The Express.
London, England, 1849-02-21 00:00:00

EMIGRATION.

Mr. SCOTT, seeing the Under Secretary of State for the
Colonies in his place, was anxious to ask a que.tion which
he had put yesterday, whether the hon. gentleman would
have any objection to lay before the house the correspocd-
enc. on the subject of emigration, if any had taken place. '
Before he gave an answer to that question, he would at the
same time ask the questions of which he had givt n notice.
What l the number of sWicanta for endettatke accepted by the
—'-'closers, and now welting orders to embark. What la the
daily average number, since let November last, of those who apply
at the ceps of the land sad Emigration Board, for pamages to the
Australia sad Ikon* Akins sicionies. What lathe avenge somber
of letters of application vaned daily at the eagle ore during the
same period, sad also dying the corresponding period last year.
What number of ships bare been despatched monthly with cm!.
grants since Ist November, Ma. What number of ships would he
requisite to convey persona whose applications for emigration we at
present approved. la consequence of the number who desire to mai.
grate, how tong en emigrant envy expect to be detained atter he is
accepted, and before he can sail. What number of free passairea
haw beat refused to applicants since let November last, and what is
the proportion of those reined to those accepted.
Mr. HAWES stated that it would take a considerable
time to pri•cure the inf.( ',nation which the hon. member re-
quired, and it was hardly to be expected that he could speak
parliamentary returns off-hand.
Mr. SCOTT said that he would move for them.
STATE OF CEYLON.

Mr. BAILLIE.-4iisnotnriiTruntiOnto enter into any
discussion with reerence to the management or the details
of the Colonial-office. I have no wish to make any com-
ment either upon the unfairness or the neglect, in the per-
lorgnette of their duty, of those in power. I have a much
more serious and important accusation to make, for I charge
the Colonial-office with tyranny and oppression, and
with a wasteful and extravagant expenditure of the
colonial resource', rendering it thereby necessary to
impose heavy burdens on the colonies, which, in the
altered circumstances and condition of many of thoee
colonies, have new become intolerable, and are there-
fore the fruitful sources of much of the discontent which now
so unhappily prevails. Sir, there cannot be a doubt that
much of the discontent which exists in our colonies has
arisen in consequence of the extravagant notions entertained
by statesmen of this country of the manner in which
colonial government ought to be carried on ; form-
lag their opinions with reference to the costly sod
expensive institutions of the mother country in a total
ignorance of the wants and necessities as well u the feelings
and opinions of the colonies. We shall not be
able to apply a remedy ti such a state of things until we are
prepared to concede to the colonies the complete control ever
their own expenditure—(henr, hear)—and the entire ma-
nagement of their own affairs. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Philip
Anstruther, was examined before the committee on
coffee and plantations with respect to the financial condition
of Ceylon, and being questioned as to the possibility of mak.
ing a reduction in the expenditure of the colonies, he saes,
" It is impossible to say to what extent the expenditure may
not be reduced, if you are determined to cut your coat ac-
cordinz to your cloth. Mire is no limit. I do not know
that the colonies would be worse administered at half the
roost ; but the fault of all the colonies, as far as we know; is,
that every colonial minister is a minister of the imperial
government, who must have a treasury sad audit office, end
exchequer, highly paid; ind ed, it is mere c kricature, it is
very much so; but the Colonial-office must change its
system entirely." Now, sir, I quite agree with
this gentleman, the Colonial-office must change its
system entirely; but I go much further and say, "You gen-
tlemen of the Colo, imbeffice, by the measures you have car-
ried into effect, and by the impedimenta you have thrown is
the way of the colonies doing justice to themselves, have
reduced them to a state of poverty and ruin, and you
must not be 'shame! if the colonies determine to cut their
costa according to their cloth, and to appear in the lisbili-
ments of paupers." Before I prat ed :urther, perhaps
I may be allowed to quote the opinions of another gen-
tleman who ought undoubtedly to be considered as a very
great authority on this subject, mere especially by the
members of her Majesty's government, for he has
been promoted by them to a place of great responsibility ; I
allude to Hermits Merivale, fre main nt undersecretary to
the colonies, and a gentleman, I presume, who has the chief
management of the Colonial-office. This gentleman was
lately Professor of Political Economy in the University of
Oxford ; I pregame promoted to his present position in con-
sequence of the very able views which he published with
reference to colonial government. I find in his " Let.
ten upon Colonization," these arc the views which
he entertains with reset t p (scut manage-
ment of our colonies, our system.
The hon. member 'etc, e 'r which
was substantially to the effect lb -• eseo wore probably
the first times in the history of the world in which a large
state sought to gain strength ler multiplying the number of
her dependents. Under the old colonial ess•cm there was
no temptaion to increase government patronage in the
colonies. In Measachteetts, before the American war, the
expense of government was estimated at 18.0001. per annum;
New Hampshire and Rhode Illsnd, 3,5001.; Connecticut,
4,0001. ; New York, 4,6001. ; and the others proportionably
small, making a total for the government expenses of the
whole of our American colonies of 53,2001. a year, and
affording a memorable example of the small expense at
which three millions of pail*, might be net only governed,
but well governed. (Her, hear) Mr. Merivale then pro-
ceeded to state the civil expenses of the North American
colonies in 1836, and went on to contrast that
expenditure with that of the colonies before the revolution,
and eoncladed by saying that if the increase had been coin.
and
dd
the
coblyonisuiptseriworoutiovharsivemeenhut
plyno
ponuerchwueoulldweavival4.•tebilte,
• blessing, but he anfidently ask--d those who entertained
the highest notions of government and of its duties
towards the cohabits, whether the task was better per-
formed now than It ha'. been in the old American pro.
visas." (Hoar, hear.) These, sir, were the opinions of the
political economist, I know not what may be the opinions of
the member of gement nt. I know not whether he may be
subject tea that neutron of human nature, which appears to
imam so musical a revolution in the minds and opinions of
' them who become members et the government. Eat this

