The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-12 00:00:00

did, from the time of his assuming' office as resident,
down to the period of the Raja's dethronement in the
moth of September, 1839, systematically intercept, sod '
cause to be intercepted, the whole of the correspondence
of the Raja, his servants and his friends ; and that Col.
()vans did convert such systematic intercepting, opening,
and perusing of the said correspondence, into a means of
counteracting ai•d defeating every endeavour which the
Raja made to obtain a hearing, and to make known his
case to the British Government ; and into a means of se-
cretly calumniating the friends of the Raja to the Bri-
tish authorities." The admission of Colonel Ovens, in
his own defence, which had been referred to,
of the practice alluded to in the second charge
against that officer, rendered it unnecessary to
adduce any evidence in its support. He (Mr. Thompson)
was anxious, however, that a Committee of that House,
or some equally competent tribunal, should pronounce
its judgment upon the morality, as well as governmental
policy, of such acts as those resorted to by the Bombay
Government and their servants, in the prosecution of an

inquiry into the conduct of a person standing in the re-
lation of the Raja of Sattara ; and to say whether such
proceedings were fair and just towards those who were
thoroughly ignorant of the means adopted by a Govern-
ment, whose governmental machinery was co-extensive
with India itself, and who, by resorting to such means,
offered a premium to disaffected and malicious indivi-
duals to bring about the ruin of innocent, unsophisti-
cated, and confiding persons. Colonel Ovaus did not
deny that, in the course of his own secret correspond-
ence, ha had expressed freely his opinions upon the
character and conduct of those who, from _ the

purest motives, attempted, although unsuccessfully,
to render service to the Raja during the long
period of his relentless persecution by the Bombay
Government. He (Mr. Thompson) was happy to say,
that not one line could be quoted from amongst the ac-
cumulated papers which had been laid upon the table of
that house, showing that any British officer, or other
European, was ever connected with the case of the Raja
of Sattara, except in the most virtuous, loyal, and ho-
nourable manner, or that they ever tendered to him any
counsel, but such as was in strict ai.cordance:with the ob-
servance of the treaty he had entered into with the Bri-
tish Government; or, in fact, did anything on his behalf
that was inconsistent with their duty to their own Sove-
reign, or the safety and honour of the British Govern-
ment. He would also as confidently affirm, that during
_ .

