The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-02 00:00:00

etenitial

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1851.

In the House of Lords last night the Royal Assent
was given by Commission to several Biils.
Viscount TORRINGTON then rose to move " That a
message be seat to the House of Commons for a copy
of the report and evidence of the Select Committee on
Ceylon." The Noble Viscount said that he had been cora-
l:1111er] to bring forward this motion in order to meet the
calumnies to which he had been exposed in consequence
of the withdrawal by Mr. H. BAILLIE of his notice of
motion in the House of Commons. He then proceeded
to defend the whole course of his administration in
Ceylon, by showing that the financial condition of the
colony was wretched when he assumed the government,
but that when he left there was considerable surplus of
revenue over expenditure; that the rebellion was the
result of c. formidable conspiracy, organized by the
chiefs and the priests, for expelling the British from
the R.andyan province; that the rebels had in their
possession sixty thousand stand of arms, and that
he proclamation of inertial law was necessary to

promptly crush the insurrection and to prevent it from
spreading. That all the condemned prisoners had had
fair trials, and had been afforded every opportunity of
presenting their defences to the court; and with regard
to the case of the priest, he read a letter from a clergy-
man who was present at the trial, and who declared that
the evidence produced left no doubt of his guilt. With
regard to the charge thet the priest was shot in his
' sacerdotal robes, the answer was that those robes were
the only clothes the priest wore. Many of those who
now condemned him had at the time expressed their
entire approval of his proceedings, and he
had received
addresses from the European colonists and merchants
expressing regret at his resignation of the Government.
Earl GREY commended his Noble Friend for having
called the attention of the House to the unfounded and
malignant calumnies of which he had been the object.
To say that no abuses took place during the existence of
courts-martial was more than any man, even the Noble
Duke (WELLINGTON) could assert, but he would main-
tain that his Noble Friend's administration of Ceylon
had been only such as redounded to his credit.
The Duke of WELLINGTON, in consequence of the
allusion made to him, explained the course of conduct
he had been accustomed to pursue in reference to mar-
tial law • and after a few words in explanation from Earl
GREY, the motion was agreed to, and their Lordships
adjourned.
In the House of Commons, in answer to a question
from Mr. STUART WORTLEY,
Sir G. GRET stated that efficient measures and pre-
cautions had been taken to put down at once any at-
tempt that might be made by foreigners or by British
subjects to interrupt the public tranquillity during the
Great Exhibition; that it was an offence at common law,
punishable with fine and imprisonment, for either
foreigners:or British subjects to conspire against States
in amity with Great Britain, and that he should take
care to enfore obedience to the law.

Mr. B. COCHRANE moved for leave to bring in a Bill to
extend the provisions of the Private Money Drainage
Act of 1849 to the advance of private money for the
erection and repair of farm buildings in lands in Great
Britain and Ireland.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER did not object
to the introduction of the Bill; and, after a short discus-
sion, leave was given.
Mr. LABOUCHERE obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
oontinue and amend an Act for establishing an office for
the benefit of coalwhippers of the port of London.
The report of the Committee of Supply was agreed to.
The Marine Mutiny Bill and the Mutiny Bill went
through Committees.
_ _

The—Medical Charities (Ireland) Bill was read a se-
cond time, after a few observations from Mr. SCULLY,
Lord NAAS Sir W. SOMERVILLB, and several of the
Irish Members.

The Acts of Parliament Abbreviation Act Repeal Bill
was read a second time.

The House adjourned shortly after Seven o'clock.

Yesterday Lord TORRINGTON, according to engage-
ment, brought under the notice of the House of Peers
the charges directed against himself in reference to
his share in the Ceylon Government. Having spoken
for an hour and a half, he resumed his seat with the
expression of a confident hope that the public would
feel satisfied with his proceedings, aware that he had
acted throughout to the best of his ability in the per-
formance of his duties, both to his country and to his
SOVEREIGN. Everything considered, the speech of the
Noble Viscount, as far as it went, must be pronounced
by all who examine it without prejudice to be in the
highest degree satisfactory. What is con-
spicuously observable throughout is the cir-
cumstance that there is no blinking of any
single particular. A succinct narrative of
his administration over the Cingalese from the mo-
ment of his appointment as Governor, in the February
of 1847, or rather, we should say, from the moment
of his arrival at the colony in the May following, is
given by him with an apparently minute and' scru-
pulous exactitude. Ile relates in chronological order
the policy adventured upon at his instigation, and

