The Sun. — London, England, 1804-03-15 00:00:00

postponed till Friday, he therefore wished to know whether it was positively to come on to-morrow. Ab.-CANY/NG (in the absence of Mr. PITT) said, that his Right Hon. Friend had never eiver tained an idea of postponing his motion till Friday on the contrary, it would unquestionnbly come on tomorrow. ACCOUNTS. Air.. GREGOR expressed a wish, to move for some Accounts relative to the Property Tax. He Wished to be informed- how far -prcrgreSs had' - been Made with rewe,a- to- the Property Tax ; and for that OurpOse intended to move for an account of the assessments returned to the Tax-office ; if, how ever, there Wa`si any obtjedion,- he should merely give notice of it :for afature day. He.-also intended to move for an account of the sums paid into„and of the.charges upon the Consolidated Fund, between the sth of January, 1803, and the sth of January, 180.1., distinguishing each quarter. There was another circumstance on which he wished, to make a remark, relative to the printing of accounts laid before the •Housel, it frequently happened, .from only one copy of an account being laid befoie the which, was immediately' sent to he printed, that the Members were, in the - mean time, deprived 'a all information upon the subje‘a. He concluded by moving for .the account he had alluded to re. spewing the Consolidated Fund. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER < . Laid, he saw no objection to the motion ; bit with respe6t to the other Motion which the Hon,Gentle min had mentioned, relative ro the Property Tax, although he was not aware of any objedion, yei he wished to avail hiMself of the Hon. Gentleman's wish to give a notice for a future day. The motion was then agreed to, and Mr. GRE oa gave notice of his intention to bring forward the other motion nn ,Monday. The S PEAKER, observed," with. respea to ac- CountS laid upon the Table, that it would be for the. convenience of the House if duplicate's from the difirent - offices were presented, iti order that Members might obtain information upon the sub jeC'ts of these l accounts whilst they were printing. CEYLON. Mr. CREVEY rose,. pur'snant to notice, to move, he Said, for such papers as' were necessary to =found an Inquiiy'respeEting the War which the Governor of Ceylon had'been . carrying on in-that ISland.` He should not have taken-up this subjeEt if he had not considered it of great importance, but conceiving it to be of considerable importance, and no' other Member having touched upon :the'subjetfl, he . con s idered it his.duty to rake it up. The House - and the Public were in possession of no official details with respeCt to the origin of this War, or of its • cons quences; heshould therefore shortly State what•infor-' , illation he had upon the subjed. From the year 1795, whenCeyloniwas taken possession of on the part of this Country, to the year 1802, the Government ptiriuecl the wise policy of not interfering in the in ternal concerns of the inhabitants, and our-affairs there were prosperous •In the latter end of ,year 1802, some British property was 'seized by some Officers of -the- CandiarfCx'nvernment restitu - lion was 'demanded and agreed to, and the sum to be paid was 3001. and he understood, that the sole cause of the War•arose from a difference of opinion its-.to whether' the money .should be paid mediately or in two months. The War - was then -began, and in a short time the British troops 'far. .prOsperoii t s; but then-came that dreadftil and destruetive: malady which destroyed hundreds' and - hundreds of our ' troops. It might have been thought that when the Candians had thus been degraded in thivapital, when our advantages had been so dearly s ed, anal when the country presented no objedworth pos_ seSsrng; that the Government would hay . e lost no time in recalling the troops. It seemed however, that the Governor oferyierrywas determined to take a part in rig internal ,affaits „of the Candians. In the first place, it was tltinght proper to dethrone the legal Moliarch of the e',:tintry, and to substi: tutenottier, "who was 'unitetsally odious to the o at idir itr ,-,- , and who ha-d-sini..‘e !been murdered: Hav ing failed in establishing this new Monarch, a Treaty w as entered' into:-with the . Adi)ar, by (h Government was placed 'in his hands.