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

oompanions kings. All the while, the govereneed was
utterly ignorant of the deplorably neglected elate in which
these people were living. Then, for the first time, Lord
Grey discovered what, in his despatch of the 24th October,
he stated to be the principal fault in the STO'4III of govern-
ment there, and comniutaented to Lora Torrington that a
knowledge of the native language by the agents and ser-
vants was a necessary qualification for the effective diet:harp
of their important antlers. (Hear, hi ar.) The same im-
Lso..r_trl discovery had been made by Lord Memel; and Lord
'.""
, both of whom had laid down a rule that no Bare-
pitaalfiould be appointed to • responsible situation in Cey-
lon, unless he was acquainted with at least one of the
languages spoken by the natives; but this rule had
been neglected, and the eonsequences were now written
In blood in the annals of Ceylon. (Hear, hear.)
The next head was the salaries of officers in the judicial de-
nte. In 1845 they amounted to 38,0001.; the chief
uparecei. receiving
five the:petrel: pdtettriieetindits2,l:lool.lantod
1,2001. ; and the 29 inferior, ham 2001. to iiani all, there
were 40 legal appointments of Europeans, whom salaries
amounted to 26,0001., being an average of 6501. each. It was
evident we supplied them with an abundance of lawyers,
but there was considerable doubt as to the quality of the
article. The merchants and planters of Ceylon, In their
petition, had complained that persons who had never studied,
the law, or men taken from other prafeasims, were placed in
judicial situations. Briefiess banisters were also appointed to
high odious, who were ignorant of al law, and equally so of
the language of the people. The consequence was, that the
law and practice were utterly at variance. He stated that,
on the authority of Sir Arthur Buller, several years judge.
advocate in Ceylon, and now a judge in India, who, in
• letter to Sir Colin Cunpb-11, in December, 1842,
stated that so generally were the strict law and practice
at variance in the colony, that he would himself undertake,
ins month, to plunge it into utter anarchy. (Hear, bear.)
The last head use the pension list, of which, unfortunately,
he bad no detailed account. Its amount was enormous—no
less than 34,0001. is 18451 and since then it had gone on in-
creasing, and was likely still to increase. No blame, how-
ever, to the present colonial secretary, or the noble lord at the
head of the department It had been caused in this way :
some years ago, there was • mania for speculating in coffee in
Ceylon; the European residents were seised with it, and
governors, judges, archdeacons, and mieisten of religion
neglected their several duties, and all became planters. In
1834, Lord Stanley complained of the low state of feeling,
the want of energy and proper pride, among the members of
the civil service. He ordered them to perform their duties ;
and, to this end, to divest themselves of their coffee estates ;
bat, to remunerate them for not being allowed to neglect their
duties, he had increased the salaries of some, and augmented
the pensions and retiring allowances. To this proceeding
Lord Torrington attributed the great increase of
31,0001. in the fixed expenditure. The house might hence
see who were benefited by such colonies as Ceylon, which
contained numerous places, with comfortable salaries, for
political anonyms, for the poor relations, connexions' and
needy dependents of men possessing political power and in-
fluence, and for the horde of titled and privileged inoapables.
It was these men who administered the affairs of such colo.
nies as Ceylon, while ignorant constituents were taught to
believe that thew wetly.
,pomanions were amongst the
brightest jewels of the Briti
sh mown. (Hear, hear.) The
finances of that colony were now in the most distressed state;
the government had been obliged to borrow largely from thi
banks, and was now compelled to repudiate a portion of its
military payments. Unless this expenditure were consider-
ably doe:eased, the colony would become bankrupt, and
would be an increasing burden to this country. Between
1811 and 1823 we had paid on account of Ceylon, exclusive
of military and naval expenditure, 926,0001. ; between 1827
and 1831, 500,0001.; in all, a million and a half in,
the course of 20 years. (Hear, beer.) Let the legis-
lature take warning from the past, and resolve that the
expenditure of this colony should be carefully investigated.
He now premeded to show how financial embarrass-
ment bad led to the enacting of injudicious laws. Sir E.
Tenoent, in his speech to the legislative council in December
last, said that a considerable portion of their difficulties were
attributable to the serious fallacy which had pervaded the
instructions of Earl Grey to Lord Torrington in 1846. Thine
instructions had been founded on the report of a committee
of that house, appointed at the instance of Lord Grey, to
inquire into the commerce and finances of Ceylon, and con-
sisting of the hon. under secretary for the colonies and
other members. Lord Grey had stated that the composi-
tion of this committee gave them at all times free access to
the heads of the various departments of government with
which they were connected, and to all the "information or
documents which their respective offices could supply in aid
of their inquiries. After an inquiry of several weeks they
reported on the 13th April, their data being expressly
stated to be derived from authentic sources ; and the re-
port would have been a very valuable one, had the data
been less erroneous and the conclusion leis fallacious. In
the very first page was an error • the expenditure of Ceylon
in 1842 was set down at 301,000e-30,0001. less than
was actually expended. TWA error had been caused by
omitting all the pensions and other items. Again, the ex-
penditure of 1845, arranged under seven heads, was added
up to 448,0001. instead 01425,0001. In the first page the ex-
penditure of 1846 was estimated at 392,0001. ; its actual
amount that year war 498.0001., an excess of 25 per cent. This
mistake was very extraordinary, as the report had been signed
in April, 1847, by the hon. colonial under•seczetary, and ap-
proved by Lord Grey in June framing. But the next
error was still more remarkable. The committee stated the
balance on the 31st Dec. 1845, at 210,000 e, and on the 3lst
of March following at 207,0001. They never amounted to
half that amount; the error was unparalleled except in the
annals of fraudulent bankruptcy. Since 1846, the treasury
of Ceylon had been in the habit of including the liabilities
of the colony amongst its assets. (Laughter.) The govern-
ment had created paper to the amount of 90,0001. One half
of that was in circulation, the other half in the coffers of the
treasury. The letter had been included in the balance car-
ried to the credit of the government, and the notes in circu-
lation were omitted entirely from their liabilities. (Great
laughter.) This was jest as though the Bank of England, in
giving an account of its affairs, shoed i reckon in its treasure
all its cancelled notes, and should omit front its
liabilities all its notes in circulation. (Hear, hear.)
