LETTERS, 
 
 Ifc. Sfc.
 
 " It is of most dangerous example, of most corruptive tendency, ever 
 to let the faults of statesmen pass uncensured, or to treat the errors or 
 the crimes, which involve the interests of millions, with the same indul- 
 gence towards human frailty, which we may, in the exercise of charity, 
 bestow towards the more venial transgressions that only hurt one 
 individual, commonly the wrong-doer himself." — Edin. Hev. No, 135.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 TO AND FROM THE 
 
 GOVERNMENT OF MADRAS, 
 
 RELATIVE TO THE 
 
 DISTURBANCES IN CANARA, 
 
 IN APRIL, 1837, 
 WITH SOME EXPLANATORY NOTES. 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 TO TEIE HONOURABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 BY 
 
 F. C. BROWN, Esq. 
 
 OF TELLICIIEUR Y. 
 
 PUDET ET H^C OPFROBRIA NOBIS, 
 AC DICI POSSE, NEC P0TUIS8E REFELLI. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PrBLISHED FOH THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BY SMITH, ELDER, AND CO. 65, CORNHILL. 
 
 October 1838.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 'RINTED liV STEWART AND Ml'RRAY, 
 
 OLD BAILEY.
 
 
 A LETTER. 
 
 ^ TO THE 
 
 I HONOURABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 2^ Honourable Sirs, 
 
 CD 
 
 ■"■ It is now four months since I had the honour of 
 
 o laying before your Honourable Court, collectively through 
 ^ the medium of your Secretary, and individually before every 
 Director, printed copies of certain " Letters to, and from, the 
 Government of Madras, relative to the disturbances which 
 occurred in the province of Canara in April, 1837," now 
 nineteen months past, accompanied by "some explanatory 
 notes" from myself. 1 stated on the occasion to your Ho- 
 nourable Court, " that I should take the severest blame to 
 myself, if I had left anything undone in India, which a man 
 could do, to avert the necessity of submitting this corres- 
 pondence to the authorities before whom it must now come ; 
 r<^ and that it was now merely printed, not published, in order 
 to facilitate its perusal," by those authorities. 
 
 B 
 
 nri4-f'fi4
 
 2. The earnest hope which dictated this step, as soon 
 after my arrival from Malabar as the letters could be pre- 
 pared, was that, without prejudging any individual, or pro- 
 nouncing any opinion upon the very serious and important 
 matters submitted to your consideration, and then revealed 
 for the first time, the decision of your Honourable Court 
 would be, that a prima facie case had been established, 
 upon evidence entitled to ordinary credibility, which de- 
 manded that a full, a strict, an impartial, and a public 
 inquiry should be instituted into the events, which are re- 
 lated to have occurred in the province of Canara, in the 
 months of March and April 1837, and into every circum- 
 stance connected with, and which followed, those events ; 
 and that the demands of public justice, the cries of huma- 
 nity, the honour of Great Britain, and the future preservation 
 of India — not to think of the immediate quiet and content- 
 ment of its millions of Natives — all concurred to require, 
 that inquiry should originate directly from your Honourable 
 Court; that it should be taken out of the hands of the 
 local authority which, it appeared, had been goaded into 
 the initiative of a professed inquiry; and be confided 
 to persons selected by your Honourable Court, possessing, 
 therefore, your own and the entire public confidence, 
 wholly unbiassed, and strangers to the scene and to the 
 parties concerned, but who should have the firmness to hold 
 the scales with strict impartiality between the European 
 and the Native, and the manliness to expose misconduct 
 and brand guilt, wheresoever detected, and whomsoever the 
 delinquent, whatever his rank, his station, his influence, or 
 his connections. 
 
 3. The leading and striking points of the case, which I 
 believed were sufficiently established to encourage and war- 
 rant the hope I entertained, resolve themselves, as succinctly 
 as they can be embodied and derived from the evidence of 
 facts and dates, into the following heads : 
 
 (1) That on the 30th March 1837, an agrarian mob of at
 
 most 500 persons, late the subjects of the Rajah of Coorg, 
 and armed, some few with matchlocks, the rest with sticks 
 and bill-hooks, collected together at Pootoor,a place situated 
 in the Jungle at some distance from Mangalore, the Capital 
 of the Province of Canara : 
 
 (2) That the principal Collector of the Province, accom- 
 panied by a party of 150 Sepoys, marched to the spot, and 
 there took possession of a house (the travellers' bungalow): 
 
 (3) That the party retreated from this position to Manga- 
 lore, in the middle of the night; there being at Pootoor a 
 Pagoda perfectly defensible, supplied with water, and at the 
 time stored with a sufficiency of grain: 
 
 (4) That the party arrived at Mangalore on the 3rd of 
 April: 
 
 (5) That on the morning of the 4th of April, "a consult- 
 ation was held" by all the European functionaries, Civil 
 and Military ; at which consultation " the unanimous 
 opinion " arrived at was, that "the proper mode of proceed- 
 ing" was that "the Servants of the Government," (meaning 
 thereby the European servants. Civil and Military,)** for the 
 preservation of their lives, the Sepoys, their families, and 
 the treasure in the place should," the whole, " be put on 
 board boats," and setting sail, "abandon the place," and 
 the Provinces of Canara, "and proceed to Cannanore," 
 eighty miles distant, the Military Head Quarters of the 
 two maritime frontier Provinces of Canara and Malabar : 
 
 (6) That "the attempt" to carry this "unanimous" 
 resolution into effect, was then made; and the Servants of 
 the Government, the Sepoys, their families, and the Trea- 
 sure marched down to the beach for immediate embarkation, 
 about thirty-six hours before a single man of the mob of 
 rioters at Pootoor appeared, or " before an attack was 
 made:" 
 
 (7) That " the attempt failed, owing to the want of boats 
 in sufficient numbers," to carry away the families of the 
 Sepoys, who expressed their disgust at being ordered to 
 
 b2
 
 abandon the place, and who almost broke out into open 
 mutiny, when it appeared that they were required to embark, 
 and desert a part of their wives and families : 
 
 (8) That the wives and children of all "the Servants of 
 the Government" were sent off by sea to Tellicherry and 
 Cannanore : 
 
 (9) That, nevertheless, " there was no appearance of the 
 rebels coming down upon the town, before about One, p.m., 
 on the 5th of April:" 
 
 (10) That such was the terror, such the panic, such the 
 total anarchy, which reigned at Mangalore, the Capital of 
 the Province of Canara, the seat of the Government, and 
 of the European Courts of Justice, that, " for the three days 
 previous, nearly the whole of the Judges' and Collectors' 
 establishments had quitted Mangalore, and the duties of 
 every department had ceased to be performed : " 
 
 (11) That this dissolution of all Government, this end of 
 all legal authority and subordination, this utter want of all 
 protection to life and person, and of all security to property, 
 drove to flight all those of the inhabitants of Mangalore 
 and their families, who could fly : 
 
 (12) That this general flight, the unparalleled occur- 
 rence, — *' that the greater part of the inhabitants had left 
 Mangalore," — it was, which was insisted on as the first and 
 chief reason, at the "consultation" held on the 4th of 
 April, in support of the " unanimous" resolution then taken 
 by " the Servants of the Government," of abandoning the 
 place, and leaving the rest of the inhabitants, who could not 
 fly, to the mercy of "the insurgents, who were reported to 
 be assembled in number about 10 or 12,000, and determined 
 to take Mangalore : " 
 
 (13) That all these occurrences, all these resolutions, all 
 these attempts, and all these scenes, were officiallj/, and in 
 the very words here quoted, reported to the Governor in 
 Council of Madras by the Zillah and Criminal Judge of 
 Canara, " the hour" that he, having " fortunately effected
 
 a safe embarkation on the ship Eamont" on the 5th of 
 April, arrived at Cannanore on the 6th, in company with 
 '* the Assistant Judge of the Adavvlut," of whom he jointly 
 speaks as the corroborator of his narrative : 
 
 (14) That the Criminal Judge further reported, supported 
 by another evidence, whose testimony he forwarded and 
 refers to, that he beheld " the simultaneous ignition of 
 several parts of the town," heard " the blowing up of the 
 Magazine," and feared that all had been massacred ;" " in- 
 telligence of the most disastrous nature," and likely to " be 
 attended with a vast loss of life, both to the civil and 
 military departments of the Government," which the Judge 
 regretted " to have to notify for the information of the 
 Right Honourable the Governor in Council," as well as " to 
 the Commandant of the District, with the least practicable 
 delay :" 
 
 (15) That, the reverse of all this intelligence, the result 
 proved, that not a hair of the head of one of " the servants 
 of the Government" was touched, nor hardly a native life 
 lost, nor the Magazine approached, during the two attacks 
 of Mangalore, on the 5th and 7th of April; tiiat native 
 eye-witnesses of the attacks declared and wrote privately 
 to their relatives, that " the rebels" fled and dispersed in 
 all directions at the very first discharge from the Sepoys, 
 who overtook and slaughtered them in great numbers, 
 while an English eye-witness, a gallant, devoted officer, 
 likened the affairs to boys capturing bees' nests : 
 
 (16) That the official dispatch of the Criminal Judge from 
 Cannanore reached the Governor in Council, on or before 
 the 12th April, and the official dispatch from Mangalore of 
 the 10th, reporting the utter defeats, and discomfiture, and 
 dispersion, and great slaughter of " the rebels," reached 
 him on or before the 16th, accompanied by the return of 
 the casualties sustained by the troops in repelling the 
 attacks, which casualties were declared to be, " one Sepoy 
 killed, three wounded, one since dead:"
 
 6 
 
 (17) That this return, compared and contrasted with the 
 narrative and the details given by the Criminal Judge, or 
 with whatever else of a similar character might be written 
 and reported on the same occasion, sufficed to disclose at a 
 glance to the Governor in Council, as it revealed to all other 
 men, the kind of enemies and assailants the troops had 
 encountered : 
 
 (18) That with the official knowledge of all these plain, 
 legible facts, and of all the previous occurrences before 
 him, and with the responsibility of being required to know, 
 that Mangalore is distant only eighty miles (at that season 
 twelve hours' sail) from Cannanore, the head-quarters of 
 one complete European, and of two Native regiments; of 
 being required to know, that a body of these troops could 
 have been transported by sea in row-boats, and landed at 
 Mangiilore, fresh with their arms and ammunition, in the 
 space of thirty or thirty-six hours; the Governor in Council 
 of Madras, on the 9th of May, many days after, published 
 in the Gazette a General Order, in which, with " much 
 satisfaction," he recorded " his approbation of the per- 
 severing gallantry with which the defence of Mangalore 
 was maintained against repeated assaults by superior num- 
 bers, and in the uncertainty of being reinforced or relieved," — 
 " and directs that the favourable sentiments with which the 
 Government are impressed, by their steady and soldier-like 
 conduct, throughout service of so harassing a nature, may 
 be made known to the officers and men of the — regi- 
 ment N. I.:" 
 
 (19) That the Governor in Council proclaimed martial 
 law in several of the districts (counties) of Canara Proper; 
 while the official report of the Judge stated to him, that 
 the persons who had suddenly risen were "numbers of the 
 inhabitants of the Coorg country,''^ who had "taken possession 
 of the treasure ;" and that their further overt acts were, 
 " to place their seals, together with our own, on our Dis_ 
 trict Cutchcries and Treasuries, and offer service to the 
 Potails (village headmen) and servants:"
 
 (20) That this information conveyed at the outset strong 
 presumptive proof, that it was not the inhabitants of 
 Canara who either previously knew of, or who voluntarily 
 took part, in the disturbance; even if the presumption had 
 not been converted into undoubted fact, by the immediate 
 flight of great numbers of the respectable inhabitants with 
 their families to all the coast-towns of Malabar, by the 
 complaints of desertion and the appeals for protection, 
 wholly neglected, which others of the chief inhabitants 
 addressed to Mangalore, and by the urgent petitions for 
 aid, which others among them dispatched to Tellicherry 
 to the Judges of the Provincial Court for the Western 
 Division :* 
 
 (21) That martial law being thus proclaimed, the regi- 
 ment of infantry, which garrisoned Mangalore, which had 
 attempted to abandon the place, and " failed for want of 
 boats," and had received in General Orders the thanks of 
 the Governor in Council for its " conduct throuohout service 
 of so harassing a nature," — this regiment was employed 
 and detached in enforcing martial law in the proclaimed 
 counties, in sending as prisoners to Mangalore such of the 
 inhabitants as they seized, there to be tried by a Court 
 Martial, assembled by order of the Governor in Council, the 
 
 * Immediately the disturbances broke out, the principal inhabitants 
 of South Canara dispatched messenger after messenger with petitions to 
 Cannanore and Tellicherry, urging that means might betaken to quell it, 
 and protect them. Four miles from Cannanore there is an inland back- 
 water, extending to within about forty miles of Mangalore: 100 
 Sepoys dispatched at that time, and led as Madras Sepoys are accus- 
 tomed to be led, would in twelve hours have cleared the coast-road, and 
 settled the whole affair. But there was no Magistrate on the spot with 
 authority to move troops. Tlie Collector of Malabar, the nearest Magis- 
 trate having the authority, was left alone in his Province; he could not 
 be in every part of it, and he was then in a distant one. lie posted to 
 Cannanore as soon as he possibly could; but the time was passed, and 
 the panic in Canara then irremediable. This is the internal Government 
 uniformly described, and declared, and supposed to be strong. Strong ! 
 — the strengtii of anility, with its wisdom and temper.
 
 President of which Court Martial was the Officer, who com- 
 manded at Mangalore, and marched down his men to the 
 beach for embarkation on the 4t!i of April, the interpreter 
 of the Court being likewise an officer of the same corps:* 
 
 (22) That the Governor in Council, — in a case, and on an 
 occasion, the extreme necessity of which rested, as far as 
 the iniiabilants of Canara Proper were cognizant of, or 
 implicated in, any riot or disturbance, upon the occurrences 
 officially related, and upon the testimony officially given to 
 him, — delegated to, and vested the power of confirming, and 
 of carrying, without reference to Madras, into immediate 
 execution the capital sentences passed upon the prisoners 
 by the Court Martial, in the hands of the Officer com- 
 manding the Provinces of Malabar and Canara, — an officer 
 an entire stranger to the people, and generally to the 
 country : the Governor in Council grounding the act of 
 delegation upon the following Regulation of the Government 
 of Madras, which is here quoted at length, in order that 
 your Honourable Court and the people of England may 
 learn and dwell upon the kind of offence, which, in the 
 deliberate judgment of the Governor in Council of Madras, 
 was deemed and declared to be treason and rebellion within 
 the Regulation, and to be deserving, in the persons above 
 described, seized, and convicted before the Court Martial, 
 " of the immediate punishment of death, by being hanged by 
 the neck till dead" and of the forfeiture "to the British 
 Government of all property and ejects, real and personal :f" 
 
 * To remove this regiment at once, all that was required was to have 
 it relieved, if necessary by detachments from Caunanore. It was kept 
 spread over Canara, and was not put in orders to leave the Province 
 until the 12th December, 1837; a date which the subsequent proceedings 
 render it necessary particularly to notice. 
 
 t A.D. 1808. Regulation VII. 
 
 I. Whereas during wars in which the British Government has been 
 engaged against certain of the native Powers of India, certain persons 
 owing allegiance to the British Government have borne arms in open 
 hostility to the authority of the same, and have abetted and aided the
 
 9 
 
 (23) That, in conformity to the last section of the Regula- 
 tion, the next measure of the Governor in Council was, to 
 appoint a Special Court, or Commission, consisting of two 
 
 enemy, and have committed acts of violence and outrage against the lives 
 and properties of the subjects of the said Government; and whereas it 
 may be expedient that, during the existence of any war in which the 
 British Government in India may be engaged with any power whatever, 
 as well as during the existence of open rebellion against the authority of 
 the Government, in any part of the British territories subject to the 
 Government of the Presidency of Fort St. George, the Governor in Council 
 shall declare and establish Martial Law, within any part of the territories 
 aforesaid, for the safety of the British possessions, and for the security of 
 the lives and property of the inhabitants thereof; by the immediate 
 punishment of persons owing allegiance to the British Government, 
 who may be taken in arms, in open hostility to the said Government, or 
 in the actual commission of any overt act of rebellion against the 
 authority of the same, or in the act of openly aiding and abetting the 
 enemies of the British Government, within any part of the territories 
 above specified; the following regulation has been enacted by the 
 Governor in Council to be in force throughout the British territories, 
 immediately subject to the Government of the Presidency of Fort St, 
 George, from the 1st day of October, 1808. 
 
 II. The Governor in Council is hereby declared to be empowered to 
 estabhsh Martial Law, within the territories subject to the Government of 
 the Presidency of Fort St. George, for any period of time, while the 
 British Government in India shall be engaged in war with any native or 
 other power, as well as during the existence of open rebellion against 
 the authority of the Government in any part of the territories aforesaid, 
 and also to direct the immediate trial, by Courts Martial, of all persons, 
 owing allegiance to the British Government, either in consequence of 
 their having been born, of their having served under it in any capacity, 
 or of their being resident within its territories, and under its protection, 
 who shall be taken in arms in open hostility to the British Government, 
 or in the act of opposing, by force of arms, the authority of the same, or 
 in the actual commission of any overt act of rebellion against the State, 
 or in the act of conspiring with, or of openly aiding and abetting, the 
 enemies of the British Government, within any part of the said 
 territories. 
 
 III. It is hereby further declared, that any person born, or residing 
 under the protection of tlie British Government, within the territories 
 aforesaid, and consequently owing allegiance to the said Government,
 
 10 
 
 Judges, who were deputed from Tellieherry to Mangalore, to 
 try tlie prisoners spared by martial law: 
 
 (24) That, after the principal Collector and Magistrate of 
 Canara had reported (at Cannanore) that he could not 
 answer for the safety of the persons of those Judges on their 
 journey through his Province, where martial law was being 
 enforced, the Judges had personal, ocular demonstration at 
 every stage of their progress, from the Rajahs and other in- 
 habitants who came to them in mass, that, so far from 
 there being any spirit of turbulence or disaffection existing, 
 the inhabitants appealed to them, and exclaimed in the 
 strongest manner against the end and withdrawal of all 
 government over them, and at their persons, their families, 
 and their properties being left exposed defenceless, to the 
 attacks of the first band of robbers who should choose to 
 plunder and murder them : 
 
 (24) That, arrived at Mangalore (3rd May) the Judges 
 knew not, nor could learn from the officer (a Bombay officer, 
 an entire stranger,) to whom they were officially referred for 
 the information, what prisoners they were to try : 
 
 who, in violation of the obligation of such allegiance, shall be guilty of 
 any of the crimes specified in the preceding section, and who shall be 
 convicted thereof by the sentence of a Court Martial, during the esta- 
 blishment of INIartial Law, shall be liable to immediate punishment of 
 death; and shall suffer the same accordingly, by being hanged by the 
 neck until he is dead. All persons who shall, in such cases, be adjudged 
 by a Court Martial to be guilty of any of the crimes specified in this 
 regulation, shall also forfeit to the British Government all property and 
 effects, real and personal, which they shall have possessed within its 
 territories, at the time when the crime of which they may be convicted 
 shall have been committed. 
 
 IV. The Governor in Council shall not be precluded by this regula- 
 tion from causing persons charged with any of the offences described in 
 the present regulation to be brought to trial, at any time, before the 
 ordinary Courts of Judicature, or before any special Court appointed for 
 the trial of such offences, under Regulation XX, 1802, instead of causing 
 such persons to be tried by Courts IMartial, in any cases wherein the 
 latter mode of trial shall not appear to be indispensably necessary.
 
 11 
 
 (25) That the functionaries who, according to Regulation 
 (20 of 1802) were enjoined to assist in expediting the trial 
 of the persons charged with crimes against the state, were 
 the Principal Collector and Magistrate, and his Assistants 
 at Mangalore, every one of whom was present at, or a party 
 to, the resolution taken and attempted, on the 4th of April, 
 of abandoning the place: 
 
 (26) That these functionaries, all of whom, as well as 
 every other European functionary, Civil and Military, 
 parties to the same resolution were, without exception, 
 maintained in office and authority at Mangalore, were also 
 the sole civil functionaries who, by virtue of their Magis- 
 terial powers, were actively engaged in detecting, seizing, 
 committing, and arraigning capitally, all persons accused 
 of participation, overt or covert, in the disturbances; being 
 aided in this duty by the Native Officers of Revenue and 
 Police employed under them, many of whom were declared 
 to have altogether disappeared for three days previous to 
 the attacks: 
 
 (27) That in order to forward and facilitate the convic- 
 tion of the persons so seized and so accused, the Governor 
 in Council delegated to the Principal Collector and Magis- 
 trate, individually, the power of pardoning any persons, 
 whose evidence he might require for this end ; qualifying 
 this delegation, made in violation of all Regulation, with the 
 observation, "that the Government put the most implicit 
 trust in his exercising the power with the soundest dis- 
 cretion :" 
 
 (28) That the Principal Collector and Magistrate issued 
 a proclamation, which the Governor in Council has never 
 either disavowed, or disallowed, putting the price of 10,000 
 rupees upon the head of Apparampara, and 5,000 rupees 
 upon the head of Kallianappa, two persons therein des- 
 cribed as the rebel leaders ; the positive, undisputed fact 
 being, that Apparampara was at the time, and for months 
 previous, a prisoner in jail at Trichinopoly, and Kallianappa
 
 12 
 
 a prisoner in jail at Bangalore, both hundreds of miles 
 away from the disturbance : 
 
 (29) That Devappah, the head native functionary under 
 the Collector and Magistrate, and who, with others, was 
 made prisoner at Pootoor, declared, on his liberation by the 
 Coorgs and arrival atMangalore in the end of April, that the 
 rioters had not more then 200 stand of fire-arms among them : 
 
 (30) That the prisoners had previously declared the same 
 thing, and declared that they had no intention of approach- 
 ing Mangalore, until news was brought to them, that the 
 Europeans and troops had deserted the town, leaving behind 
 the treasure which the inhabitants would not suflfer to be 
 taken away : 
 
 (31) That, at length, on the 31st May, feeling it in my 
 own case impossible to remain longer silent under the re- 
 proaches of my conscience, which accused me; seeing all 
 that I had seen of the panic in Malabar, knowing what I 
 knew of the real events in Canara, hearing what I heard of 
 them from all around me, and hearing of the number of 
 persons that were being publicly executed; of being privy 
 to the deaths of the greater number who were dying in jail 
 at Mangalore, all without another human being than my- 
 self to undertake their cause, or say one word, nut in their 
 defence, but in revelation of the real facts of the case; being 
 further made privy to the nameless horrors, to which their 
 homes and families were delivered up ;* at length, I ad_ 
 
 * Let any man read the following extract of a letter : — 
 
 Mangalore, 9th May, 1837. 
 
 " 's detachment appears to be the acting one, 's the looting 
 
 (plundering). The Bombay officers (including those of H.M. 6th, who 
 returned yesterday) cry 'shame, shame!' I hear. On the lUh the hang- 
 ing will commence, I presume. The ravishing is said to have been exe- 
 cuted by 's detachment already. The people fly whenever it ap- 
 proaches their villages. The people here were in great alarm yesterday, 
 having heard of the performances in the Mofussil (the inland country), 
 and htlitvcd that the town was to be given up for three days' loot (sack 
 and plunder) from to-day !"
 
 13 
 
 dressed the Governor in Council, supplicating for mercy 
 for the rest of these ignorant, unfortunate, misguided crea- 
 tures ; showing, from the private, familiar testimony of a 
 native to his own family circle, that they were, from the 
 beginning, a mere mob ; imploring, not that he would credit 
 me, but that he would grant a brief space for enquiry and 
 investigation, and suspend his belief in their guilt or inno- 
 cence, until he read their trials, and heard the judgment 
 upon the events, which impartial, unbiassed men of rank 
 and character, deputed to the spot, should pronounce : 
 
 ( If writing, as I believed I was writing, under the seal 
 of confidence which, from a British subject, a landholder, 
 and a Justice of the Peace, in my situation, it will, I think, 
 be held, that it was no less the interest of the Governor in 
 Council to encourage, than it was his duty to respect, the 
 feelings which overwhelmed me labouring for utterance, 
 betrayed me into an undue warmth of expression, not war- 
 ranted by the necessity, the urgency, or the fearful magnitude 
 of the occasion, or that was calculated to wound the feel- 
 ings of the functionaries, of whom, and of whose conduct, 
 it was my duty to speak, in a degree beyond what the plain, 
 undisguised narrative of harrowing, yet indisputable occur- 
 rences, which men would give a thousand after-lives to 
 recal, must ever wound; or if, having for my object to 
 arouse and, if possible, to arrest the Government in its 
 career of spreading universal hatred and abhorrence of the 
 British name, it shall be thought, that eternal, impartial 
 truth could have suffered me to stop short in what I wrote 
 to attain that object, even if the hazard were the severing 
 for ever of the ties of long, inviolable, friendships cemented 
 in other climes, and of ending the hitherto unbroken rela- 
 tions of private life with others around me ; if this be my 
 error or my crime, I shall lament it, and join in its con- 
 demnation.) 
 
 (32) That the next step taken by the Governor in Coun- 
 cil, at the lapse of more than five months after the official
 
 14 
 
 report of the Criminal Judge had been before him, was, to 
 appoint a Commission, consisting of a MiUtary and of a 
 Civil Member, the latter a Member of the Board of Reve- 
 nue, "to inquire" (in the words of the Gazette, 16th 
 Sep., 1837) "into the causes of the late insurrection in 
 Canara, &,c. :" 
 
 (33) That in a month (20th Oct.) the Military Member, 
 Major-General Vigoureux, was relieved from the Commis- 
 sion for the reason that his Regiment, H.M. 45th, was 
 under orders, as it was when he was appointed, for embark- 
 ation to England from Madras; and was succeeded by 
 Major General Fearon, C.B., Deputy-Adjutant-General to 
 H.M.'s forces, who again, on the 1st December, "was per- 
 mitted, in consequence of certified ill-health, to relinquish 
 the appointment of Commissioner : " 
 
 (34) That no Military Member replaced General Fearon; 
 and that four days after his resignation, on the 5th Dec, 
 the Civil INIember likewise appeared in the Gazette, as 
 permitted to proceed to sea for eighteen months on medical 
 certificate, none of the Members having to that time pro- 
 ceeded further than Bangalore : 
 
 (35) That after the Commission was announced, — after 
 it was known that the appointment of the Commission 
 ascribed to my letters to Madras and Bengal was a sub- 
 ject of annoyance to certain of the authorities at Man- 
 galore, — and after those authorities had had private, 
 secret possession of one of my letters to the Governor 
 in Council of Madras, for three months, a respectable 
 Native of Mangalore declared to me and to other persons 
 at Tellicherry, referring to and producing a Native Officer 
 of Canara to corroborate the truth of what he said, that 
 he saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own ears, the 
 town-crier go about the town with a Proclamation, prohi- 
 biting the inhabitants from even speaking of the scenes 
 and events they had witnessed, and been made the innocent 
 victims of, under pain of being immediately seized, and 
 sent to jail :
 
 15 
 
 (36) Lastly, that such was the monstrous distortion, 
 such the unpardonable exaggeration, with which the riots 
 in Canara were coloured and industriously reported, far 
 and near, that the Natives of the adjoining Province of 
 Malabar were alarmed and convulsed, for a season, and in 
 a manner beyond belief; a season, which the Collector of 
 the Province, on the spot, and in the midst, has designated 
 as " a trying time," to all who witnessed it, and had a stake 
 in the country, or who felt any anxiety for the maintenance 
 of public tranquillity, or for the continuance and stability 
 of the British rule. 
 
 4. Such, however numerous, their cumulative weight 
 residing still more in their gravity and importance than 
 in their number, are the leading and strikingly promi- 
 nent features of the case, which I did myself the honour 
 of laying before your Honourable Court, on the 2nd of last 
 July. 
 
 5. A cursory perusal of the letters would, I conceived, 
 show, that the evidence upon which rest by far the greater 
 number of the facts and occurrences related, are indisputa- 
 ble official reports and records, transmitted to the Gover- 
 nor in Council of Madras ; and that the proof of the 
 remainder is of that direct, connected, and presumptively 
 credible nature, as would secure its reception and im- 
 mediate consideration in any ordinary case, demanding en- 
 quiry, a fortiori in so unexampled a case as the present ; 
 wherein the suppliant is not the humble individual who 
 addresses you, but in which the real suppliants,for hearing 
 and for redress, are a million and a half of Natives, the 
 subjects of one of your Madras Provinces, and through 
 them, the whole body at large of the Natives of your Indian 
 Empire; in bringing whom before the eyes of your Honour- 
 able Court, the more visibly because they are unseen, let 
 me be suffered to say, with every sentiment of respect, that 
 the Creator has seen fit, and has been pleased, to endow 
 them likewise with reason, to gift them with speech, and
 
 16 
 
 to possess them uiili human feelings. Hence the hope 
 felt, that your Honourable Court would take, on the occa- 
 sion, some public, decisive steps in the briefest space 
 required for deliberation and due preparation. 
 
 6. Presumptuous indeed would it have been, to call it 
 by no harsher name, if so humble a person as the writer 
 had suffered any suggestion to emanate from himself; if, 
 losing sight of the deference and consideration due to your 
 Honourable Court, I had not stiictly confined myself, at 
 that stage, to a simple exhibition and illustration of the 
 official correspondence, which took place before I left India. 
 There are occasions, when the path which justice and 
 patriotism, which public duty and private honor dictate, is 
 so plainly and imperiously pointed out, that to hint at that 
 path, to men possessed of high-mindedness and self- 
 respect, is justly held and received in the light of the most 
 inexpiable of insults. 
 
 7. The strict and unbroken silence, however, of so many 
 months, which your Honourable Court has preserved to- 
 wards me, notwithstanding a written and a verbal offer to 
 furnish any other information in my power, leads me greatly 
 to fear, that it is not the facts adduced, nor the evidence 
 alleged, which are so much open to doubt and suspicion, 
 as the channel through which the one and the other have 
 been brought before you ; and that the distrust, the dislike, 
 the discredit, and the discountenance with which your 
 Honourable Court were once wont to receive and treat all 
 conmiunications relative to India and its silent millions, from 
 persons whose lot it is not to be in your service, is regarded 
 as an all-sufficient reason why the present case, coming 
 from one of these persons, should likewise be passed over 
 sub silentio. 
 
 8. If this fear should, unhappily, be well-grounded, if, 
 what I am most averse to think, the ancient animosity felt 
 towards thesealien Englishmen, gaining strength from years, 
 prove at heart indestructible, I shall most deeply lament it;
 
 17 
 
 not so much from the personal disgrace afflicting them and 
 myself, for — 
 
 "Suffering is the badge of all our tribe;" 
 
 as from this feeling being at the present time a great public 
 calamity, certain of producing very evil effects upon the 
 minds of the people of India, as well as fatal and most 
 pernicious consequences both upon the commercial and 
 upon the political interests of the Empire at large. 
 
 9. But finding it impossible to believe in the existence of 
 such a feeling, — believing rather, that the judgment of your 
 Honourable Court, however anxious to decide and act, 
 remains in suspense, from some broken, imperfect link, 
 requiring to be joined and connected, in order to render 
 entire, continuous, and complete the chain of evidence 
 illustrating the conduct held by the Government of Madras, 
 throughout the present occasion, ab ovo usque ad mala; it 
 becomes my duty, after this considerable pause, to supply 
 the apparent want to the best of my ability, by producing 
 some further testimony, all likewise official, in support of 
 what has been advanced ; testimony which, independent of 
 its extrinsic and intrinsic authority, impartiality may, per- 
 haps, be disposed to think entitled to be received with some 
 additional confidence, when it is stated, as it can be proved, 
 that the existence of this testimony was unknown to me in 
 July, when I did myself the honour of addressing your Se- 
 cretary. 
 
 10. I proceed with the detail. The SpecialJudicial Com- 
 mission, already mentioned, which was ordered to proceed 
 to Mangalore, and immediately commence the civil trial 
 of the prisoners, arrived there in obedience to this order 
 on the 3rd of May, 1837. In addition to this special 
 duty devolved upon both, the senior of the two Judges 
 was charged with the further duty of the ordinary Circuit, 
 and directed to proceed with the half-yearly sessions and 
 jail-delivery of the province of Canara, in substitution 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 of his immediate senior, the first Judge of Tellicherry, to 
 whom this duty properly and in turn belonged. 
 