• In' the mean i;me,- the garrilttri — of Citndy was daily dißtiitiithed ; .out of zoo' kitish 'fioops, i 6o were co , lioed to their cots by sickness, ; whilst there was only - tie'iiCii,"Aiiciut. j 'or 4.o6 . MidayS. The Can digits 'egaspdrated'at • cur stay in the town, and ;at' our .interfgreiice - with respect' to the Government of th e :colintty;: stturomded_.the-place ; ittmlimbrrs TIM lesis han 'to,000: The 'l3ritimii Troops, cut (.ff fi.ofn Lll josistanee, lyeierorftrelled: to saire:rder, atlif lAy.Awn'iheir arms:" Bien Came 'the sad'ter_ mirritiOn-Of the tragedy;' which- was" already well i b i:7l;NWn : they were led - out tivO by two into the. btryets-Of :Candy, 'and-there' knocked' oh 11, -,id • with their o,vo mucquets, and Their throats were' aftr:vards cut ; this was'done by tirtlt: of the v - 6iy ANjiir whom We had supported. Ar'the saute time uur garrisrins were attacked, and.the'sick' . murdered. Thus ended the Candian expedi t io n , arid ft'op.4L the 'period or the rriut,:ler of our troops in tie r 3th ~ o f September, the'thite of the latest accounts frnm thence, the Government of had)been kept iii daily alarm. The - Candi_ ans elated by their sty:-cess, 'had descended into Ali onr'4ettieni4hll, , anifilre grirish were atitrAlly con_ fitted to their forts. Such 'was the supposecidanger of he Island, that,the greatest ;Jar - In - prevailed on that subjcit , --.on"rhe Continent of • India," and an 'ex pedition was fitting out- theft' in the beginningof September, with a. view to- the relief of the Go 4e-finent of Ceylon. He thought there were' abun tiiiTif-xtobndsf. r inquiry- info the causes and origin of-a war NtliCl) =tvnq apparently so impolitic, and evidently so- dreadful and disastrous its - troitsegaences. There was one circurrt s,Orgti :resiltd:lng ;his war which more particularly' foi when • we first took 'possession o f the IslantiVive had before us the-experience of w h at h e ld t he Dutch,. 34'11.4 .in the year, 1764, pe rolfcltsdjap,AbOoterjor Of . the - blitnd, .but . whose il,4ll4oAeTtn . inated in the salilc, disastrous way as ours tti+4:dPfls,.their, troops : being .mutOred in the kkir - 44-4npfF..,Jhe„ ..,01‘rerlut, of Ceylon was in possession Of ;all these fkis. As to the consequences !if this War, i 4 was indisputable that she loss of so many hrave troop'; must be severely felt. When it was considered also that we vs'ere carrying or: an exterliive,War on•the dontinent.riT India, a i d that a French Squitfron was.'in the ;Indian Seas, it was a very s,erious'consequence that any portion of,our regular troops should be. sent from India, where chty were so much wanted, in order to •repair' our losses in•Ceylen. The Government of India were placed in a dileanns, as by withholding assiStance they might deptiVe this Country of the valuable . Island of Ceylon, whilst by sending aid they were depriving out Indian possessions of their best means of defence, regular, troops, of which he understood rOOO were Co he sent to Ceylon. He asked whether the House would nor c:msider all these as sufficient grounds to go to inquiry ? There was also another consideration of a most momentous nature. After the little discretion displayed by the Government of Ceylon in going to war, there was great reason to fear that continual disputes would arise between our troops and the Csndians, and that the Island would•prove the grave of our soldiers. He hoped that His Majesty's Ministers, in their 'dispatches to Ceylon,-wouldcall n the artentio of the Govern ment-there to past experience, for it was impossi ble, whilst the, natives remained- as they were, and our soldiers were subject to diseases, that any ad.. vantages could, be derived by penetrating into the Country ; on the contrary, .such kind of expedi tions would-not only he useless, but fatal to our selves. There were some transa'tions, such as de throning the legal Monarch, and substituting an. which peculiarly. called fur inquiry, and if they preserved any respect for regular Governnients, it was high time to bestow some attention upon these extraordinary circumstances. He thought if the fafts which he had stated were deemed.corretl, they were sufficient to go to' iriqui,ry; to. ground which he .should move for paperi. Before he sat down, however, be wished .to. advert to the dispatches which appeared in the Gazette, from the Governor of Ceylon, and which appeared as if intended to throw the blame off- the shoal. ders of the