I must say that his sensitive feelings must be rudely docked,
if he still believes as he did formerly that three
millions of peep', mieht bee coverrcl and well governed
at an expense a .51,0001. a year when he finds himself in-
stalled in the oslonial office and bound to administer a system
by which British Gofers with a population of 120,000 is
made to nest 273,0001. a year fer its civil administration
being an amount of trzvti. n equal to 21. Ile., a bead upon
each ichabstant of the colony, or one .sizth more than id im-
p( sed on the people of the mother country. (Hear, hear.)
The people of England have hitherto flattered themselves
that trey are the heaviest taxed people on the face of the
earth, but here is a colony wita-An et my or navy, or other
imperial expenses, whose rata of taxation is enevixth higher
than that which a e consider 7ourselves so heavily burthened
in paying. (Hear, hear.) These aro the grounds upon
which I shall venture to pray for the indulgence of
the house while I proceed to detail the fasts which
I have to bring forward, and it will then be
tor the house to decide whether I have made out a case,
which will justify me in calling on the house to support the
motion which I hare considered it my duty to bring under
its notice. It is well known that the British colonies are
' subject to various forme of government. Some have legisla-
lanes assemblies and popular representation, there are others
with a slight approach to a legislative system, and a third
clue whose government is a pare and simple despotism, sub-
ject only to the supreme will and pleasure, or I easy say
caprice of the individual who. in the revolution of parties in
this country, or for soy temporary convenience, may be ap-
pointed to fill the place of Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Now, it in only to the last named class of colonies that
I wish to call the attention of the house, and
in this third elm of pure and simple despotism we must
place the great and important colony of Ceylon, its legisla-
tive administration being confided to a governor and council,
every member of which council is nominated either by the
governor or by the Secretary of State in this country. Here
then we have a form of government without any pretence of
representation, and in which, in consequence of vatious
natiscohunufnote_tisomisoone time
past
not only among the natives, but amongst the European po-
;lnter
pdretiseeds., vemryeargetnheeralar.)
daaiTh'ette
pulation—(hear, hear)--has lately niattifated itself amongst
the native population in the only way in which an unedu-
cated ignorant people are accustomed to manifest discontent,
namely, in the shape of sundry rebellious demonstrations. It
has also manifested itself amongst the European population,
but after the more rational and civilised mode of memorial
to the Secretary of State, sad by petition to this house. I
will now road a few passages frem one petition addressed by
the colonists of Ceylon to the house, in order that the house
may knew what are the grievances of which the people of
Ceylon complain. This petition is addressed to the House
of Commas, and says that the pothibners