 11. Part of the oath taken by a Judge of Circuit is, 
 (Regulation 7th of 1802, sect. 5.) "that he will truly and 
 faithfully execute the duties of Judge — that he will admi- 
 nister justice according to the Regulations that have been, or 
 may be, enacted by the Governor in Council, to the best of 
 his ability, knowledge, and j udgment, without fear, favor, 
 promise, or hope of reward." He is enjoined by tbe same 
 Regulation (sec. 32) "to visit the jails on every Circuit." 
 The Judges of a Special Court or Commission are enjoined 
 to "proceed like Courts of Circuit;" and they are em- 
 phatically ordered, to ^'exercise all the powers and authorities, 
 vested in the Courts of Circuit by the Regulations." (Reg. 20, 
 of 1802, sect. 3.) 
 
 12. In obedience to tiiis soleami oath, and to these ex- 
 press Regulations; not to quote the orders of his immediate 
 superiors, the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut, alike binding and 
 imperative upon him; the Circuit Judge of the Commission 
 proceeded, on the 26th May, some weeks after his arrival 
 at Mangalore, to visit the jail, when, as he afterwards offi- 
 cially reported, "verbal complaints of unjust arrest were 
 made to him," by many among the prisoners with whom 
 the jail was crowded; but the Judge did not deem it 
 " necessary to call for explanation" at that time, for the 
 reason that " the number in confinement afforded reason- 
 able ground for conclusion, that even a slight enquiry, to 
 warrant detention, could hardly have been held in all cases, 
 though, even by that time, much, he conceived, might have 
 been done." 
 
 13. At the lapse of some more weeks, on the 16th or 17th 
 June, the Circuit Judge conceived it his duty again to visit 
 the jail. Again was he beset and overwhelmed with the 
 same complaints as on his first visit. He states, that, "a 
 boy only ten or eleven years of age, the son of a prisoner, 
 had been in confinement nearly four months" — that,
 
 19 
 
 "another, a youth, was actually sent (for trial) before the 
 Special Commission, without ever having been confronted 
 with an accuser, and no one would, or ever did, accuse 
 him" — that "four Madras Coolies, who brought (and it 
 must be concluded, delivered) Stationery for the public 
 offices, were confined without the slightest ground for 
 suspicion." The Judge also found, " that the Magistrate had 
 a large body of men under a Military guard, independent 
 of 237 found in the regular jail of the Zillah, who may have 
 NO FRIENDS, OR OTHER MEANS, to bring the hardship 
 of their cases to Ms notice, and consequently before the higher 
 authorities" — that "he further had heard of most distress- 
 ing cases of despondency, which may naturally be expected, 
 when there are such frequent instances of persons being 
 led out for execution :" (meaning by this observation, as 
 I am persuaded the Judge did mean, that the prisoners in 
 jail were either dying of, or putting an end to their ex- 
 istence from, utter despair at the hopelessness of their 
 fate and treatment.) 
 
 14. For all these paramount reasons, from the surmise 
 grounded, as the Circuit Judge stated, " on uncontroverted 
 fact, that the innocent might be suffering," and " that 
 amid so much confusion, innocent persons may have been 
 arrested;" for the reason, that nearly three months had 
 elapsed since the suppression of the outbreak ; seeing " that 
 the Magistrate, Joint Magistrate, and two Assistants had 
 all been at the station for a considerable time ; " — having 
 reason " to believe that he (the Magistrate) had not made 
 due progress in ascertaining whether there was even slight 
 ground for detaining each person whom he had in custody;" 
 believing that " the Regulations, as well as the first princi- 
 ples of justice, obviously require, that the Magistrate should 
 lose no time in making a list of all persons in his custody, 
 or confined under his orders, showing the date of apprehen- 
 sion, and the cause:" for all these solemn and paramount 
 reasons, the Circuit Judge, conceiving that the time for 
 
 c2
 
 20 
 
 his interference had imperatively arrived, yet disclaiming all 
 " wish to embarrass the Magistrate, or to interfere unne- 
 cessarily with the execution of his duty," addressed one 
 requisition, then another (17th and 20th of June), to the 
 Magistrate ; the first simply calling for " a list of all prison- 
 ers who have not been brought to trial, the date of appre- 
 hension, and grounds for detention, according to a form ;" 
 the second, for the particulars of the case of a prisoner 
 named, a Native of Mi/soor, whose brother complained to the 
 Judge in open court, that he had presented two Jruitkss 
 petitions to the Magistrate. 
 
 15. A correspondence ensued between the Circuit Judge 
 and the Magistrate, which ended in the Magistrate rcfiisino; 
 compliance with one requisition or the other, and in his 
 appealing direct to the Governor in Council; before whom 
 the whole correspondence was likewise brought by the Fonj- 
 daree Udalut, the superiors of the Judge, accompanied by 
 a running conmientary to which it is wholly superfluous to 
 direct attention, exhibiting, as it does, a state of government, 
 a state of law, and a state of criminal justice, without a 
 parallel in any country believed to have a government, to 
 have laws, and to have courts of justice.* 
 
 * Extract from the proceedings of the Fonjdarce Udalut, under date 
 the 3d July, 1837:— 
 
 Read letters, dated respectively the 23d and 24th ultimo, from the 2d 
 Judge on Circuit in the Western Division, submitting copy of a corres- 
 pondence with the Magistrate of Canara respecting the number of 
 persons under his custody, charged with the commission of crimes 
 against the State, and adverting to the style and tenor of the ]\Iagistrale's 
 replies, and to liis " disposition" to evade compliance v/ith the requisitions 
 of his "precepts," requesting that the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut will 
 " obtain" for him " their support of" his " authority," and " the enforce- 
 ment of the subordination which the Regulations prescribe." 
 
 1. The cause of the 2d Judge first addressing the Magistrate, on the 
 subject of the number of prisoners in his custody, charged with crimes 
 against the State, is stated in his letter of the 17th June, 1837, to have 
 been to " enable him to communicate to the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut,
 
 21 
 
 16. Immediately on the receipt of the Appeal from the 
 Magistrate, the Governor in Council, situated nearly five 
 hundred miles away from the place where all these scenes, 
 
 on the subject of the duties required of" him ; and he accordingly 
 requested to be informed of the number of prisoners in his custody, who 
 were likely to be brought before the Special Commission. 
 
 2. In reply, the Magistrate* informed the 2d Judge, that he had not 
 been able to make all the inquiry necessary to a due answer to the 
 question, but that he had fifteen cases then ready for the Special Com- 
 mission, and that he conceived at least thirty more would come before it. 
 
 3. The 2d Judge on Circuit, considering this information insufficient 
 for the purposes for which he required it, pointed out to the Magistrate, 
 in a letter, dated the 19th of the same month, that he wished to be in- 
 formed of the numher of prisoners likelij to be brought before the Special 
 Commission, and begged he would do him " the favour to say how 
 many" he had in custody, and give even a rough estimate " of the 
 number likely to be brought to trial." 
 
 4. The Magistrate replied, in the course of the same day, that he was 
 unable to answer the question " with even an approximation to correct- 
 ness ;" that the number of prisoners to be brought before the Special Cora- 
 mission would " depend on a variety of circumstances which" he could 
 not at that "time embrace;" that the various shades of guilt "in each 
 case must be considered," also " whether the case be" for a Court Mar- 
 tial or the Special Commission," and that " these questions" involved 
 "a sifting of evidence," for which there had "not as yet been sufficient 
 time." 
 
 5. Upon receipt of this letter,f the 2d Judge on Circuit issued a 
 Precept to the Magistrate, pointing out " that the Regulations, as well as 
 the first principles of justice, obviously required, that the Magistrate 
 should lose no time in making a list of all persons in his custody, or 
 confined under his orders, shewing the date of apprehension, and the 
 cause of it," as it was " very possible that, amid so much confusion, 
 innocent persons" had " been arrested," — that on the 2d Judge " visiting 
 the jail on the 26th" of the previous month (May), " verbal complaints of 
 unjust arrest" had been "made to him," but that he had not deemed " it 
 necessary to call for explanation then," as the number in confinement 
 afforded reasonable ground for conclusion, that even a slight inquiry to 
 warrant detention could hardly have been held in all cases, though even 
 
 * Magistrate's letter, dated 19th June, 1837. 
 
 t Vide Pro. of the Court of Circuit of the 20th June, 1837.
 
 22 
 
 all these sufferings, all these executions, all these distressing 
 cases of despondency, were daily occurring before the eyes 
 
 by that time "much might have been done;" that " such reason for non- 
 interference no longer" existed,— and that he could " foresee no difficulty 
 as to making sufficient inquiry to ascertain whether anij have been ground- 
 lessly seized, (a measure of obvious duty, as some had been taken so far 
 back as 6tl) of April), since the Magistrate, Joint-magistrate, and two 
 Assistants," iiad " all been at the station for a considerable time," — that, 
 therefore, he had resolved, " with reference to a petition from one Patia 
 Shetty" complaining " of the unjust detention of his brother, Padma 
 Shetty, an inhabitant of Mysore," to require the Magistrate to " submit 
 a list of all prisoners" then " in confinement, who had not been brought 
 to trial, the dates of apprehension, and grounds for detention," " in order 
 that the Judge on Circuit may be enabled to call for any further explana- 
 tion, or to make a representation to higher authority." 
 
 G. The 2d Judge on Circuit, at the same time, observed, that he 
 " would not wish to embarrass the Magistrate, or to interfere unneces- 
 sarily with the execution of his duty ; but as he was aware that the 
 Magistrate had a large body of men under a military guard, independently 
 of 237 whom he found in the regular jail of the Zillah, who may have 
 no friends, or other means, to bring the hardship of their cases to his 
 notice, and, consequently, before the higher authorities; and as further he 
 had heard of most distressing cases of despondency (which " might 
 naturally be expected when there" were " such frequent instances of 
 persons being led out for execution") he considered it " an urgent duty 
 to call for such statement without further delay." 
 
 7. Instead of conforming to the instructions contained in this precept, 
 or shewing cause for not doing so, the Magistrate, in his return of the 
 22d ultimo, merely acknowledged its receipt, stating that he had wished 
 " to avoid collision with the Circuit Judge, but finding this almost incom- 
 patible with his requisitions, he had determined to apply for the orders 
 of the Government." 
 
 8. The Court of Fonjdaree Udalut cannot but consider such a return, 
 addressed to a superior officer, as highly insubordinate. If the Magis- 
 trate objected to furnish the information required by the Judge of 
 Circuit, he should have stated the grounds of such objection, and 
 awaited the further instructions of the superior Court, and in the event 
 of the final orders being, in his opinion, contrary to the Regulations, it 
 would have been open to him, to have requested a reference to yet 
 higher authority. 
 
 9. At the same time the Judges must observe, that they consider the 
 proceedings of the 2d Judge, of the 20th June, 1837, open to objection,
 
 23 
 
 of the Natives, all of whom were hourly exposed, in 
 addition, to the extreme rigours and terrors of Martial law ; 
 
 inasmuch as the reference made to the Magistrate respecting «// prisoners 
 in his custody, involved a call for information respecting prisoners liable 
 to be tried by Martial Law, over whom the 2d Judge could exercise no 
 jurisdiction; and with reference to the state of the District, the press of 
 business, and the difficulties surrounding the Magistrate, the call for any 
 information on the subject was, perhaps, inopportune. 
 
 10. The Court of Fonjdaree Udalut, however, give full credit to the 
 2d Judge's assertion, that humane and public motives alone dictated his 
 interference. 
 
 11. Witli respect to the return made by the Magistrate, under date 
 the 24th ultimo, to the precept issued by the Judge on Circuit of the 
 same date, calling for information in respect to the confinement of Pud- 
 raaya Shetty, the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut have only to observe, that 
 if the Magistrate had confined himself to the explanation afforded in 
 paragraph 2 of his return, there could have been no cause of objection; 
 but to proceed to " caution" the 2d Judge, in the style and tone adopted 
 in the 3d and 4th paragraphs of his return, is an instance of disrespect 
 and contempt of superior authority which, in the opinion of the Fonjdaree 
 Udalut, deserves severe reprehension. 
 
 12. The Governor in Council having called upon the Magistrate to 
 furnish the information in respect to the number of prisoners in confine- 
 ment, charged with crimes against the State, and the nature of the 
 evidence against them, which it was the object of the precepts issued by 
 the 2d Judge to obtain, the matter is, of course, taken out of the hands of 
 the 2d Judge; but the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut deem it necessary to 
 submit the correspondence for the consideration and orders of the 
 Governor in Council, as the Judges feel persuaded, that, unless such 
 repeated instances of insubordination on the part of the Magistrate be 
 speedily checked, serious interruption to important business will be the 
 consequence. 
 
 Ordered, that extracts from these proceedings, together with the 
 original correspondence referred to above, be forwarded to the Chief 
 Secretary to Government, for the purpose of being laid before the 
 Governor in Council. 
 
 (A true Extract.) 
 
 (Signed) Register. 
 
 To the Chief Secretary to Government, Judicial Department. 
 
 [Not to encumber the page, the sequel of this official correspondence 
 will be found at the end of this letter. See Note A.]
 
 24 
 
 the Governor in Council, thus situated, and before vvliom 
 by an act of his own Council, the ink of which was hardly 
 dry, a Native in the Provinces was virtually and actually 
 prohibited (as shall presently be shown) from appearing in 
 complaint, even if despair for the life of an innocent, im- 
 prisoned father, brother, or son, — nay, if the innocent lives 
 of all three such victims united, had hurried off to Madras 
 a Native of Canara, bravino; the danoers and fatigues of a 
 five-and-twenty days' foot-journey, in the hope of staying 
 the sword of the executioner, kept ready-drawn over lives 
 so dear to him ; the Governor in Council, thus situated, 
 without the presence of a Native in his Council, without, 
 it must be thought, one Native near, whose mute presence 
 should remind him of the existence of such beings as Na- 
 tives, and that it was the lives, then at stake, of hundreds of 
 them, crowding and dying in a jail, — some proved to be 
 innocent even of a suspicion of crime ; others, without 
 friends or means to bring the hardshij) of their cases to light, 
 other than the interference of the Circuit Judge who, after 
 a lapse of many weeks, sought no more than a bare discrimi- 
 nation of the mass of innocent from the guilty — of those 
 without crime or accusers, from those criminated in, or even 
 suspected of, mob-rioting : the Governor in Council, in order, 
 as the Fonjdaree Udalut observes, that the matter "might, 
 of course, be taken out of the hands of the Circuit Judge, 
 called upon the Magistrate to furnish (direct to Government) 
 the information, in respect to the number of prisoners in con- 
 finement, charged with crimes against the State, and the 
 nature of the evidence against them, which it was the object 
 of the Precepts issued by the Judge to obtain." 
 
 17. Without stopping to ask your Honourable Court to 
 lay your hands on your hearts, and now declare, as upright 
 men, whether, in the case which was previously delineated 
 and set before you, there is, or there can be, one feature of 
 exaggeration ; without stopping or asking you to dwell upon 
 this one fact, that there is here official proof, dated 3d
 
 25 
 
 July, 1837, under the sign and seal of the Court of Fonj- 
 daree Udalut, — the highest Court of criminal, civil, and 
 magisterial justice, the Court uniting and exercising the 
 powers of the Court of Queen's Bench and the Court of 
 Chancery combined, over all the Courts, and throughout 
 all the territories of Madras ; — that the Governor in Council, 
 after having proclaimed Martial law for weeks and months 
 before in Canara, after having assembled a Court Martial 
 then sitting at Mangalore, and trying prisoners for treason 
 and rebellion, and having devolved into other hands the 
 power of confirming and carrying into immediate execution, 
 the sentences of death and of forfeiture of all property, 
 passed on the Natives convicted ; after having dispatched to 
 Mangalore another Special Court, and after having been 
 apprised, since April, of the great and unresisting slaughter 
 which had been made of the rioters, wherever the troops 
 had encountered them ; without stopping, I say, to rivet 
 your attention to this one proof derived from the highest 
 Court, that it was in the very end of June, after all these 
 severe and sanguinary measures had been enforced, when 
 the Governor in Council, for the first time, called upon the 
 Magistrate under whose authority all the prisoners were 
 confined, for information relative to their number, their 
 crimes, and the evidence against them ; without stopping to 
 remark that this call, when made, so far from being spon- 
 taneous, or originating with the Government, was forced 
 from it by the firmness and decision of the Circuit Judge; 
 without stopping to put one of the multitudinous questions, 
 ■which crowd for answer, even upon this one solitary point 
 of conduct on the part of the Executive; I proceed to relate 
 the next step taken by the Governor in Council. 
 
 18. On the 24th Jul}-, the urgency of the case remaining 
 unabated, the Governor in Council proceeded to review the 
 correspondence between the Circuit Judge and the Magis- 
 trate, submitted to him, together with the accompanying 
 remarks of the Fonjdaree Udalut. The Governor in
 
 26 
 
 Council begins his Minute by declaring, that " an attentive 
 perusal of the papers has impressed him with a very un- 
 favourable opinion of the conduct of both" the public 
 functionaries concerned, who " are observed to have given 
 way to their private feelings and idle notions of dignity, and 
 to have acted in a manner which is highly discreditable to 
 them as officers of the Government, and calculated to prove 
 injurious to the public interests ;" that " the interference of 
 the Judge with the Magistrate's functions was vexatious," 
 and they are warned " that a repetition of such proceedings 
 will be visited by a more decided mark of displeasure." 
 
 19. This is the language, these are the words, yes, the 
 ipsissima verba, — these the deliberate opinions and judg- 
 ment placed on record on this occasion by the Governor in 
 Council of Madras, to be transmitted at the fitting season 
 for the confirmation and approval of your Honourable 
 Court, as a just exposition and impartial summing up of the 
 real merits of this case, and a fit sentence to be passed upon 
 the actors, according to the joint and equal measure of their 
 errors and delinquency. But although these are the very 
 words of the Minute, although every character of this 
 " Consultation," such is its name, is as plainly and palpably 
 before my eyes, as every word of it is faithfully transcribed 
 below, for the perusal and astonishment of those who may 
 chance to read these pages;* although I have read and 
 
 * Extract from the Minutes of Consultation, 24th July, 1837. 
 From the Magistrate of Canara. 
 
 Submitting for order an extract from Read the following Papers : — 
 the proceedings of the 2d Judge on Circuit 
 in the Western Division, calling upon him 
 to state how many prisoners he has in his 
 custody, on account of crimes against the 
 
 State, and for an estimate of the number (Here enter 23d June, 1837.) 
 likely to be brought before the Special 
 Commission, together with his observa- 
 tions, showing the unreasonableness of
 
 27 
 
 re-read this paper, and cannot therefore doubt its existence, 
 cannot doubt, that such a Minute did emanate on the day 
 of its date from the Governor in Council of Madras ; yet 
 
 the demand in the present state of affairs 
 in Canara. 
 
 From the some. 
 Submitting a further Precept from the 
 2d Judge on Circuit in the Western 
 Division, in reference to his communica- 
 tion of yesterday's date, and also another 
 
 from the same officer respecting the arrest (Here enter 24th June, 1837.) 
 of Pudna Shetty, one of the prisoners 
 connected with the late insurrection, and 
 requesting the early orders of Government 
 on the subject. 
 
 Extract from the Proceedings of the 
 
 FONJDAREE UdALUT. 
 
 Submitting for the consideration and 
 orders of the Governor in Council the 
 originals of a correspondence between the 
 2d Judge on Circuit in the Western Divi- 
 sion, and the Magistrate of Canara, and (Here enter 3d July, 1837, 
 communicatingthe opinion of the Court of No. 193.) 
 
 Fonjdaree Udalut, that unless the spirit of 
 insubordination, evinced by the latter 
 officer, be not speedily checked, serious 
 interruption of important business will be 
 the consequences. 
 
 1. An attentive perusal of the papers, recorded above, has impressed 
 the Governor in Council with a very unfavourable opinion of the con- 
 duct of both the second Judge and the Magistrate. At a time, and on 
 an occasion, when the public interest imperiously demanded, tliat the 
 most entire cordiality and co-operation should subsist between public 
 functionaries, working together for the attainment of a great and im- 
 portant object, these gentlemen are observed to have given way to their 
 private feelings and idle notions of dignity, and to have acted in a man- 
 ner, which is highly discreditable to them as Officers of the Government, 
 and calculated to prove injurious to the public interest. Tlieir proceed-
 
 28 
 
 tlie will, however pursued and overwhelmed by this weight 
 of evidence, shrinks away wholly powerless at moments, in 
 the effort of compelling a helief in the reality; while reason 
 would willingly cheat itself into thinking, that the whole 
 must be " some idle coinage of the brain ;" that the 
 " imagination has bodied forth the form of things un- 
 known," and unheard of before, among the acts and deci- 
 sions which harsh, despotic, and irresponsible power, past 
 or present, has brought itself to record. 
 
 20. For, what spirit, what meaning, is there not breath- 
 ing and embodied in every line and every letter of this 
 sentence? It declares to the Natives of Canara, more 
 expressively than the plainest words can declare, that the 
 Circuit Judge, he who had been selected, and who had 
 sworn to administer justice to them " ivilhoutjear or favour, 
 and according to the Regulations ;" who, in obedience to 
 
 ings are the less excusable, as neither tlie second Judge nor the Magis- 
 trate can plead inexperience, or ignorance, of what was expected of 
 them. 
 
 2. The Governor in Council cannot omit particularly to notice the 
 objectionable language, in which the magistrate's communications are 
 couched, which is observable likewise, in the letter addressed by him to 
 Government, under date the 23d ultimo ; nor the vexatious interference 
 of the second Judge with that gentleman's functions at a time, when he 
 was already overwhelmed by harassing and arduous duties ; and, as 
 this is not the first time both these gentlemen have rendered themselves 
 obnoxious to the censure of Government, for precisely similar miscon- 
 duct, the Governor in Council resolves to warn them, that a repetition 
 of such proceedings will be visited by a more decided mark of the dis- 
 pleasure of Government. 
 
 (A true Extract) 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Chief Secretary. 
 
 To the Judges of the Fonjdaree Udalut for their information, and for 
 communication to the Second Judge, and the Magistrate respectively. 
 (True CopiesJ 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Register.
 
 29 
 
 this oath and to clear and express Regulation, had, after a 
 delay of some weeks, visited the jail, where hundreds of 
 prisoners were confined, and could not there shut his ears 
 to the complaints they made to him of unjust arrest; who, 
 after a silence, and at the lapse, of several more weeks, 
 again visited the jail, and was met and overwhelmed by the 
 same complaints, wholly unredressed ; who, in the execution 
 of his duty, became aware that, independently of these 
 prisoners, the Magistrate had a large body of men under a 
 Military guard, who had no friends, or other means than the 
 Judge's interference, of bringing the hardship of their cases 
 to the knowledge and notice of the Governor in Council ; 
 the Judge, who heard and knew of most distressing cases 
 of despondency occurring among the persons confined, 
 caused by the sight of frequent executions; who stated, 
 uncontrovertedly, the case of a boy, a prisoner's son, only 
 ten or eleven years of age, having been in confinement with 
 his father nearly four months ; who stated the case of four 
 Madras Coolies, laden with Government Stationery, confined 
 without the slightest ground for suspicion ; who stated the 
 case of one prisoner, a youth, having been sent up for trial 
 capitally, without its being possible to find any person, who 
 ever did or would accuse him ; the Judge, who proved the 
 correctness of his surmise, that innocent persons were suffer- 
 ing arrest and imprisonment, by tlie further case of a Native 
 of Mysoor, whom the Magistrate informed the Government 
 he had no intention of releasing, but whom he did release, 
 after the Judge's interference, and after the man's brother 
 had, weeks before, presented tivo Jruitless petitions ; who 
 further proved the correctness of his surmise by the uncon- 
 tradicted fact, that the Magistrate daily released numbers 
 of prisoners, after he made his appeal to the Government 
 against the Judge's interference, but not before that inter- 
 ference; the Judge who, if this call, 'the desiring to know 
 the number of persons confined, and their crimes, was 
 " inopportune," was declared by the Fonjdaree Uduhit to
 
 30 
 
 have made it ^^ from humane and public motives alone i'^ 
 the Judge who, of every person, of every part, of every 
 portion, of the Madras Government, is proved to have been 
 the very first person, at the lapse of several months, who 
 did consider it any part of his duty to call for any infor- 
 mation whatever on the subject (this, in a country where a 
 Habeas Corpus is no more known, than mercy is heard in 
 the region of doomed spirits, and where the substitute pro- 
 vided for it is the production inserted below!*); the 
 
 * Let those take the consequences, whose proceedings and productions 
 have now made it a crime of deep die to withhold the following revela- 
 tions. Up to the 16th May, 1837, the Natives of the Madras Presidency 
 had always had one sacred asylum left to them in their complaints: the 
 doors of the Government House had always been thrown and kept wide 
 open to their petitions, whence they received kind and conciliatory 
 answers in all cases, in some cases, redress. Hence the Natives invariably 
 separated the Governor from his Council. The Council, as they knew, 
 and intensely felt, brought up apart from the dawn of manhood, were 
 named and sent there to represent their own order, and their own 
 separate caste interests. But the Governor was an Englishman, usually 
 taken from the body at large of English gentlemen of rank. Respectable 
 Natives admitted to his presence found, instead of pride and arrogance, 
 manners, kind, open, mild, and encouraging. He would give them a 
 chair; he thought it no degradation that a Native should be seated before 
 him. To him, therefore, the Natives instinctively clung and looked up 
 as their representative; as the person in the Government who, above 
 caste leanings and prejudices, was really best disposed to listen and do 
 justice to their representations ; and among themselves, they would 
 wind up their complaints by exclaiming, " If we do not get redress, we 
 will petition the Governor Saheb." 
 
 Accordingly, many petitions used to be addressed direct to the 
 Government House, for the Governor in Council; petitions often con- 
 veying information of the very last importance for the Governor to 
 receive. In support of this (and if the averment be unfounded, there is 
 the late manly, upright Governor of Madras to contradict me), I refer 
 to the proofs and indications, not of faults nor mere offences, but of 
 serious, heinous public crimes, which have been transmitted to Govern, 
 ment by Natives, who were afraid to put their names to what tiiey wrote. 
 It is their crime, doubtless, that they are in a condition that an honest
 
 31 
 
 sentence declared to the Natives, that the Circuit Judge, 
 for this act of almost negative interference in behalf of the 
 unfortunate prisoners, after knowing and seeing with his 
 
 man among them dare not come forward, and denounce corruption and 
 guilt; dare not say to the offender to his face, "you are the criminal, and 
 here are the proofs!" without feeling certain that he and his family will 
 sooner or later be sacrificed. 
 
 The consideration which justified the keeping open of this sole channel 
 of direct communication of the Governor with the Natives, the leaving to 
 them this one safety-valve to their complaints, in a system which, by 
 every other means, keeps the Governor blindfold, was the lamentable, the 
 melancholy necessity of the case, the res dura et regni pi'avitas. Hardly, 
 however, had the late Governor turned his back (4th March), and before 
 the new Governor could be aware of the purpose for which his name was 
 being used, when the opportunity was seized efl'ectually to bar up this, 
 the last remaining, refuge to the people, by issuing and prescribing to 
 them strict obedience to the following " Rules :" — 
 
 Fort St. George Gazette, May 16, 1837. 
 The following Rules respecting Petitions are published for general 
 information : 
 
 1. Whereas the practice of making applications and appeals direct to 
 the Government, who are unable to pass any orders thereon without pre- 
 vious reference to the Department concerned, is productive of incon- 
 venience io public offices, and of delay and disappointment to individuals : 
 the Right Honourable the Governor in Council is pleased to promulgate 
 the following Rules for general information. 
 
 2. Persons having cause of complaint against an officer of Govern- 
 ment, civil or military, or his agents at the Presidency, or in the Pro- 
 vinces, shall, in the first instance, seek redress /row the officer in whom 
 the local autliority is vested ; and that officer will, in every instance in 
 which he is unable to comply with the requisition, give the petitioner a 
 written endorsement, or where endorsements are not authorised, a copy 
 of the order, setting forth the grounds upon which it is refused. If the 
 petitioner is dissatisfied with this decision, he is at liberty to address the 
 Board or Court, or superior civil or military authority by which the 
 subordinate officer is controlled ; and the Government, in cases in which 
 there is no intermediate authority. 
 
 3. The Government will not receive (italics in the original) a petition 
 ON ANY MATTER, unlcss it shall appear that the Petitioner lias already 
 applied successively to the subordinate officer, and to the Board, or Court,
 
 32 
 
 own eyes all that was going forward, had impressed the 
 Governor in Council with a very unfavourable impression of 
 his conduct, — that he had given way to private feelings, 
 
 or superior military Officer; and the answers, or orders, of those autho- 
 rities respectively, if any have been passed, or copies of them, must be 
 annexed to the petition addressed to Government. 
 
 4. The Government, having passed one order on any appeal made to 
 it, will not notice a second petition on the same subject, unless new and 
 important matter be introduced; and anonymous petitions will be totally 
 disregarded. 
 
 5. As the Right Honourable the Governor in Council never interferes 
 with the distribution of subordinate appointments, applications in the 
 gift of Heads of Departments will also remain unnoticed. 
 
 Revenue Department. 
 
 6. The proper course for persons having petitions or complaints to 
 make regarding matters belonging to the Revenue Department, is to 
 address, in the first instance, the Collector, or subordinate covenanted 
 officer, to whose charge the matter appertains: in the latter case, if the 
 answer or order of the subordinate officer does not satisfy the com- 
 plainant, he ma2/ address the Collector ; from the order of the Collector, 
 on a petition or complaint addressed to him in the first instance, or on 
 an appeal from the order of a subordinate officer, an appeal may be 
 preferred to the Board of Revenue, and eventually to Government, but it 
 is to be understood tliat it is only iri extraoi-dinurij cases that Government 
 will interfere in matters which have been considered and disposed of in 
 due course by the local and controlling authorities. 
 
 7. Upon complaints of persons dismissed from office by Collectors 
 and Sub-collectors, the decision of the Board of Revenue is final with 
 respect to offices below that of Head-S/tcristadar. (italics in the original.) 
 
 8. Persons dismissed from the office of Head-Sheristadar, whose dis- 
 missal has been confirmed by the Board of Revenue, are at liberty to 
 appeal through the Board to Government. Petitions direct to Govern- 
 ment will not be received, (italics in the original.) 
 
 Judicial Department. 
 
 9. Petitions will not he received by Government, (italics in the original) 
 regarding any matters which form the subject of judicial proceedings in 
 the Courts, or which properly fall within the jurisdiction of tlie Courts, or 
 containing complaints relating to the administration of civil or criminal
 
 33 
 
 acted in a manner highly discreditable to him as a Judge, 
 and Injurious to the public interests ; and that if he per- 
 sisted in discharging his duty as he had done, fearlessly 
 
 justice, in cases on which another mode of obtaining redress, is open to 
 the complainant, under the Regulations, and in which by the Regula- 
 tions, a subordinate authority is competent to pass a final decision. 
 
 10. In other cases petitions wilt not be received by Government con- 
 corning the administration of civil or ci-iminul justice, or the proceedings 
 of the O^cersemployed therein, unless it shall happen that the Petitioner 
 has already brought the subject before the proper controlling authority 
 and has not received satisfaction, in which case the petition to that 
 authority and the order passed upon it, if any has been passed, 
 must be produced. 
 
 11. Government icill not receive petitions from persons dismissed from 
 Ministerial offices in the Courts : such persons having cause of com- 
 plaint, may offer petitions to the proper controlling authorities, by whose 
 decision they must abide. 
 
 Military Department. 
 
 [Two similar paragraphs here follow.] 
 Published by order of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council. 
 
 It has been proved by the official testimony of the Circuit Judge and 
 of the Fonjdaree Udalut, that in a month after the publication of these 
 " Rules," two successive petitions were presented, in accordance with 
 them, to the Magistrate of Canara, by the brother of a prisoner, an inno- 
 cent man and a foreigner, then confined for high treason ; that both 
 petitions proved ^'■fruitless," that is to say, received neither notice 
 nor endorsement : it has been proved that the Circuit Judge in- 
 terfered to obtain an answer to them, and that his interference 
 was " fruitless ;" it lias been proved that the Governor in Council, 
 the framer of the " Rules," publicly stigmatized the Judge's " inter- 
 ference" as "vexatious." So much for cases immediately occurring 
 and brought to light, in which the lives of the Natives were at stake. 
 As to " the Revenue Department," that is to say, their petitions of Reve- 
 nue grievance, I have by me two of these petitions ; cases, every parti- 
 cular of which I so well knew, and thought so cruel, that I myself drew 
 up both petitions, ill the hope that I could make them more easily intel- 
 ligible, and obtain redress for the sufl'ercrs. Both petitions were pre- 
 sented und refused to be received by " tlie local authority." It will be 
 said, the petitioners had an appeal. Suppose then, that they made the 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 and honestly, by breaking tlie peremptory silence now 
 imposed on his lips, whatever the injustice, whatever the 
 cruelty, whatever the oppression, he might see or hear of, 
 
 appeal as usual, by post, to a distauce. The easy answer to a reference 
 on the subject would have been, that " search had been made, and no 
 such petitions had been received, as all the Native public Officers were 
 ready to attest;" and the consequence to the Petitioners would have 
 been, the Revenue and Police authorities being always united in the same 
 persons, and thei/ being " the local authority" appealed against, that 
 the Petitioners would have been liable to immediate fine and imprison- 
 ment for making afulse complaint. 
 