Governor, upon an Officer - who bad died in the service, of his country. Upon this subjetl he would just beg. leave to say, that out of zoo troops under • the command of that Officee,..,i6o were sick, and they were surrounded by 1 - Ci,6:. - .)0 Candians., If that Officer, had attempted to force his way with the 40 men who were effective, he must have - left the 160 ,iele.to be murdered .by. the •Candians; it appeared therefore, and might be fairly inferred, that he capitulated in order to save the whole. He concluded by moving fur co pies of all dispatches which, bad been passed be tween the Government here said the Governor of Ceylon, relative to the lam war in that Island. He read several other motions fOrdispatches and papers relating . to the Same- sul)jea. On - the first motion : being put, Lord C ASTLERk AG H said, he should trouble the House--with as 'few words as poSsible, as, when the papers were laid befOre the House, they would then have an ~ opportunity of forming an opinion I upon the subjed. He assented to the general prim- ciple, that when a War was entered into in any part of our Colonial possessions, unless Government could state some reason of expediency for not pro clueing' such information, that Parliament had a right to possess itself of full information with re. ' sped to the origin and causes of that War. To this paint the present Motion went, and s o f ar he §04611 ; 071 1 liail a I li; fit - "To produce information -as to the state of our force in Ceylon, as that would he shewing the enemy' the number of Troops we had •in the Island to defend it, and night tend to' invite an attack. It might be also inexpedient to disclose the state of any Negotiation carrying on in the, bland by the Governor. He only wished that no prejudicial impression might remain in the minds of Gentlemen, The Hon. Gent. (Mr. CREVEY) had stated the War to have originated in a dispute • about . property to the amount of only 3col. but the Kalue was,of little consequence ; the . Candian Go ; vernment .had long demonstrated an hostile mind towards us, and,the detention of property, about which the first dispute.took place, was only one of the symptoms of that hostile disposition. The form of the Motion was, he 'said, nut accurate, as Cey - !on formed no part of the Dominions of the East India COmpany, _but was annexed to the Crown ; he had therefore framed a Motion which he - would make, if the Hon. Gentleman would consent to Withiltiw • his, He 'concluded by reading tion, "That an humble AchlOSs be presented to His Majesty, praying that His 'Majesty would be 'graciously pleased to order to be laid before th e ' House, Copies or Extracts of such -Letters and Pa pers as had been received from the Hon. Fcederic . North, Governor of Ceylon, relative to the causes ,of the hostilities which had ti:!zer t place between His Majesty's Government and the King of Candy." Mr. CR EVEY having consented to withdraw his motion, the motion of Lord CASTLEREAGH was agreed to. Mr. CREVE v then moved for C - pies of all Dis patches and Letters from the Governor of Ceylon to the British Officers empLiyed there, and from the latter to the former.. Lord CASTLEREAGH obje(ted to this motion, as calling for information whiCh it would be inexpe,, dient to produce, and therefore moved the previous question. Mr. FOX opposed the previous question, on the ground that no case had been 'made out why the . in formation moved for ought not to be granted at . t h e present moment, 'nor w i ts any time stated when it Would be convenient "to grant it. Was it to be de_ ferred `till the end of the War, when an inquiry could lead to no pradical use ? General M AITL AND objroeti to laying upon the Table any informati.in which might. expose.the ha_. ziardous stale of the Island, anti thereby endanger . its loss. He trusted, however, that. the time was not far distant, when there would be no objettion to produce the information called for.. - : Mr. JOHNSTONE thought it. probable that the War in Ceylon had already terminaied, and therefore the information might be laid upon Lk Table with per. tea safety. : Laid QASTI, F AGH , that it was too much to assume that the Witi had already terminate 3. Sir Wrt. GEnk opposed the previous questiQu an d M s . W ALLA E tIIIIIOE ted•it Mr. CALCRAFT was bf opinion that no'good ob_ jefti:On had been made to the prot'luaiott of, the Pape'rs. General MAITLAND explained, , • LOrd HENRY PETTY . - thought it of:import .ance, that the information should be produced, in order that they might duly appreciate the conse quences. of the ,war in Ceylon, particularly as it was reported in :private letters from India, that an exPedition of're),ooo inert WAS about to be sent from Madras, in oilier to effeet the conquest of that Island. 