The United States Magazine and Democratic Review (May 1851)
In 1851, An American
Journal (The United States Magazine and Democratic Review), at a time
(1851) when they I.e. USA, did not have imperial ambitions that dovetailed with
that of British imperialism, highlighted and exposed the genocidal crimes
committed on the Sinhalese people in British occupied Ceylon, under the
administration of the then Governor Lord Torrington.
In the concluding phase
of the Journal article having the caption ‘ The English in Ceylon” (
May 1851) , the author of the article says as follows:
” The history of Lord Torringtons administration in Ceylon
affords an epitome of English rule, wherever throughout the world, by force, or
fraud, or violence, she has succeeded in planting her guilty flag. The horrors
perpetrated during 1848 in the island-gem of the East, are the counterpart of
those of which, from time to time, during a period of seven centuries, the
green isle of the West has been the victim.
We have reproduced this Ceylon tragedy, because it contains a
moral upon which it behooves the Democracy of America, at the present moment,
seriously to reflect. The flag which sanctioned the massacres of the Cingalese,
and has witnessed the devastation of Celtic Ireland; the flag which, usurping
every advantageous commercial and political position throughout the globe, has
been the harbinger everywhere of desolation and death this flag, which in two
wars, our fathers levelled in the dust, now flaunts us in the face on the
southern portion of this our continent ; out-spreads its crimson folds over republican
soil, insulting our manhood, blighting our commercial prospects, and dimming
the lustre of the stars and stripes. Shall Central America share the fate of
Ceylon ? Shall our sister Republics on this continent, whose independence, hy
every principle of honor, of interest, and of duty, we are bound to protect, be
consigned to the tender mercies of a Torrington ? Shall the island of Ruatan
become the Ceylon of the Western Hemisphere, and the Isthmus of Central America
be made, on a smaller scale, a second Hindostan ? We submit these questions, in
all earnestness, to the consideration of the Democracy of America, confident
that they will be answered in a manner worthy of those, whose pride it is, that
they inherit the principles of a Jefferson, a Madison, a Monroe, a Jackson and
a Polk”.
The United States
Magazine and Democratic Review (May 1851)
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Full Article below
The English in Ceylon.
May 1851.
http://books.lakdiva.org/moa/cornell/1851_english_in_ceylon.html
BRITISH policy, or that system which the British Government has
for ages systematically pursued, and by which it has acquired its vast colonial
empire, is hut very imperfectly understood by the mass of the American people.
Deriving our knowledge of English affairs, for the most part, from English
sources, we are too apt to he dazzled by the contemplation of an empire upon
which the sun never sets, and to ascribe to Divine destiny, that which, in
reality, is the result of a system, more fiendish, and more
detestable, because more extending and more extended in its operation, than
that of Machiavelli. The conquests of old Rome were attended, at least, with
glory; and, in modern times, those of our own country were laden with fruits,
not alone of glory and renown to the conquerors, but better far, of freedom, of
happiness, and of civilization to the conquered. England alone, of all the
nations, ancient or modern, is the only one whose sword, while entwined with
wreaths of cypress for the vanquished, has failed to reap one pure laurel to
deck the victor’s brow. Survey her colonial empire ; glance your eye athwart
those boundless plains made fruitful by the young embraces of the god of day
and point, if you can, to one rood of territory, whose acquisition was not
conceived in selfishness and iniquity, and consummated in treachery, in perfidy
and fraud. As the subject, however, of England’s colonial empire is one which
could not properly be treated within the limits of a review article, we shall
confine ourselves, for the present, to a condensed expose of
certain occurrences of which the island of Ceylon has recently been the theatre
and which have startled the propriety even of that most fastidious assembly,
the British House of Commons.
Placed at the western entrance of the Bay of Bengal, Ceylon is
separated by a narrow strait from the mainland of Hindostan. In size, it is
nearly as large as Ireland; and it possesses a population of about a million
and a half of souls, made up of various tribes of native Cingalese, Malabars,
Mahometans, Coolies, Dutch and English, and their mongrel descendants. Once the
abode of civilization, as is evidenced by the ruins of ancient cities, canals,
bridges, aqueducts, &c., in which the interior of the island abounds, its
geographical position, and natural advantages of soil and climate, should make
of Ceylon, in our day, the chief mart of Eastern commerce. That it does not
occupy this position, can only be attributed to that system, as short-sighted
as vicious, by which the island has, for half a century, been governed, for the
immediate profit of the mother country. In 1796, Ceylon was taken possession of
by the English, and the Dutch expelled from its shores. From that period, down
to so late as 1819, the native chiefs boldly resisted the usurped authority of
the invaders, and were finally reduced to subjection only after a desperate
struggle, and by such agencies as England alone is skilled to employ for the
accomplishment of her darling objects. Since 1819, the government of the colony
has been administered by a Governor, appointed by the Colonial Secretary, for
the time being, at home, assisted by a council composed entirely of European
civil and military servants, who are described by MeCulloch as being, from
their tenure of office, totally subservient to the will of the Governor. The
religion of the island is that of Buddha, as established by the following
clause of the treaty of the 2nd of March, 1815, between the British government
and the native chiefs The religion of Buddha, professed by the chiefs and
inhabitants of these provinces, is declared inviolable; and its rites,
ministers and places of worship, are to be maintained and protected. The period
embraced between the years 1819 and 1846, was not remarkable for any
extraordinary occurrences in Ceylon; suffice it to say, that the history of the
island during this interval, is made up of patient suffering and distress on
the part of the natives, and of heartless tyranny and exaction on the part of
their foreign rulers.
