The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-20 00:00:00

course to other sources, and in such an emergency he
appeared to have hit upon a financial scheme which
of all others was the most impracticable, and
at the same time most obnoxious to the
to the natives of Ceylon. He issued an ordnance im-
posing a tax upon the construction of roads, a tax upon
all ships of the colony, and a tax upon dogs and upon
guns; and in a speech which he delivered to his council
he stated that those taxes had received the full
concurrence and sanction of the Board of Trade.
—(Cries of " Hear, bear." But he also stated that
the same time that it was not his intention to persevere
in imposing them, for a reason which he (Mr. Baillie)
considered a very valid and just one—viz., that they
were not calculated to increase the revenue.—(Hear.)
Now it was most unfortunate that this discovery had
not been made at an earlier period, because in the
first place it would have saved Lord Grey from the mor-
tification of giving his aesent and approval to that which
was not calculated to raise the revenue, but to
produce discontent and dissatisfaction ; and, in
the second place, because it would have saved
the colony from all the 'miseries and horrors
of a popular outbreak.—(Hear, hear.) That the levying
of these taxes was the immediate cause of the discon
tent and rebellion to which he had referred was shown
in the first of all by the address and memorial of the mer-
chants, planters, and traders of the island, who were not
interested parties, because the taxes did not fall upon
them. And what did they say? They attributed the
rebellion entirely to the imposition of taxes of a novel
character, which were levied in such an objec-
tionable and vexatious manner as to irritate
the people.—(Hear.) They asked for redress by
personal appeals to the governor, and by petitions to her
Majesty, while many made the discontent to which the
taxes gave rise, a cloak for their own disloyal purposes.
They stated that they had to travel great distances, some-
times 40 miles, to get licenses for the use of guns.
The document proceeded to say. that some of the vie
lagers were kept away from their homes a whole week,
whilst several had to go backwards and forwards, as pre-
parations had not been made for the issuing of the
licenses. Now, it was a remarkable fact, that Lord Tor-
rington, when he wished to have the tax repeyled, used
the same arguments as those used by those villagers.
—([fear, hear.) He then read the dispatch of
Lord Torrington to Earl Grey on the subject,
and remarked that the dispatch of the Noble Earl
approving of the repeal of the tax crossed that of Lord
Torrington on its way home.—(llear, hear.) The
dispatch set forth the grievances under which the colony
laboured in consequence of this tax since under it the tax
imposed upon guns was 25 per cent. of their value ; and
such was the objection to the tax, that many concealed
or destroyed their guns some of whom had had in their
families as heir-looms of many guns. These ordinances
were the cause of an outbreak on the part of the
natives. They did not, however, appear to have
presented themselves in any great force, as the re-
bellion was suppressed without loss of life to her
Majesty's troops; therefore, corroborating the state-
ment of the Hon. Member (Mr. Hawes) that the
statements that had appeared of the outbreak had been
much exaggerated, and that the troops had been called
out more for show than for the purpose of firing upon
the people. He now came to a part of the procceedings
in connection with the revolt in Ceylon, which
no Englishman could look upon except with a blush of
shame. He alluded to the atrocities and cruelties that
had been perpetrated upon the unhappy people after the
rebellion had been suppressed.—(Hear, hear.) They
had heard much of the atrocities perpetrated
in Vienna by Prince Windischgratz, the accounts of
which, being published in the papers that supported
the Government, were doubtless not coloured.
The capitulation of Vienna was only affected
after a severe struggle, and an enormous sacrifice of life.
Many of the parties who had taken an active part
against the cause of the Prince were tried by court-
martial, and immediately shot, and a writer in the
Economist, with which one of the Members
cennected, deplored the execution of Blum, whose of
fence, he said, admitted of every excuse and justifica-
tion, and whose offence was far from criminal; one such
execution, the writer said, was not unlikely to lead
to a long train of assassinations. The writer had heard
of the atrocities perperated in Vienna, but he
had not become acquainted with the atrocities
perpetrated under the paternal Government of
the Colonial-Office. The House was aware that
a number of executions had taken place in Ceylon, in
pursuance of the sentence of a military tribunal. A
return had been furnished to the House of the number
of these military executions, and of the offences laid to
the charge of those who had been executed. He found
that eighteen men had been shot under martial law, and
a nuraber of others to various degrees of punishment;
and he was surprised, looking over the list, to see that
the nature of the offences fir which they had suffered
He found one man charged with having communicated
directly or indirectly with rebels—with holding commu-
nication with them, and not giving the information
which he was possessed of for the detection of a
rebel—in other words, not betraying his friend.
with whose hiding place he was acquainted with—
(Hear, bear)—and with having administered a treason-
able oath. Four men were charged with having appeared
at an armed assembly, headed by a man who called
himself a " king." These men, let that House recol-
lect, were not charged as leaders.—(Hear, hear.) They
were simply charged with having been found in the
company of armed persons • yet they were sentenced
to death, and shot immediately after.—(Hear, hear.)
This man, who called himself a king, was afterwards
tried by a military tribunal, and, being recommended to