'He really thought it was the duty of the House to consider how far Troops ought to be dven tared in 'such expedition, which they could only do'by,having the papers- before them. To• Say that the information ought not to be granted till the end of the war, •was .similar, to refusing to exa mine into the condition of a vessel at sea until 'she came into pOrt. - • - The CHANCELLOR of • the EXCHEQUER said, that the Papers already , ordered would give sufficient infotmation to. ground upon them any ulterior decision as to the _point whether the War in Ceylon was undertaken-on justifiable grounds. 7— The 'objea, the 'causes, and circumstances of the War would be ; explained by these Papers, and if the House should then think that the War was unjust ] it' would be competent for them to advise His Ma:- jest). to prevent =its further prosecution: . With.re speti to Ith . e - statement of the Noble . Lord (Lord HENRY 'PETTY) of 10,066 men being abbot to be sent to Ceylon from Madras, •iati information of that nature had been received by His Majesty's nisters. Lord HENRY PETTY and the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER severally explained. .. The Huuse.divided, For the Motion, - - 47 For the preyious Q9estion 7o ..A.Message from the Lords. infQrined the House, the Lords had agreed to the London Dock Bill with some Amendments; to which they desired the con currence7of the House, and to some.other-Bills. MAR RATTA WAR. Mr. FRAN . CIS desired that the Resolution df the 1 House, - and- an. Aa of Parliament upon the stibied of COmmunicition froM the .Governor General of India to the Governtnent of this. Country, in case of any War in. India, might be read ; which being done, Mr. FRANCIS proceeded to observe, that i tlie House was in.such perfect possession of the nature of the Clause which had been read of the Ad of Parlia ment; that he need not detain it long with many observations upon that topic : theobjed of it was to. prevent aroluntary Wars, on our part, in India, that was on the part of our Indian Government, without the full consideration of our Government at linme; He had two reasons for bringing this sub jed forward at the. present moment :—First, to re mind the House of its own .Ad.and Resolution in cases of this kind ; namely, that they .by their Re - .: solution, and tbe, whOle Legislature had by Ad of • Parliament, _prevented voluntary Wars on our part . in India :=Secondly, to' show the policy of, such ResolUtiOn and Ads of Parliament, and to endeavour as-far as depended on him, to have the law carried in.to execution ; on which grounds he hoped for the -concurrence of the House. In his opinion, it was. the wiser policy and the safer praCtice not to make any law at all, than . to make , gout' in their Aisobey them ; and this was particularly applicable to the present case, on account of the, distance of the party whose con duff was to be inquired into, and who was so' far , retnoved from this Country, and who had an oppor tunity, if so disposed, of disguising and inisrepre. tenting the proceedingS. He stated this to open the grounds of his Motion, not meaning -to charge j any man now in India with 'any offence whatever; . 1 he stated as grounds of Inquiry only,• whether s'uch, and such things have been done or not ? He said that the Governor General in India, who made War without the knowledge of this Country, with';! -any Indian Power, adopted that which the law pro hibits, and by doing so he puts himself upon his defence; all general principle's and presumptions were against him, and he is therefore thus, by his own ad, put upon his defence, for we are to presume, in such a case, that he is ailing against the not to con. demo him, but-for the purposeof inquiry. Another ground was, that these Wars in general were sup posed to be proVnked by the aggression of the In di,m Powers • againSt the British, that was to say, that all Regression came from the weaker against the stronger party, an opinion not warranted by . experience, and which was contradicted; ,by prac tice ; and indeed it appeared to be unreasonable in theory, for the States of India were such, that no one of which was considerable enough to be for midable to us, generally speaking, and almost all of them united together might be said to be hardly equal to the British power there ; and therefore Olt probability was, that we were generally the ag gressors, because, generally speaking, in States as well as in individual affairs, the strong was the *op pressor of the weak much oftener than the weak was the provoker of the strong.