 It is hence plain that the operation of these " Rules," under a Govern- 
 ment so framed, so constituted, and so conducted, was, in point of fact, 
 to place the Natives, in cases of liberty and property, out of the pale of 
 humanity as effectually, as if "Rules" had been passed in the late Slave 
 Colonies, enacting that no slave should complain to a Magistrate of ill 
 treatment by his Master, or by hin Jliasto'sorf/ers, unless he first presented 
 a petition to his Master, setting forth this ill treatment, and produced his 
 Master's "written endorsement" upon the Petition. 
 
 But these, howsoever painful, are only very limited illustrations of the 
 effect of these "Rules" upon the personal protection and happiness 
 meted out to a people in the state of society, where the " Rules " were 
 devised and promulgated. " Manners," observes one of the first and 
 wisest of men (Burke), "are of more importance than laws. Upon them, 
 in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but now and 
 then, here and there. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, 
 exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, 
 insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe. They give their 
 whole form and colour to our lives. According to their quality, they aid 
 morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them." 
 
 To picture, then, the kind of manners by which some among the 
 governing class scruple not " to debase " those who cannot resist them, 
 it must now be stated, that I have known it to be an order in a Court of 
 Justice, given to the Judge's tipstafis, whenever a Native present hap- 
 pened to sneeze, or to cough, or spit, to take the offender by the neck 
 and shoulders, and thrust him out of Court. It will be found entered, 
 in plain letters, on the records of another Court of Justice, that a Judge 
 dismissed one of the Native Officers, and reduced him to beggary, for the 
 crime of not having bowed to the ground sufficiently low, one morning 
 when the Judge entered the Court; the culprit had bowed, it was admit- 
 ted, but the Kotou was not abject enough ! 
 
 It has been known that a Judge, when sitting on the Bench, would
 
 35 
 
 the Judge should (to transh\te in plain, unambiguous words 
 the threat held over him) be forthwith removed, and sus- 
 pended from office ! 
 
 send one of his tipstaffs to the beach, at the time the boats were return- 
 ing from fishing, have a large basket of fish brouglit into Court, and the 
 contents all turned out on the floor; select from them the best and 
 freshest fish for his tiffin (noon-day meal) or dinner, and then order the 
 Bramin Treasurer of the Court to pay for this fish ; thus fitly finishing 
 this scene, gone through in a Court of Justice called British before all 
 the Natives present, without the smallest reserve or compunction, by 
 putting the grossest outrage he could put upon this man's personal and 
 religious feelings ; an outrage so gross that the Treasurer immediately 
 wrote his resignation of office. 
 
 It is wholly superfluous to observe that, in Courts of Justice so pre- 
 sided over, corruption and venality among the Native Officers of it must 
 be the rule. 1 have in my possession a letter from a Native to a suitor, 
 offering to obtain a decree for the latter for 20 Rupees (£2 sterling). But 
 let me here add, that there are exemplary and noble exceptions ; that I have 
 known, and know, Judges deserving of the high rewards which their 
 country can bestow ; whose righteous cond uct lives engraved on the hearts, 
 and embalmed in the memories, of the grateful Natives; Judges, whose 
 names rise to my pen, as they dwell in my mind, were my painful duty 
 with names, and not with things. 
 
 Morals cannot be disunited from manners, and to those I must now 
 pass. I will not do more than allude to the commonness of the practice, 
 of employing the public Peons, given to functionaries for their personal 
 honour, in pandering for their private pleasures ; that is to say, to em- 
 ploying a Native Oflicer, clothed witli one of the Honourable Company's 
 badges of Office, and receiving public pay, in the degrading avocation of 
 a p — p. But I ask, and let virtuous men answer the question, let them, 
 I say, think of the honour of their country, and fearlessly answer it; 
 whether, for several years, it was not a subject of conversation at Madras, 
 and on the Madras side, both among Europeans and Natives, that a 
 Judge had appointed his chief p — p to the office of Moonsif, had ap- 
 pointed this person to the office of Native Judge over his countrymen, to 
 the first office in honour to which a Native can aspire ? I myself knew 
 and saw a Native Officer made a Judge, who, some years before, had 
 brought a female he called his sister to the house of the European Judge, 
 newly appointed to the Court, (it is from the latter's mouth that I repeat 
 the relation,) thinking by such means to secure his favour. But trans- 
 cending all belief would be the following narrative, if 1 had not received 
 it from a gentleman higli in tiio Service, and well informed of the parti- 
 
 I) 2
 
 36 
 
 21. I am aware, and I have no doubt tlie circumstance 
 will elsewhere be brought prominently forward and insisted 
 on, as a proof of rigid impartiality, that, in the words of 
 this " Consultation" which were designed to meet distant 
 eyes, the Magistrate is linked together in the same censure 
 
 culars. Some time ago, the Sheristedar of a Court of Justice, that is, 
 the Native Officer next in rank and dignity to the European Judge, had 
 a beautiful and virtuous wife ; in every respect, in her own country, 
 a hdij, both by birth and education. The Judge heard of her beauty, 
 and scrupled not to send proposals to her. She rejected them witli the 
 liveliest scorn and indignation. A short time after, it was discovered in 
 Court that the husband had committed some fault, deserving of (sus- 
 pension from office, and he was suspended. In a few days again, the 
 Court Officers saw him restored; the wretched wife had been brought to 
 submit to the violation of her person, as the price of his restoration ! 
 
 Now let any man, — let any Englishman, read this, think of this, think 
 of these people, think of only one such deed being done to them, — of its 
 being known, and talked of even in a whisper, and then let him turn to 
 and think of tliese "Rules 1" " Rules" enjoining and obliging the pros- 
 trate victims of conduct such as this, if they sought redress, to petition 
 the wrong-doer ; ordering the husband to proclaim his dishonour, the 
 wife to detail her shame and violation, by petition in open Court, and 
 obtain "a written endorsement!" the Governor in Council declaring to 
 them and to all Natives, that he " will not receive a petition on any matter 
 unless it shall appear that the petitioner has applied successively to the 
 subordinate officer and to the Board or Court ! " Let a man think, that the 
 framer,orframers, of these " Rules" are the persons for whose chief benefit 
 and advantage the Government is devised, and by whose sole voice it 
 is conducted ; and that they seized the moment of obtaining to the 
 " Rules" the sanction of a young Nobleman, scarcely landed, inexpe- 
 rienced, high principled, confiding in those placed around him, with a 
 heart overflowing with kind and generous emotions towards all men, 
 and who would sooner have cut off his right hand than have affixed it to 
 such a paper, could he have been brought to conceive all that its provi- 
 sions would sanction and let loose upon the people, he was sent to listen 
 to and protect. To complete the picture, let it be known, that the 
 " Rules" were hailed by the Madras authorities, with hardly an excep- 
 tion, with the loudest praise: this production being, it seems, the last 
 stone wanting to complete the work of their hands : it being their " Bill 
 of Rights !" Fitting is it, tiiat the Natives be gagged, and every alien 
 Englishman driven out of the country !
 
 37 
 
 as his superior, the Circuit Judge. The eyes, the senses, 
 and the fears, however, which were really and immediately 
 meant to be addressed by it, were those of the European 
 and Native public of Mangalore ; where English is com- 
 monly read, and fluently and correctly spoken and written 
 by many Natives ; and where, in order that all men might 
 discriminate, without the possibility of mistake, the func- 
 tionary against whom the censure of the Governor in 
 Council was fulminated, while this "Consultation" was 
 produced in one hand, the Magistrate had the power of 
 producing, as he did produce, in the other, constant, fre- 
 quent, confidential letters, written to him by a Member of 
 the Government, the President of the Board of Revenue, 
 his immediate superior ; letters not merely conveying entire 
 approval and hearty praise of his conduct throughout, but 
 going the length of, in a manner, courting his suffrage and 
 his favor; a degree of confidence and unflinching support, 
 which was the general topic of conversation at Mangalore, 
 and was there openly ascribed, to the well-known and oft- 
 repeated circumstance, of the Magistrate having a near 
 connection a Member of your Honourable Court, to his pos- 
 sessing the ability to influence and command votes in the 
 Court of Proprietors, and hence the plain, open inference, 
 that supporting him, at all hazards, was the conduct which 
 would prove most acceptable to your Honourable Court, and 
 be remembered as an eventual passport to your favor, and 
 that of the Court of Proprietors. 
 
 22. Now, let your Honourable Court picture to yourselves, 
 if the human mind can bring itself to picture it, the condi- 
 tion of the people of Canara. Martial law proclaimed, its 
 sentences executed without reference to Madras, a Circuit 
 Judge silenced in his vain efforts to discharge his duty^ 
 by the opprobrious censure of having given way to private 
 feelings, the law henceforth dead, the Magistrate encour- 
 aged to persevere in the career, oflicially described and 
 denounced, by the strongest private countenance and 
 
 :5.54if54
 
 38 
 
 support ; the Governor de facto deaf to the people, the 
 Council de facto deaf to them, every person, every power, 
 every authority, deaf to them; and lastly, to crown and 
 consummate this scene, the hearts of your Honourable Court 
 represented and believed to be seared and closed, the 
 feelings of the Court of Proprietors to be hardened and 
 deadened to their complaints, by local influences and by 
 private interests so powerful and all-absorbing, yet so inef- 
 fably selfish and sordid, that their cries would be received 
 and regarded here, in England, the sacred dwelling-place 
 of humanity, as the idle wind, even if Heaven should lend 
 its blasts to make them audible across the globe ! 
 
 23. Your Honourable Court will fly from this picture ; 
 you, and all men who behold it, will rush into incredulity 
 and scepticism, to escape from a stupor of horror. Be it so. 
 Be incredulous : call me, if you will, a maligner and calum- 
 niator. This is relief, to labouring longer with this dreadful 
 incubus, fatal to all peace and to all rest. But there exists 
 a disproof of the truth of this representation, a disproof of 
 it perfectly clear, obvious, ready, and easy ; and nothing 
 but this disproof will, or can, suffice. It is this. Every 
 letter, and every part of a letter, which a Member of the 
 Government wrote to the Magistrate of Canara, or he to a 
 Member of the Government, touching his conduct, his 
 duties, his differences, or the stateof his Province, through- 
 out this melancholy period, was a demi-official letter. Every 
 one of these letters must be in existence, in the original, 
 must be, or it ought to be, on record. There can, on such 
 an occasion, and on such subjects, be no seal of privacy, 
 no destruction. Let all these letters be produced, and let 
 them contradict what has been declared to me, what I am 
 forced to believe, and am now forced to declare, relate 
 although it does to men, whom I never met, never thought 
 of, nor ever thought of mentioning, but with feelings of 
 kindness and esteem. But |)ending the production of these 
 letters before the authorities, who have an undoubted
 
 39 
 
 right to call for and see them, and to pass judgment upon 
 the tendency and effects, which their contents were calcu- 
 lated to have upon the minds of the people at Mangalore, 
 your Honourable Court will admit the force of the reasons 
 which kept me away from thence ; you will feel in your 
 own breasts all the force of the execration I should deserve, 
 if, following a first and strong impulse, I had gone thither, 
 and exposed one Native more, could one Native have been 
 found possessed of moral courage enough to approach, and 
 not to fly from, me as from pestilence and death, to the 
 chance of the calamities in which such multitudes around 
 felt hopelessly involved. 
 
 24. Having produced before your Honourable Court this 
 *' Minute of Consultation," the severity of truth demands 
 that, among whatever number the legal responsibility of it 
 may be divided and diminished, the moral responsibility 
 which attaches to this deliberate act, before the tribunal of 
 public opinion, should be traced and fixed to the real 
 author, or authors. 
 
 25. The Governor in Council then of Madras, de facto, 
 during the wholeof this period, consisted of the Commander- 
 in-Chief, nearly an entire stranger to India, who it was 
 believed and understood restricted his interference and 
 control to his own immediate department, and of one 
 civil Member of Council, the President of the Board of 
 Revenue ; upon whom devolved, and who in point of fact 
 exercised, all the executive functions of the Government. 
 His Lordship the Governor was absent from Madras, 
 between Bangalore and Ootacamund,from Juneto October;* 
 the other civil Member, who completes the Council (for 
 nearly twenty previous years, the able and respected head 
 of the Board of Revenue, but in Council made the titular 
 President of the Fonjdaree Udalut,) was also absent on the 
 Neilgherrics, all the time, on account of his health, which 
 
 * See Asiutic Jouriuil for November ;iiid December, 1H37.
 
 40 
 
 speedily after compelled 1) is retirement. His Lordship the 
 Governor of Madras de jure, therefore, was as ignorant, and 
 all men will feel persuaded, as innocent, of " the Minute of 
 Consultation of the Governor in Council of Madras" de 
 facto, until the Minute was recorded, and dispatched, 
 and had been read, and passed from hand to hand at Man- 
 galore, as if His Lordship had been all the time, where he 
 was a few months before, in Great Britain. That I may 
 not be suspected of stating to your Honourable Court a 
 circumstance, upon which the public of Madras were suf- 
 fered to be in the least doubt or ignorance, or which does 
 not rest upon official proof, your Honourable Court need 
 only refer in evidence to the Fort St. George Gazette of the 
 period in question, where it will be seen that, during His 
 Lordship's absence, all acts of the Government are headed 
 in the name, and were done under the authority, of " The 
 Governor in Council ;" while, immediately upon His Lord- 
 ship's return, the more ample and expanded formula of, 
 " His Lordship the Right Honourable the Governor in 
 Council," prefaced as heretofore, and ushered forth, the 
 deliberations of the Government. 
 
 26. Having felt debarred by the strongest reasons from 
 repairing to Canara, I cautiously abstained in the letters I 
 addressed to the Government, and which are before your 
 Honourable Court, from adverting to the causes of the dis- 
 turbances there ; to the complaints and grievances which 
 drove a simple, quiet, peaceable, inoffensive race of men to 
 assemble from their wilds and jungles, and commit riots. 
 That I have truly represented the disposition and character 
 of these people, I refer your Honourable Court to the testi- 
 mony of Mr. Viveash Baskerville, and of Mr. F.Anderson 
 of the Madras Civil Service, both now in England ; who, 
 I am sure, will suffer me to mention their names in the 
 cause of truth and humanity. The first gentleman will 
 tell your Honourable Court that he was the Principal Col- 
 lector and Magistrate, when the Coorg districts below the
 
 41 
 
 Ghauts, the original seat of the disturbances, were annexed 
 to the Province of Canara, and was the Collector who first 
 made " Jumma-bundee " with the people; that is to say, 
 using English language and intelligible speech, who first 
 commuted, agreeably to the much-lauded and extolled Ma- 
 dras Ryotwar Revenue System, the definite assessment hi 
 produce and in kind upon their lands, which these people had, 
 from the beginning of time, paid to their Rajahs, into, what 
 is called a Jixed annual maximum assessment in money; 
 a change which they received and obeyed with all respect 
 and with all humility, as if it had been the fiat of Superior 
 Wisdom. Mr. F. Anderson will tell your Honourable 
 Court, that he made these annual Settlements for the three 
 following years with the Gowdas, such is the caste name 
 of the chiefs among these people; and that he found them 
 all as quiet, docile, and well-disposed as they had previously 
 showed themselves to his predecessor. 
 
 27. Not one of these people had I an opportunity of 
 seeing and questioning, and of learning from themselves 
 their subjects of complaint. But every Native of Canara, 
 whom I saw and spoke to, stated, without exception, the 
 cause of the first disturbance to have been the following. 
 The Gowdas and Natives of the new districts had gone on 
 paying for three years, or as long as they could pay, this new 
 fixed maximum Money assessment demanded from them, 
 until all their means of raising it from other sources being 
 exhausted, they could pay it no longer. They represented 
 their inability to the Collector's Sheristedar, on his Jumma- 
 bundee arrival at Pootoor in March ; they said, money they 
 had not, but there was their produce, let him take that, 
 as their Rajahs had always done (and let one single instance 
 be proved of any Native, in any part, refusing to pay his 
 assessment in produce, as long as he has produce to pay). 
 The Sheristedar told them in reply, that he had nothing to 
 do with their produce ; that they must pay down in money, 
 or, in default, their cattle and moveables should be attached
 
 42 
 
 and sold, and these failing, their lands, according to Regu- 
 lation : proceeding, as some said, to execute the threat, 
 others said, using it only to intimidate and silence the com- 
 plainants. Whether this, or the reverse, be true, the 
 assembled people, hearing or fearing the threat, exclaimed, 
 ** What are we to do without our plough-cattle ? how till 
 our fields next rains ? can we plough with nothing left but 
 our hands and nails? Starve then, it is clear, we must next 
 year; so we may as well be killed, and die at once." 
 Whereupon they seized their clubs and bill-hooks, seized 
 the Sheristedar and his fellow-servants at Pootoor; and 
 having next succeeded in making the Collector and a party 
 of one hundred and fifty Sepoys retreat from thence in the 
 middle of the night, they naturally deemed and reported 
 themselves to be invincible. 
 
 28. This account of the origin of the riots is so natural, 
 so clothed with probability, so illustrative of, and so accord- 
 ant with, every page in the Revenue History of Madras,* 
 
 * It is not possible, nor is this the place, to produce all these accu- 
 mulated pages of Madras Revenue Management. In 1802, when the 
 Province of Malabar was transferred, by a stroke of the pen, from 
 Bombay to.Madras, a "crack" Ryotwar Collector, an original tleve of the 
 system, arrived from Coimbetoor, followed by one assistant, a mere 
 youth, and a host of hereditary Potails (village headmen), on five rupees 
 a month, and other such statesman-like devices, to supersede a dozen 
 experienced Bombay functionaries. In about eighteen months, this 
 Collector contrived to kindle a furious civil war, from one end of the 
 Province to the other; having done this, he disappeared by the light, 
 leaving the conflagration to be extinguished by torrents of blood, at the 
 cost of lacs and lacs of rupees, and by the conversion of the homes and 
 habitations of men into, what they continue to be to this day, the lairs of 
 wild beasts. This solitude was then called " internal peace !" 
 
 The two following instances, drawn from different countries, and 
 exhibited at long intervals of time the one from the other, show that no 
 amount of experience is effectual in teaching wisdom, moderation, and 
 reflection at iMadras. 
 
 " Another measure was tried by the Commissioners of the Presidency 
 of Fort St. George (1796); namely, to tax, in the first instance, all cocoa-
 
 43 
 
 so strictly confirmed by the narrative which the Criminal 
 Judge gave, from the first, to the Governor in Council ; 
 reporting that, "The Collector of the District, without 
 having the slightest idea of any spirit of disaffection existing 
 in the District, received information (30th March) from a 
 Tahsildar (Head Native Officer of Revenue and Police) of 
 a Talook (County), bordering upon the confines belonging 
 
 nut trees, at the rate of one fanara each yearly. The collection of this 
 tax occasioned again a general discontent, which soon broke forth into 
 an open opposition; and it was speedily found expedient to abandon it. 
 The reasons offered against this tax were, that it was laid on an article of 
 raw produce, and one of the necessaries of life ; — that it was laid, too, in 
 a most unequal proportion ; for all trees, not only the most productive, 
 but those which were the least so, had been taxed according to the same 
 rate of one fanam per tree : {making the tax, in some cases, forty, itiolhers, 
 not so much as six, per cent.) A tax of this nature must inevitably have 
 been vexatious in the extreme : and its being imposed in money rendered 
 it at that time particularly difficult to be complied with, because money 
 was then exceedingly scarce in Ceylon. If we judge, in fact, from the 
 feelings of the natives, the latter circumstance (namely, the payment of 
 the tax in money) was the most disagreeable part of it ; because they 
 offered to contribute, instead of it, the tenth part of the produce of the 
 trees in kind, which was imprudently refused: the good opportunity was 
 then lost, and it afterwards became necessary to relinquish it altogether." / 
 (Bertolacci's Ceylon, p. 323.) 
 
 From the Principal Collector of to Captain , Ootacamund, 
 
 December 2d, 1831 :— 
 
 " Sir,— I have the honour to apprise you that I have forwarded to the 
 Cash-keeper at Ootacamund a certificate in your favour of the permission 
 of Government for you to occupy the land therein described, together 
 with a bill for fees due to the Register of Grants at the Presidency, 
 amounting to Rupees 35. 
 
 " This charge has been authorised by Government, as well as the 
 assessment of Quit-rent on all lands on the Neilgherries, whether within 
 or without the Cantonment, for which grants or licences may be issued, at 
 the uniform rate of 5^ Rupees per Cawney." 
 
 A Cawney is Ijd Acre; "the assessment on all lands" was annual. 
 The rent, therefore, demanded from an occupier for every acre of a tract 
 of mountain land which, from the Hood, had been waste, and whether
 
 44 
 
 to the late Rajah of Coorg, that numbers of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Coorg country had suddenly risen, and taken 
 possession of the treasure, amounting to about 15,000 
 Rupees, together with the Head Sheristedar and his 
 Cutcherry of Servants, who were on Jiimmahundi/ at the 
 place :" all these proofs drawn from opposite quarters, 
 European and Native, lead me to place more than ordinary 
 confidence in the general correctness of the account, 
 although to ascertain its strict truth obviously required 
 
 required for building or for agricultural purposes, was fixed bj/ the 
 Government in 1831, at ten shillings an acre, equal, according to the 
 different value of money, to about £lO in England! 
 
 Asiatic Journal. — October, 1838. 
 " The Madras papers state, that Government has ordered an assess- 
 ment on all the petty cultivation of the Neilgherries, and that the conse- 
 quence has been, that the place is fast falling into its former state ; the 
 little gardens that had given employment and support to many, and 
 furnished the tables of the visitants with a plentiful supply of superior 
 vegetables, being abandoned." 
 
 And what is this region, which is in progress of being reconverted into 
 a wilderness? It is one, the possession of which is the same, as if a part 
 of the South of France or of North Italy had been transplanted, and set 
 down in the heart of the Madras territories; a region, blessed with a very 
 fertile soil, and the salubrious climate of tlie temperate zone; highly 
 restorative in most tropical maladies, and particularly delightful at the 
 season of the year when the heats rage in the countries below, and render 
 change to such a scene and temperature a priceless bounty, which one 
 would think Providence had bestowed upon all Europeans in India, for 
 the express restoration and preservation of their health and mental 
 energies. It is, in truth, a spot capable of being made one of the most 
 delightful residences in the world. 
 
 But the laud assessment expels the Natives out of it, who were con- 
 verting that land into "gardens;'' it starves the Europeans out of it, for 
 want of the necessaries of life, and forces them to the Cape, where it is 
 known that they annually draw out of India and spend £120,000; 
 12 lacs of Rupees : locally an enormous sum, double the surplus revenue 
 of most of the Madras Provinces! In vain will the world, past or pre- 
 sent, be searched for a Government like this!
 
 45 
 
 immediate, patient, temperate, and impartial enquiry on the 
 spot. 
 
 28. Your Honourable Court will not be brought to believe 
 that the Earth, in India, does not produce Rupees, but 
 grain ; that the trees do not bear coined money, but fruit ; 
 that never, from its creation, until your rule, was such a 
 thing there heard of, or known, as ^ fixed maximum money 
 assessment on the land, wholly chimerical and unrealizable 
 as this incredible tax is, even under your rule*. Your 
 
 * It would be a mockery to set about shewing here, in England, where 
 every man of ordinary information knows that the price of wheat has 
 fluctuated, in modern times, from 42 to 122 shillings a quarter, that no 
 country in the world can pay such a tax as " a fixed maximum money 
 assessment" on the land. To instance only a provision in the late Tithe i 
 Commutation Act; the money tenth is, according to it, determined by 
 the price of corn and produce, during the seven preceding years, every 
 succeeding year making the seventh in this perpetual cycle of reference 
 to the only equitable standard of value. But what is the history, what 
 is proved to be the authentic, recorded history of money assessments at 
 Madras? In 1807, Colonel Munro, the Collector of the Ceded Districts, 
 wrote thus: — " If no alteration be attempted, the Ceded Districts will 
 yield, one year with another, 18 lacs of Pagodas, and it will never be 
 necessary to call out a single Sepoy to support the collections." The 
 land revenue, which he reported upon (Report 2Glh July, 1807) was a 
 maximum rent in money y fixed on every field and spot of land, " culti- 
 vated or waste," after " a survey," made of a country as large as Scot- 
 land by Natives, "provided with a chain 33 feet long," and amounted 
 then to 640,000/. In 1827, after 20 years of peace, the same person, 
 Sir Thomas Munro, he being Governor of Madras, and in the Ceded 
 Districts, was obliged to reduce this assessment, which he had declared 
 in 1807, "was collected with the greatest ease," to 485,714/.; a redac- 
 tion of nearly one-third of the whole amount, (Report of Select Commit- 
 tee, 16th August, 1832.) What name ought to be given, where English 
 is spoken, to the exactions on the Natives, that were going on throughout 
 these 20 years? VVliat would English Statesmen say to one of their 
 number, who would venture to appear before them, with such an expo- 
 sition of 20 years' management of the most important branch of Revenue, 
 derived from the Kingdom of Scotland ? Tins then is the result of the 
 fixed maximum money assessment in the 7nodel Ryotwar Province of 
 Madras. The result of the management of all the Provinces, for the
 
 46 
 
 Honourable Court cannot be brought to perceive that, if you 
 insist upon taking, as revenue, six-tenths of his produce from 
 the Native, every obligation of justice and policy, stifling 
 every claim of humanity, requires that you should take it 
 in that which he has to give ; that which his preceding 
 sovereigns took ; that which every private landlord in the 
 country, wherever such a class of persons is still suffered to 
 exist, is obliged to take, as rent : not in that which, often 
 by no possibility, can the Native get. The plainest, the 
 simplest, the most direct, and the most obvious of all gene- 
 ralizations show, to those who will be at the trouble of 
 making them, or at the least pains of learning the real con- 
 dition of the people, that in a country where there are no 
 roads, thero can be no towns, where there are no towns, 
 there can be no trade, where there is no trade, there can be no 
 exchanges, no exchanges, no money ; and where there is 
 no money, that men must be reduced to barter, as they are 
 throughout the Peninsula of India, to barter one with the 
 other, the little surplus they have left for the supply of 
 their half dozen wants. To insist on having his revenue in 
 money, therefore, is insisting on having that which the 
 Native cannot get, nor can he give, could he coin his 
 
 same period of 20 years, all years of profound peace, is exactly of the 
 same commendable, instructive, character. "In 1808 — 9, the actual 
 collections of Revenue were 4,09,30,000 Rupees (4,093,000/.); in 
 1827 — 8, they were 4,01,72,000 Rupees, {4,017,2001.) decrease in 20 
 years, 75,8001. ! Such is the iiresistible force of circumstances and situa- 
 tion in moulding the opinions of men, that the functionary, one of the 
 ablest in the service, who exhibits this astounding and almost incredible 
 result of the Government of a large kingdom, (and of whose knowledge 
 and great capacity the home authorities have wisely availed themselves), 
 produces it as clearly establisliing the fact, that " the system of civil 
 " administration actually in force at Madras has been successful, 
 " according to all the tests by which it can be fairly tried !" (Calcutta 
 Finance Committee, p. 132.) There is here provided an unerring "test" 
 of the entire success " of tlie system," that is, when " the actual collec- 
 tions of Revenue" shall be — zero.
 
 47 
 
 blood into drachmas. For, of the money which is collected 
 from him monthly, during ten months of the year, and the 
 minutest fraction of which is spent on the spot, every Rupee 
 of the residue is kept hoarded and locked up in the pro- 
 vincial Treasuries, until it is sent, as proximity dictates, 
 either to Madras or Bombay ; whence the slow wants of a 
 restricted, an impeded, and a circuitous, ybre/g-w trade must 
 bring it back to the few inland marts there are, before this 
 coin can again come within the reach of the Native, to 
 enable him to pay his maximum in it.* This regular, annual, 
 
 * To the Secretary to Government in the Financial Department, Fort 
 St. George. 
 
 Tellicherry, 29th October, 1836, 
 "Sir, 
 
 " It is with rebictance that T bring the following matter to the notice 
 of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council : were it the first in- 
 stance of the kind, or did it not demand a remedy, I should be silent. 
 
 " It is hardly necessary to inform Ilis Excellency in Council, that the 
 whole surplus Revenues of the Provinces of Malabar and Canara, as 
 well as the subsidies of the tributary states of Cochin and Travancore, to 
 the amount of at least 25 or 30 lacs of Rupees, are annually sent to 
 supply the necessities of Bombay ; and that this great drain of the coin, 
 required for the circulation of these countries, is made in Bombay cur- 
 rency, till lately, some local coins excepted, the only currency known. 
 Were the sums that have been thus exported for the last 25 years added 
 up, the amount will be found to be so great, that it is a matter of 
 astonishment how these countries have borne up against this annual drain, 
 and have continued to pay, year after year, into the Treasuries of the 
 Collectors, the increasing money-revenue assessed upon them in this ex- 
 ported coin. But whatever may be the opinion entertained on this point, 
 it will hardly be disputed that the necessities of the people of the 
 Western Coast for coin, to meet the public demands, must be sufficiently 
 obvious as to merit consideration, and that they have some title to expect, 
 at all times, from the Government of Bombay, every facility to remit- 
 tance transactions; that is to say, to expect that bills on the local Trea- 
 suries, for cash paid at Bombay, shall not be refused, when those 
 Treasuries are filled with money ready to answer all bills. I put the 
 matter on the narrowest ground. 
 
 "The demand for money, in exchange for produce, begins early in
 
 48 
 
 sy&iemAi'icforestal/ing by the Government o^ the coin, which 
 such a country requires or can attract, leads inevitably to 
 an annual regraiing of the produce ; making the price 
 worthlessly low, when the producer is compelled to seliybr 
 money, to pay his tax, and extravagantly high, when he is 
 obliged to buy, as his necessities are sure to oblige him to 
 
 September with the first of the ten annual Kists, (Revenue instalments) 
 that falls due ; before the Coast is well open for country craft, and six 
 weeks before ships willingly touch. Several weeks before, and after this 
 period, my agents in Bombay applied for Bills on the Collector, and 
 were told repeatedly in reply, that the Treasury was shut, and not likely 
 to be opened. Finding this to be the case, and hearing that the Hon- 
 ourable Company's Cruizer Clive was about to be despatched to the 
 Coast, they took the only alternative, and made me by this vessel a remit- 
 tance in specie, the freight charged upon which is double the rate paid 
 upon sending specie to Great Britain. The Clive passed down, not 
 being suffered to anchor : yesterday she returned and landed my specie, 
 after having received from the Collector of Malabar alone four lacs and 
 thirty thousand Tinpees oi the remaining surplus Revenue of the Pro- 
 vince; every rupee of which, I speak advisedly, would now have been 
 paid into the Bombay Treasury, to the great saving of time, for every 
 rupee must return, and to the infinite accommodation of the people, if 
 the Government had thought fit to receive the money, which myself and 
 the merchants had ready to pay in exchange for bills. 
 
 " Whenever a vessel is despatched from Bombay to this Coast for trea- 
 sure, in addition to the expense of the vessel, a number of Shroffs are 
 put on board, sufficient to furnish one for every port whence treasure is 
 to be shipped. It is superfluous to say, that this and every expense 
 whatsoever would be saved, and no more than reasonable facility be given 
 to the money transactions of the Western Coast, if the Government of 
 Bombay would follow, as regards them, the invariable practice when 
 formerly it drew bills on Calcutta, and insert a periodical notice in the 
 Gazette, stating that the Treasury would be open for a given time and 
 for a given amount for tenders for bills on the Coast Treasuries." 
 
 " 1 have the honour, &c. 
 " F. C. Brown." 
 
 With regard to the remittances of European functionaries, every Officer 
 is allowed to receive one-third of his month's pay in a bill at thirty days 
 on the General Treasury, and every Civilian the whole of his pay in a 
 bill at ten days.
 