mercy, was transported. —(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
It appeared, indeed, that those executions were carried
on with no less brutality than illegality. There was a
description of these execution taken from the Colombian
Observer, and Lord Torrington himself confirmed
the account.—(Hear, hear.) In speaking of those exe
cutions it stated " the Court-martial on the priest who
was shot in his robes at Cardin may be taken as a fair
specimen of those tribunals. . . . There were
only two witnesses against him, who wore both men of
suspicious character, and one of them was a candi-
date in same way for a Government situation I The
priest was shot the next morning after his trial,
and his dying request that he should not be made to
die in his sacerdotal garments, was refused.—(Hear,
hear.) The account went on to say " that this priest
was entirely innocent, and he had no connexion with the
king ; he was a low countryman, and was not at all
acquainted with the people, and knew nothing of
their secrets." Now he (Mr. Baillie) put out of the
question altogether the guilt or innocence of this man.
He assumed he was guilty; but the mode and manner of
his execution was an outrage on humanity, and had such
an act been committed at Madrid under Name.; he (Mr.
Baillie) supposed they should never have heard
the last of it. It was in Spain only that a
parallel could be found for those atrocities. But in
order to appreciate the feelings of Lord Torrington, h e
must refer to his corespondence with the Chief-Justice
of Ceylon. It seemed as soon as the court-martials were
suspended, the ordinary tribunals came into operation,
and the remainder of the prisoners were tried in the su-
perior Court at Candia before the Chief-Justice ; 14 of
them were condemned to death, and the Chief-Justice
communicated that fact to Lord Torrington, stating that
under different circumstances he should have recom-
mended his Excellency to have executed such three or
four of those last mentioned as, after a minute examine-
tion by the law officers of the Crown, appeared to have
been most guilty, for the sake of example, but he found
the example had been already made, some twenty
persons having already been shot for their shares in the
rebellion by courts•martial.—(Hear.) The Lord Chief
Justice concluded by saying that the blood which had
been already spilled had been sufficient for all purposes
of the vindication of the law.—(Cries of " Hear,
hear.) Lord Torrington, in reply to the Lord
Chief Justice, pointing out certain inconveniences
likely to result from the course recommended
by the latter, concluded by saying he would remit the
capital punishment and substitute transportation for life
in these cases of conviction which bad not been recom•
mended to mercy by the jury, and for fourteen years in
all other cases. Now, it seemed Lord Torrington
was highly displeased at being compelled, against his
will to temper justice with mercy.—(Hear). He (Mr.
Baillie) would have thought Lord Torrington would
have been but too grateful to any one relieving him
from the responsibility of deciding on the lives and
deaths of his fellow-creatures. And not only did
executions, but also confiscations of property occurred.
Now, it appears, that this proclamation was carried into
such ready effect that a large number of estates were con-
fiscated. It is true Lord Torrington had advertised that
the value of these estates would be restored to the
owners when it was discovered. But they were not
guilty, but it was a very different thing be-
tween leaving the estates in the hands of
the proprietors and returning to them the
price which such estates might realize in the market.
Ho thought that this was a most unsatisfactory mode of
meeting the necessities of the case. And now he came to
the last act of the tragedy—the act of indemnity. It was
not to be wondered at that when acts such as those were
being perpetrated, and when apprehensions as to their
results might very naturally arise, that an
act of indemnity might seem to be necessary. The
evidently thought so—(Hear, hear)—and such an Act
was introduced to the Colonial Council—an Act which
was the more necessary, inasmuch as that most of
the Acts which called for condemnation had been
done witnout the consent of the Council. Well, such
an Act was introduced, and how did Hon. Gentlemen
think it was passed ?—(Hear, hear.) Simply by
the vote of Lord Torrington himself.—(Hear, hear,
from all sides of the House.) There were 14 present in
Council, seven of whom were against, and seven were for
the Act, and the casting vote for it was given, as he had
said, by Lord Torrington, the President at the Board.
He trusted Viet this last fact would prove a sufficient
warning against any future experiment in trusting the
high and responsible duty of governing a large and im-
portant colony.—(Hear, hear.) Now he would turn to
another colony, of' which great hopes had always been
entertained; and in stating this, he wished particularly
to draw the attention of the House to the fact. There
was no colony of which greater hopes had been enter-
tained than of Guiana.—(Hear.) It had been precicated
of that colony that, whatever fate might befall our other
West Indian Colonies, this at least was possessed of
such variety of appliances, such a beauty of climate, such
a nobility in its affluence and variety of aspect,
that no adversity could possibly repress its advance
to an illimitable prosperity. Yet was there no co-

lony more distressed than British Guiana.—(Hear,
hear.) It would probaby ba remembered that when
the Act for the emancipation of the negroes was passed
that the heads of the Colonial-office had taken no
steps whatever to avert the mischief, nor ascertain the
consequences that might arise from such a proceeding
In (inlaid" the planters were ruined, and the
estates were carried on by merchants in this
country. lie believed that in no colony con-
nected with the British dominions. was the

patronage more improperly exercised than in Guiana.