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

maid the beet. gestleman bad no power to do that, nor : ad
the 0001110ineliby say renthation, or by its report, delegsted
say mob pow to him. What course did the Secretory of
State take be emus Bari Grey took wee thief- H. said,
"the witseisire cemented by the committee shall be in
attendance. The ether witnesses, inasmuch as 'I rennet
admit that you Lan the tole power to nomisats them. I
shall leave you
committee to decide upon when they meet."
la the meentime there were witnesses ordered by the com-
mittee, whose examinetion could be wooded with,
and there were other important winnows in tide
country sufficient to fully occupy the attention
of the committee for some time. It ere a St-
ripes question, and • the louse could hardly be
awake to it, that the witneuse would sot cost the emit,
awake
than from 4001. to 7001. each. Was the Secretary of
State to take the responsibility upon himself, without any
direction, except that of the chairman of the committee ? lie
thought it was • Lirquestion for the Secretary of State to
hesitate about, whether or not these witnesses should he
ailed .n the simple request of the chairman. But now the
bola. gentleman talked &host abandoning the Inquiry,
bemuse thus witnesses were not here. Let him suppose for
• wand that his honourable friend Lord Grey beef
actually cooeeded to his request. Was not the h,tise led
to suppose that, if his request had lien acceded to, the wit-
nesses would have hien here ? Was not that the fair im-
pression ct the house from the statement of the hon Gentle
men ? (Hear, hear.) Why, the hon. gentlemen's letter
was written at the end of November ; it could not have gone
out to Ceylon till the succeeding Dec saber mail ; it could
sot have arrived till the end of linear,* end the witnesses
could not have been hers till the mid .le of February. When
the committee met, if the committee should decide, after
hearing what could be said upon these special whines es, to
call this incisor evidence' the witnesses could
be ; and therefore, really and fairly, the
hoeourable gentleman ha.' utterly mistaken the
coupe taken by Lord Grey. Witnesses had not been re fwd.
Witnesses were brought se the enthruilin d•sired. () her
witnesses were here; there was al.undant evide,ce to go on
with for some time to come, and, as he believ.d, &id after
the witnesses could arrive should they be summoned at the
earliest opportunity. Thenfoie them was no retinal of wit
nano, end the witaemes of the committee were on the time,
with whom the inquiry could b., continued. Now, he
thought it right, as he bed begun with it, to etate that h,
protected against the count taken by the hon. gentle-
man in the sleet of this inquiry. With etitt.c•as
ready to be es . mined the hccourable gentleman
chose to bring forward three fresh chuges in the
house, in order if he could to prejudice the course of that
inquiry, and he singled out one individual, Captain WOS'AI,
who had issued what the hon. gentleman was pl. ivied to call
a savage proclamation, he being one of the wilnetus
was over here at this moment waiting for examination, and
he thought it ineonsiefent with the ends of jostle,, while he
was here, actually in obedience to hie own IMEDIUOTIS, tooak
this gratuitous attack upon that officer. He pr. nna.d the
house would not refuse to go on with the inquiry ; he pre-
sume(' hat the housP would not, after the impute ion that bad
been made, refuse the governor of the colony the opportunity
of vindicating himself and his goy; raiment trout the gray.
charges that had beenbrought against them. If the con tr t
when it met, should assign any ground tar the cal:it g of
trash witnesses be knew of no objection. Worn the rame•
of the tour gentlemen summoned by the bon. steel. nous
were proposed it would be his duty to give tome re ;use.
whether they should be coiled. lie should swerve that
entirely for the committee. its should not make
a personal attack upon individual. in this house
without due consideration and due notice. But, with resavi
to one of them, there were reasons which he thought the
committee would see the force of. trader then circum-
stances, inasmuch ;aft there was nothing to prevent this,
inquiry going on, and being carried on to its moat legitimate
extent—as four or fire vicuna were here, se a large man
of documentary evidence wail ready—he trusted the house
would agree with him that the committee should be re-
, appointed; and it it was reappointed it would not be the
finely of the government if the inquiry was not cassie el oat:
to the fullest extent.

Mr. HUME would assure the honourable no .mher who
had just at down, that as long as he had the honour of a
seat in this house, he would do his utmost to cause thre
atrocious proceedings in Ceylon to he eif,ed to the bottom.
He need not be under any claim that there would at be
inquiry. The hon. member had thought fit to inter,ret the
speech of his hon. friend to mean teat he wished to give up
the case. He (Mr. Hume) had no such intention ' • there-
fore the hon. gentleman should have his full sitisfasteen.
He would show the fairness of that which his hon. friend
meant to do. His hon. friend had likeaed the promenings
in Ceylon to the proceedings in Hungary. The proceedings
in Hungary were mild is comperison. ("Hear," and • laugh.)
He would provo it. If be ever utlered a speech in that home he
was ready to prove it, and he bad done so. He mierit have
made some he could not prove. (Laughter.) He was nut
infallible. (Hear.) He did not wish to mix up Ceylon with
Guiana, because he had • c implete a-saver to that. Bi•
with regard to Ceylon, the hon. gentleman took upon him-
self, with a regime of effrontery that he never saw eq-r-+lled—
(a
laugh)—to show that this was a mere conspiracy on the
part of some individuals. Did he believe that a me•• con-
spiracy could bring to the table of that house • p.tition
signed by nearly five thousand persons, and another signed by
thirty-nine thousand pence ? Tne truth of the allegation
of those petitions he believed, and he asked hen. gentlem. r,
who might not be altogether so well informed on the re j'
to wait and see the proof, and then if there wee one man in
that house who would deliberately rise and sty teat teat was
not • tic and proper subject of inquiry, be should In utterly
confounded. He should not therefore enter i .to details, but
he should state the course which government had taken, and
which had pieced them in the situation they. were bow in.