with the accordance of the local authorities. He
shows how the finances of Ceylon, from being in-
volved in a state of almost inextricable embarrass-
ment, were restored to a satisfactory position under
the influence of his Government—the land-tax being
re-adjusted, the expenditure being reduced, a
buoyancy being imparted both to the export and
import trades, and a satisfactory balance ultimately
established between the revenue and the disburse-
ments. He demonstrates, moreover, by a mass of
documentary evidence, very lucidly arranged and
apositely introduced, that the alterations made
with a view to the carrying out of these measures of
improvement, so far from exciting discontent among
the inhabitants, elicited expressions of gratitude from
the most influential classes of the community, such as
the merchants and the planters. Taxes even imposed
upon dogs and guns failed to provoke anything like
hostility against himself and his subordinates, for the
people saw as the results of these new burdens a rapid
increase in the income necessary for the proper conser-
vation of the colony ; while the consequence of the road

ordinance, which might otherwise have proved dis
tasteful to the labouring population, was a mani.
fest incr ease in all the requisite means of commu.

nication.

An enumeration of these internal improvements of
Ceylon brought Lord TORRINGTON at last to the
mention of that rebellion among the Cingalese, out
of which had sprung all the accusations against him-
self as at once the head and the arm of the local go-
vernment. Contrary to the opinions expressed upon
the subject so repeatedly of late, that this movement
on the part of the natives was little better than a vil-
lage riot, the ex-Governor of Ceylon insists emphati-
cally that it was to all intents and purposes
a rebellion, and one too, he adds, of a most
serious and dangerous character. For the suppression
of this insurrectionary demonstration Viscount

TORRINGTON acknowledges at once that he conceived
energetic measures were, of all, the most humane and
the most advisable. Referring to its commencement,
he avows almost in so many words that he regards the
rebellion of 1848 as having been encouraged by the
too great leniency displayed in the rebellion of 1818.

For the purpose, therefore, of at once dissipating any
erroneous notion among the Cingalese that the ring-
leaders would experience the same impunity as their
prototypes had done upon a former occasion, he
forthwith adventured upon a bold and resolute

struggle with the insurgents. He intimates by
one historical reminiscence, to the effect that no
less than a thousand British soldiers lost their
lives in 1818, during the continuance of martial law
for a period of two years, his solicitude to prevent, if
possible, a similar wholesale effusion of blood be-
tween the belligerents. Hence, he appears to infer,

the vigour shown in making examples among the
principal instigators of the population. It must not
be forgotten that throughout the whole of these pro-
ceedings Lord TORRINGTON obtained the approval of
both the civil and military authorities. In testimony,
of this he refers to the record of the legislative deli-
berations, he adduces a copious and emphatic corre-
spondence, be refers to the resolutions passed atpublic
meetings,
and to proofs of confidence accorded to him
by
men conspicuous amongst the resident community.
Several of the chief
imputations of cruelty raised
against him by his assailants are explicitly referred
to by Lord TORRINGTON,
instances
II aen d inma d onee
actst h ore
ot
bwj oe ct
sf theo
of
most formidable andsinister
are met by a
direct contradiction.
suddenly held up to execration ourselves," said he,
never been committed, and for hich had
charges founded on the grossest misstatements:'
Al-
lusion has repeatedly been made by antagoniststhe
of Viscount TORRINGTON to the fact of hie
having
ged
caused a priest upon one occasion to be banged by
the neck in his sacerdotal vestments. The reason
given for this, last evening, must be confessed to be
grotesque, even to the verge of the ludicrous,
but at the same time to the last degree
conclusive. The unfortunate culprit, according to
the ex- Governor's statement, was hung in his eccle-
siastical robes, solely and simply because be must
otherwise have been executed naked, having no other
raiment at all but the dress indicating his rank as a
religious functionary. Alluding to another charge,
which endeavoured to fix upon him the guilt of au-
thorising a wholesale spoliation of the Cingalese,
Lord TonaINGTON observed—" It is true, a Captain
WareoN an officer in a Ceylon Rifle Regiment, did
Plunder the property of certain parties—[here comes
the rebuttal of the accusation condensed within a very
narrow comeese]
I, —upon the hearing of whichimmediate
notice wastaken of it bythe Government,and orders were
given to investigate the matter; the result of which
was that Captain WATSON was ordered to be put
upon his trial, and in
the. meantime to be suspended."
It had been intimated elsewhere, moreover, that ex-
traordinary cruelty had been shown by the Govern-
ment of Lord ToneeeeeoN
certain acts of confis-
cation relating to the property
of persons residing in
the localities conspicuous as the scenes of insubordi-
nation. "Now," cxclairned the accused, "I dis-
tinctly deny that any single case cf confiscation ever
occurred." Than this, surely no language could be
a
more explicit in contradiction What, however, is re-
marked in continuation? Why, denial of the charge