The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-24 00:00:00

known to be too foul, conternrd i f,'e, and unsubstantial, to
inquiry on pttri.

be made t

those wno are 5w0...1 to maintain •the integrity of her
Majesty's dominions, and to bring to justice all, whom-
soever they may be, who meditate the dismemberment or
ruin of her empire.
The third and last charge against the Raja is in perfect
keeping
,with the two I have already- exposed. It is set
forth that the Raja, with the same design of overthrow-
ing the English, intrigued with the ex-Raja of Nagpore.
And who, pray, is he? Why, at the time, a wretched
fugitive ; subsisting on the bounty of the Raja of Jud-
pore ; a dethroned Prince, residing in obscurity, with-
out money and without friends ; state prisoner, in-
clOsed within a court-yard, twenty feet by twelve. Yet.
with this poor spectre of a pauper Prince, the Raja of
Sattara is charged with conspiracy, for the purpose of
overthrowing the colossal power of the British in India ;
and the overwhelming proof, at once of guilt and danger
is, that the ex-Raja of Nagpore sent the Raja of Sat-
tara a complimentary letter, and that the Raja of Sattara
sent the ex-Raja of Nagpore a pair of shoes!
So much for the charges. Now for the use made of
them, by men who are citizens of a State, in which the
meanest person, accused of the most petty of offmce,
may not be condemned unheard. Did they call on the
Raja for explanation? No. Did they send him copies
of the charges brought against him? No. Did they
tell him who were his accusers, and confront him with
them? No. What, then, did,they do? They made up
their minds that he was guilty. The evidence was so
clear, so satisfactory, so complete, so irresistible, that it
would have been a waste of justice to call up the Raja to
rebut it, or even to let him know what it was. What
mattered it that he felt himself innocent, if they believed
him to be guilty! What need of putting the Raja to the
trouble of defending himself, when he is already tried,
convicted, and condemned? Sir Robert Grant, one of
the chief actors in this affair, having died, Sir James
Rivet Carnac, at the time a Director, was appointed Go-
vernor of Bombay in his place. On reaching India, he
drew out certain articles and a preamble, with which he
proceeded to Sattara, with a view of winding up the case
of the Raja, and as it has been stated by himself and his
friends, with the benevolent design of saving the Prince
from the consequences of his infatuation and guilty folly.
The preamble to the memorandum, which the Raja was
called upon to sign, contained an admission of his guilt.
The articles required him to pass an act of oblivion with
regard to his accusers—to yield a certain sum from his
treasury for the benefit of his worst enemies—and to put
away from him the persons in whose fidelity he could
alone repose. What reply did this Indian Prince make
to such a string. of propositions, submitted by a British
functionary, with the assurance that, if he agreed to
them, he should remain upon the throne, and be restored
to the confidence of the Government? He made an
answer worthy of the brightest hero of ancient or mo-
dern times .; an answer which places him at a sublime
height above the petty persecutors to whose arts lie has
fallen a victim. His answer shall be given in the words
of Sir James Carnac, who has reported at full length his
interview with the Raja. Sir James, speaking of his ad-
dress to the Raja, an address intended to induce him to
agree to the terms of the amnesty, as it has been called,
says:—
v"
When I had concluded, he (the Raja) stated, that he
regarded me as his friend and well-wisher; asserted that
the accusations against him originated in the intrigues of
his enemies; that as long as the British Government en-
tertained the idea that he had cherished hostile designs
he could agree to nothing, but this idea being removed,
he would agree to anything I proposed; that he would
consent to anything, except to abandon his religion, or
to acknowledge that he had been our enemy."
A second and third interview took place with similar
results. The Raja persevered in his refusal to subscribe
to his own guilt, and thus sign away his honour, and put
it in the power of the British Government at any time
to publish him to tho world a self-admitted traitor. He
asked to be heard. He offered to lay aside whatever dig-
nity might stand in the way of an ordinary trial, and to
place himself before any honest tribunal. He offered to
relinquish his person, his government, his kingdom, into
the hands of the British, if they would grant him a fair
trial. A. trial was sternly denied. He was already guilty
in the determination of the Bombay authorities, and
must submit to declare himself to be, what they had
undertaken to make him out to be, whether his con-
science accused him or not. But these functionaries had
to deal with a man whom they were incapable alike of
understanding or appreciating. Perhaps they reasoned
that he would do what, in like circumstances, they would
have been willing to do. They thought that, if they
balanced his nice and fastidious ideas of honour and self-
respect against a throne, and the continued protection of
the British Government, he would surely yield the for-
mer to secure the latter. But such views were far from
the mind of this noble man. He said plainly, " Gentle-
men, you mistake me altogether. I can relir.quish a
throne, I can go into exile, I can see my kingdom given
to another, or absorbed into your own territory ; but I
cannot forfeit the testimony of my conscience ; I can sa-
crifice every thing but my honour!" What was to be
done? It was secretly determined that the Raja should
be forthwith deposed. He had already expressed his
willingness to remove without a murmur at the bidding
of the Governor. Nay, he had said, when with the Go-
vernor at the residence of the Political Resident at
Poonah, " I will stay, if you please, here, in this bun-
galow, nor ever enter my capital again, till I have esta-
blished my innocence before an impartial tribunal."_
Neither force nor rudeness, therefore, were required.
The Governor had but to say "depart," and the Raja
had passed his word that he would quit his kingdom im-
mediately. But guilt is ever clandestine, timid, and
stealthy.