--l - Diving , said this much by way of general sentiment, lie pro ceeded to observe, it was impossible to lay down better rules for the Government of India than-those -Which where laid down by the Resolutions of the Court of Ditedots, for the purpose of preventing , unnecessary Wars in India, and when that system failed of itsobjed,- as fail it certainly did, the Le gislature interfered, and he was sorry to say pretty neatly with the same success. He appealed to the House whether this was not generally true, that since the At of Parliament, since the year 1782, we had heard of nothing but of wars and the ac. quisition of territory in India. One might have hoped, that afterwards we might have heard of a few years of Peace in India, but we are now in volved in War with the Mahrattas; but when he said that the Mahrattas as an Indian power, were weak, he meant with . reference to per. manent operations against the British ; he did not. mean to say they did not possess the means of an. noying us ; 'on the contrary, they did possess spell means. He observed, that the Presidency .of Born bay entered into an adventure some time since, of -which he gave the particulars, lie said they were . afterwards surrounded by the Mahratta Army, and , were obliged to make an ignominious capitulation, put perhaps we are stronger now, and they may be to eon weaker ; hut that could be no reason for us tinue a War if that was unnecessary, for us t v h::: l i a aa : rattas have it in their power to annoy t la e r r g ia e ll b Y o . dy i o t f w' H as ors ti e l pet haps, and invade our upper Provinces of Beng al ' and proceed with 'great rapidity, and lay the par_' t , ei a r n p r h a u a nd i creedto thousandassein ble c a a v v a e l r rr Y they past over in waste r and which-. we -could not prevent, then to. retire as rapidly into the heart , w their own territory, whither we could not I ° l ,. ° l a them without innumerable toils and incalculanci expence ; neither, could we 'repair fur many Ye a the injury which we thus received on,the sudgen; Now whether they would again invade the P rov ` °c e of Bengal as they have 'done,' and which they st a h, a ' a the power of doing, he would not say ;jt was al l cient to aay, that' they have the power whi_ac, might overwhelm us, or do us infinite mischt which he had not the power of p " reve nting, or meeting in butte : nor could we follow them atic wards in any way to be effedual., without foll ° t ; ing them into the heart of their Country, Or o have any advantage avec them at all, the ell' en j 'a and trouble.of which would be immense. Si nce e ' ', had-been in India, the general bent of. the 11 1 'n'o aa ment of the Government there was that of a t , a r i e for making War; that:fa& was established, 3 °` Y e e. should have hoped that the. Noble 11 ' o f attended . . to . the dottrine. laid flown in the-Aa„ a*, Parliament, to which he had referred, as well be the Resolution-of the House. But here let it understood, that he accused 'no one transaainn India under the present Governor. General ; b u eat said' that Noble Lord was bound, and Gove rnin: • 9 here were bound o to. justify his condo& to t case: There was one other topic which be rc hl state, : namely, that he had reason to stispea, a t ' .o this War, which commenced in actual hostility' long ago as the month of June last, and yet no ,: o r dire& account had been given of it, of the e 4s " a r of the reasons for entering into it, of its orign l ' o . of any thing that had been done concerning ic,°,•fec thing had been transmitted to the Court of v tore by the Governor-General of Ihdia, nor ha' It House any official information . on the subje 6 t i : tv ? knew, indeed, that Alie• War - existed, bu t , ` 0 : Circuitously from Calcutta to Bombay, '1°,1,0%111-0 ' 5 thence to England, and by common rotri"- Members of the House, as to any other Cnc liv " l - : to but the Governor.:Gentral, frOm,whom " ga- have come the information direCify, had se nt n(nl ti; . that would be, in his opinion, a primp f a cie case oe ii spew That he had not tted up to the.Rasetlations the House, to which he had called the attention oc:?; the House, and • that -his negletling . ttr s t i m t these accounts, was a ..breach of his duty,-an" - might be an additional charge , Whenever.lts, charge came, for none was at present made43°i. that Noble Lord, nothing was asked but intli r • l l, o tion whereby to prepare for an inquiry. 