 49 
 
 buy, to repay in kind the next year.* In addition to this 
 direct tax upon the land, akin to which nothing has ever 
 been seen in the world, and the warrant for exacting 
 which are the positive, express orders of Your Honour - 
 able Court ;t — in addition to the Monopolies of two of 
 the necessaries of life — Salt and Tobacco ; the Monopoly 
 of Salt enforced by penally prohibiting the Natives frnm 
 touching the sun-evaporated sea-salt at their own doors ; 
 that of Tobacco enforced by prohibiting them fro m grow- 
 i ng a leaf of the plant on tlieir lands ; thus making 
 i t profitable to the smuggler to introduce and sell Amer i- 
 
 * An Assistant Collector from Canara observed that he would wil- 
 lingly serve there without pui/, provided the Government would allow 
 him to trade. He was asked why ? " You are sure," he replied, " of 
 making regularly twenty to thirty per cent., if you only buy grain when 
 the crops begin to be cut, and the Ryots want money, and sell it 
 towards the end of the season." 
 
 f " We are aware that the difficulty lies in ascertaining the degree in 
 " which, in all the variety of cases, the surplus produce already is, or is 
 " not, absorbed by the Government demand. But this is the difficulty 
 " which exists in forming or adjusting the settlement everywhere. Minute 
 '' accuracy cannot be obtained ; but in making the best approximation to 
 " it in our power, we shall avoid all material ^vii.,if the surplus produce 
 " is, IN ALL CASES, vuitle the tTTMOST extent of our demand.'" (Court's 
 "Letter to Fort St. George, 12th December, 1821, paragraph 99.) \ 
 
 " By this latter sentence," observes General Briggs, who quotes the -; ; 
 letter (p. 294) in his, the ablest work ever written on, Indian Land-tax, | I 
 "it seems clear that, in the latter end of the year 1821, the Indian * •■ 
 Administration in England was of opinion that it was just and expe- 
 dient to take from the landholders of India the whole surplus pro- 
 duce ; i. e. the whole of the landlord's rent, leaving the cultivator only a 
 sufficiency for his own subsistence and the maintenance of his stock !" .i > 
 
 But why stop short at this demand? Why not take "the surplus 
 produce in all cases," of every loom, of every tool, of every engine, of 
 every manufacture, of every house, nay, saving a sufficiency of food and 
 raiment, to be determined by the taker, why not take "the surplus pro- 
 duce" of every man's brains in the country, howsoever exerted? The 
 right is the same in all these cases as in the first ; its exercise would be 
 as just, and — as wise. 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 can Tobacco in India ! — in addition to this direct tax of, 
 at least, the luhole of the nat rent of the land, suggesting 
 the plain enquiry what more the Sovereign can demand from 
 his Native tenant, whom he proves to be a mere occupier 
 by reducing him to the condition of one ; — in addition to 
 this tax and to these Monopolies, ingenuity, one would 
 suppose, had tasked its powers in devising what indirect 
 taxes could be imposed, that should be most profoundly 
 cruel, mischievous, and suicidal to the happiness and pros- 
 perity of the people. For, not only are there frontier duties 
 and export duties levied from Province to Province, thus 
 erecting every Province into a separate foreign Kingdom, 
 each with a separate Tariff, but there are export duties 
 exacted upon all produce and goods taken from port to 
 port in the same Province; so that not an article can be 
 taken by a Native for sale at the nearest mart by any one 
 of the navigable rivers, the highways with which Nature 
 conceived and designed to bless and civilize his country, 
 without its being stopped at the mouth for export duty !* 
 
 What has been, what must be, the result of a system 
 of revenue and internal taxation, such as this? The result 
 invariably has been, in every instance, that in a few brief 
 years, the maximum money assessment proves to be wholly 
 unrealizable from the land ; and the discovery is made, 
 either when the people, preferring immediate death to lin- 
 gering starvation, seize what arms, clubs and sticks, rage 
 and despair supply, and break out into violence; an issue 
 which is speedily extinguished by their decimation by the 
 bayonet and the gibbet, and the failure of land-revenue 
 is, of course, attributed "to their lawless and unprovoked 
 rebellion ; " or, when having parted with so much of their 
 produce, to raise the money maximum, that not enough re- 
 mains to sustain life the year through, famine and disease 
 relentlessly seize upon hundreds, and upon thousands, and 
 
 * See Note B. at the end of the Letter.
 
 51 
 
 Upon tens of thousands; and it is then reported to your 
 Honourable Court, that the unburied bodies of the dead 
 lie so heaped and accumulated, as to taint the air for miles 
 around, and to pall the maws of legion troops of every 
 obscene bird and beast of the air and earth. 
 
 Bear witness to this present picture, ye famine-devoured 
 Provinces of Agra! Bear witness to it, ye Englishmen! 
 casual, compulsory sojourners amid this desolation, who 
 wrote and published throughout India, to stimulate the hu- 
 manity of your countrymen, that for a subscription of only 
 one rupee, for a sum of no more than twenty-four pence 
 sterling, food enough could there be bought to subsist a 
 human being for a whole month through ! — Bear witness to 
 it, ye who beheld in the places where this quantity of food 
 could be bought for such a sum, who beheld with your 
 own eyes, mothers sell their children, nay, offer their 
 nurseling infants in barter for one meal, and this failing, 
 cast them headlong into the stream ! *' 
 
 And this spectacle in a country, where the teeming powers 
 of Nature still continue to be such, that the earth yields 
 harvests, although deprived of all those reproductive, recre- 
 ative aids, barren of which, the fertile, smiling fields of Great 
 Britain would be as waste, desert, and silent as the sands of 
 Arabia : for, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayahs, such 
 is the general poverty of the people, that the accumu- 
 lation of their cattle-folds, instead of being hoarded and 
 lavished, as in every other agricultural country on the globe, 
 in restoring and invigorating their exhausted lands, and 
 thus increasing the produce, and ultimately the public reve- 
 nue, ten, aye, a hundred-fold, this manure is resorted to, 
 and daily prepared, and forms the general, in some Provinces 
 the sole, fuel which the Natives have it in their power to 
 command, for the preparation of the pittance of food left to 
 them to consume ! 
 
 * See Note C. at the end. 
 e2
 
 52 
 
 30. Impossible as it is to compress all the proofs and 
 demonstrations of this subject within the compass of the 
 present letter, it is not possible, when attempting to throw 
 light on the causes of riots and insurrections in India, to 
 keep out of view this vast gangrene, this frightful ulcer, 
 deriving and descending from the very head of the body- 
 politic, which is incessantly preying upon the vitals of the 
 Natives ; the unerring proofs and progress of which are sure 
 to manifest themselves, by periodical famines and tumults 
 breaking out in every part, where a vigorous arm, wielded 
 by an enlightened head and a noble heart, has not gone to 
 the root, and extirpated the causes, as in Bengal Proper and 
 Benares' Province ; or where some natural local advantages 
 do not exist, as in Malabar, and operate as adventitious 
 sources of health, in counteracting the otherwise inevitable 
 tendency of the mass to festering, convulsion, and dissolution. 
 
 31.1 solicit your Honourable Court's forgiveness for this 
 digression from the subject-matter of this letter, to which I 
 return. I have stated that official notices led me to conclude, 
 as I may, perhaps, have led your Honourable Court to con- 
 clude, that the Commission appointed by the Governor in 
 Council of Madras in September, " to inquire into the 
 causes of the insurrection in Canara, etc.," of the previous 
 April, was dissolved in December by the successive retire- 
 ment of the two General Officers, the Military Members, 
 and by the Medical Certificate granted to the Civil Member 
 on the 5th December. 
 
 I sailed for England on the 6th, and from Colombo on 
 the 17th December. My Letter to the Government of 
 the 23rd November, did not reach Madras before the 8th 
 or 9th December. Its transmission was purposely delayed, 
 in order that it might arrive at the same time as any 
 letter, which the first Judge of Tellicherry might think pro- 
 per to send, in reference to the observations upon his con- 
 duct in April, with a copy of which I furnished him. For 
 several days before I sailed, the troops at Cannanore were
 
 53 
 
 kept in readiness to receive Sir Henry Gough, K.C.B., the 
 General commanding the Mysoor Division, within whose 
 range and controul is the subordinate command of Malabar 
 and Canara. Sir H. Gough's route and progress to these 
 Provinces were, of course, regularly reported to Madras ; so 
 that the Governor in Council was apprised, at the time of 
 General Fearon's retirement from the Commission, that 
 there would be, on the spot, a Queen's Officer of high rank, 
 independent command, distinguished character, acknow- 
 ledged experience, and, moreover, an entire stranger to all 
 the functionaries. Civil and Military, at Mangalore; if the 
 presence of such an Officer had been at any time deemed 
 indispensably necessary, as the head of the Commission, 
 in forming and delivering to the Government adispassionate, 
 unbiassed, impartial opinion upon the melancholy events 
 which had occurred in Canara, and in pouring oil and balm 
 into the wounds of the unfortunate Natives. 
 
 32. Although the Governor in Council therefore was pos- 
 sessed of this information, late letters state that the Com- 
 mission of Inquiry did proceed in the course of December, 
 that it was reduced to a sole Member, and he, the Civil 
 Member — whose state of health was such, that he was pro- 
 vided with a medical certificate to sea for eighteen months, 
 and who, however able, and however estimable, was the 
 known, the declared, and the intimate friend of some of the 
 authorities at Mangalore, whose public acts and conduct 
 formed the subject of his investigations. These circum- 
 stances now render it imperative upon me to place before your 
 Honourable Court the particular Regulation (8 of 1822), 
 under which the Commission, so constituted, was empowered 
 and directed to act. 
 
 The title is, " A Regulation to rescind (certain) Regula- 
 tions; and to make provision for the investigation of the 
 conduct of the public Officers of Government, European 
 or Native, when necessary, iri the way which in each par- 
 ticular case may be deemed MOST convenient."
 
 54 
 
 The Preamble is : 
 
 "Whereas the Rules of Regulations III of 1809, and II 
 of 1810, prescribing a particular course of inquiry on 
 charges, or information of corruption, embezzlement, or 
 other high misdemeanor, against the European public Offi- 
 cers, employed in the several Civil departments under the 
 Government, have been found to be inconvenient in practice, 
 and otherwise objectionable : the Governor in Council has 
 resolved to rescind those Regulations, and also Regulation 
 VI. of 1818, supplementary to the before-mentioned Regu- 
 lations, and to enact the following Rules, to be in force 
 from the date of their promulgation." 
 
 II. 
 
 III. " Whenever it shall appear to the Governor in Coun- 
 cil to be necessary that an investigation should be made into 
 the conduct of any Officer of the Government, European 
 or Native, relative to any alleged or supposed corruption, 
 embezzlement, breach of trust, or any other gross malver- 
 sation, or high misdemeanor, or violation of public duty, 
 the Governor in Council will determine hij what persons, 
 and in what way, such investigation shall be made and 
 conducted, on consideration of the particular circumstances 
 of every such case." 
 
 33. About the end of February, or the beginning of 
 March, the Commission closed its labours, the difficulty 
 and responsibility of which, from the first, must have been 
 greatly lightened and lessened by the prejudgment arrived 
 at, and placed on record, by the Governor in Council, rela- 
 tive to " the causes of' the insurrection in Canara, etc." On 
 the 6th April 1837, the Criminal Judge reported in the very 
 words doubtless he had heard the principal Collector use, 
 that the latter, at Mangalore, had not " the slightest idea 
 of am/ spirit of disaffection existing in the District" 
 (Province.) On the 19th January 1838, the Governor in 
 Council at Madras, is pleased to observe : " It is a well- 
 known fact that, for many tnonlhs previous to the outbreak
 
 55 
 
 above spoken of, the District of Canara was infested with 
 large armed bands of robbers, though not certainly in the 
 immediate vicinity of the scene of insurrection. From 
 those bands, it does not appear too much to suppose, that the 
 force which attacked the town of Mangalore was principally 
 recruited." 
 
 34. Contemporaneous with the termination of the Com- 
 mission, appeared in the Gazette the removal of the prin- 
 cipal Collector and Magistrate of Canara, and his promotion 
 to the higher, more dignified, and more lucrative Office of 
 second Judge of the Court of Appeal and Circuit for the 
 Centre Division. So far back as the previous July or 
 August, before the orders from Bengal, directing a Commis- 
 sion to be assembled, were received, this Officer had ar- 
 ranged, with the customary tacit consent of the Government, 
 an exchange of Provinces with the principal Collector of 
 Salem ; thus adding the weight of his own irrefragable tes- 
 timony, to the conviction all men felt, and his best friends 
 warmly urged, of the propriety and necessity of his removal, 
 al that time, from Canara. On the present occasion, eight 
 months after, in conveying the promotion, for which he 
 had applied, and in communicating the public reasons on 
 which it was grounded, the Governor in Council is pleased 
 to advert to "the repeated insubordinate and unjustifiable 
 conduct," of the Collector, "and to declare that it will be 
 more advantageous to employ him in a situation, where his 
 want of discretion will be less detrimental to the public ser- 
 vice." Such is the approved official formula, by which, at 
 Madras, a displaced Collector-Magistrate, is raised, pro- 
 moted, and transmuted into a Circuit Judge. 
 
 35. There are, there must be, fresh among the Madras 
 records at the India House, the trial, almost recent, of 
 Ramiah, "a Native Officer of the Government," the head 
 Sheristedar of Coimbetoor, and the very first Native in 
 rank, character, and consideration, throughout that large 
 Province. This Native Officer was tried by a European
 
 66 
 
 Commission held under the same Regulation, consisting also 
 of a sole Commissioner, he, his accuser, the Collector and 
 Magistrate of the Province, and his Superior; and as the 
 Regulation enjoins, "in the way which in his particular case 
 was deemed most convenient.^' The way was, that this Na- 
 tive Officer, of the highest rank and station among a mil- 
 lion and more of his countrymen, was suddenly seized with- 
 out warning or accusation, suspended from office, separated 
 from all his family, kept a close prisoner in his house, 
 debarred access to any person whatever, all his private 
 papers and letters, all his accounts, all his books, seized and 
 carried off', — the houses of all his relatives, all his friends, 
 searched and ransacked, in order to discover a trace of evi- 
 dence to criminate him ; depositions against him extorted 
 by fear and threats; every word and every act of his life, 
 public and private, sought, traced, and hunted out, to be 
 tortured into a matter of charge; in fine, every oppression, 
 every cruelty, every indignity, which tyranny, whetted 
 apparently by baffled malignity, could devise, was heaped 
 upon his defenceless head. Not for days, nor even weeks, 
 but for many months following, was this Native Officer 
 knowingly subjected to this treatment, before the Board of 
 Revenue, the Superiors of his accuser and Judge, inter- 
 fered to mitigate its rigour. At length, at the expiration 
 of about three years of open shame and intolerable dis- 
 grace, this Native Officer was wholly acquitted, not of 
 crime, not of guilt, for suspicion was, from the first, the sole 
 matter of charge against him ; he was acquitted of all 
 suspicion of " violation of public duty :" he was so wholly 
 acquitted, both in India and by your Honourable Court, 
 that he is now, under your express sanction and authority, 
 the first and the only Native of Madras, who has been 
 raised to the office of Assistant Collector. If the record 
 of his trial were efFaceable, I cannot but be persuaded that 
 your Honourable Court, individually and collectively, heard 
 the aniple and authentic details of the treatment he suffered
 
 67 
 
 from the mouth of Mr. John Sullivan, whose head Sheris- 
 tedar for eight years in Coimbetoor Ramiah was, and as he 
 there left him, loaded with the highest praise. 
 
 Was the voice of your Honourable Court heard in the 
 farthest corners of India, denouncing in accents of thunder 
 the treatment, called a trial, of this high Native Officer ? 
 Did any Gazette, any publication, any paper, accessible to 
 the Natives, appear, filled with your Honourable Court's 
 indignation at this conduct; reprobating it, not as being 
 illegal — for what conduct to a Native is illegal ? * — but as 
 being worse than illegal, as being cruel, unfeeling, and 
 unmanly? No, not one: you preserved over all the silence 
 of the dead. Be not surprised, therefore, for the blame 
 is not theirs, if the Natives are prepared, nor if they 
 have been fully prepared, to hear your voice now resound 
 at Madras, fraught with loud echoes of the praises, 
 the thanks, and the General Orders, which have been 
 lavished and published on all the deeds and achievements 
 at Mangalore. 
 
 36. Such, then, to sum up all in a few brief words, are 
 
 * Regulation II. of 1802, sect. 10: "The Zillah (local) Courts are 
 prohibited from entertaining any cause which, from the production of a 
 former decree, or the records of the Court, or other instrument, shall 
 appear to have been heard and determined by any former Judge, Super- 
 intendent of a Court, Collector, or other public officer, having competent 
 jurisdiction or authority." 
 
 Sect. 11:" The Zillah Courts are prohibited from interfering in any 
 respect in any cause or matter of a criminal nature, declared cognizable by 
 the Magistrates of the several Zillahs, the Courts of Circuit, or the Fonj- 
 dary Udalut, or any Courts for the trial of cases of a criminal nature, 
 that now exist, or which may hereafter he established." 
 
 Sect. 15 : " If a Native, or any other person not being a British sub- 
 ject, shall consider himself aggrieved under any established Regulation, 
 by an act done by any of the officers of Government described in Sect. 7 
 (Collectors of Revenue and their Assistants, &c.), pursuant to a special 
 order originating with the Governor in Council, or the Board of Revenue 
 or Trade, the officer by whom the act may be done shall not be liable lo be 
 sued for it."
 
 68 
 
 the Governor in Council, whom European British subjects, 
 that is to say EngHshmen at Madras, are expected to reve- 
 rence and obey; such the Judges of Circuit, the Judges of 
 Civil and Criminal Justice, to whom alone they are now 
 made amenable in all cases not capital ; such the Collector- 
 Magistrates, alone exercising police jurisdiction over their 
 persons, and vested with revenue authority over their pro- 
 perties. 
 
 37. But the fate and fortunes of these aliens in India, 
 however indissolubly bound up with all the future hopes and 
 prospects of that great country, however certainly the cor- 
 ner stone of all solid, rational, belief in the easy, secure, and 
 permanent retention of that, her fourth vast Empire by 
 Great Britain, are as dust in the balance, when weighed 
 against the condition, present and to come, of its millions 
 of Natives. If Englishmen, the ornament and security of 
 every other region on the globe which they are suffered to 
 inhabit and improve, be the bane and the ruin of India, 
 and if it be thought at Madras that, although it be unavoid- 
 able legally to tolerate, it is indispensable practically to pro- 
 scribe them, let them be proscribed. But the Natives cannot 
 all expatriate themselves ; the Natives cannot all go to De- 
 nierara, to Jamaica, to Australia, to Mauritius, to Ceylon, to 
 the four quarters of the earth, where outstretched arms are 
 beckoning them to come in thousands and tens of thousands, 
 and offering, as an irresistible inducement for life-transport- 
 ation, abundant food for their starving bodies, and ample 
 occupation for their idle hands. 
 
 38. For the wants and necessities of those among them 
 who, resisting these allurements, prefer dwelling and de- 
 scending to the grave in the land, wherein their forefathers 
 dwelt in honour and died in peace, for thousands of years 
 before your rule, some attention, some consideration, will be 
 pronounced to be due. The most instant, the most urgent, 
 the most pressing, of all those present wants and necessities 
 is, that their sacred — sacred because helpless — cries of
 
 59 
 
 local injustice and oppression shall directly reach your 
 Honourable Court and the people of England, through the 
 channel of persons, who shall be linked to them by the ties 
 of a common caste, a common country, a common lan- 
 guage, a common kindred, and more than all, and above 
 all, these requisites, by the ties and sympathies of a com- 
 mon humanity. Let me, therefore, most humbly and most 
 earnestly implore your Honourable Court to blot from your 
 recollection that it is an Englishman who is addressing you : 
 let me intreat you to banish from your minds the individual 
 — obnoxious if he unhappily be — who has been driven 
 before you to state their wrongs : let me, with respect not to 
 be surpassed, beseech you, solicitous as you are of knowing 
 their wants and of supplying their necessities, and valuing, 
 as beyond human price, the future peace and repose of your 
 own breasts, to do a blessed violence to your imaginations, 
 and to see before you, not him, this individual, but one of 
 your Native subjects, a Native of Madras : to see, only, one 
 of these Natives, who has left his home and country, and 
 appears a suppliant in your presence, bending under the 
 load he produces of official proofs and documents, establish- 
 ing in characters ineffaceable, the cruel sufferings and 
 calamities in which thousands of his fellow-subjects have 
 been plunged, wholly innocent as they were, even in thought, 
 of all crime and of all guilt towards the British Govern- 
 ment : proofs showing that, under a reliance upon your 
 anticipated silence and tacit approval, more than the law's 
 vengeance has been let loose and wreaked upon their per- 
 sons, their liberty, their homes, and their property ; in order 
 that this signal punishment, proclaimed to the world as the 
 due of traitors, might hide from the light of day the know- 
 ledge of the conduct of the Officers, Civil and Military, 
 at Mangalore ; whose meeting, whose resolution, and whose 
 attempt, to abandon the Capital and the Province of Ca- 
 nara, that trust confided to them by the British people, 
 more than a whole day before a man opposed to them
 
 60 
 
 appeared, caused universal panic and confusion throughout 
 the whole Native population, far and near; which panic 
 and confusion, inevitable from such conduct, were after- 
 wards seized upon, to represent and to convert a mob-rising 
 of, at first, a few ignorant wild men, into general insurrec- 
 tion and civil war. 
 
 As the first and immediate reparation of wrongs and suf- 
 ferings such as these, and as an eternal barrier placed by 
 the virtue of your Honourable Court, against the recurrence 
 of the dishonour which has been brought upon the name of 
 England, this suppliant prays, that your Honourable Court 
 will not suffer another dispatch to depart for Madras, with- 
 out conveying in it your positive and peremptory orders to 
 the Governor in Council, to elect and immediately to cause 
 two or more Natives to take their seats, now and in all time 
 coming, as Members of the Council of Government at that 
 Presidency. 
 
 39. It is this first and indispensable act of justice and 
 humanity, this instant protection against the perpetration 
 of similar wrongs and outrages which the Natives of Madras, 
 with all respect and with all humility, now beseech at the 
 hands of your Honourable Court, entreating that their 
 cause may not fail from the weakness of the advocate.* 
 
 * The acts of the Governor in Council will best show his disposition 
 to give effect to the injunctions of the legislature, which has ordered, that 
 no Native shall be excluded from holding any office, by reason of his 
 birth, caste, colour, or religion. 
 
 In January, 18^, the Government acknowledged the receipt of a 
 Memorial, from the Native Gentlemen of Madras, praying to be enrolled 
 as Justices of the Peace, with or without emolument. Four months after, 
 a public paper, the Madras United Service Gazette, informs the world — 
 " The acts of Lord Elphinstone's Government, from the day of his arrival 
 in India, have deservedly gained him golden opinions from every class of 
 society. It is our highly gratifying task to announce, that the Right 
 Honourable the Governor's Private Secretary, on the 3d May, made 
 known that, with reference to an address presented to him by certain 
 Native Gentlemen, seeking to be admitted as Justices of tiie Peace, Lord 
 Elphinstone had been pleased to accede to the wishes therein expressed,
 
 61 
 
 But, whether his pleadino- be successful or spurned, whe- 
 ther it be read or despised, your Honourable Court will, he 
 trusts, acquit him, after your having withlield, for four 
 
 and that he had determined to include the names of three Hindoo 
 Gentlemen in the commission about to be issued (here follow the names) 
 three of the most wealthy and respectable Native Gentlemen at Madras. 
 Heartily do we congratulate these Gentlemen on the honour that awaits 
 them, and in all sincerity do we rejoice at seeing the road to distinction 
 thus gradually opening to the Natives of this Presidency." 
 
 Madras has been in the possession of the British Crown for upwards 
 of two centuries (1630.) It is the capital of a kingdom far larger and 
 more populous than many kingdoms in Europe: its population has been 
 rated at 400,000 souls. It is here seen that, in the fifth year of the Charter, 
 after a pause of five months, a Governor is said to win " golden 
 opinions," because he lias discovered that three Native Gentlemen, 
 the most wealthy and respectable, may be placed '* on the road to dis- 
 tinction," by being nominated Justices of the Peace. Three persons out 
 of 400,000 ; out of a population twice as large as that of Glasgow, the 
 second city in the United Kingdom ! If there be no more Natives fit 
 for this titular office, what can be said for the Government ? if there be 
 more, what can be said of the mockery offered to them and to the 
 Natives at large by the parade of selecting three after five months' choice? 
 
 Such are the great and numerous distinctions showered upon the 
 Natives of Madras as the meed of unblemished lives ! As to their 
 masters, the European functionaries, the following is another signal 
 public instance of the sure and solid rewards which await, and which the 
 Governor in Council fails not to make an occasion for bestowing upon, 
 desert among them. 
 
 On the 8th May, 1838, the Fort St. George Gazette notified the pro- 
 motion to the dignity of Acting 2d Judge of the Court of Circuit and 
 Appeal for the Provinces of Malabar and Canara, stationed at Telli- 
 cherry, of the Criminal Judge who, on the 6lh April, 1837, just one 
 twelvemonth before, had reported to the Governor in Council his " safe 
 embarkation" and arrival from Mangalore, and the more than probable 
 massacre of all the Europeans and Sepoys by the insurgents! The 
 vacancy for this promotion was made, by sending the 2d Judge of that 
 Court, the same Judge whose public conduct on the Commission at 
 Mangalore the Governor in Council had stigmatized as "vexatious," 
 " discreditable, and injurious to the public service," to preside over 
 another Commission assembled three hundred miles off, and nearer to 
 Madras, a place filled, one would suppose, with functionaries as fit, or
 
 62 
 
 months, from his former letter the honour of a simple 
 acknowledgment, of having voluntarily sought again to in- 
 trude upon your notice. You will, he doubts not, arrive 
 
 who ought (o be as fit, as he for the duty ; by again sending off this 
 Judge at tlie hottest and most unhealthy season of the year, when it was 
 certain that he, or the Natives he would be obliged to take, must suffer from 
 the malignant fevers which, at that time, infect the jungles they would 
 have to travel through. Even this will, perhaps, be pronounced " too 
 bad!" But there was, as there is, in the same Court another, the third, 
 Judge, who, while the Criminal Judge of Mangalore (looking only to 
 time) has served ten years in India, has served twice the same number of 
 years in those two Provinces ; who, throughout those twenty years, has 
 never suffered a day to pass over his head without devoting a part of it 
 to the exemplary discharge of his duty. It is fit that the name of this 
 Gentleman, an example of public duty, conduct, and integrity, be known: 
 it is W. B. Anderson, Esq. of the Madras Civil Service. This act, there- 
 fore, the promotion of the Mangalore Judge, ten years his junior, but 
 fortunately brother to a Member of Council, having first accomplished 
 the punishment of the 2d Judge, was not considered complete without 
 the supercession and degradation of such a man as the 3d Judge, put 
 upon him in his own Court, and before all the Natives of the two 
 Provinces. Of course, in a few months, the instant his service expires, 
 he quits the country for ever, making way for a College-writer to govern 
 it, stimulated by the twofold example set before him. But can there be any 
 other design, in deliberate, premeditated acts like these, than to try how 
 the Natives shall be brought most to abhor, and most to despise, a 
 Government capable of them? Such an act proves, that that Govern- 
 ment holds them to have neither feelings nor opinions on the occasion. 
 What voice did make itself heard in Council I know not; after the ap- 
 pointment had been duly made and publicly appeared, it was sub- 
 sequently cancelled. 
 
 To show how utterly blind that Government is to the plainest indica- 
 tions of public feeling manifested by the Natives, even under its own 
 eyes, and how fatally ignorant and indifferent it will one day be dis- 
 covered to be, to all their opinions and sentiments growing up and 
 maturing around it, I cannot refrain from inserting an address, which 
 the Natives of Madras presented in Novr. 1837, to the late Governor of 
 Ceylon; an island quite distinct from the Government of India, and in 
 which six years of a wise and just administration have sufficed to intro- 
 duce and give life to public reforms and general improvements, so 
 wholesome and beneficial, as to have wrought a revolution well nigh
 
 63 
 
 with him at the conviction that, whatever may be the con- 
 sequences to himself, whether greater loss, or eventual 
 ruin, or the breaking up of all the future tranquillity and 
 
 miraculous in the well-being of the people, and have made them, as the 
 revenues of the island attest, and close observation will bear out, among 
 the most prosperous, contented, and happy of any people in the world. 
 
 *' To His Excellency the Right Honourable Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, 
 
 Bt. C.C.H., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Ceylon. 
 *' Right Honourable Sir, 
 
 " The times are gone by when those, who wielded the destinies of 
 India, regarded the welfare of its inhabitants as an object of secondary 
 importance, if indeed they considered it at all worthy of their serious 
 attention. The views of the former were opposed to the interests of the 
 latter, and thus the rulers saw reasons, arising out of the unnatural posi- 
 tion which they occupied with respect to the governed, to induce them 
 to suspect tlie attachment of a conquered people ; while to give addi" 
 tional magnitude to the evil, they looked upon them as too ignorant to 
 desire, and too contemptible to deserve, any consideration. A change has 
 come over the spirit of the times ; other men have succeeded these mono- 
 polists of power, and better measures have been substituted in the place 
 of a system of exclusive benefits ; so that a more liberal policy has at 
 length begun to identify the interests of Government with those of the 
 millions committed to its protection. The principles of Government in 
 operation are some of the causes of this alteration in the sentiments of 
 those entrusted with the administration of the affairs of India ; but the 
 country is chiefly indebted for the improvement, which has already in 
 part taken place in the condition of the people, to the good-will and 
 exertion of a few enlightened Statesmen, who, liberating their powerful 
 minds from theshackles of preconceived notions, justly base the stability 
 of this portion of the British empire on the attachment of the people, 
 and the prosperity of Government on the elevation of all classes of their 
 Indian subjects, to an equality with themselves in the possession and 
 exercise of political privileges. 
 
 "As Hindoos of this part of India, we exult in the prospect which opens 
 before us, and rejoice to number your Excellency among the benefactors 
 of our country. Though not immediately affected by the liberal prin- 
 ciples brought under your Government into beneficial operation, as 
 regards the welfare of the inhabitants of Ceylon, yet we know that their 
 influence cannot be limited to that island, and that the moral efl'ect of 
 your noble example will extend beyond it, and be felt in the councils of
 
 64 
 
 amenities of his private life, the time is imperatively come 
 when, to address to your Honourable Court the words he 
 used to the Government of Madras, " to preserve silence on 
 the subjects of this Letter would be treason to the People 
 of England." 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Honourable Sirs, 
 Your most obedient, humble Servant, 
 And in India, 
 Your faithful, devoted subject, 
 
 F. CBROWN. 
 
 London, 26th October, 1838. 
 
 the Legislative authorities of this part of the country, and tlius by its 
 indirect influence and necessary tendency, ultimately carry forward the 
 final emancipation of India; the foundation of which is already laid in 
 the recognition of the liberties of the people by the Legislative provisions 
 of the Charter. But in you, the Natives of India have had a zealous 
 defender of their privileges, and one memorable occasion in which you 
 prominently stood forth as the champion of those privileges in the island 
 of Ceylon, shall never be forgotten. 
 
 "Thus being endeared to the Native community, you are justly regarded 
 as one of the best benefactors of an ancient and numerous people, who 
 have adopted this mode of expressing, however feebly, their sincere 
 regard for your person and respect for your virtue. We, the Hindoos of 
 Madras, cannot of course represent the whole body of the Natives of 
 India, but we are confident that we are not alone in the expression of the 
 attachment and gratitude to which you have entitled yourself. — We do 
 not, therefore, scruple in the name of the community, to wish you a safe 
 return to your native country, and the enjoyment of every possible hap- 
 piness and prosperity, 
 
 " We have the honour to subscribe, 
 " Right Honourable Sir, 
 Your Excellency's most obedient and humble Servants," 
 ; ^ [The Signatures.]
 
 65 
 
 (Note A. Page 23.) 
 
 TO THE REGISTER TO THE COURT OF FONJDAREE 
 UDALUT. 
 
 Sir, Fort St. George. 
 
 1. I have the honour to request that the Judges of the Fonjdaree 
 Udalut will do me the favour to submit the following remarks to the 
 consideration of the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, with a 
 hope that he may be pleased to review the severe expressions of disap- 
 probation conveyed in the Extract from the Minutes of Consultation 
 under date the 24th ultimo, copy of which reached me on the 4th instant. 
 