Were deeply interested In the welfare of the island, in which their
property was invested or their metal of !telt% procured, and they
addressed the home under a senseor suffering no ordinary hardship
and injustice. They were !abating order a burden of extensive
taxation, disproportionate to their mean of payment, and considered
that the revenues of the island wren diverted to many objects with
which they should not properly be burdened. (Hear, hear.) The
atiminiatratioa of the taw was tortuous and uncertain—(hear, hear) ;
the delays, unavoidable in civil suit,. amounted, in many cues, to a
denial of justace—(hear, hear) ; and the appointment of judges at the
principal towns, who had never studied or practised the law from
other Wenches of the public service, to seers in theocrats Odell ea.
riectiction, though often complained of, still continued. The comfits-
non of the council of the Weed did not lead the petitioners to hope for
any amelioration through their maim. The unpaid um tibial mem-
' bet, who were the nominees of the governor, were powerless to ori.
ginate any measure, and, Jude* from the past, the petitioners had no
hope to them for the future 55 they did not enjoy the confidence of
the community. Many of the petitioners bad invested large sums in
the cultivation of coffee, and the purchase of rent property, and they
now found their anentpts to develop the reecousesof the island had
turned out most disastrously; more than one-third of the estates in
the island bud lately changed owners by forced sales, at In meet in-
stances not a tithe of their cost. The best household properties in the
Fort of Colombo andother large towns hod teen depreciated 44 or SO
per cent., and rams had Mien in proportion. Whilst these circum-
, stances had caused great loss and suffering to the petitiocers, they
awned with deep regret an increase in the expenditure of tbe co-
lony, the maintenance of melees Niemen offices, and the institution
of new olloes; whilst many &heady in exi.tenee had no adequate duties
to perform. To bring the espencitute within the Income, pubire
works of the first neceseity, moth tlw repairs of roads, had been en-
tirely sumunoled, expenditure being nearly confined to the payment of
utak&