Let it be remembered that this was the report of the un.ler
secretary for the colonies, approved by Lord Grey.
Well, from these erroneous data the committee arrived at
the erroneous conclusion which Sir E. Tennent termed a
most serious fallacy, and which constituted the whole basis
of Lord Grey's instructions to Lord Torrington, that it was
evident that in dealing with the finances. of Ceylon her Ma.
jesty's government had taken credit, first for a large sun-
mulated fund, and secondly for &considerable surplus revenue ;
whereas the accumulated fund was a fund of liabilities, and
the surplus revenue was a &fiat (Laughter.) Proceeding
on the hypothesis of the financial prosperity of 'Ceylon, the
committee recommended that certain reductions should be
made in the revenue, and that certain duties should be taken
offend that other measures should be adopted,which he would
not trouble the home by enumerating. Nuw that report was
submitted, as Lord Grey told them, to various members of
the government who were especially cognisant of the affairs
of Ceylon, more particularly to the lords commissioners of the
treasury • and it was also sent to Lord Torrington as the
basis of his instructions. He did not wish to cast blame on
any of these gentlemen; but if five gentlemen of distinguished
ability and great industry could, after much labour and study,
be so utterly ignorant of the practice of the colonies, the feet
certainly established the position so frequently stated in that
house by the noble lord the present Secretary of State for
the Colonies, that no man, whatever might be his industry
or his talents, could administer properly the complicated
affairs of all the colonies of Great Britain. (Hear, hear.)
It appeared that Lord Torrington was a man deeply
committed on his arrival at Ceylon. The Under Secretary
for the Colonies had told the house what
Torrington had found in the colonies; he (Sir W. Moles-
worth) would tell the house what he expected to find when
he left this country. He expected to find in Ceylon all the
wealth (as was understood) of this country, and to become
there a great commercial reformer. When he arrived in
Ceylon he found a bankrupt exchequer, a deficient re-
venue. Having erroneous instructions from the government,
he was placed entitle most awkward dilemma : either he must
obey his instructions or he must disobey them ; if he dig-
obeyed them, and did not repeal the duties, then he would
be assailed by the merchant and by all those classes who
were anxious for their remission on the other hand, if he
obeyed them, his
noble lord, probably acting under the advice of
his executive council, adopted the latter course.
The duties on Manama, coffee and other articles, were coa-
siderably diminished. In • circularthe noble lord neon-
mended strict economy in every department. Lastly,
certain taxing ordinances were imposed by the legislative
council. Now, in his opinion, some at least of those taxing
ordinances were very injudicious. He did not consider that
Lord Torrington was chiefly to blame for them. He thought
he might assume, without any disrespect to that noble lord,
that probably he was as little acquainted with the language,
laws, customs, manners, religion, and interest, of Ceylon as
he was with its finances. Therefore he might amuse that
with the legislative council rested all the blame of issuing those,
ordinances. At the beginning of hut year seven taxing mai-
nanoes were inipeeed for the purpose of incressing revenue • one
relating to stamps, one for the licensing of boats and Carts,
one for the licensing of carriages—the deg tax, the shop tax,
the gun tax, and the compulsory labour tax. The imposition
of tha shop tax every one acknowledged to have been in-
judicious ; it was repealed before the close of the year. As
regarded the dog tax, he agreed with the hon. gentleman
that dogs were a great nuisance in the towns end villages of
Ceylon, and if the effort to destroy them had been limited to
each places, no well-founded objection could have been
urged; but the attempt to tax the dogs in the country parts
was quite injudicious, and it was utterly imposaib'e
to obtain by that meats anything like the ex
emoted revenue. He now came to the gun tax. The
ken. gentleman (Mr. Hawes) had made • greet mistake re-
specting that tax in declaring that it was imposed only with
• view to registration and not to obtain revenue. The hon.
gentleman did not appear to have remembered that that tax
was first Imposed by Sir E. Tennant, who was for a tax of
Is. 6d. and not 2s. 6d., and the reason why he proposed it
was that it would prove an abundant source of revenue. The
natives would not have objected to the tax had the only ob-
ject sought been that of registration; but they did object to
a tax which made it neeee.ary for them to come every year
from • distant part of the:r province to apply for • license,
not in their own but in the English language, with which
few of them weer acquainted ; the application being made to
a government agent, who would think nothing of k.epicg
them waiting for two or three days, It was not registration
but an annual tax which was desired; and the hon. mem-
ber for Inverness was perfectly correct in saying that the
gun tax had been substantially repealed. The last tax to
which he should refer was the compulsory labour tax. It
consisted of three days' labour or a commutation of Is.
Therefore, it was a poll tax of 3s. on every man who could
pay that amount. As such, it was contrary to all principles
of equity as regarded taxation. la fact, it was a graduated
property tax in the wrong direction. Worse than that,