 2. The Governor in Council declares, 1st, that he has a " very unfa- 
 vourable opinion of my conduct;" 2d, that I have "given way to pri- 
 vate feelings and idle notions of dignity;" 3d, that I have acted in a 
 manner which is " highly discreditable" to me, and calculated to " prove 
 injurious to the public interest;" 4th, that my proceedings are the less 
 excusable, as I cannot plead inexperience or ignorance of what was 
 expected of me; 5th, that my interference was vexatious; 6th, that I 
 have previously rendered myself obnoxious to the censures of Govern- 
 ment, for precisely similar conduct; and, in conclusion, I am warned, 
 that a repetition of such proceedings will be visited by a more decided 
 mark of the displeasure of Government. 
 
 3. The second of these declarations appears to be the most serious, as 
 it impeaches my veracity; for I am sworn to act on public grounds. In 
 the 9th paragraph of my proceedings of the 20th June, I declared, that 
 it was " not my wish to embarrass the Magistrate, or to interfere unne- 
 cessarily with the execution of his duty ;" and, in the 5th paragraph of 
 my letter to you, dated the 24th June, I (in reference to observations of 
 the Magistrate regarding "conduct not characterized by good feeling") 
 disclaim any other feeling "than what duty prompts." 
 
 4. As the Court of Fonjdaree Udalut give me credit for right 
 motives, on a view of what was submitted to them, the opinion of Govern- 
 ment may, perhaps, be foimded on something hastily introduced into 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 the Magistrate's addresses to Government, the language of whicli is de- 
 clared to be "objectionable." However the case may be, I trust that I 
 shall not be denied a declaration of the grounds on which the decision is 
 founded, if the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, on review 
 of what is already before them, and what I now submit, should still 
 adhere to so unfavourable an opinion of me. 
 
 5. As evidence that my conscience has acquitted me, and that I have 
 full confidence that even the Magistrate would not deliberately attribute 
 to me unworthy motives, I have to refer to the correspondence annexed to 
 this marked A., in which it will be seen that, on receipt of the observa- 
 tions of Government, I requested him, not only to state whether he was 
 of opinion that private feelings influenced me, and, if so, the grounds 
 thereof, but also to declare whether I had not, upon all occasions, co- 
 operated with him in the most cordial manner. 
 
 6. Mr. has not made so explicit an acknowledgment as I 
 
 expected. It, therefore, devolves on me to say, that I have repeatedly 
 brought to his notice good and bad conduct of his public servants, 
 observed on trials before the Special Commission, and that he has acted 
 in many instances on my information, in dismissing, or rewarding; that 
 I have communicated to him all information, relating to the rebellion, 
 which appeared to me of use and interest, whether noted on trials, or 
 obtained from private sources, — and that I have offered suggestions, 
 which my information and experience of Canara, extending to a period 
 of fifteen years, led me to think might be useful. In short, I have 
 omitted no opportunity of trying to aid him in his duty. When even 
 my authority had been opposed and was in abeyance, I informed him, 
 by a private note, (only a few days before I received the censure of 
 Government,) of the case of a boy, son of a prisoner under trial, and 
 only ten or eleven years of age, having been in confinement nearly four 
 months, and, thereupon, procured his release. 
 
 7. In proof of the above assertions I can appeal, if necessary, to ex- 
 tensive correspondence (chiefly private), and to the testimony of my 
 colleague, who knows how carefully I have studied to avoid irritating 
 the Magistrate's (to me well known) susceptible temper. The corres- 
 pondence which I annex, marked B., will show what my disposition 
 was, even at the time that our official difl'erence was under reference to 
 superior authority, and after the Magistrate's reflections in his return to 
 my Precept. 
 
 8. 1 confess myself unable to discover the grounds for imputing to me
 
 67 
 
 '* idle notions of dignity ;'' and I hope they may be pointed out for my 
 correction, as I disavow any disposition to assume authority, while I 
 consider it a duty to insist on respect for that which is clearly delegated 
 to me. My observation on the seal can hardly be alluded to, 1 think ; 
 for, as the Government have deemed it necessary to limit the size, by 
 printed Regulation, it appears to be my duty to require observance of 
 the order. I would beg a patient comparison of the terms of my notice 
 of it, and of the Magistrate's reply. 
 
 9. With regard to my interference being called " vexatious," I humbly 
 request a re-perusal of the whole of my demands made (in the usual 
 form of Precept), after two letters from the Magistrate had led me to 
 believe that he had not made due progress in ascertaining whether there 
 was even slight ground for detaining each person whom he had in cus- 
 tody. The first demand is comprised in these few words of the 8th 
 paragraph of my Proceedings of the 20th June, viz. for " a list of all pri- 
 soners who have not been brought to trial, the dates of apprehension, and 
 grounds for detention, according to a Form," which shows that the infor- 
 mation required was very slight : the second was ''to state whether one 
 Pudmaya Shetty had been charged on oath with any offence, and, if so, the 
 particulars thereof, as well as the date on which he was charged, and that 
 on which he was apprehended. If no charge on oath hud been taken, the 
 grounds for his detention to be stated." 
 
 10. The last requisition arose from a special application to me, after 
 two petitions to the Magistrate were alleged to have failed. So little 
 was I disposed to interfere, without actual necessity, that I desired the 
 petitioner to repeat his address to the Magistrate (as stated in the 4th 
 paragraph of my letter to you of the 24th June), " because it was likely 
 that pressure of business might have prevented the Magistrate from giving 
 attention to his first." 
 
 11. On making my other demand, I stated, in the 5th paragraph, that 
 " the Regulations, as well as the first principles of justice, obviously 
 require that the Magistrate should lose no time in making a list of all 
 persons in his custody, or confined under his orders, showing the date of 
 apprehension, and the cause for it. It is very possible that, amid so 
 much confusion, innocent persons may have been ari-csted." These 
 observations remain uncontroverted by any of my superiors. The 
 correctness of my surmise, that the innocent might be so suffering, is 
 proved by the case of the boy, noticed above, in paragraph 6 ; by the 
 fact, that Pudmaya Shetty, whom the Magistrate said (in his Return of tiie 
 
 F2
 
 68 
 
 24th June) that he had " informed the Government tliat it was 7iot his 
 intention to release," was discharged on the 15th July (as his brother, 
 the petitioner, informed me in open Court); that nutiibcrs were released 
 by the Magistrate, daily, immediately after he made his reference to 
 Government against my interference (but not before), that only lately 
 four Madras Coolies (who bought stationery for the public offices) were 
 released after having been confined (as I am credibly informed) without 
 the slightest ground for suspicion; and that in case No. 14, the 6th pri- 
 soner, a youth, was actually sent before the Special Commission, with- 
 out having been ever confronted with an accuser, and no one would, or 
 ever did, accuse him. 
 
 12. In the 6th paragraph of my proceedings, I showed that I had 
 consideration for the heavy duties of the Magistrate, and had abstained 
 from any demand for information, on the appeal made to me, nearly a 
 month before, (when I visited the jail,) because " the number then in 
 confinement afforded reasonable ground for conclusion that even a slight 
 enquiry, to warrant detention, could hardly have been held in all cases, 
 though even by that time much might have been done." 
 
 13. I proceeded to state, in the 7th paragraph, that I thought that the 
 time for interference was come ; and that I could " foresee no difficulty 
 as to making sufficient enquiry to ascertain whether any have been 
 groundlessly seized (a measure of obvious duty before this, as some have 
 been taken so far back as the 6th April) since the Magistrate, Joint-Ma- 
 gistrate, and the two Assistants, have all been at this station for a consi- 
 derable time." And in the lOlh paragraph of my letter to you, of the 
 23d June, I observed, "If Captain Le Hardy, the sole European civil 
 officer in Coorg, could send up 189 prisoners (who arrived here via 
 Cannanore, eleven days ago) with such particulars as I have required, it 
 can hardly be considered unreasonable to expect as much from the 
 Magistrate of Canara, with so many European Assistants." The Magis- 
 trate appeared to me to be wanting in method. The examination of the 
 189 prisoners, I had every reason to believe, was but an inconsiderable 
 portion of the duty which had fallen to Captain Le Hardy, who was 
 without assistants. 
 
 14. The only answer which the Magistrate made, to the demand of a 
 superior authority, which (in his Return of the 24th June) he admits did 
 " not contravene the Regulations," is this: "The Magistrate wishes to 
 avoid collision with the Circuit Judge; but finding this almost incompa- 
 tible with his requisitions, he has determined to apply for the orders of the
 
 f)9 
 
 Government." The 6tli and 7th paragraphs of my proceedings were 
 calculated to show him that I was open to reason. Had he, then, evinc- 
 ing a disposition to yield the obedience which the Regulations require 
 of him, complied as far as he could with my demand, and proffered 
 weekly or other periodical additions, I should have given due attention 
 to his representations, as may be inferred from the latter part of the 3d 
 paragraph of my letter to you of the 24th June, where I observe, " He 
 does not deign to represent his difficulties, and request my consideration 
 of them, and a consequent extension of time for making his Return." 
 
 15. In the 9th paragraph, I gave additional grounds for my interfe- 
 rence, slating that I was aware " that the Magistrate had a large body of 
 men under a Military guard, independently of 237 whom I found in the 
 regular jail of the Zilla, who may have no friends, or other means, to 
 bring the hardship of their cases to iny notice, and {consequentlij) before 
 the higher authorities ; and as, further, I had heard of most distressing 
 cases of despondency (which may naturally be expected when there are 
 such frequent instances of persons being led out for execution) I consi- 
 dered it an urgent duty to call for such statement without fuither 
 delay." 
 
 16. Having quoted Regulations and an order of the Fonjdaree Udalut, 
 whereon I felt bound to interfere; and the force of them not having 
 been questioned, I conclude that my interference must have appeared 
 " vexatious" with reference to time only ; in regard to which it was for me 
 to exercise my judgment, as prescribed by my oath ; the Regulations 
 affording me no guide, but, rather, strongly proscribing delay. Though 
 the grounds which I have noticed (in the 12th to 14th paragraphs) for 
 my thinking that the time for interference had arrived, may still be con- 
 sidered erroneous, I trust that I shall not, merely on that account, be 
 deemed obnoxious to such censure as has been applied to me. Even 
 the Bench of Judges of England, " learned in the law," frequently differ 
 in opinion, though unbiassed, honest, anxious, and under check of a 
 VIGILANT PUBLIC ; and, in every sphere of life, such differences are to be 
 found. 
 
 17. I regret that pressure of business has prevented me from pre- 
 paring this address earlier. 
 
 I have, &c. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Mangalore, Second Judge, Western Division. 
 
 31st August, 1837.
 
 70 
 
 Fonjdaree Udalut. 
 No. 282. 
 
 TO THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Sir, 
 I am directed by the Judges of the Couit of Fonjdaree Udalut to 
 transmit to you copy of a letter addressed to this Court by the Second 
 Judge on Circuit in tlie Western Division, together with the copy of the 
 correspondence which accompanied it, and which the officer requests 
 may be laid before the Governor in Council for his consideration, with 
 reference to the extract from the Minutes of Consultation, under date 
 the 24th of July, 1837. 
 
 I have the honour to be, &c. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Fonjdaree Udalut, Register Office, Register. 
 
 16 September, 1837. 
 
 Order of Government, dated 28 September 1837, on Fonjdaree 
 Udalut Letter, No. 282. 
 
 No. 918. 
 The Governor in Council sees no reason to alter the opinion expressed 
 in the Minutes of Consultation, dated the 24th July last. No. 668, upon 
 the conduct of the Second Judge and the Magistrate. From the tenor 
 of the former gentleman's communication to the Fonjdaree Udalut of 
 the 31st August 1837^ it might be supposed that the Government, in 
 censuring him, had absolved the Magistrate from all blame, whereas, in 
 fact, they are both included in the animadversions which the Govern- 
 ment felt bound to record on the occasion, and it is observed that the 
 censure passed upon the Magistrate's conduct is the stronger of the two. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Chief Secretary. 
 
 On the 30lh November, after His Lordship the Governor's return to 
 Madras, the Second Judge made another appeal, the courteous answer
 
 71 
 
 to which merits to be contrasted with the language of the first reply from 
 *' the Governor in Council." 
 
 TO THE REGISTER TO THE COURT OF FONJDAREE 
 UDALUT. 
 
 Sir, Fort St. George. 
 
 1. I have the honour to request that the Judges of the Court of Fonj- 
 daree Udalut will submit to the Right Honourable the Governor in 
 Council the following further appeal on my behalf against the censure 
 recorded on my conduct in the Minutes of Consultation of the 24th 
 July last. 
 
 2. I have deferred making it till this time, partly on account of 
 pressure of duty, and partly because I did not wish to intrude on his 
 Lordship's time immediately after receiving (on the 8th ultimo) copy of 
 the order, dated the 28th September, on my former appeal, it appearing 
 probable that on his return to the Presidency, many matters of impor- 
 tance would claim his immediate notice. 
 
 3. I trust, however, that His Lordship in Council will now be able 
 to give his attention to the subject of my appeal, and that he will deem 
 it deserving of his serious consideration, since it has been imputed to 
 me that I have been so regardless of my oath as to have " given way to 
 private feelings and idle notions of dignity," whereas I have asserted, 
 and with all respect I do assert, that I acted purely on public ones (for 
 which the Fonjdaree Udalut have given me " full credit"), and I have 
 requested that I may be shown the grounds on which improper motives 
 can be imputed to me. 
 
 4. No person of honourable feeling can quietly submit to a simple 
 imputation against his veracity. JNIine has not only been impeached, 
 as above shown, but my conduct has been pronounced " highli/ discre- 
 ditable," and I labour under a threat, the operation of which appears to 
 me to be avoidable only by entire submission to the pleasure of every 
 Officer, whom the Regulations bind me by an oath to controul. 
 
 5. In the twenty-seventh year of my service, under a full conscious- 
 ness of constant zeal for the interests of Government, a Judge of a Pro- 
 vincial Court for nearly eight years, I request merely that the same 
 justice which (under Section 16, Regulation II. of 1802) is the due of
 
 72 
 
 every party in a suit for a few rupees, may be accorded to me; my cha- 
 racter, the highest property of man, being the matter affected by the 
 decision. 
 
 6. My request, for information on the grounds on which I was con- 
 demned, has been met with the mere observation, that the Magistrate 
 was also censured, and more strongly than I was. That, however, I beg 
 to observe, can be no satisfaction to me, when urging my claims for 
 justice to my own character. I acted towards him, as I conceived that 
 duty required, and on his resisting, I pursued the course dictated by 
 Clause 3, Section 40, Regulation IX., of 1816, by bringing his conduct 
 to the notice of our superiors, that he might be dealt with as they might 
 think fit. 
 
 7. I therefore trust that His Lordship in Council will re-consider my 
 letter of the 31 st August last, and comply with the requests therein made. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Mangalore, Second Judge on Circuit. 
 
 30th November, 1837. 
 
 Order of Government, dated 3d February, 1838. 
 
 Tlie anxious desire evinced by the Second Judge to have the censure 
 recently passed upon his conduct removed, is considered by the Right 
 Honourable the Governor in Council to be most creditable to his feel- 
 ings and character, both private and official, and His Lordship in Coun- 
 cil, in allowing him the full benefit of the explanations which he has 
 offered on the occasion, is willing to believe, as asserted by him, that 
 l\is proceedings were influenced by zeal for the public service. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Chief Secretary.
 
 73 
 
 (Note B. Page 50.) 
 
 Lest I should be suspected of dealing in fiction, the following are, 
 word for word, in the original English, (a few unimportant clauses 
 omitted,) sanctioned by the Madras Board of Trade, presided over by a 
 Member of Council, the 
 
 Rules for the Collection of the Sea Customs of the Provinces of 
 Malabar and Canara, and for the Guidance of the Managers. 
 
 CUSTOMS. 
 
 1 . Duties are to be levied on all Exports, Imports, and Trans-ship- 
 ment of Goods, on British vessels, or on vessels belonging to Natives of 
 the British territories, or to subjects of the Native powers of Asia, and 
 to be subject to the following Rules : — , 
 
 Imports. 
 
 2. Duties on Imports are to be levied according to the value in the 
 Tariff. 3. The duty is 8 per cent, on the value. 4. A certificate from 
 any port or place under the Government of Madras is to be taken in 
 full, or part payment, of this duty. 5. These certificates, when pro- 
 duced, are to be examined by the Tariff of these Provinces, and the goods 
 imported are to be valued by our tariff; if they are more valued hy our 
 tariff, the difference must be taken, and upon the rowannahs, or certifi- 
 cate which is produced, must be written " the rates of duty," " the total 
 value," and " the total customs," and then a receipt must be given ac- 
 cording to this form on the old rowannahs. — {Here follows the form on 
 a stamp.) 
 
 Imports for Exportation. 
 
 6. Any person importing goods, and declaring he intends to re-export 
 them, must deposit the amount of the duty. 7. . 8. On the re- 
 exportation of such goods, two-thirds of the duty will be returned, if the 
 goods are exported in six months, passed through the custom-house, 
 •ucluded in tiie manifest of the export cargo, and in tlie same package 
 
 as imported in ; if not so done, then no part will be returned. 9. . 
 
 (These six months were afterwards shortened to three.)
 
 74 
 
 Import Duty. 
 10. Goods imported from ports and places not under the Government 
 of Fort St. George are to pay import duty of 8 per cent, on the tariff 
 price. 11. . 
 
 Exports. 
 
 12. An export duty is to be levied on all the goods laden on British 
 vessels, or vessels belonging to British settlements in India or Natives of 
 Asia. 13. The export duty is to be 8 per cent., except on the articles 
 which have a particular duty (varying from 15 to 18 per cent, on all the 
 most valuable articles of produce), and are in the list at the end of this. 
 14. The duty is to be levied according to the tariff price. 15. The cer- 
 tificate of the inland duty is to be received in part payment of the sea 
 
 duty. 16. . 17. Goods exported from one part of the Coast to 
 
 another, between Cochin and Sedashagur, having paid duty, are to be 
 allowed to be re-exported in fifteen days, otherwise must pay duty again 
 on exportation. 
 
 (Cochin and Sedashagur are the limits, south and north, of the two 
 Provinces, and include a coast-line of about 400 miles, or one-fifth 
 that of Great Britain. Grain and rice, the universal food of the people, 
 were not excepted from this rule, a sample of a Madras corn-law.) 
 
 Private Baggage. 
 
 18. . 19. Private baggage is not to pay duty, but it must be 
 
 really baggage ; any piece of cloth not cut up for use, and all things not 
 of the description of private baggage, are to pay import duty. 
 
 Trans-sh ipping. 
 
 20. Goods trans-shipped from one vessel to another shall be charged 
 with duties the same as if the goods had been imported. 21. As this 
 may be hard upon the traders, when they object, the Managers will tell 
 them to apply to the Collector, and state all circumstances ; then the 
 Collector will order according to what may appear proper, and report to 
 the Board of Trade. 22. Goods trans-shipped without permission of the 
 Custom Manager, or shipped on any other vessel, than mentioned in the 
 permit, are to be charged with double duty, and if done to defraud the 
 circar (Govt.), to be confiscated. 23. Applications for to trans-ship goods, 
 must be in the following terms. {Here follows a form of twelve columns.)
 
 75 
 
 Manifest and Port Clearance. 
 
 24. , 25. The commanders or supercargoes of any vessels, being 
 
 a European, is to deliver his manifest and port clearance at the Custom- 
 office. 26. The commanders and tindals of all vessels being Natives, 
 are to deliver true accounts of their cargo, and port clearance, to the 
 Managers at the Custom-office, and if any doubt of the truth, the Manager 
 will inquire of the broker, and if there is still any doubt of the truth, 
 must then make him deliver a list of the cargo according to the account 
 of the tindals, and require satisfactory proof from him. 27. After the 
 manifest is seen, and port clearance is seen by the Manager, and found 
 all proper, then he is to give permit to land the goods. 28. If the port 
 clearance is not produced, no permission to land or trans-ship from the 
 vessels is to be given, unless they pay fine of 25 star pagodas (£lO) on 
 given security for the payment of the fine. 29. . 30. . 
 
 Certificates. 
 
 31. A certificate of the export duty having been received, shall be 
 given in the usual form under the seal of the Collector of Customs, and 
 signed by him, or by his deputy, and countersigned by a sw^orn clerk of 
 certificates, and also signed by the Managers of the port where the duty 
 
 was taken, and sealed with the port seal of the manager. 32. . 
 
 33. Where certificates have the part payment of the duties in another 
 certificate- the amount so in part received, and the numbers of the cer- 
 tificates are to be inserted under the head of Government Customs 
 received, and a memorandum made of the amount, date, and number of 
 the certificates, and place granted at made at the bottom of the certifi- 
 cate. 34. . 
 
 General Rules. 
 
 35. . 36. The Managers are to take care that no goods are 
 
 landed or shipped, except at the place appointed ; and if they find any 
 so landed or shipped, they are to seize the same, and report the circum- 
 stance directly to the Collector or his deputy who is nearest the place at 
 the time, and await order. 37. Goods and merchandize which should 
 pay duty, passed, or attempted to be passed, without paying, are to be 
 seized and confiscated. 38. . 39. Any persons giving informa- 
 tion to the Custom officers of any goods smuggled, will be entitled to 
 share of the amount for which they sell. 40. The produce of the sale
 
 76 
 
 of goods to be divided in future, after deducting the duty which sl)ould 
 have been paid, one-half to the Collector and his subordinates, as the 
 Governor in Council pleases, one-half to the Custom officers who seized 
 the goods and the person who informed ; if no informer, all to the Cus- 
 tom-house officer who seized them. 41. When the goods seized may 
 be returned on receiving double or treble duty, then, after deducting 
 the proper duty, the rest to be divided as above between the informer 
 
 and the Custom officer. 42. . 43. The Managers are to seize any 
 
 goods landed, or shipping from the godowns of the merchants, or others* 
 without permission of the Collector, or his deputy, is produced on 
 writing, and report it as in Rule 38. 44. The Managers are to give 
 permits to boats to be employed in trans-shipping goods, besides the 
 permit given to the merchant to trans-ship the goods; and if any goods 
 are trans-shipped in boats that have not got such permit, they are liable 
 to confiscation. 45. The Managers of the Customs, and all other per- 
 sons belonging to it, are to do according to the Rules in the Boat Regu- 
 lations, and seize merchandize on board unregistered boats. 46. The 
 Managers must cause the Custom Peons to do their duty according to 
 the rules for them. 47. When a merchant intends to export, a durkast, 
 or manifest, is delivered ; it sometimes happens that the goods cannot 
 he shipped, and the merchant then requires back the duty he has paid 
 on that quantity which has not been shipped, the Managers are not to 
 return the duty, but to acquaint the merchant he must give proof to the 
 Collector or his deputy that he was unable to ship it, and then what is 
 
 proper will be ordered. 48. , 49, . 50. The Managers of 
 
 the Custom Department are to give good security for their personal 
 appearance when wanted. 51. If the security do not produce the per- 
 sons they are security for, then they will be held answerable. 52. . 
 
 53. The goods are to be searched, weighed, marked, and counted be- 
 tween 9 o'clock and 4 o'clock ; but as on this Coast the time of shipment 
 must, for the benefit of trade, be allowed when the boats can go off, and 
 in places where there are rivers, when the tide serves, from sunrise to 
 sunset is allowed as the time for shipping the goods which have been 
 
 examined. 54. . 55. . 56. The monthly accounts are to 
 
 be made up on the 25th. 57. . 58. . 59. The Managers 
 
 are to make themselves acquainted with the trade of the port they are 
 stationed at, with the price of all things selling, buying, with the 
 exchange of the money. They are to make all the people under them 
 obey, and take care of the circar (Govt.) interest; and if they do not,
 
 77 
 
 they are to acquaint the CoUector; they are not to be excused any neg- 
 lect, by saying, " I told to do so ;" they must take care it is done. 
 They must obey most strictly the orders they receive, and read often, 
 till they properly understand. They must take care that the people do 
 not throw any stones in the river, or build banks without permission ; 
 they must prevent people from building opposite or round the Custom- 
 houses, so that they cannot see around. They must see the boats em- 
 ployed in carrying merchandize are good and proper ; they must attend 
 to their duty, and, by so doing, themselves and families will get good. — 
 {Sic orig.) 
 
 E. P. Blake, 
 Mangalore, 12 July, 1812. Collector of Customs. 
 
 Rules for Levying Duties on the Trade of Foreign European States. 
 
 1. Foreign European ships belonging to any nation at peace with the 
 English that has got settlements in India, may trade with the British 
 sea-ports ; but if they intend to trade to Europe, they must go straight 
 to their own country in Europe. 2. Foreign European ships belonging 
 to any nation that has not any settlement in India, and American, when 
 at peace with the English, may trade to British ports, if they come direct 
 from their own country, without touching anywhere except for refresh- 
 ments or from distress. The papers of such vessels must be sent for 
 inspection to the Collector of Customs, or his deputy. .3. The above 
 vessels are not to go anywhere but to their own countries, and there 
 unload. 4. The commander or supercargo of such vessels must give a 
 bond, with the security of a merchant who lives at the port where the 
 ship takes the cargo, with penalty of 100 rupees per ton (£lO) that she 
 delivered the cargo in the port bound for; when the certificate is pro- 
 duced that such has been done, the bond is to be made null and void. 
 5. The above vessels are not to be allowed to trade along the Coast, but 
 may take in part of the cargo at one port and part at another. 6. A 
 certificate for inland duty is to be taken in part payment. 7. Goods 
 trans-shipped are to be liable to the same duty as if imported, but the 
 
 Collector of Customs may alter this, if it is hard to the trade. 8. . 
 
 9. . 10. . 
 
 E. P. Blake, 
 
 Collector of Customs.
 
 78 
 
 Rules for the Peons and Kolkars (officers) of the Sea Customs. 
 
 1 . The Peons employed in this department must be young, active, 
 and vigilant. 2. They are to find security for their good behaviour. 
 
 3. . 4. . 5. . 6. They are to take care that no boats 
 
 are employed at night, except by particular orders, or in case a ship is 
 in distress. 7. They are to search the goods, and to take care that no 
 goods pass but what have been searched, and are regularly brought to 
 
 the Custom-house yards. 8. . 9. The peons are to seize all goods 
 
 passing without paying duty. 10. Such goods they are to deliver to the 
 Manager, and mention all the circumstances; and then, if confiscated, 
 they will receive one-half of the price of them. 11. If any person in- 
 forms of persons smuggling, the Peons must assist, and half of the price 
 of the goods seized will be shared between the Peons and the person 
 
 who informed. 12. . 13. They are to inform the managers of 
 
 any persons who fill up rivers by throwing ballast into them, or build 
 walls in the rivers, &c. 14. They are to prevent any goods being landed 
 or shipped after sunset, or before sunrise. 15. . 16. When neces- 
 sary, they are to go on board of vessels and demand of the commander 
 to let them see there is no smuggled articles on board. 17. If any are 
 found, they are to have them landed, and carry them to the Custom- 
 house. 18. . 19. . 
 
 E. P. Blake, 
 
 Mangalore, 12 July, 1812. Collector of Customs. 
 
 These are the Custom-House Regulations, whicli I found strictly en- 
 forced in Malabar, on arriving there to reside. 
 
 The then Governor of Madras was Sir T. Munro. Some years before 
 (1817) he had visited that Province as Revenue Commissioner, for the 
 purpose, in official phrase, " of developing its resources ;" the resources 
 of India being developed not by the skill, the labour, and the capital of 
 the people, but by the periodical visits of the tax-hunter. It was im- 
 possible but that Sir T. Munro must have visited some of the Sea-Custom- 
 houses, as well as the Inland, and there have seen these Regulations. 
 This being the case, I conceived the best way of drawing attention to 
 them was to send them to the Court of Directors. I accordingly trans- 
 mitted an attested copy to the late Mr. Rickards, with an earnest re-
 
 79 
 
 quest that he would bring them privately to the notice of the India 
 House. Mr. Rickards informed me he had lost no time in putting them 
 
 into the hands of one of the most influential among the Directors, 
 
 this gentleman shrugged up his shoulders, and took no other notice 
 whatever of them. Nearly fifty consecutive years' proofs have I in my 
 possession, of the same ceaseless, persevering, continued attempts, made 
 by father and son, to render important services in every department of 
 the Government, without the least desire of notice or return. What is the 
 reward of all ? To be driven from my property, or to consent to live on it 
 upon the condition of being an object of scorn and contempt to every 
 honourable mind, and of loathing to myself. But that is beside the 
 present case. 
 
 It has been seen that the express orders of the Court of Directors, 
 the Supreme Lords of the soil, are, to begin by taking from the land of 
 India, as direct tax, " the whole surplus produce in all cases" and that in 
 money, determined by their own Collectors, without the least respect 
 either to the immemorial practice of the country, which always fixed 
 the demand upon the Native, in produce, or the smallest reference to the 
 great and regularly progressive increase in the value of money, as com- 
 pared with produce, which such a tax must inevitably generate and 
 perpetuate. The Custom-House Rules enforced show that, in the Ma- 
 ritime Provinces of Madras, where the sea is the only higiiway, the 
 indirect tax fixed upon every article whatever of produce, except the 
 most valuable, which are liable to 15 or 18 per cent., is an export duty 
 of 8 per cent., besides Stamps and Fees, levied upon them, when taken 
 from the interior coastways, for sale at the nearest port, if it be but a 
 mile; that this duty is again exacted if, at the expiration of a short 
 time, the produce remaining unconsumed, it is transported for sale from 
 the first to any otlier port in the same Province; and that if the produce 
 be transported, within the time allowed, for sale in any other Province, 
 it is there subjected to duty, as an import, agreeably to the different Tariff 
 of that Province. 
 
 In order to make the operation of such a system plain and palpable, let 
 it be applied to any other country in the world — to Scotland, for example 
 — no larger than many Indian Provinces. Let us suppose the Government 
 of Great Britain to take in the first instance, in money, the whole rental 
 of the land of Scotland ; to take it from every acre and every fraction of 
 an acre in every parish in that kingdom; to collect this money at every 
 county town ; and, monthly, to send every farthing, except the fraction
 
 80 
 
 (36 shillings) spent in each parish, to be hoarded in the Treasury at 
 Edinburgh : let us suppose that there are no roads, — therefore, no carts, 
 in the country; that all the inland traffic is by porters, with tolls at 
 every bridge and at every ferry, at which a Native with only a bundle 
 in his hand is considered as a loaded animal, and pays double toll every 
 time he passes, the European and his suite paying nothing. (Some years 
 ago, the tolls levied in Malabar, lying in the Treasury, amounted to 
 60,000 Rupees, a sum which, judiciously expended, would have made 
 many, many miles of excellent roads. What was done with it ? Every 
 Rupee was carried to account as surplus revenue !) Let us suppose 
 a Custom-House erected at the mouth of every stream, and river, and 
 accessible spot on the coast from the Tweed east, to Solway Firth west; 
 at which every article of produce passing sea-wards is stopped for 8 per 
 cent, duty, besides stamps and fees : let us suppose this to be called 
 an export by sea, and the same articles, if subsequently taken to another 
 port in Scotland, if from Leith to Dunbar, to be subject to a fresh 
 duty of 8 per cent. : let us suppose the article taken to any port in the 
 adjoining counties of Cumberland or Northumberland, and to be there 
 stopped, as a7i import, and taxed with fresh duty, besides stamps and 
 fees, according to a different tariff in that county : let us suppose the 
 articles to be so met and stopped at every port in every different county 
 coastways, all the way to London : let us suppose all the coin of Scot- 
 land so collected directly and indirectly at Edinburgh, to be transmitted 
 periodically to London : let us suppose that it is the return trade 
 (imports) from London to Scotland, placed exactly upon the same 
 footing as the trade outwards, which must bring all this coin back to 
 Scotland, during the eight months of the year that the Coast-Navigation 
 is open ; while, during ten months of the year, the Government is 
 rigorously calling upon the people in the remotest parishes and hamlets 
 to pay monthly the direct land-tax, and their tax on every house and 
 shop, in this coin, under pain of having their moveables and immove- 
 ables sold, and these failing, their persons imprisoned : let a man 
 suppose two necessaries of life, Salt and Tobacco, to be Government 
 Monopolies : let him suppose all these, only the most striking points of 
 the system, to be applied to Scotland, and then let him say whether 
 the marvel would be, not that the people were almost uniformly quiet 
 patient, and submissive under such a Government, but that the standing 
 miracle would be, that the whole country was not one deadly, perpetual, 
 endless scene of riot, insurrection, and bloodshed from one end to the other.
 