There ars various other complaints in the petition, with
which I shall nut trouble the house ; lint those which I have
read are the wind*. Such, then, was the state of the
'eland of Ceylon when Lord Torrington was appointed go-
vernor ; and when his lordship armed, at the commence-
ment of the year 1847, be loud the colony labouring
under great depression. Distrust universally prevailed, the
estates on which large amounts of capital had been invested
were every day being brought to i xecution and sale, the
land was abandoned by its tonnes end in addition to that
the revenue had already Men below the expenditure, 10
that great danger existed that sufficient funds would oat be
forthooming to pay the public Offi,!CfS of the government. In
short, his lordship found the state of financial affairs very
similar to that which was existing in the mother country—
there was a deficit in the exchequer. (Hear, hear) Under
these CITCUMWSILCCI he seems to hive thought it advisable to
follow as closely as pessible the i xample which a great
financial authority, whom I do rot now see in his plus, iho
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Led set him in this country.
Wing, I presume, a free trader, hr does not appear to have
contemplated any increase of the import duties, and hetng
also a whig, and not having the fear of financial reform
associations before his eyes, I.e does nut appear to have con-
templated anfreductien of the public expenditure. (11. ar.)
There remained for him then no other course but to follow
the course which the Chancellor of the Exchequer ,had
adopted at home, and propose en ircrease of direct taxteion.
(Cheers.) Not, however, having the advantage possessed by
his great model, namely, nn income-tax ready to his band,
which he might in an off hand manner have proposed at
once to double, and so get over his diflicultin ; he was c mo-
pe Bed to have recourse to anwher gumtree of supply, and in
his emergency he appears to Lure lot on a financial scheme
of all others the moat imprecizehle to carry into s fiat, And
at the seine ti to most obnoxious to the native inhabi-
tants of Ceylon. (Hear, hear.) His lordship issued an
ordinance imposing lour stew direct elites, a poll-tax for the
construction of roads, a tax upon all shop, in the
colony, a tax upon dogs, and lairly, a tax upon
guns. (Hear ) And in the speech in which he proposed them
to his council, he added that ell these taxes had received the
lull concurrence and unction of Lerd Grey. (Loud cries of
" Hear, hear.") But Lord Torrington also stated at the
very time he made this coremuniciCon, that it was not his
intention to persevere in enforcing these teen, for a reason
that the house will doubtless consider silvery valid and just one,
namely, that they were not calculated to saint the revenue.
(Hear, near.) Now it is undoubtedly most unfortunate that
this discovery was not made at an earlier period, bemuse, in
the first place, it would have saved Lord Grey from the mor-
tification of giving his approval to taxes which were not
calculated to raise a revenue, but were c elculsted to raise
discontent ; and secondly, it would have saved the colony
from all the subsequent horrors and miseries of a popular
outbreak. I Hear, lieu.) I ray this because the imposition
of these taxes and the manner in which they were le vied
were undoubtedly the immediate causes of the late rebel; i tn.
(Hear, hear.) I think that this is satisfactorily sht.ven,
first of all by the address and us- menial of the planters,
merchants, and trades of Wernher. They memoralieed Lord
Grey on the subject—and be it recrdlectrd that they are not
interested parties, and therefore the most proper witnes el—
Now although Lord Torrirgton neeempamed the memotial
in question with a despatch that the persons who see t it
were unworthy cf credit, yet when afterwards he thought it
advisable to repeal these taxes, he made toe of the precise
arguments of those people to lustily their repeal to Lord
Grey. Well, I repeat that these ordinances were the
immediate cause of the rebellion, and I think that every ore
who has read the dispatches will ner, e with me in opinion.
It does not appear that this rebellion was very formidable.. It
war suppressed without loss of life to the troops, thereby
corroborating the statement made by the hon.under secretary
for the colonies, that the accounts of the rebellion a ere
greatly exaggerated, and that the troops had been called
out more fur stow than use. (Bear, hear.) And Dow I
come to that part of the trarsaction to which it is impossible
to refer without pain, whicheannot be touched upon wit'. out
calling up a blush of shame in the cheeks of Englishmen. I
allude to the severities inflicted up in the unhappy people
after the rebellion had been suppressed. (Loud cries of
" Hear, hear.") We heard a great deal at one time of the
severities of Prince Windischgean at Vienna, where, it will
be remembered that, more especially in the papers Auppesed
to be in the interest of her Majesty', government, the n hel-
lion was stated to be of no ordinary character, but screm-
panied with every atrocity whieli it is possible for the
imagination to conceive, and was only suppressed alter
a hang and arduous struggle involving an enormous eacn-
floe of human life. On the suppression if tha
rebellion, I !hid( we heard of only three or four of the
principal leaders being tried by the military tibanals an.
sentenced to military executor., and ye: this is the way in
which a newspaper, suppesel ti be under the influence of a
member of the government (I mean the Ileemonsist), alludes
to the events of Vienna. The hon. member proceeded to
quote a passage from the journal alluded to, advocatine the
opinion that it is wile to be forbe enjoin, mid not to enforce
by the sword the supremacy of power. Mr. Baillie procee led:
Now it seems that this writer keel heard of the mbitaty
executions of Vienna, bat was t .tally ignorant that anything
of a similar kied had eccurreduni,er the paternal influence of
the Colonial-office. He had never heard of the estabiish-
ment of mart al law at Ceylon. or of the numerous execu-
tions that had there taken place under sentence of the mili-
tary tribunels. We have been furnished with returns of
these executions, and we find that eigh'een men were exe-
cuted under mart al law—(louil cries of "Hear, hear ")
besides a vast number sentenced to different degrees of
secondary punishment. I confess lam surprised, in looking
ever this list, at the offences of some of these men. A mss
called Kandy was charged with directly or ledirectiy bold-
ing correspondence with the rebels, and with not giving all
the infermieion in his power which might lead to the appre-
hension of the rebels ; that is, with not denouncing or hen
traying his friends, professing not to know the pretender's
place of concealment. This man wai sentenced to be shot, and
Ms sentence was carried out on the folio ving morning. Teen I
find four other men charged with having appeared in com-
pany with an armed assembly headed by a person catling
hinted( king. Th. se were also sentenced to death and their
sentence was carried into execufien. Now remember teat
l these men were not charged with being leader. in the re bel-
-1 lion—merely with accompanyingthe armed satemblage, wed,
strange to say, the man in whose company they were found
was also tried by the military tribunal, recommended to
/ mercy, and merely transported. (Hear, h. ar.) It appears
I also that these executions were carried on with no less bre-
taliey than severity. I use this term because I think that
this feces occurring at one of these executions fatly justify it.
This description is liken from the Colombo Observer, a
paper whip h has the largest circalation in Ceylon. (it Hear"
from Mr. Hawes.) Lord Torrington confirms the statements
of the Observer. (Hear, hear.)
The coasts-martial for which there to no redress form the saddest
part 01 the dark &Whims:ly tragedy; three or four European am rs,
utterly Ignorant of the mode or condtaettng such Inquiries, psruei
tag In the surrounding ezeltement, and utterly origkyw.. ..
character, in a country where the highest jtvlici attaMne
dared perjury to be the rale, correct evidence t en--r----"lk'—v,""..._ '
bir
Curb ctrcum.tances, we my, It was not likely at tramwoOm s,
patiently searched oat and innocence protected:. WONT, heed. a

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