The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

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LONDON:
FRIDAY, JULY 23, 1841.

The five days' debate at the India House
upon the case of the Raja of SATTARA is
over, and the RAJA'S dethronement is again
confirmed, in the face of the British people,
by the Court of Directors, as an irreversible de-
cision. The manner of his dethronement was
this. In the dead of night, his palace was stir-
rounded by a body of British troops; the Politi-
cal Resident at his Court, and another officer,
headed by the RAJA'S own brother, and now his
successor, APPA SAHIB, burst upon hips while
asleep, hurried him out, with hardly any cloth-
ing upon him, thrust him into a palanquin—
thrust into the same palanquin, and in the same
condition, his cousin, the head of his forces,
BALLA SAHIB SENNAPUTTEE, and marched them
as prisoners, 800 miles away, to Benares. Dur-
ing the march, the wife of BALLA SAHIB was
seized with the pangs of child-birth, and was not
suffered to halt. A few days after, BALLA SAHIB
himself, brought to the point of death, also
solicited a halt—it was refused : at the end
of the day's march he was found dead in his pa-
lanquin ! If, as his accusers say, the EX-RAJA
is guilty, still this conduct is without justification ;
but, if he be innocent, it covers with disgrace and
infamy not them alone, but the British nation, in
whose name these deeds have been done. The case
of the RAJA, therefore, can no longer be confined
to the walls of the India House; it is now a na-
tional case, and it becomes the duty of every man,
possessed either of feeling or patriotism, to pass
judgment upon the facts of that case.
What are the facts, as elicited by the debate "!
These. From 1818 to 1835 the Raja of SATTARA
had so demeaned himself in every relation of life,
public and private, as a Prince and as a man,
that he was the favoured child of the „Bombay
Government and the Court of Directors. They
loaded him with their accumulated praises. That
be deserved these praises, three successive Poli-
tical Residents at his Court, bore their personal
testimony in the Court of Proprietors. As the
highest and most gratifying mark of admiration
and respect
they could bestow, the Court of Di-
sent him a sword, and a letter to
be delivered with
rectors, in 1836)
These testimonials were
withheld by the Bombay Government, because
the RAJA complained of certain gross infractions
of the treaty, and also complained that, for four
years, he had been neglected and deceived by
that Government. Upon his last appeal being
repelled, he determined, openly, to appeal, by an
agent of his own, to the Court of Directors.
The now admitted infractions of the treaty, re-
ferred to certain jagheers, or estates, originally
granted to high officers, in reward of public ser-
vices, such being the mode, and not by pensions,
in which it is the invariable practice, in India, to
acknowledge desert, the sovereignty over which
was guaranteed to the RAJA in the same manner
as over his own dominions. It was impossible,
therefore, but that the RAJA should attach the
utmost importance to these breaches, and be ur-
gent in demanding redress. If a decree of one
of the Company's Courts of Justice could sell
one of these jagheers, a decree might attach,
and selLhis other dominions. Thus, the duty of
self-preservation, it was, which compelled the
RAJA. to resort to his undoubted right of appeal
to the Home Authorities from the oppression of
the Local Government. This intention of appeal,
the Local Government construed, not only into
an infraction of treaty on the RAJA'S part, but
into an insult to themselves, which they retali-
ated, by rejecting the RAJA'S customary annual
present and letter; thus breaking off all amicable
relations with him. The temper and public con-
duct of the Bombay authorities, was the signal
for a host of enemies rising sip against him, who
found the Government prepared to listen! to
every accusation they could forge. That he had
many powerful and unscrupulous enemies, the
Bombay Government had long been officially
advised. His throne, that of a 11tahratta, was
raised on the ruin of the PEISHWA, who was a
Brahmin. For years, every Brahmin had been
plotting his downfiti. Accordingly, UNTAJEE,
One of the most abandoned and profligate Brah-
ns, accuses the RAJA of having tampered with
two native officers. This charge is gone into be-
fore a Corn ions sent up to Sattara, in a

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