 81 
 
 There is that country, there are the people; let any candid, impartial 
 man, desirous for the truth alone, go among and question them, and then 
 let the truth of what I have here adduced and stated be gainsaid. 
 
 If, with the same desire, he wishes to consult on the subject high 
 modern authorities, writing above all suspicion of prejudice, partiality, 
 or local interest; discarding all preconceived notions, he has only to 
 read with patient attention two very moderate-sized works : the first, 
 " The present Land-tax of India," by Major-General Briggs, an Officer 
 who for many years filled several of the highest civil situations under 
 the Government : the second, " Notes on Indian Affairs," by the late 
 Honourable Frederick Shore, a Judge in Bengal ; whose untimely death 
 I conceive to be one of the greatest calamities which has befallen India, 
 and as a public loss to his country. 
 
 (Note C Pageol.) 
 
 Even such afflicting details will convey nothing like a correct idea of the 
 incurable condition in which these desolate countries now become plunged . 
 There is left in them nor seed-corn, nor plough-cattle, nor money to buy 
 them with. The Government is obliged to turn money-lender, and 
 make advances for seed, and cattle, and present food, to the remnant of the 
 population, taking receipts for the future repayment of the advance, 
 called " tuccavi;" the name by which this fatal remedy is disguised, 
 yet the only remedy there is to stay the pestilence. Of ten Rupees 
 " tuccavi," which the Collector advances, through the agency of course 
 of hundreds of Native officials, the starving village cultivator may get 
 three, passing a receipt for ten (or not getting one if he refuses), which 
 sum is entered against him in the public Accounts. The Revenue is 
 partially remitted for one or more years ; but " the Jimimu," as it is 
 called, or Jixed assessment, remains unaltered in the Accounts, as the 
 standard to be reverted to and demanded, together with the advance, 
 whenever there is a prospect of realizing them, all or in part. A very 
 few years are sure to brine; round a " crack" Collector, or a want of rain . 
 If the first, he issues peremptory orders, desiring all outstanding balances 
 to be collected, under pain of dismissal, to his Native subordinates; 
 and to show them he is in earnest, he carries every fraction of their pay to 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 1 thft public account, as revenue collected. This I have positively known 
 to be done. I have known arrears of 19 years' standing exacted by the 
 Collector himself. From the nominal debtors ? No, not at all ; they were 
 mostly dead and departed ; the arrears were exacted from whomsoever 
 was found in actual occupation or possession of the land. I have seen 
 these men confined for days and days together, until, wearied out with the 
 persecution, they paid the demand, and — then starved with their families 
 for the rest of the year through, while the Collector received the highest 
 praises for his zeal and ability. 
 
 If the country be a bare, open country, the recurrence of a failure of 
 rain, partial or total, is inevitable, in consequence of the physical 
 character of the climate, produced and perpetuated by the same system; 
 hence, as inevitably, a recurrence of famine. No Native toiling for his 
 scanty daily food can dream, under such a system, of planting a tree, 
 which would require 15 or 20 years to yield him fruit. If he were such 
 an idiot as to plant one, he knows he would have to pay assessment, 
 just the same, for the ground it stands on and covers. " When a field 
 contains a few tamarind, kikar, or other productive trees, you will make 
 NO DEDUCT] ON for the land under their shade, because the ryot (occu- 
 pant) derives a profit from them." — (Sir T. Munro's Instructions to 
 Revenue-Surveyors, Rule 15. Would that men of sense and feeling 
 would read all these rules and judge for themselves of their operation !) 
 Thus, the fact of there being a fruit-tree in the open fields in India (a 
 crab-mango, worse than a crab-apple) is proof' that it yields a profit ! 
 The Government, the sole Landlord, of course never thinks of planting 
 a tree for fruit, or shade, or for one of the ameliorating uses of soil and 
 climate, for which trees, in the wise economy of nature, are the indispensa- 
 ble agents. What then is the consequence ? The soil, incessantly cropped 
 without manure, becomes exhausted of its fertilizing constituents. But 
 the capacity of a soil to absorb and retain moisture depends entirely 
 upon its fertility, upon the proportion of fertilizing constituents which 
 it holds. As soon, therefore, as the scanty crop is off this exhausted soil, 
 the fierce sun darts down, unobstructed, and destroys and drinks up in 
 a few days every trace of vegetation and moisture. Then are generated 
 and arise the hot winds, the Simoom of India, sweeping night and day 
 over the arid, adust, wastes, loaded with fire and sand, making respiration 
 an effort, and existence a burthen. If, from some cause difficult to trace, 
 but certain to recur, the fiery blast continues to rage beyond the usual 
 months of suffering, the rain-fraught clouds, instead of being condensed
 
 83 
 
 and descending in blessed drops at the vvislied-for time, pass over, and 
 leave the devoted country a prey to all the horrors of another famine. 
 
 Although I have witnessed this result from partial experiment, I shall 
 cite in support of its inevitable occurrence, far higher and abler autho- 
 rity, and refer others, who may still feel doubts as to the universality of 
 a great physical law, or who think that the profound purposes of Nature 
 are meant to subserve the crude and cruel theories of man, to the his- 
 tory of New Holland ; where uniform experience has shown, that the 
 destruction of the trees in a tract of forest has invariably been followed 
 by the desertion of rain and moisture from the tract. (See Lang's 
 New South Wales.) 
 
 " The character, as well as the temperature, of a climate must depend 
 very much on the quantity of rain which falls, while the quantity of rain 
 and the vegetation of u country mutually act on each other as cause and 
 effect. This interesting fact we will explain by an example : 
 
 " Let us consider an extended plain of sand in any tropical country, 
 as Africa. The sun will heat the surface and the air ; but the earth, 
 accumulating the heat more rapidly and more permanently, will com- 
 municate to the lower portion of the air a greater degree of temperature 
 than it would otherwise have; and, from a well-known law, this heated 
 portion of air would ascend, and its place be supplied with colder air 
 coming from a distance, which would, in its turn, become heated, and 
 rise, producing a constant current upwards of hot air. Now this cur- 
 rent of hot air would prevent the clouds passing over the spot from 
 condensing by cold and rain ; hence no rain would fall on the parched 
 soil, and it is certain that, without moisture, little or no vegetation can 
 be produced. 
 
 " But if the plain consist, instead of barren sand, of some earth favour- 
 able to vegetation, the last would screen the earth from the accumulating 
 heat. Little or no current upward would arise; either clouds would be 
 condensed in the higher regions, and rain would fall, or the vapours would 
 be condensed by the colder vegetable clothing, and this dew would 
 accelerate the growth of fresh plants, till in time a forest might cover the 
 former naked expanse. These trees would still farther shade the earth, 
 and preserve its moistened surface from evaporation ; it would also 
 attract moisture, and consequently keep down the temperature of such 
 a country." 
 
 So total and complete is the revolution which is gradually being 
 wrought in the climate of Madras, that, for the last fourteen successive
 
 84 
 
 seasons, there has not been known what is called " a good Monsoon ;" 
 that is, there has not fallen the quantity of rain which used to fall every 
 year between October and January, and the perennial regularity of 
 which is attested by the tanks and embankments constructed there, as 
 generally throughout India on every advantageous spot, not only as 
 reservoirs to retain the periodical rain, but as vast basins to receive 
 swollen streams, diverted into them from running waste to the sea. 
 Coincident nearly with this change, in the character of the climate, have 
 been the visitations of the Cholera, whicli never wholly cease, and have 
 there been more rife and fatal, among the Native population, than in 
 almost any other region swept by the scourge. 
 
 Thus it is, as the impartial inquirer will find who directs his investi- 
 gations to that great country, the cradle of human civilization, that, by 
 uprooting the foundation of civil society, coeval with, and arising with 
 all its relations from, the institution of private property in tlie soil, and 
 incapable of being rested on any otiier solid and permanent basis than 
 the sacred and inviolable recognition of this right in the descendants, by 
 whatever legal title, of those who first felled the forest and peopled the 
 waste ; short-sighted rapacity, like the earth devouring her children, 
 is sure gradually to convert the fairest regions on the globe into little 
 better than howling wildernesses ; by usurping a dominion which it is 
 impossible for Sovereign Power, from its constitution, its paramount 
 duties, and its unavoidable ignorance, to exercise in any other manner, 
 than by entailing irremediable evil and misery upon the victims whom 
 it despoils, at the same time that it degrades, in the course of one gene- 
 ration, to the abject moral and physical condition, whence centuries 
 alone of struggles and of experience could have enabled them, or any other 
 people, to emerge. 
 
 The European instrument of this spoliation, sent over the waste to 
 hunt out land-revenue, but panting in vain for repose or rest, or stricken 
 to the heart by the fatal climate, beholds the scene with unutterable 
 loathing and abhorrence; and although stumbling at every step on monu- 
 ments attesting liie wealth, the industry, and the civilization of the former 
 myriads who peopled it, he doubts whether the beneficence of Provi- 
 dence can have designed such a country for the habitation of civilized 
 man. From blasted inanimate nature, he turns to the wasted forms of 
 animated existence he now sees around, cowering at his presence; he 
 denies that beings, who accept of life on such terms and conditions, as 
 living there as they live, can be possessed of the feelings and sentiments
 
 86 
 
 which entitle them to rank in the creation in the same scale as that to 
 which he himself belongs, and hence, incapable as they are of resistance or 
 remonstrance, he learns, by degrees imperceptible to himself, to debase 
 them by treatment, which his better nature would revolt from bestowing 
 upon the dog which crouches at his feet. 
 
 If from India the enquirer turn to Great Britain, in whichsoever way 
 he directs his regards, he will find that this same system of impolicy and 
 injustice is gradually enveloping and coiling round the permanent great" 
 ness and prosperity of his own country, insure, hidden, deadly, and inex- 
 tricable folds. If he look at the far West, he will see that the system has 
 forced into existence, in little more than forty years, one production alone, 
 the staple for centuries and tens of centuries of India, as it would still be 
 in supplies wholly illimitable from the unfettered land and labour of 
 one hundred millions of Natives ; and that Great Britain, not merely for 
 the continuance of her commercial predominance, but for the hourly 
 maintenance of her domestic tranquillity, is rendered dependent upon 
 receiving from America three-fourths of the cotton which America, by 
 tlie labour of 600,000 slaves, has now been brought to produce (1 ,600,000 
 bales); the possession of which staple, doubling as its growth there does 
 every nine years, must, in the same rapid progress of time, hurried on- 
 wards by the gigantic growth of capital, enable this rival to supplant 
 and ruin British Manufacturers in all the marts of commerce they now 
 frequent, as she already successfully competes with them in some the 
 most distant and profitable, those of Africa and China, 
 
 In the extreme East, upon which all classes of the empire, from the 
 peasant in his cottage to the Prince on the throne, depend for an indis- 
 pensable necessary of life, he will see that, by the proscription of the 
 fur cheaper cotton of India; supplied with which the British Manufac- 
 turer would, at the hour that is now passing, have clothed the hundreds 
 of millions of the population of China, from Canton to the Great Wall, 
 in peaceable, friendly, and most beneficial exchange for their tea; the 
 British Merchant is beheld setting at defiance, and waging armed war 
 against, the established laws of a vast Empire, for the purpose of forcibly 
 introducing into it, as almost the only equivalent he can procure, a most 
 pernicious drug (opium) which that Empire deems it a duty peremptorily 
 to prohibit^ as being alike fatal to the health and the morals of its peo- 
 ple ; he will hear the Merchant calling loudly upon his country to 
 avenge by the sword the personal insults and contumelies heaped upon 
 him, because this Empire, averse to war, yet mighty in its strength, will
 
 86 
 
 no more than tolerate a race of men, whom their conduct obliges it to 
 regard in the light of a band of hardened smugglers, nor suffer them to 
 inhabit any other spot in the country than a despised, remote corner of 
 a few hundred yards extent, nor to hold intercourse with any but the 
 dregs of its populace. 
 
 If the inquirer ask whence is derived the supply of this noxious com- 
 modity, if he demand, what its necessity? he will learn, that it is all 
 derived from India, that the Government of India it is, which retails the 
 poison to the Merchant, after first erecting it into an odious and vexa- 
 tious Monopoly upon the Natives, and that it is that Government which 
 defends and maintains the necessity of the monopoly by the declaration 
 that, deprived of this resource, India in its hands would be bankrupt ! 
 
 These are only a few of the results, in one or two branches of com- 
 merce, which await the candid and impartial inquirer after truth, who 
 calmly traces no more than the obvious effects of the system of Govern- 
 ment, pursued towards the Natives of India, upon the great and solid 
 interests of Great Britain; these are the results which he will find await- 
 ing his investigations; this is what he will discover, instead of beholding 
 such a spectacle as the world never before beheld, but which it would 
 now behold — the spectacle of his country flourishing as the seat of a com- 
 merce so vast, that her present unrivalled greatness, maritime and 
 manufacturing, sinks by the side into utter and worthless insignificance: 
 a commerce and an industry which unbeheld, exceed all the powers of 
 the imagination to grasp in value or in extent; but which would now 
 exist, made palpable to the senses by the certainty of living demonstra- 
 tion, if a course of enlightened wisdom, impartial justice, and strict 
 moderation had ruled India in leading subserviency to her own in- 
 terests, demonstrably proved to be the plain, the real, and the cardinal 
 interests of Great Britain: by giving to the millions of peaceable, indus- 
 trious Natives of that great country, all they asked in return for a 
 willing and cheerful obedience, and all that they now ask, entire secu- 
 rity of person, and the right conceded and inviolably preserved to every 
 other subject of the British Crown, whatever his caste, his complexion, 
 or his country, the right of tilling, unmolested by the Government or its 
 myrmidons, that soil, which the plainest understanding must perceive, 
 no Government on earth, nothing but the capital, the labour, and the 
 knowledge alone of their forefathers, could have redeemed from the 
 waste, could have converted into the property, which the Sovereign-lord 
 now seizes ;is his mvn, and have made it the habitation of man.
 
 87 
 
 But if such would now be the commercial spectacle presented by 
 Great fJritain, had this just and simple course of rule been followed, the 
 boundless moral and political consequences which are growing out of, 
 and impending in both hemispheres, from the rigid and cruel adoption 
 of the very opposite one, defy alike human sagacity to trace, and human 
 fortitude calmly to scan. For if the whole recorded past be any guide 
 in conducting us to a knowledge of what the ways and the unerring 
 justice of Providence will assuredly be in time to come, retribution has 
 inscribed it in the opfening page of Great Britain, as fearfully and as 
 plainly as the handwriting on the wall, that in this system of impolicy, ra- 
 pacity, injustice, and oppression, pursued towards a mute and defence- 
 less people, are being sowed wide as the earth and irradicably deep, the 
 seeds of revolutions, of convulsions, and of events which, in the swift 
 maturity of time and the fulfilment of a laboured doom, must sap the 
 prosperity of this Queen of Nations, and lay all her greatness low. 
 
 " Then come it will, the day decreed by fate. 
 How my heart trembles as my tongue relates ! 
 The day when thou, Imperial Troy ! shalt bend. 
 And see thy Heroes fall, thy Glories end I " 
 
 This vast and most melancholy subject, which saddens all the past 
 history of India, and darkens all the future with its portents, has, in 
 spite of myself, grown under my pen. 
 
 F. C. B. 
 
 [See Postscript at the end of the following Letters.]
 
 LETTERS, 
 
 &.C. Sec. 
 
 TELLICIIERTtY, Ji«j/ 31, 1837. 
 
 TO THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT IN THE SECRET 
 AND POLITICAL DEPARTMENT, FORT ST. GEORGE. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 It has long been notoiiods to the vvell-inrorined 
 part of the community, European and Native, thiougliout 
 Canara and North Malabar, that the real nature of" the 
 events which have lately occurred in the former Province, 
 seems to be known to all but the Government. The alarm 
 and dismay* which were felt and exhibited at Manga- 
 
 * Relation given by Captain Burtsall, of the ship Eamont, on iiis 
 arrival from Mangalore at Tellicherry. 
 
 " On the 5lh of April, while standing into Mangalore, I was hailed by 
 
 Mr. , who said, he feared that Mangalore was in possession of 
 
 the insurgents, and the civilians and garrison massacred. Shortly 
 after, I saw several other boats pulling out. The Harbour-master and 
 
 Mr. came on board ; the former said the boat, in which the 
 
 ladies had embarked, had drifted ashore and gone to pieces, and that 
 
 the ladies had been all night on the beach. Mr. came from the 
 
 garrison ; he said the enemy were momentarily expected, and requested 
 
 H
 
 90 
 
 lore, may possibly be held fo palliate the colouring that 
 was given to those events in the first official reports. But 
 the reign of such sentiments, one would hope, would have 
 been the briefest ; and upon their extinction, upon the 
 subsidence of even all imaginary alarm, one would suppose 
 that scores of official pens would have hastened to place 
 the plain, unvarnished truth before the Government; first, 
 from the obligations of duty; secondly, in order that no 
 generous precipitation should present the Government to 
 the world, as hurrying by its approval to identify itself 
 with a course of conduct which, since England has been 
 England, is believed to be nearly without parallel. 
 
 Sir, I know not how casuistry explains away this reserve, 
 whether under the name of a prudent reticence, or of a 
 discreet regard for the reputation of individuals, these in- 
 dividuals being public men, and their conduct public pro- 
 perty ; but this I know, that, in the language Englishmen 
 think and speak, such silence seems to be an unpardonable 
 tampering with the credulity of the Government; nor shall 
 it be said, while there is an Englishman on the spot cogni- 
 zant, as he believes, of the truth, and able to tell it, that 
 he also stood aloof, and countenanced by his privity the 
 
 aid. I went on shore with Messrs. and ; met two boats 
 
 containing and , and ladies ; directed them to the Eamont. 
 
 I afterwards met a boat, by which I wrote to my mate for the guns. Into 
 
 this Mr. got. At the mouth of the Backwater I met Mr. with 
 
 ladies in a state of very great alarm, ^^'e got to the position taken up by 
 the garrison at the very moment the lines (the Sepoy's huts) and some 
 houses were fired. Resistance was considered hopeless. The confusion on 
 shore vms great. 
 
 " On the 30th of March, three officers and 150 men, accompanied by 
 
 Messrs. and , went out to Pootoor, 40 miles distant, and 
 
 took possession of the traveller's bungalow. Large bodies of insur- 
 gents were on the heights. The party were besieged for two days, and 
 there being no hope of relief, and the water cut off, they retreated. 
 Tiiey were fired upon by the enemy from under cover, for about eighteen 
 miles ; tlie Subadar major, several Native officers, and about fifty men 
 were killed."
 
 91 
 
 delusion which is eiiteitained on this very serious 
 subject. 
 
 The most leading; and marked amonoj the events I have 
 alluded to, that which doubtless made the greatest impres- 
 sion upon His Lordship in Council, as it at first made upon 
 all who heard of it, were the attacks on Mangalore, " by 
 6,000 or 12,000 rebels in arms ! " I will not trust myself 
 with saying one word, upon my own authority, of this 
 occurrence ; but shall here insert, verbatim, an account of 
 these attacks given by an eye witness, a native of Manga- 
 lore, in a letter to his father then residing in tiiis town, 
 an account intended only, as will be seen, for the informa- 
 tion and satisfaction of the writer's own family. 
 
 Mangalore, April 15, 1837. 
 
 My dear Father, 
 
 I know that you would have been glad if you 
 had heard from us earlier, and I regret that I could not 
 write before, because the post was shut to us up to the day 
 before yesterday, and yesterday we had no leisure to write, 
 having to attend to our duties. I hope, in God, that you 
 are doing well; as for us, every one at home is quite well, 
 thanks to the Almighty. 
 
 I have never thought that Mangalore would fall into 
 such distress. It is a pity to see Mangalore in its present 
 state. The greater part of the inhabitants have fled the 
 country. Several have lost their houses and property. 
 The best buildings at this place are reduced to ashes, and 
 every man complains that he has lost something. I shall 
 give a short account of all that passed here. 
 
 On Monday, the 3rd inst., while I was in Court, we re- 
 ceived information of the defeat of a detachment of Sepoys, 
 who went to Buntwal on the night of the preceding Friday, 
 on hearing of a disturbance there. At the same time we 
 heard that Coorg people were advancing upon the town of 
 Mangalore. This news alarmed the whole town, and every 
 individual was so anxious for his safety, that some went on
 
 92 
 
 board Paltaniars, and others, who could not hire a vessel, 
 proceeded to the sea-sliore. Perliaps you will think we 
 were safe from the infection ; no, it was general.* We, 
 and some other families, among whom was that of our 
 neighbour ■ , procured a Pattamar, wherein we re- 
 mained from Monday night to Wednesday morning, intend- 
 ing to sail for sume neighbouring port, in case the enemy 
 should make an attack ui)on us. Every hour that we 
 were on board, we received information that "the devil 
 Apparampura was coming;" but one day and two nights 
 j)assed quietly without his making his appearance ; and 
 considering that the news were false, we began to be tired 
 of the Pattamar, particularly as the owners thereof, taking 
 advantage of the occasion, had raised the freight so much, 
 that each night cost us all about twelve rupees. We, 
 therefore, landed on Wednesday morning about eight 
 o'clock. We had scarcely arrived at home when we heard 
 that the Coorg people had marched as far as the other 
 side of the Oollaul river. To know whether this was true^ 
 I ran to the Marine-yard; and after I saw them with my 
 own eyes, I did not lose a moment, but ran home, and gave 
 the information to every one. We removed all the move- 
 ables from the house, and placed them in the garden, that, 
 in the event of the house being fired, the property at least 
 should be saved ; we were afraid of the house, because the 
 Sub-collector's Cutcherry was near, and it was very probable 
 they would set fire to it. Within a quarter of an hour the 
 
 * A gentleman wrote, " I liave had a long conversation with a smart 
 fellow who quitted Mangalore on Wednesday. His account of the pro- 
 ceedings is deplorable, and evidently pretty correct. Not the least 
 attempt at ' bundobust' by proclamations and patroles of Peons, during 
 the two days and a half from the return of the Sepoys, till the attack 
 was made!" 
 
 An official report stated, tfuii for the three days previous, nearly the 
 whole of the Judge and Collector s establishments had quitted Man. 
 galore, " and that the duties of every department had ceased to be 
 ■ petformed ! "
 
 93 
 
 Coorg people appeared, and halted near uncle's house ; and 
 here they are said to have made a bow to the church (the 
 Roman Catholic Church), and a moment before the Coorg 
 people were seen in numbers about 2,000 near the signal 
 staff'; and, at the same time, we perceived several houses 
 on fire, and among them the large house of Mr. Sheffield. 
 The people then advanced as far as the Court-house (old), 
 and then the Sepoys, whom the number of the enemy had 
 perhaps frightened out of their wits, and who were going 
 up and down the Old Fort, as if at a loss of a proper place 
 to take their station, entered Mr. Hudleston's compound, 
 and an Officer with some Sepoys went to meet the enemy, 
 who had now arrived near the Barracks; while another 
 Officer followed his example, and proceeded with a few 
 Sepoys near the Mess-house, where he halted, and fired a 
 volley of balls at the men, who were ranged near uncle's 
 house ; one or two men fell on the spot, and the rest 
 immediately dispersed and ran different ways; but tiie 
 Sepoys followed them, and killed many. More than a 
 hundred fell in the river, while they were attempting to 
 cross it, the Sepoys firing from the shore into the boats. 
 Those who came as far as the Barracks from the Milagres 
 side likewise ran away, as soon as the Sepoys fired at them, 
 but few of them fell ; but the slaughter was very great 
 among those who came from the BoUar-road. I pity their 
 case ; they were mere Ryots, and were forcibly brought by 
 the Ringleaders ; and I heard from a boy, who lay wounded 
 on the road, that the greater [)art of the men were inoffen- 
 sive villagers, and that nothing but the fear of death at 
 the hands of the rebels, not only of themselves but of their 
 family, induced them to join in the insurrection. Among 
 them I even saw some who could not walk but with the 
 aid of a cane ; others had scarcely any instrument in their 
 hands but sticks and clubs ; and one of twenty was armed 
 with a matchlock, and some carried large coythas, or bill- 
 hooks. Yet they were setting up such alarming " coooks"
 
 94 
 
 ur cries, tliat they frightened tlie town with it, more than 
 with their number of arms; and 1 think that that was 
 the best prowess of their military skill. But with all this, 
 and the extent of their number, they fled at the fire of a 
 few Sepoys,* who, had they known their courage before, 
 would not have suffered them to step into Mangalore; 
 but they thought they were the same that defeated 
 them at Buntwal. But that was a jungle and this a 
 plain. Of the second attack I have nothing more to 
 say, than that the Sepoys had more courage than before 
 their success on Wednesday ; the day of the second attack 
 was Friday, and we were at home on this day, but on 
 Monday we went near Pascoa's house. The fire of the 
 Sepoys did not last more than a quarter of an hour, and 
 soon the enemy retreated ; and since that day they have 
 not made their appearance again; and if they now make 
 another attack I should be very glad, for there is now suffi- 
 cient force here, and they will receive a good drubbing. 
 But I think he is not so foolish as to enter Mangalore now. 
 About 800 men with some guns arrived here on Wednes- 
 day last from Cannanore, and on Thursday we received 
 200 men with 60 cavalry men from Nuggur. Among those 
 who came from Cannanore, there are 200 Europeans ; and 
 this morninsf we have received a further reinforcement 
 from Bombay, consisting of 300 Sepoys; and 200 Euro- 
 peans are coming in the rear. Now we are not afraid, and 
 you must not have much concern about us. 
 
 I, and every one at home, request your blessing, &c. &c. 
 
 I remain 
 Your most obedient and affectionate Son, 
 
 TP •??• tF -w* 
 
 Excuse haste and the handwriting. 
 
 • A letter from Maugalore reported that, " after hard fighting, they 
 completely drove away the insurgents. Two guns landed from the 
 Eamont did tremendous execution." Of the two shots from the guns, 
 the Natives declare that one struck a tree, the other a house ; but the 
 report was quite enough, and sent " the rebels" scampering away.
 
 95 
 
 Such, Sir, is the account given by this lad of the 
 attacks on Mangalore, on the 5th and 7th of April, 1837. 
 I request His Lordship in Council to pause upon the 
 graphic picture of the occurrences, as detailed by this 
 impartial witness, prejudiced, if at all, in favour of his 
 own townsmen, and of his own superiors, and to compare 
 it with the narratives which have been transmitted by 
 others. In this there is nothing meant for the eye of His 
 Lordship in Council, nor for the public ; the writer, a 
 Native, describes what he actually saw, and describes 
 it in his own words, to his own humble family circle. The 
 people of Mangalore have dwelt in profound peace for 
 nearly forty years ; their town is the seat of Government, 
 and the capital of the Province, populous, wealthy, and 
 civilized. I ask His Lordship in Council to think, for a 
 moment, upon the state of entire disorganization into 
 which this town was thrown, of the tenor into which its 
 inhabitants were suddenly plunged, of the utter insecurity 
 and defencelessness they all felt, when all those who 
 could, imitating the example set to them, deserted their 
 houses and property, and took refuge in boats and Patta- 
 mars, or fled miles away ; and this too, two ivhole days 
 and nights before the shadow of " a Coorg" was descried ! 
 And when, at length, these formidable enemies did appear, 
 when these warriors, not one of whom had been seen since 
 the 2nd of April, did venture to come forth, with numbers 
 vastly augmented by success, even the writer of this letter, 
 who probably never saw 500 men assembled together in 
 a body, rates their whole number at 2,000, states that 
 only one in twenty had a matchlock, the rest bill-hooks, 
 sticks, and clubs, that the armed and the unarmed 
 trusted to their shouts, as their most terrible weapon, 
 that the greater part, poor Ryots, only waited for a dis- 
 charge of blank cartridge to fly to their homes in the 
 jungles, and that the whole body did Hy on the first volley 
 of ball from the Sepoys ! 
 
 All these facts and occurrences, detailed by this eye-
 
 96 
 
 witness to his family, indisputable and irrefragable as I 
 tinnly believe them to be, will appear incredible to His 
 Lordship in Council. Well may they so appear, and 
 would that they were incredible ! But the sequel remains 
 to be related, and I shall relate it the most succinctly I can. 
 
 " The Rebels," who compelled a party of 150 Sepoys to 
 retreat from Pootoor in the dead of night, were at most 
 170 or 200 men, armed with bad matchlocks, and pro- 
 vided with a scanty supply of wretched ammunition, and 
 about 200 or 300 Ryots, some of whom may have had 
 bows and arrows. 
 
 This fact is established by the testimony of Devap- 
 pah, the head Siieristedar of Canara,* who, with several 
 others, was captured by " the rebels " at Pootoor, and 
 remained with them nearly a month. But the same infor- 
 mation was given to me at this place on the 3rd of April, 
 by a respectable Koombla merchant, who had just arrived 
 from " the rebels." They had sent for him and for others 
 of the chief inhabitants, and asked them to join the rising; 
 their arms and numbers he and the rest then saw and 
 noted. 
 
 Satisfied with having driven the troops from their own 
 country, " the rebels" followed no further than Buntwal, 
 sixteen miles from Mangalore, the limit nearly of the 
 Jungle ; and no one who knows the people or the country 
 will suspect, that the former had any design of proceeding 
 further, even if the absence of all design were not clearly 
 proved by the fact, of not one of them having advanced 
 until the morning of the 5th.f On the 3d, I believe, 
 
 * Devappah and his companions were deserted by " the rebels" on 
 the advance of the Coorg Dewan, Bappoo. lie stated, on his return to 
 Mangalore, that they had not more than 200 stand of fire arms among 
 them. 
 
 f The prisoners, on their capture, said in justification, that they were 
 invited to Mangalore by the towns'-people, who told them there was 
 plenty of treasure, and no troops to defend it. Whether the excuse
 
 97 
 
 the unanimous resolution was taken, and all but unani- 
 mously subscribed in writing, by all the European func- 
 tionaries, of abandoning Mangalore, undefended, to its fate !* 
 Early on the morning of the 4t,h, the treasure (16,000 
 rupees, f not the powder with which the magazine was 
 filled) was marched for embarkation to the beach, amid the 
 bootings and revilings of the towns-people. Some of these 
 insulted, calumniated people demanded in the hearing of 
 the German Missionaries to be furnished with arms ; " they 
 would," they said, "defend the place,"J and received for 
 reply ; " Go, we can do nothing for you." A part of the 
 Sepoys, almost in open mutiny, to their infinite honour be 
 their conduct recorded, were actually embarked in boats, 
 and the whole of them, could boats have been got, would 
 have been embarked and, together with their Officers and 
 all the Europeans, would have arrived at Cannanore, the 
 Military Head Quarters of the two Provinces, eighty miles 
 distant, in the course of the same night, about twelve hours 
 before a single " rebel" appeared at Mangalore. § From 
 the want, however, of sufficient boats, the Sepoys were 
 obliged to be marched back to their Barracks ; such their 
 exultation, that one noble fellow rushed from the ranks, 
 and clasped his Officer in his arms!|| and Mangalore 
 
 be true or the reverse, their advance two dai/s (tfter sufficiently proves the 
 absence of all design on their part of approaching the town, previous to 
 its reported abandonment. 
 
 * See the official letter which follows, wherein this resolution was 
 reported to the Governor in Council, on the Gth of April. 
 
 f This is an error. The sum, I afterwards heard, was 80,000 rupees 
 —8,000/. 
 
 X This circumstance was narrated by the Missionaries on their arri- 
 val at Cannanore. The treasure the towns-people would not suflTer to 
 be embarked, urging that they would have to answer for it to the rebels. 
 
 § A party of ladies and children, sent from Mangalore on the 5th, 
 arrived that night at Tellicherry, ten miles further south than Cannanore. 
 
 II When the Sepoys were on the beach, and when in consequence of 
 the boats proving insufficient for them and for their families, the Bugle 
 
 I
 
 98 
 
 was obliged to be defended. What defences were thrown 
 up, I know not. On the following morning, the 5th, the 
 witless "rebels," trusting to the correctness of the news of 
 the abandonment of the place, brought to them on the 4th, 
 and not dreaming that a single European or Sepoy remained, 
 advanced with shouts from Buntwal, as to a deserted town, 
 received one discharge of musquetry from a few Sepoys, 
 and instantly dispersed and fled. A part of them, in at- 
 ten)pting to cross the river, having landed lower down at 
 Oollaul, a suburb inhabited by Mapillas, were seized by 
 these unarmed Mapillas, stripped of whatever arms they 
 had and of every vestige of clothing but a Lungouty, or loin 
 cloth, and bidden " to go now and make war !"* 
 
 Such is declared to have been the passage of arms at 
 Mangalore, such the defence with which the name of His 
 Lordship in Council is associated in General Orders, record- 
 ing his encomiums^ on the gallantry displayed against 
 
 sounded the Recall, the joy and alacrity with which the men marched 
 back were unbounded. 
 