the years that the practice of intercepting letters pre-
vailed, no line ever came into the possession of the Bri-
tish Government, furnishing the least evidence of the
Raja himself, or any of his friends, entertaining feelings of
hostility to British rule in India. On the contrary,
every such intercepted document demonstrated the
earnest anxiety of the Raja himself, and of his agents and
friends, for a strict, but open and fair, inquiry into the
whole conduct of his Highness, during the period of his
connexion with the British Goveanment, and of the de-
sire, above all things, of the accused Prince himself', to
maintain undisturbed and untarnished the friendship he
had for eighteen years avowed and exhibited towards his
European allies and protectors. Should the inquiry
asked for be granted, it would be made abundantly ap-
parent that the system of intercepting letters alluded to
did lead, in a multitude of instances, to the prevention,
on the part of the Raja and his friends, of the success
of his efforts, which would, had not such illicit inter-
ception not taken place, have issued in the revelation of
a conspiracy existing to bring about the ruin of the
Raja. The House would be at no loss to judge of the
helplessness of the unfortunate Raja of Sattara, who by
such a practice was unable to effect any of the just
ends which himself and his friends bud in view in
their correspondence with each other. At every step it
would be found that secret artifices had been resorted
to for the purpose of frustrating such ends, and of mis-
representing the objects and designs of such communi-
cations. The next matter to which he was desirous of
calling the attention of a Committee of that House was
the manner in which Colonel Ovens obtained certain
evidence against the Raja, to which evidence great im-
portance had been attached. He (Mr. Thompson) re-
ferred to a confession, so called, said to have been made
by a person of the name of Govind Row, occupying the
situation of Dewan, or Minister, to the Raja of Sattara.
This individual was implicated in the first charge
brought against the Raja, of attempting to seduce two
native officers in the British service from their allegiance.
When accused of that charge by the Resident, the Dewan
was instantly delivered up by the Raja. When the in-
quiry into the charge ceased that person was continued a
prisoner, in a state of mild restraint, at Poonah,
a British station. Whilst there, Colonel Ovens
commenced his duties at Sattara, and prosecuted his in-
quiries into the authenticity of a certain document to
which reference would presently be made. He (Mr.
Thompson) would show that the information Colonel
Ovens sent to his Government relative to that document
was wholly false. He appeared to have thought, how-
ever, that a confirmation from Govind Row of the truth
of the charge which that document contained, was im-
portant; and he took the following means of getting it.
He made cuch a representation to Government as led to
permission being granted by Government to send the
prisoner from Poonah to Ahmednugger, seventy-four
miles distant, there to be kept in solitary confine-
ment. He next obtained permission to dispatch a secret
emissary—a man who had already given a false account
of the origin of the document, the truth of which
Govina Row was to confirm. That agent remained a
considerable time with the prisoner, until at last he made
him willing to sign a previously prepared paper crimi-
nating his prince; and the judge at Poonah, Mr. Hutt,
was then called in to attest and forward it to Govern-
ment. I will prove that this paper was extorted by in-
timidation. I will demonstrate that it was wholly false.
I will show that Govind Row was detained in prison for
two years after he gave it, notwithstanding the opinion
of the Supreme Government that he was entitled to his
liberty. The depositions, declarations, and petitions of
this prisoner, made since his liberation, shall be pro-
duced and my charge fully sustained. There were many
other charges into which he might enter, if not fearful
if multiplying his accusations beyond the ability of the
friends of Colonel Ovens to reply. There was one other
charge, however, to which he must allude— the, fabrica-
tion of the document ascribed to the mother of Govind
Riw, and the concealment for eleven months of the
evidence showing the true history of that paper. In a
few sentences he (Mr. Thompson) could put the House
in possession of all the material points of the case. A forged
petition was received by the Government of Bombay, in
March, 1837, and confided to Col. Ovens in the following
June, with strict orders to discover the writer. Colonel
Ovens, from time to time, sent letters and documents to
his Government, professing to give a minute history of
the origin of the petition, and all the circumstances con-
nected with it, save the discovery of the person of the
actual writer, whose name, however, he supplied. When
he had succeeded in bringing his Government to believe
in the genuineness of the petition, there elapsed not
more than a fortnight before the real fabricator
of the papers appeared, who not only • fur-
nished from his own lips an account of every
fact connected with it, but laid before Colonel Ovens
documents which proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
that everything previously said of it to the Bombay
Government was entirely false.
Mr. REPTON here rose and moved that the House
be counted.
strangers were ordered to withdraw. Upon counting
the Members, it was ascertained that there were suffi-
cient to form a House; and, upon our return, we found
Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON proceeding to state
that, to avoid a motion similar to that which had just
been made, he would draw his remarks to a conclusion.
lie (Mr. Thompson) had made some of his charges so
long ago as 1843, anxious that Colonel Ovens, if he
could purge himself from them, might afford him (Mr.
Thompson) the opportunity of admitting his error, and
if not, that the late Raja might have the benefit of the
discoveries which had been made into the means taken to
effect his ruin. The inquiry now sought for was de-
manded, in justice to Colonel Ovens, who could only be
effectually cleared by an investigation before a patient
and impartial tribunal— in justice to himself (Mr.
Thompson), who desired the opportunity of proving all
he had said—in justice to the profession to which the
accused belonged by the Government under whose
orders the acts alleged had been done, and for the sake
of the reputation of the British name in India and
throughout the world. Should the inquiry be refused
by her Majesty's Government, the House would, he
(Mr. Thompson) trusted, acquiesce in the mo-
tion. Eulogiums on Colonel Ovens would be no
answer to allegations such as those which had been laid
upon the table, with a tender of ample proof in support
of every one of them. Justice required that these
allegations should be sifted, and the evidence to sustain
them be fully heard. That evidence would be exclusively
official and Parliamentary, and open to the most rigorous
scrutiny. He (Mr. Thompson) sincerely thanked the
House for their protracted attention to his address while
discharging a painful duty, and he ventured to antici-
pate a vote in favour of a full and fair inquiry.
Mr. HUME seconded the motion.
The question having been put,
Mr. ELLIOT said that having spent the greater part
of his life in the East Indies, he might be allowed to offer
a few observations on the motion of the Hon. Gentleman.
He begged to direct the attention of the House to the
course which the Hon. Member for the Tower Hamlets
(Mr. Thompson) had pursued with reference to this
question. That Hon. Gentlemen had brought forward
a motion relating to this subject on the Bth of April ; the
debate was adjourned ; and the Hon. Gentleman, after
having deferred the resumption of the debate from one
night to another, had now dropped his original motion,
and had proposed a new resolution, in order that he might
have an opportunity of making another speech, before
the accusations contained in his former speech had been
replied to. The Hon. Gentleman asked the House to
enter upon an investigation which, according to his
own showing, was utterly impossible; for the Hon.
Gentleman had proved by his own statement that it was
impossible to obtain evidence of the circumstances to
which he had referred. The lion. Gentleman accused
Colonel ()vans, an officer of the highest possible charac-
ter, who had received the marked approbation of two
Governors of Bombay, of two Governors-General of
India, of the Court of East India Directors, and of three
Presidents of the Board of Control, with having been
guilty of subornation of perjury and forgery. He (Mr.
Elliot) considered that an Hon. Gentleman who pre-
ferred charges of this nature was bound to show that he
was free from any personal feeling in the matter, that
he had no pecuniary interest in bringing it forward—
(Hear, hear)—and that he was not actuated by any per-
sonal animosity. The Honourable Gentleman had
told them he could prove the charges he had
made against Colonel Ovens, but he had not referred
to the defence of that Gallant Officer which was
contained in the papers laid upon the table. It
was impossible for him (Mr. Elliot), in consequenceof the
length of that defence, to attempt to go into it ; but he
would endeavour to test the accuracy of the statements
made by the Hon. Member for the Tower Hamlets, and
upon which he had charged the most base and disgrace-
ful crimes against a gentleman of high position and
repute. He (Mr. Elliot) would, in the first place, ask the