He must confess in the committee upstairs, after the
house had rejected the recommendation of the cam
mitten to appoint • commission to proceed to
the spot, he obected to prove. ding with the
inquiry here; and why? The petitions that he presented
from the inhabitants of Cellen contained allegations of griev-
ances lo great and so multiform that he conceived the truth
could not be ascertained by the committee here, and could be
ascertained only by • commission on the spot. Here were
grave and serious charges, forcing the production of private
letters, but still detailing acts of atrocity which the commit-
tee were alarmed at and considered of the most aggravated
nature. They were unable to follow out the evidence to the
conclusion by the separation of the house, and they pro-
posed this commission not to allow it to hang os. r till an-
other session, but in order to have the matter property in-
quired into and to have justice done. He had no feeling
whatever with respect to any man in Ceylon, but he had a
great desire to see justice done to the oppressed. He saw
thousands, end tens of thousands, under the rod of the op
pressor, and with no means by which justice could be obtained.
He therefore recommended a commission, and the coin
mittee agreed to it. His honourable friend in
the must unwarrantable meaner sad Capt. Watson
and Mr. Selby were their enamel. He (Mr. Hume) ob-
jected to any witnen being brought at all. How could the
hon. gentleman father upon him the nomination of any wit.
limes when be objeved, and persevered to the last moment
in objecting to them. He admitted that' difference of opinion
existed in the committee, but the majority of the committee
on the assurance of the noble lord, that every facility
would be given to bring home all such witnesses as could elicit
the truth to be examined by the committee. He would state
what took place in the committee. He could have named,
and did name a dozen witnesses. lie had been entrusted
solely with the petition, and net knowing the witnesses that
would prove the allegations in the petition, how could he take
upon himself to recommend so many witnesses being brought
over without communicating with the petitioner and asking
them who they had to make good their evidence? The matter
was discussed, and the members of the committee would
bear in mind this fact, that Captain Watson and Mr.
Sells wen named, not by his honourable friend
or him, but because Captain Watson, in a
letter fere tike committee, was accused of having burned
villages and directed the confiscation of property ; that: he
had takes possession of that confiscated property, and in
some instances had rendered no account of it ; end the cont.
mittee said, " We must have this gentleman, at any rate, to
explain this conduct." Mr. Selby, again, was supposed to
have gone to the chief justice to try to save the life of a
priest who was now proved to have been perfectly innocent.
Mr. Selby also went to Lord Tomngton, and told
him that, from ell the information be could obtain,
the priest was altogether innocent; that the evidence
had been given by a father and son, both of whom were
candidates for office under government, and that their
statements were not to be credited. When Mr. Selby went
to Lard Torrington, his lordship was reported to have said,
"I do not care if all the proctors are of opinion that this
man is innocent, I should not believe it, but he shall be
hanged." Mr. Selby was to be brought to prove that.
Mr. Selby was not Implicated, but Captain Watson
had committed a great portion of the atrocity. Was he the
man to tell them of that ? And who else had they
They had Sir Emerson Tenor t he was told. He
should prove before the committee that most ex-
traordinary efforts had been made to collect evidence
to enable Sir Emerson Tenant to contradict the evi-
dence which had bean given. They had had copies of the evi-
dence, they bad gees through the whole of it, and had
now deputed, as be understood, under the hand of an in-
dividual fa wheat lesplaeed the highest eonfidenee, they
had now deputed Sir Emerson T. anent to come home, to
bolster up the emeat of Lord Torrington. Who was
Sir Berms Tersest ? He was the secretary of the wie-
lded goreasmat. He was the last man to be examined.
Be therefor* said they had no evidence whatever in sup-
port el these petitions. He therefore considered it was
idle to tell the committee it was a furtherance of justice
to go as, end that there was a fair chance of fair
play when they had refused to send for these four individual'
that were mated, for it was said that the evidence of these
four men would las sufficient to establish all the facts. He
was utterly ate less to understand how his hon. friend could
justify what he had now stated, that the committee had not
the power to delegate to the chairman the selection of wit-
nesses. He appealed to those who were present that this
was what took place. They were not able to state exactly
the number they wanted; there waren number of Individual
whom he might desire to bring forward, but he would waive
his desire to Isola& a number if the committee would give 1
authority to the chairman to summon theme witnesses after
doe inquiry of the parties. And in the resolution
which he hen, Mend had reed, he would find that Captain
Watson, Mr. Selby, gad such other witnesses, were included
ea might be indented by the chairman of the committee, and
which Its did intimate try the end of November or the be •
ginning of December.
He could not reeendie the (endued of
government with that sense of justice which ought to be
entertained by a rasa in the situation of the noble lord at
the bead of her Majesty's government, a man whom he had
always believed was desirous to me justice done to every
man--a man whose word they ought to have taken,
and en whose ateurance he for one Gould in some degree
depend. But he had no dependence whatever on the
Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. (" Oh.")
lie had not ; he never had. He liked to be candid. Since