 * This scene was related at Teilicherry by some of the Hindoo inha- 
 bitants of Mangalore, witnesses of it. 
 
 t "Fort St. George, Mai/ 9, 1837. — His Excellency the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief having transmitted to GovernTuent, reports of the ope- 
 rations of the detachment lately commanded by , from the advance 
 
 to Pootoor, at the requisition of the Principal Collector, to the second 
 repulse of the large bodies of insurgents who attacked the town and 
 cantonment of Mangalore, the Right Hon. the Governor in Council has 
 much satisfaction in recording his approbation of the persevering gal- 
 lantry witii which the defence of that station was maintained against 
 repeated assaults by superior numbers, and in the uncertainty of being 
 
 reinforced or relieved ; a defence which reflects great credit upon , 
 
 the European and native commissioned officers, and all ranks composing 
 the small body under his command. His Lordship in Council directs 
 tliat the favourable sentiments with which the Government are impressed, 
 by their steady and soldier-like conduct throughout service of so harass- 
 ing a nature, may be made known to the oflicers and men of the 
 
 regiment N. I. ; and His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief is re- 
 quested to call upon to furnish, for submission to Government, a 
 
 roll of those among tlie native commissioned officers, the non-commis-
 
 99 
 
 the numerous assailants, 350 firelocks handled by dis- 
 ciplined men, against 200 matchlocks, 500 clubs, sticks, 
 and bill-hooks, and 10,000 shouts ! Such the exploit, 
 which can boast, I hear, of having received the individual 
 thanks of so distinguished a soldier as the Commander- 
 in-Chief! — Five thousand men in arms! The whole of 
 Canara could not produce them ! The Canarese are not 
 merely unvvarlike, and unused to, but they are wholly 
 averse to the use of arms* : and as to 5,000 armed men 
 issuing from the jungles of Bellarrypet and Soolia, unless 
 men with matchlocks grow there like forest trees, or the 
 poor creature, Kallianappa the Ilnd., could raise them from 
 the earth by a stamp of his foot, I can assure his Lord- 
 ship in Council they are a physical impossibility. Would 
 that the Commander-in-Chief could see a few of these 
 warriors, examine their arms and ammunition, and look at 
 them, loading and firing, with an Elephant for a mark ! 
 
 But as a climax to all these incredible things. We, the 
 people of the country, We, the subjects of this Govern- 
 ment, have presented to us the spectacle, of the Officer who 
 commanded at Mangalore being the President, and some 
 of his brother Officers Members of the Court Martialf 
 now sitting there, and trying for their lives, the poor, igno- 
 rant, misguided wretches who, on the faith of the departure 
 of the Europeans and Sepoys, mustered up courage, and 
 came to see whither they had gone ! We see the Magis- 
 trate of Mangalore, the chief Civil Officer on the occasion, 
 
 sioned, and privates, whom he considers to have been particularly dis- 
 tinguished by their zeal and gallantry at Pootoor, during the retreat, and 
 in the defence of the cantonment at Mangalore." 
 
 * When those who took refuge in Tellicherry were asked, why, 
 instead of flying before such enemies as they described the insurgents to 
 be, " wild men from the jungle," they did not remain and defend their 
 houses and villages ; " Fight !" they exclaimed, " what do we know 
 about fighting ? We have no fire-arms, and if we had, we do not know 
 how to use them." 
 
 f The interpreter of the court was likewise an oflicer of the same corps. 
 
 i2
 
 100 
 
 committing capitally for the same oft'ence, before another 
 extraordinary Tribunal, others whom the summariness of 
 Martial law cannot reacli ! We see the Government, in 
 the case of the former prisoners, abdicating its dearest pre- 
 rogative of life and death, of justice and mercy, into the 
 hands of the Officer Commanding the Provinces! Good 
 God! Sir! what a horrible spectacle! Ilis Lordship in 
 Council does not know that public men, (there are most 
 honourable exceptions,) seemed to take leave, for many 
 days in April, of the senses God gave them ! Can I wish to 
 disparage an old officer like the Officer Commanding? But 
 is it not known that he, who has never been less secure from 
 attack at Cannanore than the Governor in Fort St. George, 
 wrote to a lady living within a few yards of a guard of 
 his Kegiment, that he could not answer for the safety of 
 her lamps, and advised their removal ? * 
 
 * The Officer Commanding the Provinces was empowered by the 
 Governor in Council to confirm the sentences passed upon the prisoners 
 hy the Court Martial, and to carry those sentences into immediate 
 execution, without reference to Madras. This Officer was nearly an en- 
 tire stranger both to the people and to the country; and I am aware, felt 
 himself bound to be guided in his measures and opinions by the reports 
 he received of the state of North Malabar, as well as of Canara, from per- 
 sons whose information and authority he was not at liberty to doubt. 
 That his persuasion, derived from these sources, and partly perhaps from 
 what he saw in the Madras Papers, was, that the Natives around were 
 generally disaffected and ripe for revolt, became manifest, by his order- 
 ing the Fort of Cannanore to be put into a state of immediate defence, 
 a measure that was executed with equal skill, judgment, and prompti- 
 tude. Nor was this belief confined to himself only; for the salutation 
 with which the Natives were received was, that they were " a set of 
 traitorous, treacherous villains, for whom hanging was too good." 
 
 But the question which the Natives put, and which they solicit to have 
 answered, is, whose letters and reports was it which thus spoke of 
 them, which raised this general belief to their prejudice, a belief calcu- 
 lated to set their country, without remorse, under fire and sword ? 
 
 " The extraordinary tribunal," above mentioned, was a special com- 
 mission, consisting of two Judges, dispatched from Tellicherry to Man-
 
 101 
 
 Why, Sir, what more certain, than that you and I 
 should be found with arms in our hands, defending our 
 homes and families, had we been deserted as the people of 
 
 galore, to try the other prisoners, under the summary provisions of 
 Regulation 20 of 1802. 
 
 As this Regulation is the Statute of Treasons under which the Natives 
 are attainted for their lives in the Presidency of Madras, every dictate of 
 humanity, as well as of justice, demands that its enactments be made 
 known. They are as follow: — 
 
 Clause I. ordains that, " Persons charged with treason, rebellion, or 
 
 other offences against the State, may, in particular cases, be 
 
 brought to immediate trial before the Court of Circuit, or before a 
 
 special Court," named and convened by the Governor in Council. 
 
 Clause II. The above courts, " consisting of three Judges and two 
 
 Mahomedan law-officers, or of any other nM»ifcer of Judges and 
 
 law-officers," are to take cognizance of these crimes. 
 
 Clause III. The Courts to proceed like Courts of Circuit, except that 
 
 their sentence is to be reported, before execution, to theFonjdarry 
 
 Udalut; and to be guided, in cases not provided for, " by special 
 
 orders." 
 
 Clause IV. Death or absence of any of the Judges or law-officers, not to 
 
 affect nor to interi'upt proceedings, even if no other judge be 
 
 appointed. 
 
 Clause V. The Fonjdarry Udalut to report sentence and proceedings, 
 
 and await the orders of the Governor in Council. 
 Clause VI. Magistrates to assist in expediting trials, and bringing 
 offenders to justice. 
 These are the whole of the provisions of the Regulation. It will be 
 seen by them, that the law is entirely devoid of every safeguard with 
 which the universal experience of mankind has found it indispensable, 
 in order to secure the rendering of impartial justice, to fence round the 
 life of an individual charged with a crime against the state. Without 
 the benefit of a Jury, or even of one independent Native Assessor, the 
 Native accused of treason or rebellion under this law, has no right re- 
 served to him of challenging any one of his Judges, English or Native, 
 appointed by the Government, on any ground whatsoever ; not on the 
 ground of competency, qualification, knowledge, prejudice, nor integrity. 
 Not a provision is made, not a precaution is taken, by which the accused 
 shall be made acquainted and furnished with a copy, in writing, of the 
 precise crime he is charged with, specifying the day, the time, the 
 place, the manner of its commission, the names of the witnesses, and
 
 102 
 
 Mangalore were? What more certain than that, as long as 
 we drew breath, we should never again trust their defence or 
 our own to the same defenders? We might as certainly be 
 
 the written depositions against him. Not merely wholly ignorant of the 
 law, but sometimes wholly ignorant of the language in which his trial 
 for life is held, and, in his Judges, perhaps seeing Europeans for the first 
 time, in this situation, in the state of mind in which he must thus cir- 
 cumstanced be plunged, without a friend near, and removed miles away 
 from his own country, not an individual of his own caste or com- 
 plexion is assigned to him, to calm his terrors, and support his resolution; 
 not a person is appointed, as an adviser, to inform his ignorance, to ex- 
 tenuate his guilt, or even to establish his innocence: nor is there a 
 precaution publicly taken, that the presiding Judges shall be sufficiently 
 conversant wilh some one of the native languages, as to understand 
 his viva voce defence for his life, and to detect the prevarications of 
 approvers, whose hopes of pardon maybe made to depend upon his con- 
 viction. And against whom, on the present occasion, was this law 
 enforced? The native letter-writer describes the greater part of "the 
 rebels" he saw at Mangalore, some of whom he conversed with, to 
 have been " mere Ryots, inoffensive villagers, whom nothing but the 
 fear of death for themselves and families led to join the insurrection." 
 This is his description of them. The following is the description of an 
 English eye and ear witness: — •" Some of them say they did go, because 
 their Potails ordered them; and they really look spooney enough to 
 obey such an order without thinking of consequences." After these 
 two descriptions, it is relief inexpressible to be able to reflect, from long 
 personal knowledge, upon the character and qualifications of the two 
 Judges, to whom was assigned the duty of trying these men. 
 
 But, as an index to the exasperated feelings which had been excited, 
 and which existed, elsewhere, it is necessary to revert to the instructions 
 which the Judges are related to have received from Madras. They were 
 ordered to depart, and commence their task with the least practicable 
 delay; for which purpose they were desired to communicate on their 
 way with the Officer commanding the Provinces, who, they were 
 instructed, would put them into immediate possession of the number 
 and names of the prisoners to be tried, their crimes, the depositions 
 against them, and the witnesses. This Officer, when applied to at Can- 
 nanore, wholly uninformed of one of these particulars, referred the 
 Judges to the Officer commanding at Mangalore. To him they wrote. 
 He proved to be an officer of the Bombay army, just arrived, an entire 
 stranger to the place, and left, as he replied, without a record, note, or
 
 103 
 
 seized with those arms, and taken prisoners by a posse of 
 valorous Peons, every man of whom, imitating the example 
 set to them, only more successfully, disappeared for 
 several days; and upon their reappearance, were stripped 
 of their badges, and told that the restoration of these 
 depended on the number of prisoners they should capture 
 and bring in! * What more certain than that, upon the 
 evidence of any two or more of these men, we should be 
 convicted, and if, in defence, we turned to the President of 
 the Court Martial, and said : " We are innocent, we are 
 not rebels, nor traitors; arms we had for own protection, 
 and it is you, who drove us to have them;" what more 
 certain, than that we should be led to an ignominious 
 death ? 
 
 Sir, let me earnestly implore His Lordship in Council 
 to recall this fearful power of life and death, of which 
 he has divested himself. Divested himself! He does not 
 suspect to what deeds he may be a party. The human 
 breast knows no such vindictive passion as fear. I have 
 witnessed, and others have witnessed here, yes here, in 
 Tellicherry, many days after the Bombay troops had 
 reached Mangalore, a degree of alarm so great, that not 
 
 memorandum of any kind, to enable him to furnish any part of the in- 
 formation required of him, and wliich he was described to be quite pre- 
 pared to give! In other words, the Judges hastened to Mangalore, and 
 found no prisoners for trial ; the senior Officer there, to whom they 
 were sent, could not tell them who were the persons to be tried : the 
 OfiBcer commanding the Provinces, he who had received thepower of life 
 and death from the Government, could not tell them. What informa- 
 tion the Government possessed, or could furnish, on the subject in their 
 haste for punishment, may hence be gathered. 
 
 * The predicament obviously was, that not one of these Peons 
 could be discharged. It would have been too much to make it a matter 
 of crime against these men, that after seeing their superiors first send oft" 
 their wives and children, and then follow themselves to the beach with 
 the treasure, thoy, the Peons, did not wait to sec when their superiors 
 would return.
 
 104 
 
 a hecatomb of victims would appease it! Will it be 
 believed, no, it will not, that the removal of the pubhc 
 treasure from hence, notwithstanding all tliat had passed 
 at Mangalore, was mooted and urged, the Assistant Magis- 
 trate being on the spot, and the Magistrate, responsible for 
 that treasure, within a few miles ! Is it not a miracle that 
 the whole country was not in a flame? The Government 
 knows not of, suspects not, conduct like this. Alas! Sir, 
 it does not, and it delegates away, without appeal, the 
 power of life and death I 
 
 I do not ask His Lordship in Council to credit, on mif 
 iiuthority, a word of what I have related. I ask him to 
 suspend his judgment ; to call for all the Mangalore trials, 
 civil and military, to read them, when he will see that I 
 have not related a tithe of what will be established by the 
 clearest evidence.* If ray entreaty could have weight, I 
 
 * The following is the confession of one of the first prisoners tried 
 before the special commission ; 
 
 " The consultation to attack Bellarypet was held at Moodnoor, in 
 Soolya, by K. Ramiah Gowda, the principal man, several Potails, and 
 all the chief inhabitants of Amara Soolya, in number about fifty. 
 Kallianappa came from the Poomaley jungle, with another Ramiah 
 Gowda, and about 120 armed men. The whole party went to Bellary- 
 pet; the public servants and money were seized 5 Soobryah was sent 
 with a force to Cassergode ; the rest advanced to Pootoor, and repulsed 
 the Sepoys. The rebel party here consisted of 200 armed men and 300 
 Ryots. From the Bungar Rajah's house, P. Antapi)a Slietty, and 200 
 armed men of Amara Soolya, advanced upon Mangalore. Many Ryots 
 
 followed. At the last annual feast at Adoor, Narsojee and a Caff'ree 
 
 woman, who were in jail at Mangalore, sent a Cadjan to Soobryah, in- 
 viting him to attack the town. After the jail was opened (on the 5th of 
 April), these two, with about 60 of the prisoners, joined Kallianappa. 
 Three years ago, Apparampara was seized and confined for eight months 
 in jail at Mangalore. He is the son of Rajah Appajee, liie elder uncle 
 of \'eera Rajah, the last Rajah. On his release he was directed to go 
 to Mysoor. I have heard that he was again seized and sent to Trichi- 
 iiopoly. Kallianappa was also seized and sent to Mysoor (Bangalore), 
 lie {this KftUianappd) is tlic son of tlic wife of \^ecr Rajiuider Wadya,
 
 105 
 
 would beseech His Lordship in Council, as he consults the 
 honour of his own great country, and the peace and tran- 
 
 an uncle of Apparampara's : the Kallicmappa, v/ho attacked Bellarypet, 
 is another person ; he is the son of a woman who was kept by the above 
 Veer Rajunder Wadya, and is about twenty-five years of age, rather a 
 fool, short, dark complexioned, and somewhat pock-marked. At the last 
 Nowaratree festival, three persons (named) went to Trichinopoly, to see 
 Apparampara; they saw Kallianappa (the first one) at Mysoor. He 
 told them to raise a force below the Ghants, that he would raise one 
 above. He and a merchant raised a force to attack Merkara (the capital 
 of Coorg). L. Narnappa, Dewan, heard of the plot from a slave, and 
 gave information to the Sirkar. Guns were placed in Merkara, and a 
 gentleman (a conductor of ordnance) fell from the ramparts and died- 
 The force not appearing, the Dewan was disbelieved and put into con- 
 finement. Raniiah and the others, on this failure, were perplexed ; 
 when Ramiah exclaimed, ' If even a dog could be found that was born in 
 the palace (of the Rajahs), this dog would do to raise and command a force 
 against the Government ! ' Munjya then said he would bring a person 
 that was born in the palace ; he went, and brought the Kallianappa, who 
 attacked Bellarypet. For a month before the outbreak he was lodged in 
 the Poomaley jungle. The Coorgs and the people of Amara Soolya 
 (the rebels) are in great dread of cannon. When a ship came with a 
 cannon, which made darkness with its smoke (the Hugh Lindsay steamer) 
 the news spread through Coorg in a moment, there being posts at every 
 three miles." 
 
 This confession was fully corroborated in every main particular by 
 other unexceptionable testimony. In truth, every circumstance that was 
 disclosed, every inquiry that was made, only added strength to the uni- 
 versal conviction, that " the rebels/' from the first, were despicable in 
 tlie extreme, as to means, numbers, and resources. In their desire for 
 succour they wrote to the French Chief of Mahe entreating that he 
 would join them with his forces, consisting of six unarmed Peons ! 
 
 This gentleman sent their letter to the principal Collector of Malabar ; 
 but I have strong reasons for believing that, in the faithful discharge of 
 his duty, lie likewise transmitted to his own Government a detailed con- 
 fidential report of every particular connected with the outbreak, which 
 he had good means of learning, botli from several of the Canarese fugi- 
 tives who sought the protection of the French flag at Mah^, and from 
 his being only four miles distant from Tellicherry; and that he drew, 
 for the information and for tlie reflection of his country, a picture de- 
 rived, not from words, but fiom iucouliovertible facts and occurrences
 
 106 
 
 quillity of this, to depute to Canara some functionary of 
 high and commanding chaiacter, and armed with plenary 
 
 that happened within his own sight and cognizance, in two extensive, 
 maritime and frontier Provinces of the Madras Presidency, of the opi- 
 nion entertained at heart of the strength, the stability, and the security 
 of the Indian Empire, by the body of European functionaries, who ad- 
 minister the Government to the Natives. 
 
 The Native, in his letter, says that the war-cry at Mangalore, 
 throughout the days previous to the attacks, was, " The Devil Appa- 
 rainpara is coming;" and that this fearful sound it was which led to 
 the general panic and flight. Throughout Malabar all the authorities, 
 European and Native, and all the heads of villages, myself among the 
 number, received copies of Proclamations, offering 10,000 Rupees re- 
 ward (equal there to 10,000/. sterling in England), for the apprehen- 
 sion of the principal rebel-leader, " named Apparampara ;" and 5,000 
 Rupees (equal to 3,000/. sterling), for the second leader, " named Kal- 
 lianappa." 
 
 No man will bring himself to believe, that these two proclaimed ring- 
 leaders of the insurrection, this Apparampara and this Kallianappa, are 
 no other than tiie very same persons who are stated, in the confession, 
 to have been all the time confined in jail ; to have been then, and months 
 and months before, the one a prisoner at Trichinopoly, the other at 
 Bangalore ! No Englishman will prevail upon himself to credit, that a 
 British Government, the Government of Fort St. George, or some 
 power exercising supreme authority under it, could issue and circulate 
 Proclamations throughout the subordinate territories, setting an enor- 
 mous price upon the heads of two unfortunate men, who both were, all 
 the while, prisoners in two of the Government jails ! The incredibility 
 of such an occurrence will defend it from belief. But most true, too 
 true, alas ! is it, as the following accounts will show : — 
 
 " Mangalore, 29th April. — The latest news is as follows : — The 
 Palmers are released. He was released by the Coorg Dewan, Bappoo, 
 who, with his people, were within an ace of the pretended Apparam. 
 Perhaps you are not aware tuat the real apparam is in jail 
 AT Trichinopoly. Our force at Nerunky burned a Mutt (a small 
 temple), with plenty of food taken, ditto prisoners, with sundry killed. 
 Our enemies dispersed in every direction." 
 
 " 30lh April. — How mortifying that all this alarm should have been 
 created by Apparam 's shadow! The true Kallianapa is said to he 
 IN JAIL AT Bangalore." 
 
 It is hence a positive, and now an undisputed, fact, as the confession
 
 107 
 
 authority ; who, with capacity to probe to the bottom, and 
 elicit, the whole truth connected with the late events, civil 
 
 stated, that both Apparampara and the real Kallianappa, " the two arch 
 rebels," were prisoners in jail, hundreds of miles away from Canara, 
 during the whole of the insurrection ! 
 
 The confession describes Apparampara to be first cousin to the de- 
 posed Rajah of Coorg. Kallianappa is not even a relative ; he is the 
 son, as it would appear, by another father, of a wife of one of the 
 Rajah's uncles. Yet these two men, void of any other offence than the 
 foregoing, the one of being a Prince, and a male heir to the Raj, the 
 other, a man of birth and note ; Apparampara, in the people's belief, the 
 rightful heir, in common with the other members of the last Rajah's 
 family, to a sum of about twelve or fourteen lacs of Rupees, which had 
 long been invested in Company's paper, of every Rea of which the 
 family have been stripped; these two men are seized, transferred from 
 jail to jail, and confined without trial, as felon-prisoners, upon a Magis- 
 trate's warrant; they are thus treated, it appears, because fly where they 
 would. East, North, South, they must fly to, and be found in, the Com- 
 pany's territories. There remained to them, it is true, one refuge, one 
 escape from a dungeon: there was the friendly sea on the West; this 
 was open to them, into which to plunge and forget that Heaven had once 
 given them rank, station, wealth, a country, kindred, and a home ! From 
 the treatment dealt to these men, it may perhaps be conjectured that 
 the detestation manifested by the Coorgs to the Government may not be 
 wholly without foundation ; it may be thought, that the intensity of 
 bitter hatred expressed by the chief man among a wild, ignorant, people, 
 when he exclaimed, " Let but a palace-born dog be found, and he xuill 
 head us to shake off this yoke!" is not entirely without cause. Since 
 the suppression of the outbreak, they have repeatedly told the Governor- 
 General and the Governor of Madras, that, " come what may," they will 
 not continue subject, for another three years, to the Courts and Cutcheries 
 of Canara. 
 
 With regard to Kallianappa the second, he who actually came to Man- 
 galore ; on the dispersion of his followers, he was speedily taken, and 
 arraigned before the Court Martial, when he proved to be, as he had 
 been described, a poor, ignorant, simple-minded young man, whose pre- 
 tension to be made the nominal leader of the rebels consisted in his 
 having been born in the Palace of an obscure Concubine, and in his 
 name being Kallianappa. He told his story without guile or disguise. 
 He said he was living in quiet and obscurity, when he was taken to, and 
 kept in, the Jungle where the Gowdas and Potails had assembled; that
 
 108 
 
 and military,* shall have the firmness and manliness to 
 declare it without respect to persons. Surely were an 
 
 they told him he must be their Rajah : whereupon they set him on 
 a horse, and as he had never been on one before, they tied his legs to 
 prevent him from falling off, and paraded him up and down ; that he was 
 a mere puppet, meant no harm, and endeavoured, to the degree in his 
 power, to prevent harm being done by others, and that, whatever he 
 had himself, rice or money, he gave to Dr. and Mrs. Palmer, and to the 
 Collector's servants, who were prisoners, and hiding with him in the 
 Jungle. His story was not disputed. It also came out that he had re- 
 fused to suffer Mrs. Palmer's Palankeen-bearers to leave her and her 
 child, saying, they were that lady's servants, and must remain as long 
 as she wanted them. Inquiry would have shown, that if the first rising 
 had taken place, as contemplated, this Kallianappa would never have 
 been heard of. He was condemned by the Court Martial, and, without 
 reference to Madras, executed. 
 
 * The greater part of a Bombay regiment, amounting to about 400 
 men and Officers, with a Joint-Magistrate at their head, were sent to, and 
 kept for many days, at Cassergode, a coast-town thirty-five miles south 
 of Mangalore, with orders not to act but in repelling an attack : and 
 this at a time when a traveller passing through that part of the country 
 wrote — "All is as quiet as if the street were covered with straw!" 
 Several Rajahs, living a few miles distant, wrote to Mangalore, com- 
 plaining of being deserted, and stating that not one of the ordinary 
 public Officers had been near them since the first outbreak. The Rajahs 
 received no answer. They then addressed the Joint-Magistrate ; he said 
 he would forward their remonstrance to the Huzzoor (the Presence). 
 One of the Rajahs showed a Mangalore Proclamation, offering 1,000 
 Rupees reward for the apprehension of certain persons who, it was 
 stated, "Tiad assembled with bad intentions," but apparently without 
 names, for names they had none ! The people in South Canara appeared 
 to think their plight had been considered too bad for remedy, and hence 
 all attempt at protecting them withheld; or, as was said, "theSirkar 
 seemed dead, and his servants discharged." They contrasted their situ- 
 ation with that of their neighbours in North Malabar. The Magistrate 
 there, Mr. Clementson, left witiiout one European Assistant, immediately 
 dispatched Sheristedar K. Karnagara Menon, one of the best known and 
 most influential men in the country, with instructions to see all the Rajahs 
 and principal men, to inform them that he was in the neighbourhood 
 (at Cannanore), and assure them they had nothing whatever to fear 
 from anything that had occurred in Canara, — a mission which the Sheris- 
 tedar faithfully, ably, and most diligently executed.
 
 109 
 
 angel to descend from heaven, his Lordship in Council will 
 not beheve, that a few wild, untutored men, dwelling in 
 their jungles and mountains, who never heard of the name 
 of war until three years ago, when they beheld their 
 Swamee, their God as they called their Rajah, the Rajah 
 of Coorg, hurled in three days from his throne by the 
 British power, as an elephant tramples down a worm, that 
 such men could have worked themselves up to face that 
 power, unless goaded on by the sense of some intolerable 
 wrong or oppression ! They would have as soon thought of 
 facing the thunderbolt. But this letter, rather than the 
 subject, demands an end. 1 shall close it with the follow- 
 ing questions : — ^Is what I have stated true? If true, does 
 it concern the Governor in Council of Madras, more than 
 all men, to know it? 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 F. C. Brown. 
 
 FROM THE ZILLAII AND CRIMINAL JUDGE OF CANARA, 
 TO THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT, FORT 
 ST. GEORGE. 
 
 Cunnanore, 6th April, 1837. 
 Sir, 
 
 I REGRET to have to notify, for the information of 
 the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, intelligence 
 of the most disastrous nature, and which from the conse- 
 quences likely to accrue from it must, I have every reason 
 to believe, be attended with a vast loss of life, both to the 
 Civil and Military Departments of the Government, and
 
 110 
 
 which, from the entire stop put by the rebels to all com- 
 munication by Tappal from Mangalore, will probably be 
 the first intimation Government can receive on the subject: 
 consequently, I will attempt to lay before the Right Honour- 
 able the Governor in Council, the whole of the particulars, 
 commencing from the period the INIilitary were first called 
 out, until the hour I left Mangalore ; viz. two o'clock on 
 Wednesday the 5th of April. 
 
 On the night (ten o'clock) of the 30th of March, the 
 
 Collector of the district, Mr. , without having the 
 
 slightest idea of any spirit of disaffection existing in the 
 district, received information from a Tahsildar of a Talook 
 of the territory bordering upon the confines belonging to the 
 late Rajah of Coorg, that numbers of the inhabitants of the 
 Coorg country had suddenly risen, and taken possession of 
 the treasure, amounting to about 15,000 rupees, together 
 with the Head Sheristedar* and his cutcherry of servants, 
 who were on Jummabandy at the place. Mr. , with- 
 out a moment's hesitation, together with his head Assistant, 
 
 Mr. , Major , and three officers of the 
 
 Regiment of N. I., with about 150 rank and file, pro- 
 ceeded, by forced marches, to the place called Pootoor, 
 where the rebels were said to be assembled, and found 
 them in numbers too strong to attack them openly. They 
 consequently took up a position in a mud Bungalow where 
 they remained, I believe, for upwards of twelve hours; but 
 finding their men were gradually diminishing, f and the 
 rebels opposed to them collecting, it was deemed advisable 
 to retreat, and after having experienced hardships of every 
 description, they were enabled to reach Mangalore on the 
 
 evening of the 3rd : and the morning of the 4th, Mr. 
 
 received hourly information of the advance of the rebels, 
 
 * Devappah already mentioned. 
 
 f The diminution in numbers previous to the retreat, I am unable 
 to state.
 
 Ill 
 
 from three sides, upon the town of Mangalore, and that 
 two of his treasuries in the district had been looted of all 
 that was in them ; that the whole country in the imme- 
 diate vicinity was in possession of the insurgents, who 
 were reported to be assembled in number about 10,000 or 
 12,000, and determined to take Mangalore. A consulta- 
 tion was then held as to the proper mode of proceeding, 
 and it was the unanimous opinion, that as the greater part 
 of the inhabitants had left Mangalore ; that as the united 
 number of the effective Sepoys amounted only to 270 or 
 280 men;* that as all communication had been cut off, + 
 and no reasonable probability could exist of our being 
 speedily relieved by the arrival of troops ; that for the 
 preservation of the lives of the Servants of the Government, 
 the Sepoys, their families, and the Treasure in the place, 
 an attempt should be made to remove the whole on board 
 boats, and, abandoning the place, to proceed to Cannanore. 
 
 The attempt was made, but owing to the want of boats 
 and accommodation in sufficient numbers, it failed, and 
 the Barracks on the parade ground, selected as the strongest 
 yjosition to which the Treasure should be removed, and with 
 the Sepoys and Peons, was occupied by us during the night 
 of the 4th. That night passed without an attack being 
 made, and with nothing worthy of remark save two fires in 
 the town — considered to be the work of a parly of Moplas, 
 apparently in league with the insurgents. 
 
 The reports still continued, that men were advancing in 
 
 * The Honore detachment of about 70 men, reached Mangalore by 
 sea on the 6lh of April. Mr. E. Maltby, the Joint-Magistrate there, 
 lost not a moment in despatching every man of them to the aid of the 
 place. 
 
 f This must be an oversight. The communication by sea, north or 
 south, was not interrupted for one moment since, as the sentence states, 
 the abandonment of Mangalore, in bouts (meaning coasting vessels) " by 
 the Servants of Government and the Sepoys,'' was unanimously deter- 
 mined on, and foiled onl^for want ofboafs.
 
 112 
 
 numbers upon the town ; and a flag of distress, hoisted at 
 the signal-staff, attracted the attention of a vessel passing 
 
 in the offing, which came to an anchor ; and on Mr. 's 
 
 requisition, the Captain (Burtsal of the Eamont) dis- 
 patched from his vessel two six- pounders with shot. I 
 have reason, however, to believe, that the place where these 
 guns must have been landed, being in possession of the 
 insurgents, who had suddenly come up that side (in num- 
 ber about 500, armed with guns and matchlocks), that our 
 troops were never in possession of them. 
 
 It will now be necessary for me to inform the Right 
 Honourable the Governor in Council of the cause of the 
 
 Assistant Judge of the Adawlut, Mr. , and myself, 
 
 having arrived this day at Cannanore ; and I have merely 
 to state that, on returning from placing our families, and 
 those of other residents, on board a boat to be sent to 
 Tellicherry, and while at the mouth of the bar, within a 
 few yards of the landing place, at about one p. m., we per- 
 ceived the Coorg rebels coming up along the shore, as 
 above alluded to, and almost at the same moment our own 
 houses, the Court-hcuse, the Collector's Cutcherry, with 
 several other parts of the town, in a simultaneous flame. 
 We shortly after heard sounds of muskets, and the blowing 
 up of the Magazine;* and, consequently, feeling con- 
 
 * It is consoling to know that the writer was deceived ; the Maga- 
 zine was never once in the least danger. The number of houses 
 destroyed was, I believe, eighteen. He will forgive a stranger for 
 observing, that the houses he speaks of, the Court House, and the 
 Collector's Cutcherry, form no part of the town. They are from one 
 to two miles distant. Except his own, and the Sub-Collector's house, 
 the latter near the lines, which were thatched and easily fired from with- 
 out, all the others are solid, tiled buildings, placed on commanding emi- 
 nences; and if I add, that they were readily defensible against those 
 who assailed them, I only express the opinions uttered by all persons 
 who know the buildings and their situation. It will not surprise that, 
 when found open and deserted, the latter were first plundered at leisure, 
 and then fired from within by the rabble.
 
 113 
 
 fident that nothing but certain death most assuredly must 
 take place, and no possibility of joining our comrades to be 
 expected, we prevailed on our boatmen to take us through 
 the bar, at the imminent risk of being shot by the men who 
 were ranged along the shore, and fortunately effected a safe 
 embarkation on the ship Eamont, which has this hour 
 brought us to Cannanore. 
 