In 1846. Lord Torrington was appointed by Earl Grey, Whig Colonial
Secretary,to the lucrative office of Governor of Ceylon. Arrived at the seat of
government, his lordship is surprised to find the financial affairs of the
colony in an embarrassed condition; and, accordingly, in virtue of the wide
discretionary powers vested in him, proceeds to meet the difficulty off-hand by
the imposition of severe new taxes of his own invention. These taxes, though
decidedly original in their way, were yet of that character,
that any one at all acquainted with the colony might have foreseen that they
could never by any possibility be collected. The most obnoxious of them were, a
road-tax, a shop-tax, a gun-tax, and a dog-tax. The first ordained, that every
male resident in the island, between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five, should
either labor for six days in each year on the public roads, or pay three
shillings sterling, in lieu of such personal service. The second enacted, that
every occupant of a shop, the rental of which amounted to £ 5, should take out
a yearly license on a £ 1 stamp. The third directed, that on a certain day in
each year, the Cingalese should repair to the chief towns, armed, and apply for
licenses for their fire-arms, at a cost of 2s. 6d. for each gun. The fourth,
imposed a tax of ir. on every dog kept in the island, and sentenced to death
all puppies above three months old whose proprietors could not produce the
protecting shilling. Now, it is necessary to understand that in Ceylon, as in
all countries subject to the British flag, the bulk of the population are
extremely poor; hence, the payment of these taxes was to them an impossibility.
Those, moreover, upon dogs and guns, were imposed upon what were to them
absolute necessaries of life. Besides, the road-tax was a direct outrage upon
that religion which, as we have shown above, the English had bound themselves
by treaty to protect, since the native priests are restricted by
it, both from labor and from touching money. The promulgation of the decree
announcing these new taxes naturally created great excitement throughout the
island. Petitions, memorials, remonstrances, from all classes of the
inhabitants, were laid before the Governor. They were disregarded. By any means,
Lord Torrington was resolved to carry out his object. The assembling of the
people in large masses was encouraged by the government agents, in the hopes
that a collision between them and the British troops would occur. It did occur.
A British soldier is slightly wounded, whether by any of the native inhabitants
or not, does not appear from the evidence taken before the Parliamentary
Committee, which is the only authority which we shall quote. But the collision,
so anxiously sought for by Lord Torrington, had taken place; and martial law is
at once proclaimed. Proclamations are issued, confiscating the lands and
properties of all those who, terrified at the atrocities they had before seen
committed under martial law, had fled into the jungles. Courts martial,
composed of subaltern officers, ignorant of the language of the country, tried,
convicted, sentenced, and put to instant death, hundreds of the innocent
inhabitants; and this, not only in violation of all law, human and divine, but
in utter contempt of the 7th article of the treaty, to which we have already
referred, which stipulates that No sentence of death can be carried into
execution against any inhabitant, except by the written warrant of the British
Governor or Lieutenant Governor for the time being. But what cares Lord
Torrington for treaties, or for the laws of humanity ? Must he not govern ?
And what means government in the vocabulary of a British aristocrat, but
confiscation and murder ?