" 'This conscience doth make cowards of us all."
At midnight, when the Raja was in his chamber asleep
upon his couch—at midnight, to suit the better the time
to the deed, and cover it with darkness, if possible, black
as itself—at midnight, did two British officers, instructed
by a British Governor, and led on by a traitorous bro-
ther of the noble Raja's, conduct a troop to Sattara, and
surround the palace. The brother showed the way to
the resting-place of the Prince. They seized him—
thrust him half-clothed into a palanquin—thrust into the
same palanquin his faithful cousin Balla Sahib Senna-
puttee—placed the Raja and his family under the charge
of a British Lieutenant and a company of soldiers, and
ordered the escort to march to Benares, a distance of 800
miles. While pursuing their way with all the speed of
guilty fear, the pangs of child-birth overtook the wife of
Balla Sahib. The anxious husband implored a halt,
which was denied. In a few days, Balla Sahib was
brought to the point of death. A halt was again im-
plored. Again it was denied by this man of fleshless
heart ; and, at the close of the day, the devoted cousin
of the Raba,
" Faithful among the faithless found,"
lay a corpse in his palanquin. My friends, I see the
paleness of a speechless horror, mingling with the crim-
son of a burning indignation, on your cheeks. Too deep
your detestation cannot be at this recital of atrocities,
' perpetrated in your own name, by your own countrymen,
upon the distant plains of India, in the eyes of a people
whom we have robbed of their country. Give your in-
dignation words. Put it into action. Rouse up at the
great call of nature and of justice, and check the deeds
of those who are covering you with infamy, by the spo-
liations and tragedies they are enacting with the power
you have placed in their hands.
Let us leave the lifeless body of Balla Sahib in the
jungle, and the Raja is his exile, and return to Sattara.
The Raja, out of all his private wealth, carried with him
only the jewels which the women of his household were
able, in the hurry of departure, to secure. Immediately
upon the abduction of the Raja, his ruthless persecutors
made themselves masters of all his papers. But I may
here, once for all, observe, that there is notin the posses-
sion of the British Government a single document, or
fragment of one, in the handwriting of the Raja, afford-
ing the slightest evidence of infidelity to the British.
'How triumphant is this fact ! An intriguer for twenty
years—a man accustomed to make the most regular mi-
nutes of all his transactions, even the most trivial—ac-
cused by a Government that had offered liberal rewards,
personal indemnity, and honourable distinction, as the
premiums for evidence against him—and yet not a soli-
tary atom of proof, under his own hand, of his ever hav-
ing cherished a thought at variance with his fidelity as a
Prince, or hiS honour as a man. In a very few days after
the expulsion of the Raja—while the sighs of a travailing
mother, the cries of her new- born babe, and the groans
of the expiring husband and father were disturbing the
stillness of the jungle—Sattara was the scene of the in-
stallation and enthronement of a new Raja. And who is
he ? Surely, some one more worthy of the throne than
the man who has been hurled at midnight from it, and
chased into exile. The deposers of the ex-Raja have,
surely, found some paragon of perfection, who, by the
lustre of his virtues, shall mitigate the " deep damnation"
of the deed that has been 'wrought. Who is he, that is
escorted by thousands of British troops to the capital,
attended by the Governor and his staff to the Palace,
and placed, amidst the thundering of cannon, the clangour
of trumpets, and the explosion of fireworks, upon the
throne of Sevagee, and proclaimed RAJA OF SATTARA—
the ALLY and FRIEND of the British Government—the
CHOSEN OBJECT of confidence and protection—in the
place of the dethroned, despoiled, and desolated Purtub
Sing ? It is APPA SAHlB—the abandoned profligate—
the companion of courtezans—the corrupt judge—the
man who twice plotted the participation of the princi-
pality—the Judas Iscariot who betrayed his master—the
inhuman brother who led the way to the chamber of the
sleeping Prince, and sold his mother's son into the hands
of his enemies. He is the man, whom the Governor of
Bombay delighteth to honour. He is now the favourite
of the East India - Company, to whew, doubtless, the
sword which has been withheld from the brother, will
be speedily presented, with a new and amended edition
of the Court's complimentary letter of 1835.
Let me observe, also, that the Company have deprived
the ex-Raja of all the private property he left behind
him, consisting of money and jewels, and other valuables,
the savings of the years that he had been upon the
throne, amounting to at least 150,00 C/ sterling. All
this has Leen appropriately handed over to the exem-
plary Prince who now sways the sceptre. But I pass
over many deeply interesting features in this history,
that I may describe the conduct of the home authorities.
On the news of the Raja's dethronement arriving in this
country, a few of the friends of justice, Proprietors of
East India Stock, signed a requisition for a Special Court
fur the 12th February, 1840,
" To take into consideration a recommendation to the
Court of Directors and Board of Control, to withhold
their sanction to the dethronement of his Highness the
Raja of Sattara, by the Bombay Government, until a
full and fair investigation of the charges preferred against
him shall have been made, according to his Highness's
earnest and repeated request."
The Directors, whe are, of course, Proprietors, and,
in consequence of their extensive patronage, most ingu-
ential ones, came down, and, instead of following the
dictates of delicacy, and leaving the Court to decide for
itself, uninfluenced by their votes or dictation, themselves
moved, and carried by their own votes, an amendment,
that " it is highly inexpedient, and this Court accordingly
declines to interfere with its responsible Executive, in
the affairs of the Raja of Sattara."