14..e,red, read a clause in the Aft of Parli ame nt, will° aa , leas_ that' in all cases Where lio;rilitiea 5 1 ' 41 ° ay mence, the Governor.Gane t al and Council shall , ol , the most expeditious means they can devise, e ° o , rouoicate the same, together - with informat ion ' `aelligence, &c. Now this comMenced in th e r ri i :a. l of June or July, and six months and I.lpWar'sbeco elapsed without any official account havin 6 fos - sent. He should not trouble, the House fur til at e as `'. his objed,was - already made out a hisaobiff r % r Wi t h .shew we ought to know why we are at Mahrattas: :He had"`- °' the che'vn - t h e cl ecc ss 'e, -theHou'se being in possession of that knowal,earia• to whipli'he could hot s e a an y o at lion of. this kind' had_been Made when we we e at Mar with Tippoo-Saili, and *Ministers ithoug ht t ora to grant -all the Accounts, and to l a y theca" b e t o : the House. Ministers thought that the best ollara defend L or d Cornwallis, who was then Cov er o p , .General - of India, was to lay the whole of his c l s! :dud before Parliament-.. The ground of P er jail confidence was not then, nor ever should he, aoa l. dowO against inquiry ; for it . was but a roo r ;0 , shabby defence, when any man was charged;ter;„ misconduct, to say that he was a man of cha ra and if this was to be'a rule, no man of prevO-,n5,1.l - good charaaer could be tried at all. Lord joe wallis was a - person of a s higha charaaer anY:by could be, but that was • not urged as a reas on f ‘ Os . info rmat i on should he withheld upon any part ao 'cond u Ct. H ere a gain he must repeat, there "' c ol charge made against the present Governot- Ge , " oo of India ; but he' tru ste d t h at hi s e l ia raCter '' l a i ohe not be made an an swer to t h e M ot i o n ''''aions e should' submit to the House, otherwise the •nn'' must be asked to d o t hi s w hi c h wou ld be v e- i: o luft pleasant —to say, th ere i s s omet hi ng i n thC, CO w hic ti, of the pres ent G overnor -G enera l o f B e nga' aa te; cannot be explained but by an appe a l to his P t e " 11 .15. chara&er. He should now pr o ce e d to 11.1 a -,; Motions, but he should first make oneobser'i t is-a" which he had almost forgotten, which was at or that whenever these Accounts came from Jodi"' t o r% should he considered with - some allowances Cr tiality, for they were at best but ea:parte evi" e ":',er the real truth might, after all, be perhaps be 01 known if we could also hear the other pall o '',. t ti• which, however, we had in these cases nO 'y e foie nity. He then moved, '' That there be c e: of the House Copies or Extracts of all DisPa, te :', - Of the 'Governor-General of Beng a l, or PresT e- G c o , the Board of Fort George, in Bombay, to the 01° vernment of this Country, so far as relates t a present War between us and the Mahrattas, s c c c a ' rr e , • The next Motion was for Copies of al l `i n dis sponclence between the British Government i n arid the Maliratta Princes, Chiefs, on size -a subject. The third was for Copies of all .Orders • or n . tb struaiOns sent from this Country to In dia uP same subject. The first maim being put, . 0 5 Lord CASTLEREAGH observed, that this 1 114 not, in his opinion, the season for entering 011 the general policy of India, but the O u estion VW' He House might be disposed of in a ' s horter waY• w ho begged leave to pay to the Hon. Gentleman oat brought this subjed forwards his tribute of re fit it for the candid manner in yhich he had brn u3 , v on before the House. He admitted the princiP' e d — ubt which this Motion was made. .There was n ot pvr' but that, generally speaking any Member f t he i iament had a right to as k for information do' ground on which any part of His Mai estY h 's c 110 minions were at war in order to judge vv!"