The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-07 00:00:00

the acts of that noble lord in regard to the colony of Br fish
Guiana and other places—sets which had come to his know-
kdge—had been committed, he would not believe his word
or his writing. And now he came to an independent wit-
ness. He appealed to the right hon. baronet the member
for Ripon, bemuse be believed that but for his interference
the house might bars heallated to reject the recommenda-
tion of the committee. He would ask him whe-
ther his naderatandleg of the assurance of the
noble lord, whether the second speech he made
on that occasion was not entirely owing to the as-
serene. given by the noble lord that every tscility should be
elven to the calling of witnesses ? The committee met, but
as rarliernent was about to be prorogued the next day, they
could not determine on the witneset s, and the next best thing
they could do was to &lewdte to the chairman the power of
summoning witnesses. He asked the right hon. baronet if
th was not carrying out legitimately the assursece of the
noble lord, If when they met they had no witnesses to
examine but the parties to the crime, that would I
be foreign to his ideas of justice, and what the
hon. (oedemata said was perfectly correct; they must poet-
pone it till they pot other witnesses. And let him say that
these witnesses the hon. member referred to were public
servants He did not know them, hut it was stated that
they were honourable men, He said it was an attempt to
stop the course of puf,:icjusticet It was an attempt to pre-
vent en inquiry into an affair in which the lives of her
Majetty's subjects had heal sacrificed. 22 men had been
shot, 21 banished, and 86 imprisoned, all owing to the reek.
lemmas of the Governor of Ceylon. Whatever course her
jesty'e goverament took, he (Mr. Hume) felt satisfied
that something must very speedily be done. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. DISRAELI said that the question which they had to
consider was one of a very simple character, and should be
confined eniboly to the consideration by the house of the
understanding which had been arrived at between the coon-
miree and the government on the subject. He should there-
fore tiseko no reference to the proceedings at Ceylon, of
which (nay might or not have had testimony, but he
should endeavour to place before the house the
qu.s ion upon which he thought they were called upon
co express an opinion and give a decision. The house would
recollect that on nearly the last day of lot s.ssion the cox-
:mass to ported an tzprendon of their opinion that a com-
mission should he sent out to Ceylon to inquire into and re-
port upon certain circumstances. He would mention as a
fact that he bad in that committee proposed a compromise to
the hon. gentleman the Under Secretary of Sate for the
Colonies, which vr, a 'mond of by the right hon. gentle.
man the member fox Ripon (Sir James Graham), who re-
gretted that the l,on. under-secretary had not accepted it.
N..veithelese the right hon. gentleman had not
only thought It hest that the resolution of the com-
mittee should not be sanctioned by the house, but
in opposing it he (Sir James Graham) had
expressed a very qualified disapprobation of the course which
had been recommended. After the circumstances which had
occurred in the house and what had happened in the com-
mittee, it ie. med to him to be vim decisive as to the inten-
tions both of the government and of the committee, and he
did not think tor a moment that any doubt could have been
entertained of the meaning of the committee and of the
gov. rnment, bad not the hon. gentleman (Mr. Howes), in
plating the ciecumstances before the house, PO trans
Fuses the impends; documents upon which the
whole merits of the question depended, that he con-
veyed to toe hoots an impression exactly contrary
to that which eczema. (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentle-
man bad rend first the document which really seemed last.

