had called deluded or disloyal and bankrupt. The rapid transition of policy. was not more mystifying to the Council at Ceylon than inexplicable and irritating to Lord Grey at home; for his Lord- slit had written many pages in didactic approbation of these very taxes, an of the vigorous policy by which they had been enforced. Earl Grey could not restrain a rebuke : "I am compelled to say, that on comparing your present despatch with your original explanations of the grounds upon
• which the taxes now abandoned were adopted by you, I cannot reconcile the decision you have now come to with the supposition of your having well weighed beforehand the advantages and disadvantages of these taxes, since the objections which you report as having induced you to repeal them are in a great measure such as a preliminary investigation would have elicited."
When Parliament met in February 1849, Mr. Henry Bernie, M.P. for Inver- ness-shire, moved for a Select Committee on the conduct of Lord Torrington. Mr. Under-Secretary Hawes defended the excellent Governor in the Commons ; and scattered invective against Mr. Bernie and Mr. Hume as vindictive, ignorant, and weak puppets in the hands of designing conspirators in Ceylon. Lord Grey declared in the House of Lords, that he should be prepared to de- fend his nominee on all points whenever the proper time should arrive. The Committee was appointed. It could discover no opinions whatever by the Law-officers of Ceylon on the necessity for the martial law which had been proclaimed, or the need for prolonging its operation so long after tranquillity was restored. Lord Grey loftily refused to vouchsafe any light ; ao the Com- mittee recommended a Royal Commission to inquire at Ceylon. This recom- mendation Ministers got rejected by a majority of 57 in a thin House : but Lord John Russell promised that such witnesses should be fetched to this country als the Committee would nominate. The Committee unanimously requested Mr. Baillie, as their Chairman' to take the task of selection ; and Mr. Hawes and Mr. James Wilson, the Ministerial nominees in the Com- mittee, consented that he should name the witnesses required : but when Parliament rose Earl Grey objected that Mr. Bailie was constitutionally in- competent to do the duty of the Committee, and he refused to summon the witnesses, on the score of expense. In the session of 1860 this dodge was thoroughly exposed ; and the Minister being nearly left in a minority-109 to 100—on a motion to send for the witnesses by re- turn of Posts Jae promised they should be forthcoming. About this time Sir Emerson Tennent had arrived in England, Mr. Heinle complained that time, Grey had not only kept back the adverse witnesses, but had brought forward his own. Mr. Hawes declared that Sir Emerson Tennent had not been sent home or brought home at all; he was at home on his own affairs--" quite promiscuously as it were," and on private leave. Yet in the account, since . published, of expenses for bringing the witnesses from Ceylon who were ex- amined before this Committee, the largest sum appears opposite the name of
• Sir Emerson Tennent-17031. iSs. hi. But either he was sent for, and Mr. Hawes said the thing which is not ; or he was not sent for and he was al- lowed a large sum to which he had no rightful claim. (Sir Emerson has since been promoted to the Governorship of St. Helena.)
One now arrives at two episodes of personal scandal, Captain Watson's pro- clamation, and Mr. Wodehouse'a confidential communication. Every one will remember the indignant horror of Captain Watson at the bloody Cinga- lese proclamation he disowned ins well-written letter to the Premier - which Lord John read with due emphasis to the House of Commons. The Royal Commissioners iroin Madras have reported, that the proclamation which so awakened the Captain's ,horror was really of his own issuing, and was signed by his own undoubted' band; and it has come out in addition, that the spirited letter to the Premier was composed for the unliterary Captain by no less a person than Sir Emerson Tennent himself! Mr. Wodehouse having impartially exposed the financial position of the colony for some years past, and so shown the delusions under which Sir Emerson had laboured in the preparation of his celebrated report to Sir Colin Campbell, the "Knight of the Grecian order of Christ" complained to the Committee that all the civil servants of the colony had banded to annoy and thwart him ; and he asserted that Mr. Wodehouse in particular had disavowed and censured acts which during the rebellion he had approved. Mr. Wodehouse rebutted this by quoting a passage from a letter addressed by Lord Torrington to hi
The late Sir Robert Peel objecting to quotations, and the Committee insisting that all or none of the letter should be before it, Mr. Wodehouse was com- pelled to disclose all : it then appeared that Lord Torrington had proceeded to say, in coarser terms than the Quarterly Reviewer cares to transcribe, "that he chiefly attributed his embarrassments and failures to the under- hand misrepresentations and suggestions of Sir Emerson Tennent ! " The reader will bear in mind the lofty indignation with which Earl Grey announced that be should be ready to make good at all points the conduct of his nominee "whenever the proper time should come," and the histrionic and perfunctory agitation with which Mr. Hawes rushed to hold his little shield between the delinquent and the public : he will also remember how the witnesses who were withheld were dragged forth with their evidence— how the marshalling of the evidence failed to pervert its real effect—how the episodical weapons of calumny which were prepared against the charac- ters of the independent members of the Committee only exploded in the hands of their concocters, and shattered the reputations they were intended to de- fend : accustomed to official discomfiture and deceit, when he beholds the complete failure of the official defences in the open Parliamentary field he will not be surprised to find that some further dodges of " transac- tion " are attempted, to hide the defeat that could not be prevented. The sequel is of this consistently honese sort. After a severe struggle, and the rejection of many draft-reports, a report was agreed to by the Committee, calling the serious attention of her Majesty's Government to the evidence which the Committee had taken and again recommending that a Royal Commission should be sent out, "unless some step should forthwith be taken by the Government which might obviate the necessity of further investiga- tion." This was the coup-de-grace. Lord Grey never came forward with the proffered defence; the "proper time" never came, and now it scarcely ever can tome : the little shield of Mr. Hawes must be lowered in silent tutacted grief. The officers who were summoned over here to upset, but who • fatally established, the almost incredible charges made against the local Go- vernment, have been allowed by the Colonial Office to return to Ceylon, and resume the execution of their responsible duties. Sir Emerson Tennent is • despatched to succeed the worthy Sir Patrick Rosa in the secluded govern- ment of the ocean rock of St. Helena. Viscount Torrington is quietly dis- missed !
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