Much has been said of the magnanimity of the British soldier. Let
the following letters, addressed by the commandant of Kandy, to the presiding
officer of one of the courts martial, hounding him on in his bloody career,
serve as a specimen
|
My dear Watson:
|
|
You are getting on
swimmingly. Impress on the court that there is no necessity for taking down
the evidence in detail; so they are satisfied with the guilt or innocence of
the individual, that is sufficient for them to find and sentence. This
is the law and the mode.
|
| Yours, T. A. DROUGHT, Col. Commanding. | |
|
August 16, 1848.
| |
Well were these magnanimous instructions obeyed. For a period of
nigh three months, confiscations, burnings, massacres, were the order of the
day in Ceylon: and this, be it remembered, notwithstanding that subsequent to
the imposition of martial law, not a single offense was pretended ever to have
been committed by the inhabitants. Amongst those who suffered during this
period, was one whose execution is thus mentioned by Lord Torrington in a
dispatch to Earl Gray___” An influential priest who was convicted
of administering treasonable oaths, was shot at Kandy in full robes. This
priests trial took place at Kandy, and he was arraigned–
First, For having directly or indirectly held correspondence with
rebels, and Cur not giving all the information in his power which might lead to
the apprehension of a proclaimed rebel, Kaddapolla Unanse, professing to know
his place of concealment on or about 17th August, 1848. Second, For
administering, or conniving at the administration (!) of a
treasonable oath to one Kerr Bande, on or about the 17th August, 1848.
On these absurd and unintelligible charges the poor Buddhist
priest was dragged before a military tribunal; tried by military judges, not one
of whom understood the language in which the evidence against him was given;
convicted and shot! Several attorneys who were present at the trial; and
who did understand the language, felt satisfied that the
witnesses for the prosecution had perjured themselves for the purpose of
currying favor with the Governor, and that the priest was innocent. Under this
impression they besought the Governor to postpone the execution. In vain Lord
Torringtons answer was By G, sir, if all the lawyers in Ceylon said that the
priest was innocent, he should be shot tomorrow morning. And shot he was. More,
Earl Grey, in answer to Lord Torringtons dispatch announcing the execution,
pronounced the death of the Buddhist priest to be highly satisfactory! Again,
in a subsequent dispatch, Earl Grey, in the name of the Queen, complimented
Lord Torrington, and declared his complete approval of his decision,
promptitude, and judgment. Thus sustained by the Home Government, and
having triumphed over the refractory inhabitants
of Ceylon, surely Lord Torrington must feel proud and happy! But no: after all
the massacres, pillages, burnings and confiscations after he had made a desert,
and called it peace.
Lord Torrington discovered that his severe taxes were inapplicable
to the island, and could not be collected. They were accordingly every one
repealed!
These proceedings had now begun to attract popular attention in
England, and in the session of 1849, a parliamentary committee was appointed to
investigate then-i. Upon the evidence taken before that committee, we have
based our statements. Their authenticity, therefore, cannot be impeached. And
this is England. England of the World’s Fair, and the Peace Congress ; England
of George Thompson, and the Abolition Societies! What matters it, that a few
men, Cobden and Bright, and their associates, should denounce these atrocities,
and that the London Quarterly Review should stigmatise them as a disgrace to
the English name they have been sanctioned by the British government, and are
the consequences of the policy by which, in its foreign and colonial relations,
that government has invariably been directed. The history of Lord Torringtons
administration in Ceylon affords an epitome of English rule, wherever
throughout the world, by force, or fraud, or violence, she has succeeded in
planting her guilty flag. The horrors perpetrated during 1848 in the island-gem
of the East, are the counterpart of those of which, from time to time, during a
period of seven centuries, the green isle of the West has been the victim.
We have reproduced this Ceylon tragedy, because it contains a
moral upon which it behooves the Democracy of America, at the present moment,
seriously to reflect. The flag which sanctioned the massacres of the Cingalese,
and has witnessed the devastation of Celtic Ireland; the flag which, usurping
every advantageous commercial and political position throughout the globe, has
been the harbinger everywhere of desolation and death this flag, which in two
wars, our fathers levelled in the dust, now flaunts us in the face on the
southern portion of this our continent ; out-spreads its crimson folds over
republican soil, insulting our manhood, blighting our commercial prospects, and
dimming the lustre of the stars and stripes. Shall Central America share the
fate of Ceylon ? Shall our sister Republics on this continent, whose
independence, hy every principle of honor, of interest, and of duty, we are
bound to protect, be consigned to the tender mercies of a Torrington ? Shall
the island of Ruatan become the Ceylon of the Western Hemisphere, and the
Isthmus of Central America be made, on a smaller scale, a second Hindostan ? We
submit these questions, in all earnestness, to the consideration of the
Democracy of America, confident that they will be answered in a manner worthy
of those, xv hose pride it is, that they inherit the principles of a Jefferson,
a Madison, a Monroe, a Jackson and a Polk.
Courtesy: The United States Magazine and Democratic Review
(1851)
Original text courtesy of the
Cornell University proto-type Digital
Library Collections – Making of America
Formatted Text in HTML put Online at Lakdiva.net with their Permission.
Editor’s Note: Text Proof read by Kavan Ratnatunga but many OCR
and formatting errors, probably still remain.
Please also see notes on other interesting articles like this that
have been put online in the Digital Library Collections of MoA.