(hoar, bear.) The hon. pent! man read this resolution as
naviiip.e beat can- d by the committee on its being constitu-
ted. (The hon. member re:•d the resolution referred to re-
ported in Mr. Haw s's speech. He then continued): it
was a motion made, he honeyed. by Mr. Hume, and then
the hon. gentleman, the Unoer.Secretary of State for the
Coloni made that resolution the basis of the report which
he afterwards read s e having horn drawn up in consequence
of the resole' ^n to -hick he (Mr. Disraeli) had just referred.
The hon member read the passage in the report wt leh had
been read by Mr. If awes, and which will be found in the
r. p art of Mr. Haw s's speech.) The hon.gentic man continued :
Hr begged the house to observe that that !floor was drawn
up, and that paragraph rted upon an amendment pro-
posed by himself, aad the whole paesed the committee before
the resolution to which the hon. gentleman referred as the
bads of the re ort was carried. He would now lay before
the house the Most conclusive evidence as to the meaning
wnich the committee attached to the understanding that had
been arrived at with the government. When he (Mr.
Disraeli) drew up that paragraph of the report he put in the
names of the Queen', Advocate in Ceylon, and of Captain
Watson, leavimi space for the insertion of other names, fur
it was utterly impossible at the moment from the hurried
m airy rin which the committee sat to arrive at a proper
undemanding with regard to other names. Amember oath*
committee proposed t add the name of Col. Fester, but it was
immediately observed that as it had been agreed cot to in-
s-r the names of the witnesses, but to have some under-
standing with the author Lies of the Colonial-office, in order
that the subject might be more matured, it would be inex-
pedient to agree to pet in the name of C •lonel Frazer.
Upon the motion of Lord lietham it was then settled that
the name of Colonel Darer should not be inserted in the
list of witnesses, and that the chairman of the committee
should be authorised to communicate with tho Colonial-
Gam for the larvae of naming tee witnesses that would
be re quired. (Hear, hear.) In his opinion the case was a
complete one. lie did not think it would be just it the
house, under then' circumstances, deserted its com-
mittee ; and he felt great confidence that if the
right hon. member for Ripon (Sir James Graham)
would act in a stiuightfur yard manner he would ex; rem an
opinion similar to that which he (Mr. Disraeli) entertained,
that toe conduct of government had ta en of a tencency at
least to evade a lair inquiry. (Cheers ) Ile was for pro-
ceeding with the investigation and for assenting
to the motion of the hon. per Osman, but he should beg to
move the addition of the following words: " That in assent-
ing to the re.apponitment of the select committoe fur an
inquiry into the grievances complained of by the inhabi-
tants of Ceylon against the administration of that island,
the house deems it raped' eat to express its disapprobation of
the manner in which her Majesty's government have evaded
the unit. rstatdiog arrived at last session for the production
eif witnesses from Callon." (Cheers.)
The amendment having been read,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that as he was the prin-
cipal person with whom the understanding referred to had
been arrived at, the house would naturally think
it was necessary for him to address them upon the subject of
the censure which had been pronounced on his conduct by
the hon. gentleman who had just spoken. In doing so be
must bee to recall to the recollection of the house that it
happened at the end of the last session of parlirment. The
committee' came to a reselui on, alter several of its mem-
bers had left London, that it was expedient to appoint a
commission to go out to Ceylon and examine witnesses.
Whet. that motion was brought before the house he had op-
posed it as one that woul I destroy all authority in the
island of Ceylon, and he stated at the time that either Lori
Torrington should be immediately recalled or that the house
should refuse to appoint that commission. The house,
upon his representation, he believed, agreed with him in the
opinion that the commission ought.not to be appointed.
But in the course of that discussion it appeared
that the honourable member for Buckinghamshire
(Mr. Disraeli) had moved in the committee as a different
and perhaps preferable course that certain witnesses should
be summoned before that committee; and in speaking of
the subject he (Lord John Russell) said he believed, in
answer to something which fell from the right hon. baronet
the member for Ripon (Sir James Graham), that the wit-
- nesses could be sent for, and could he in attendance for the

next cession of psrliament. (Hear, hear.) The words
which he had said upon that subject, as he found them
mooned, were " That if the committee were to meet again,
and propose to examine certain witnesses from Ceylon,
there could be no difficult, in summoning those witnesses,
unless some unusual impediment, should occur, in
time to be present when the committee should meet."
He (Lord J. Russell) had some apprehensions, and apprehen-
sions which were not unnatural seeing what had happened that
the plain sense of those words might he distorted, that the
hon. gentleman who then expressed his readiness to with-
draw his motion might perhaps afterwards pervert the plain
sense of those words and, instead of sayiag that the witnesses
named by the committee should be summoned, might put
some other interpretation upon the proposal that he (Lord
John Russell) then made. He, therefore, determined,
according to the advice of the right hon. memoer for Ripon
(Sir J. Graham), that he would not allow the motion to pass
if he could prevent it, and the house agreeing with him, had
rejected it. The hon. gentlemen, therefore, could not ray
that he withdrew his motion or was ready to give up any
advantage that he could have from the opinion of
the house in consequence of that statement of
his (Lord John Russell's.) (Hear, hear.) When the com-
mittee met the next day it appeared that they came to the
resolution which the hon. gentleman opposite had read.
They came to the resolution that certain witnesses, that the
Queen's Advocate and Capt. Watson, and such other wit-
nesse! whose evidence might be necessary, should be sum-
moned, and that a communication should be bad with the
Secretary of State for the Colonies for the purpose. In
coming to that resoluti,m they went beyond anything he
had stated in the house ; they went, as he conceived, be-
yond the recognised powers of a parliamentary committee.
(Hear, hear.) They stated that certain witnesses should be
summoned from Ceylon. So far everything was ugular ;
but in proposing further, that each of the witnesses as
might be necessary should be summoned from Ceyloa,
this meant one of two things. They meant either
that the chairman should communicate with the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, end state to him the reasons why
these certain other witnesses were required to be summoned
and ask his concurrence to that step being taken, or else they
meant that the chairman of the committee should have the
absolute right of commanding and controlling the Secretary
of State for the Colonies, and of giving orders t him with
respect to the summoning of any witnesses that might be
required. He submitted to the house, with regard to this
latter interrelation, that it never could have been meant
that the chairman of the committee should have this absolute
power tonsil for six months ; that he should have the dimes-
tionary power of calling any witnesses he might
choose, and that his noble friend the Secretary
of State for the colonise had nothing to do
but to obey his orders. (Hear, hear.) But if that was not
the interpretation of what had the hon. gentleman who made
the motion to complain ? In the end of November last the
hos. ;gentleman, the chairman of the committee, wrote •
letter, which he held in his hand, which required that the
Secretary of State for the Colonies should summon four wit-
nein' from Ceylon, giving no reason whatever for the demand.
He stated that the evidence of those four persons was neces-
sary, but he gave no other reason whatever why they should
be summoned. He did not state what it was they would
be celled upon to prove. Lord Grey answered that letter by
stating that he did not conceive that he posed the power
to summon the witnesses mentioned; that t could not but lead
to very considerable expense; and as Lord Grey was notaware