 After coming on board, we tacked on and off Mangalore, 
 in the hope of some of our unfortunate friends being enabled 
 to effect an escape, and joining us ; but, with the exception 
 of some ladies and a few others, I believe no one had been 
 
 enabled to do so. At the period when Mr. and 
 
 myself left the shore, 11 a.m, there appeared to be no 
 more immediate apprehension of the rebels coming down 
 upon the town, than there had been for the last two days ; 
 but the simultaneous ignition of all parts of the town, the 
 pouring in of the rebels from the three sides, at one and the 
 same hour, evinces a plan of arrangement little to have been 
 foreseen or apprehended. 
 
 The Captain of the vessel who had gone on shore, and 
 who effected his retreat about half an hour subsequently 
 to us, states that he did so with the greatest degree of 
 difficulty, and thinking that the particulars of what he saw 
 up to the minute of embarkation, would be more satisfac- 
 tory to the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, it 
 has been taken down in his own words, and accompanies 
 this communication. 
 
 From a Proclamation issued by the rebels, I am inclined 
 to believe that two individuals belonging to the late Rajah's 
 Government, styling themselves Apparampara Swami and 
 Kenchup Naique, are at the head of the insurrection ; but 
 I am at a loss to imagine what their ultimate expectation 
 or intention, with regard to remaining in possession of our 
 territory, can be, inasmuch as their system hitherto, as far 
 as we were able to ascertain^ has been to place their seals 
 together with our own, on our district Cutcherries and 
 
 K
 
 114 
 
 Treasuries, and offer service to the Potails and servants 
 employed by us. 
 
 In conclusion, I must not omit to bring to the notice of 
 the Right Honourable the Governor in Council, the kind 
 and anxious exertions of Captain Burtsal, of the ship 
 Eaniont, now on her way to Madras, who, at his own per- 
 sonal risk, at the requisition of the Collector, landed his 
 Guns and Muskets, and where, after remaining as long as 
 practicable, in the hope of saving the lives of those who 
 might be fortunate enough to effect an escape, has hurried 
 down to land us at Cannanore, in order to furnish this 
 important and disastrous information to the Commandant 
 of the district with the least practicable delay. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 * # * # 
 Judge and Criminal Judge. 
 
 Captain Burtsal, who was the last on shore, has kindly 
 allowed me to take down the particulars of the state in 
 which he left the Cantonment at Mangalore. 
 
 " Upon my landing at Mangalore, in company with 
 Lieut. Cotton of the Madras Cavalry,* we immediately 
 proceeded to the spot where the Sepoys were drawn out in 
 line, and found that the lines had been attacked and set 
 on fire, and musket shots were passing in several directions. 
 
 The Collector, Mr. , and several other European 
 
 Gentlemen, were collected, and on his inquiring what 
 
 * The conduct of this Officer, Lieutenant Cotton, cannot be too 
 generally known. He was a passenger on the Eamont, in bad health, 
 going from Bombay to Madras. No sooner did he hear that some of his 
 comrades on shore were in danger, than he insisted on instantly joining, 
 and remaining with them, although told that he " would only share their 
 hopeless fate." He it was who, on landing, if I am rightly informed, led 
 a party of Sepoys to the attack of the insurgents.
 
 115 
 
 assistance I could afford him, I replied that the two Guns 
 and a few Muskets, which were then on their way to the 
 shore, was the only aid in my power. After remaining 
 there a short time, and finding I could be of no service, I 
 returned to the boat by the advice of Lieut. Cotton, who 
 insisted upon remaining. I then got into my boat, and 
 remained there for some time, expecting to be able to effect 
 the escape of some of the Gentlemen of the place. Finding, 
 however, no one approach, and hearing from several who 
 came down to the shore that all had been massacred, and 
 that the rebels were mustering at the bar of the river, 
 through which I had to pass, I made the best of my way 
 out, and in doing so counted 32 men armed with match- 
 locks, who twice pointed them with the intention of firing 
 at us, and latterly launched two canoes, which followed us 
 to some distance. From what I saw of the confusion, and 
 subsequent reports, together with the ceasing of the mus- 
 kets, and the simultaneous ignition of so many parts of the 
 town, I have little doubt but what I heard prior to leaving 
 was authentic, and all had fallen." 
 
 (Signed) A. Burtsal. 
 
 FROM THE REGISTER AND ASSISTANT CRIMINAL 
 JUDGE OF CANARA. 
 
 Mangalore, 14th Aptil, 1837. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 It has become my duty to avail myself of an early 
 
 opportunity, after the opening of communication with the 
 
 Presidency, to report to the Judges of the Sudr and 
 
 Fonjdaree Adawlut, such circumstances connected with the 
 
 k2
 
 116 
 
 present disturbances in Lower Canara as relate immediately 
 to the department of the Court. 
 
 In so doing it will be my endeavour to avoid allusion to 
 such matter as does not immediately affect this depart- 
 ment; but it is necessary, to render my statement clear, 
 that I should mention, that on the evening of the 30th 
 ultimo, the Principal Collector, on receiving information 
 that an insurrection had broken out in the country lately 
 belonging to tlie Rajah of Coorg and its vicinity, pro- 
 ceeded to the spot with a party of the military; but finding 
 himself overpowered by the numbers of the insurgents, 
 was compelled to effect a retreat with much difficulty and 
 reduced numbers to Mangalore, which he reached on the 
 evening of Monday the 3rd. 
 
 As Mangalore was immediately threatened, it was neces- 
 sary that every Sepoy of the small party present at the 
 station should be available for its defence, and that the 
 guard stationed at the jail, which is situated at a consi- 
 derable distance from the Cantonment, should be with- 
 drawn, their place being supplied by a levy of Peons, fully 
 equal to the duty of preventing the prisoners from effecting 
 an escape, unless aided by the enemy. 
 
 On the evening of Tuesday, the 4th, the Judge, Mr, 
 , visited the Jail. He found that the prisoners, em- 
 boldened by the absence of a Military Guard, were in a 
 state of insubordination ; but the prompt measures he took 
 of punishing the most turbulent soon restored quiet, and 
 he remained on the spot until they were safely locked in 
 the inner wards, and the confidence of the Jailor and Peons 
 appeared to be restored. 
 
 On the following morning (Wednesday the 5th), Mr.- 
 
 again visited the Jail, when all was quiet, and Mr. 
 
 was satisfied that, unless an attack was made upon the 
 station, their detention was ensured. 
 
 I regret to state that, at a subsequent hour on Wed- 
 nesday, an attack was made, when the prisoners were
 
 117 
 
 released by the insurgents, whom the greater part of them 
 appear to have joined. I have also to state, that an attempt 
 was made to destroy the Court House and the Records 
 which have suffered considerable damage; but 1 have 
 reason to hope that it is less extensive than could have been 
 expected. The Jail remains uninjured. * 
 
 The present state of affairs does not a^mit of any steps 
 being taken to apprehend the prisoners, except in common 
 with the insurgents, who are still in arms; but several have 
 been already seized, and I feel much confidence that, when 
 quiet is restored, a great number, or all, of them, will be 
 retaken. 
 
 I have communicated with the Sub-Collector of Canara 
 at Honors, with reference to such of them as might be 
 likely to return to their haunts in that part of the district. 
 
 The full report, made by Mr. , to the Secretary to 
 
 Government, will explain the cause of my addressing you 
 at this moment. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Register and Assistant Criminal Judge. 
 
 * The Jail Guard of Sepoys was withdrawn, for embarkation with 
 their comrades, on the morning of the 4th. Whether the levy of Peons, 
 for the custody of the prisoners, was then made does not appear. The 
 Peons sufficed to save the Jail, but not the prisoners. As several of the 
 latter voluntarily returned, they may possibly have been insubordinate 
 on the day of the 4th, from fear of their lives, if the Jail were attacked, 
 as much as from turbulence, or an intent to escape.
 
 118 
 
 TO THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT, 
 FORT ST. GEORGE. 
 
 Anjarakandy, 27th June, 1837. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 In illustration of my letter of the 31st ult., I do 
 myself the honour of sending some munitions of war, cap- 
 tured from "the rebels" of Canara, in the shape of a 
 powder-flask filled with powder, and of a cartouche box 
 containing two balls. The powder, it will be found on 
 trial, may be used twice, or at most three times, before it 
 renders the piece so foul as to be unserviceable ; as to the 
 balls, the casting of them was among the unknown arts in 
 the Jungles of Soolia and Pootoor. 
 
 The spoils captured in the houses and villages of Canara 
 are openly exhibited as the trophies of this war ! As 
 His Lordship in Council may not exactly recollect any 
 Armoury, which the Spolia Opima I now send would 
 grace, I should feel indebted by his directing them to be 
 returned, in order that I may present them to the Econo- 
 mical Committee of the Royal Asiatic Society, as specimens 
 of the uses in war to which the shells of abortive cocoa- 
 nuts are applied.* 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 &.C. &c. Sec. 
 
 F. C. Brown. 
 
 * So wretched is the ammunition which the Natives of the Western 
 coast can themselves fabricate, that the most acceptable present that 
 can be made to a Native Malabar, of any rank, especially in the interior, 
 is some good powder and ball. I am in the habit of distributing, 
 annually, a considerable quantity among my neighbours ; yet, notwith- 
 standing this supply, it was reported to me, during the last two seasons,
 
 119 
 
 The above letter of the 27th June, and the one of the 
 31st May, are the only letters which, after the lapse of 
 many weeks, on seehig every functionary at Mangalore, 
 without exception, maintained in office and authority, on 
 finding that no inquiry into the circumstances of the 
 outbreak was instituted or thought of, I could no longer 
 refrain from addressing to the Government. 
 
 Let it be granted, that the resolution, and the attempt, to 
 abandon the town, be susceptible of the fullest excuse, the 
 amplest extenuation ; let it be granted, that the desertion 
 of a Province be considered, and be declared at Madras, 
 to deserve high praise, instead of the shadow of blame : 
 yet, until the justification of such an act be made public 
 before all the world, until the grounds of the applause 
 
 that between 30 and 40 head of cattle had been carried off in my five 
 parishes by Tigers and Cheetahs. It was this knowledge which led me 
 to send to Canara for some of the rebel powder and ball, which I for- 
 warded to Madras in the receptacles they came; cocoa-nut shells of the 
 same kind, about four inches long, and one and a half in diameter, as are 
 used for the same purposes by the Natives around me. The specimen 
 of powder was rather worse than that made in Malabar; the balls were 
 cylindrical, not round. 
 
 As to the spoils, it is painful to advert to them, and to think of what 
 was written from Canara relative to the terror, the sufferings, and the 
 losses endured by the unoffending country people, after the proclamation 
 of Martial Law among them. An account of the personal losses of the 
 Europeans and their families at Mangalore, in houses, furniture, clothes, 
 plate, &c. was called for, and immediately dispatched for compensation to 
 the Court of Directors. Were the losses of their all by multitudes of Natives 
 inquired into, and submitted at the same time, to the commiseration of the 
 Honourable Court? The Court can answer; but tiiis I know, that if all 
 the circumstances attending their losses, if the plunder, and burning, and 
 destruction of their houses, were fully, freely, and fearlessly told, every 
 feeling mind would be horror-struck at the recital of the calamities 
 which were brought upon them. The conduct of the rebels the Judge 
 has described : — " Their system hitherto," he says, " as far as we were 
 able to ascertain, has been to place llicir seals, together with our own, on 
 our district Cutcherries and Treasuries, and of^'er service to the i'otails 
 and Servants employed by us."
 
 120 
 
 bestowed upon it be proclaimed, in the name of that sacred, 
 spotless, stainless, sinless Justice, we all revere and hope to 
 meet, I ask, are the functionaries, the persons prominently 
 concerned in this act, those who ought to have been 
 conspicuously seen maintained in office, and prosecuting 
 the prisoners to be tried ? Are they the functionaries, 
 whom the people of India, as well as the people of Canara 
 and Malabar, ought to have witnessed, seizing, committing, 
 accusing, and arraigning capitally, as the local represen- 
 tatives of the Sovereign and the people of England, the 
 poor, ignorant, misguided, creatures, who were deluded 
 into approaching Mangalore, by the persuasion that all these 
 functionaries had deserted it ? In my humble opinion, not ; 
 I conceived the world ought not to witness such a specta- 
 cle ; in my conviction, by it the Government of Madras 
 was rendering the very name of the British Government 
 odious, detested, and contemptible to the Natives of the 
 Presidency at large. The Natives of the other Provinces, 
 warned by what they saw the Government of Madras do and 
 sanction, and not by what that Government might write or 
 say, would feel that they possesed no security whatever, that 
 the treatment, which their fellow- subjects in Canara were 
 suffering to day, might not be their own fate to-morrow. 
 
 It is clear that every thing like tumult, violence, or in- 
 surrection must, for the sake of the Natives themselves, be 
 immediately put down with the strong arm ; but if human- 
 ity to them demand this severity, I challenge any man 
 really acquainted with their character, I call upon any 
 person whose knowledge and authority are deserving of 
 weight, to deny, whether, in every case of tumult or insur- 
 rection without exception, justice does not imperiously 
 demand, in order to be kept pure from the taint of error 
 and vindictiveness, that impartial inquiry should go hand 
 in hand with punishment ? I call upon any man, tolerably 
 familiar with the Native disposition and modes of thinking, 
 to say, whether there exists, under Heaven, a race of
 
 121 
 
 men more quiet, more placable, more averse to violence, or 
 more naturally lovers of order ; more accessible to reason, 
 when it is made plain to their understandings in tempe- 
 rate, conciliatory language, or more open to kindness, 
 when ordinary kindness and consideration are shown to 
 them by those in authority : in truth, I ask, whether there 
 exists, on earth, another race like them, demanding no 
 more, in their present condition, from their rulers, than the 
 boon of being suffered to live? 
 
 As to the Gowdas, a caste of Hindoos, lately the 
 subjects of the Rajah of Coorg, who headed this out- 
 break, I confidently refer to the testimony of the Officers 
 who broke them into the system of Jumraa-bundies, 
 that is, into the Madras system of annual surveys and 
 settlements, an operation sufficiently trying to the temper 
 of a body of rude farmers; and I ask those gentlemen to 
 say, whether they ever had to deal with a more harmless, 
 tractable, inoffensive race of men, or men more disposed to 
 be obedient and submissive to the novel Government placed 
 over them ? 
 
 The information I gave to the Government might de- 
 serve, and would probably meet with, little favour. I 
 sought none ; it would be set down as erroneous, or partial 
 or exaggerated, or prejudiced. It might, however, induce 
 a pause in the measures that were enforced ; and as to 
 myself, the question left for my solution was, whether I 
 would longer bear the upraidings of my conscience for re- 
 maining silent. 
 
 But there was, as it appears, the official letter of the 
 Criminal Judge of Mangalore, which had been for weeks 
 before the Government. Surely that letter speaks for it- 
 self! Surely the circumstances, detailed in that letter, 
 speak for themselves to all, who have eyes to read or feel- 
 ings to rouse ! Surely after that official letter, a full, a 
 public, an im|)artial, and itnmed'uite enquiry was imperiously 
 demanded fVoin the Government, the power which alone
 
 122 
 
 legally and solely possessed the initiative on the occasion ! 
 The National name demanded it; public justice demanded 
 it ; above all, the characters of the functionaries named, 
 implicated, and concerned, demanded nothing less. 
 
 It is with the sincerest pain that I am obliged to men- 
 tion the feelings with which enquiry, when enquiry was, 
 at length, talked of, was viewed and received. My letters 
 had immediately found their way from the Political Se- 
 cretary's office at Madras to Mangalore, and were thus 
 spoken of: "There is reason to believe that the appoint- 
 ment of the Commission, to enquire into the matter of the 
 rebellion, which is said to have been ordered pursuant to 
 instructions from Bengal, is a subject of annoyance to 
 certain of the authorities at Mangalore. Brown is men- 
 tioned, as having written letters to Madras and Bengal, 
 which have led to this order for an enquiry. One letter, it 
 is said, was known there three months ago. The Mapilla 
 Petition, in which the rebellion is spoken of slightingly, has 
 been attributed to him. The matter has been made a great 
 mystery of, and his alleged part in it kept a profound secret, 
 until a few days ago. As far as can be learned, his cor- 
 respondence has been betrayed" (September, 1837.) For 
 what purpose, and with what design, this correspondence 
 was "betrayed," will appear too plain, I fear, in the sequel. 
 This course, secretly adopted towards me, drove me to see 
 whether the same repository of official correspondence 
 would not also furnish the letter of the 6th April, from the 
 Criminal Judge to the Government ; a letter which, but 
 for such a course, would never have been sought for, nor, 
 in accordance with my own feelings and wishes, ever made 
 more public. 
 
 F. C. B.
 
 123 
 
 C. R. COTTON, Esq., ONE OF THE CANARA COMMIS- 
 SIONERS, FOR THE SECRETARY, TO F. C. BROWN, Esq., 
 TELLICHERRY. 
 
 Bangalore, October, 1837. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 With reference to a letter from the Government 
 of Fort St. George, addressed to you under date 11th 
 July last, I am desired by the Commissioners appointed to 
 investigate the circumstances of the late insurrection in 
 Canara, to request you will, at your earliest convenience, 
 communicate to them such defined allegations as you may 
 think proper to make, individually, against the European 
 Civil and Military officers of Government, to whose con- 
 duct allusion is made generally, in your letter addressed 
 to the Secretary to Government under date 30th May last ; 
 and that you will have the kindness, at the same time, to 
 state, in detail, the means of substantiation available, to 
 enable the Commissioners to investigate the matter brought 
 forward by you. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 &c. &c. 8cc. 
 
 C. R. Cotton, 
 
 For the Secretary. * 
 
 * Tills Commission consisted of a Military and of a Civil Member, 
 and a Secretary. To the Civil Member, a Member of the Board of 
 Revenue, who had served in Canara for several years, both as a Sub and 
 as Principal Collector and Magistrate, strong objections were made at 
 Mangalore. If he was known to the people, and knew the country, he 
 was also a most intimate friend of some of the parties. The Military 
 Member was Major General V^igoureux, of H.M. 45th, whose regiment 
 was at Madras, under orders for embarkation to England. The senior 
 Officer of it could not be left behind ; so that before the General could 
 enter on his new duties, it became necessary to relieve him. lie was
 
 124 
 
 TO C. R. COTTON, Esq., FOR THE SECRETARY TO THE 
 CANARA COMMISSION, BANGALORE. 
 
 Anjarakandy,near TeUicherrij, Oct. 19, 1837. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter, without date, from Bangalore. 
 
 succeeded by a distinguished Officer, the Deputy Adjutant General to 
 the Queen's Troops, a near adviser of the Commander-in-Chief. One of 
 the first steps which followed General Fearon's appointment was, the 
 calling upon every one of the Officers, Military and Civil, who were at 
 Mangalore at the commencement of the outbreak, for a statement in 
 writing of what occurred at the meeting, when the resolution was taken 
 of abandoning the place ; from the Magistrate was required, a history of 
 the first occurrences of the rising. 
 
 This requisition was made in the very end of October, or the begin- 
 ning of November last : I am compelled to call attention to the fact and 
 to the date. In the second Presidency of India, in what is, in reality, a 
 great dependent kingdom of the British Empire containing, including 
 tributaries, a population of as many millions as the whole of the United 
 Kingdom, the abandonment of one of the largest and wealthiest frontier 
 Provinces is officially reported to the Governor in Council, in the month 
 of April, as having been unanimously determined on thirty-six hours 
 before an enemy appeared ; and it is a subordinate Commission which, 
 at the distance of nearly seven months, first calls upon the several actors 
 for an account of so unprecedented an occurrence, and demands to know 
 the causes which drove a newly acquired people into rebellion ! Whe- 
 ther the answers returned to the inquiries, or the nature of the duties 
 which became disclosed to him, affected General Fearon's health, the 
 world is not likely to know. He proceeded no further than Bangalore, 
 where he was speedily relieved on urgent Medical Certificate. From 
 that time to the middle of December, the date of my leaving India, no 
 successor to him had been named, nor had the Commission got a 
 step further. And as, on the 5th December, Mr. Cotton, the Civil 
 Member, obtained leave to proceed to sea, this Commission appointed, 
 as the Madras Gazette stated, in phraseology which excited general and 
 significant remark, " to inquire into the causes of the late insurrection in 
 Canara, etc." I am led to conclude, terminated its labours and expired-
 
 123 
 
 With every possible respect for the Government of Fort 
 St. George, I beg to be permitted to observe, that I am no 
 public informer. I am an English British subject, residing 
 in the Province of Malabar ; which Province was plunged 
 into alarm and agitation, in consequence of the events 
 which occurred in Canara in April last. Those events are, 
 I believe, not matters of doubt nor for contradiction, they 
 are matters of official record. It has been officially reported 
 to the Government by one or two of its own officers, that 
 the abandonment of the capital of Canara and of the Pro- 
 vince was unanimously determined upon by the public 
 functionaries, and fruitlessly attempted, on the 4th of 
 April, twenty-four hours (36) before an insurgent appeared. 
 
 It is, hence, manifest, that lean have no charge to make 
 " iitdividua/l^" against those functionaries, to almost all of 
 whom, by name, I am a stranger. But I am possessed of 
 considerable landed and immoveable property in Malabar; 
 the security of that property, the security of the property 
 of every other man in the country, was endangered, it 
 would probably have been destroyed, had the abandon- 
 ment of Mangalore been effected. The value of my pro- 
 perty is seriously deteriorated by what did happen. 
 
 It was impossible for an Englishman in my position to 
 forbear, on such an occasion, to suggest enquiry. Whether 
 enquiry be needed, the Commissioners and the world may 
 judge, not from any circumstance advanced or alleged by 
 me, on information perhaps deemed questionable, but from 
 the declaration of an English eye-witness, described to 
 be a straight-forward, plain-spoken, man. This witness, 
 
 Mr. , the late Master-Attendant at Mangalore, 
 
 lately passed through Tellicherry. In speaking to others 
 of the attacks of the insurgents, he observed, " Lord, sir ! 
 if we had known as much then as we do now, we would 
 have banged them well with twenty men ! " 
 
 The letters from the Government render it necessary that 
 I should address it in reply. I shall do so, at the earliest
 
 126 
 
 moment that a press of occupation, arising from preparing 
 my produce for immediate shipment to England, will 
 permit. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 8cc. &,c. &c. 
 F. C. BROWN. 
 
 TO F. C. BROWN, Esq. 
 
 Political Department. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I AM directed to return, herewith, the specimens 
 transmitted with your letter of the 27th ultimo, and to 
 inform you that the Governor in Council presumes that 
 you are prepared to substantiate the very serious charges 
 against Public Officers, vs^hich are contained in your com- 
 munication of the 31st of May last. 
 
 I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 RICHARD CLARK, 
 
 Secretary to Government. 
 
 Fort St. George, Ut/i July, 1837. 
 
 TO F. C. BROWN, Esq., TELLICHERRY. 
 
 Political Department. 
 Sir, 
 
 With reference to my letter of the 11th of July 
 
 last, I am directed by the Governor in Council to acquaint
 
 127 
 
 you, that your communications of the 31st May and 27th 
 June have been laid before the Commissioners * Major- 
 General Vigoureux and C. R. Cotton, Esq., appointed to in- 
 vestigate the causes of the late insurrection in Canara, 
 with instructions to call upon you to substantiate the state- 
 ments which they contain. 
 
 I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 Your most obedient Servant, 
 
 RICHARD CLARK, 
 
 Secretary to Government. 
 Fort St. George, V2th September, 1837. 
 
 TO THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT IN THE SECRET 
 AND POLITICAL DEPARTMENT, FORT ST. GEORGE. 
 
 Anjarukundy, 2'ird November, 1837. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 1. I HAVE had the honour to receive your letters 
 of the 11th of July, and 12th of September; the last 
 intimating that my letters to Government of the 31st of 
 May and 27th of June have been placed in the hands of 
 the Commissioners newly appointed to inquire into the 
 affairs of Canara, and that these Officers have been in- 
 structed to call upon me to substantiate the statements 
 therein made. 
 
 * It was not stated to the Commissioners that my "communications" 
 had been privately dispatched to Mangalore months before, witli a view, 
 doubtless, of clearing the way to their investigations, and of putting it 
 in my power to establish the statements, for the substantiation of which 
 they were instructed to call.
 
 128 
 
 2. It is to me a subject of unfeigned regret to perceive, 
 from the tone and the style of your two letters, a tone and a 
 style not to be mistaken, that my letters have been received 
 by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council with 
 sentiments strongly akin to displeasure and distrust. 
 
 3. No person can be more forward to acknowledge the re- 
 ceived insignificance of so humble an individual as myself, a 
 solitary British subject not in the Service; nor to admit, 
 how little his communications are deemed worthy of the ordi- 
 nary attention and confidence, which elsewhere are bestowed 
 upon the letters of an English resident, written upon local 
 subjects, touching which he may be supposed to be cor- 
 rectly informed. 
 
 4. Yet every man in the Commission of the Peace in 
 England, or in any British Colony, is not merely considered 
 entitled, he is held bound, and he is encouraged, by the 
 strictest faith and discretion maintained towards him, to 
 correspond unreservedly with a Secretary of State, or a 
 British Colonial Secretary, upon all subjects affecting the 
 peace of the country he resides in, or the honour and cha- 
 racter of the British Government; secure, at all times, 
 that if he is betrayed into any errors of the judgment, or 
 of the feelings, they will be viewed with indulgence, and 
 charitably construed. 
 
 5. It is known that I am, by descent and inheritance, a 
 Landholder of some extent in the Province of Malabar, 
 and that I am the only European British subject of that 
 class residing in the two distant, extensive, and important 
 Provinces of Malabar and Canara, containing a population 
 of more than two and a half millions of Natives. The 
 Government has been pleased, for some years past, to in- 
 clude my name, unsolicitedly, in the Commission of the 
 Peace for the territories of Madras. 
 
 6. The first character makes it, I conceive, a part of my 
 allegiance as a British subject, living under a Government 
 subsisting by the opinion entertained by the Natives of its
 
 129 
 
 wisdom, firmness, and stability, to communicate every 
 occurrence, leaving the Government to estimate its im- 
 portance, which appears to me calculated to give a shock 
 to that opinion. The second character involves a public 
 trust, and imposes, in my belief, the corresponding obliga- 
 tions discharged by a Justice of Peace in every other 
 possession of the British Crown. 
 
 7. It was in this twofold character, derived from an 
 intimate connection with the people of the country on one 
 hand, and from the trust reposed in me by the Government 
 on the other, and under a sense of the duties which this 
 character exacted, that I took the liberty of addressing, 
 confidentially, to the Government my letter of the 31st of 
 May ; a letter which I am compelled to see has given 
 much umbrage, if not offence. 
 
 8. In this letter I certainly did implore the Right Ho- 
 nourable the Governor in Council, most earnestly, perhaps 
 most warmly, implore him, on an occasion when the lives 
 of hundieds of human beings were at stake, not implicitly 
 to believe, but to inquire, not to strike, but hear; and 
 lastly, not to delegate to any hands whatever his inalien- 
 able prerogative of life and death* in the case of men, 
 
 * This is an error, the result of inadvertence. The Governor in 
 Council of Madras cannot be said to have ever exercised of himself 
 this, the most valued privilege of humanity, the noblest attribute of 
 Sovereign power. All sentences of death and of transportation are 
 passed, in the first instance, by the local Judges, and if ratified by the 
 Court of Fonjdaree Udalut, are executed upon warrants, signed by two 
 Judges of that Court, without any communication to the Governor in 
 Council. (Regulation 8, of 1802.) Upon such subjects, as the extent 
 and state of crime, the number and nature of the sentences and exe- 
 cutions taking place in the dominions confided to his sway, the Governor 
 in Council was legally dispensed from inquiry or responsibility. The 
 trials being all in writing, the custom is to circulate them for perusal 
 from one Judge to the other, who writes upon them his final sentence, 
 acquitting or condemning. It is not very many years since, that the foot 
 or margin of a trial exhibited a sentence, condemning to death (I believe 
 
 L
 
 130 
 
 the vast majority of whom appeared, from every concurrent 
 report, to be far more deluded than criminal, more the 
 objects of compassion than of public vengeance. Against 
 no individual, nominatively, did I make a charge; and if I 
 was driven, most reluctantly driven, to illustrate by an 
 example the agitated state of men's minds, as well in 
 North Malabar as in Canara, let those answer who left me 
 no other mode than this, to plead with effect the cause of 
 mercy and deliberation, which it was my express design to 
 supplicate. 
 
 9. If the letter in question be considered by his Lord- 
 ship in Council to exceed the demands of any station I fill, 
 or to outstrip the limits of any duty I am bound to dis- 
 charge to the Government, and to the people ; if the peace 
 and good order of the country, the security of the persons 
 and property of two millions and a half of Natives, the 
 tranquillity of their minds, and the honour and character 
 of the Government which rules over them, be deemed 
 concerns alien to, and far above, my cognizance ; and that, 
 however I may see, however I may conscientiously believe 
 those great interests to be fatally committed, it is my pro- 
 vince to be mute, while evils are in progress which, if un- 
 known and unchecked, must lead sooner or later to the 
 destruction of my property, to the destruction of the pro- 
 perty of every other man of character and respectability, 
 and to the extinction of the British name ; if these be the 
 sentiments entertained by His Lordship in Council, I hope 
 it is not asking too much, undesignedly as I have offended, 
 if I request to be favoured, upon these points, with the 
 opinion in the affirmative of His Lordship in Council, for 
 
 one of the witnesses, but certainly) an innocent man. The mistake was 
 discovered in time; but it was related as an anecdote, and the Sentencer 
 continued to be, for several years after, a Judge in the highest and last 
 resort. This was the state of the law until October or November last, 
 when an Act of the Council of India ordained that penal sentences 
 should be made known to the Governor in Council.
 
 131 
 
 my own correction, and for the guidance of other European 
 British subjects. 
 
 10. I dare hardly venture to solicit, not a favourable 
 consideration, but an impartial, dispassionate perusal of 
 any thing I may now write. Circumstances have, how- 
 ever, occurred, which render it imperative that I should 
 detail to His Lordship in Council, even at the risk of in- 
 creasing- offence, but with a solemn disclaimer of designino- 
 it, occurrences which happened under my own eye in this 
 remote spot, from the beginning until after the middle of 
 April last, and some which I afterwards witnessed at Telli- 
 cherry ; occurrences so wholly unexpected, and of so 
 deeply painful a character, as to have forced upon my at- 
 tention the causes which led to them, and hence to have 
 occasioned my letter of the 31st of May. 
 
 11. It was about the 1st or 2nd of April, that fugitives 
 from South Canara brought to Tellicherry, where I then 
 was, the first news of some disturbances existing in that 
 proverbially tranquil and orderly country. As the rumours 
 gained ground, on the 3rd of April, I examined, as I 
 have before related, one of these fugitives, a Koombla * 
 Merchant who, with others, had been sent for by the In- 
 surgents to Bellarypet, and who gave me the first inti- 
 mation of the seat of the disturbances being in Lower 
 Coorg, and that the number of men of all arms he saw 
 assembled was about 200. 
 
 12. All these particulars, the nature and locality of the 
 disturbances, the numbers and means of the disaffected, 
 were, of course, well known to the inhabitants of Telli- 
 cherry, among whom were dwelling, in perfect confidence 
 and security with their wives and children, all the most 
 opulent and respectable of the fugitives, all of them Hin- 
 doos. Not the smallest impression upon the inhabitants 
 did the news make ; up to the time of my leaving the 
 
 * A sea-i)ort in Soutli Canara. 
 
 l2
 
 132 
 
 town on the 5th of April, no other notice did they bestow 
 upon it, than expressing their surprise at the pusillanimity 
 of the persons who had fled from such a danger and such 
 opponents. 
 
 13. Early on the 5th, I set out for my property here. It 
 is situated about 25 miles from the frontier of Upper Coorg, 
 the intervening country being chiefly thinly peopled moun- 
 tain and forest. The most direct road to Tellicherry is by 
 a branch one, I myself have made through a neighbouring 
 Jungle. My store-houses here were full of valuable pro- 
 perty ; there was besides a considerable sum, upwards of 
 31,000 Rupees, in ready money. Both the house and 
 store-houses are quite untenable, and may be fired at any 
 time without detection. They were plundered and burned 
 to the ground, and the plantations destroyed, by a rabble 
 of marauders in 1803, an occasion when my father and 
 family lost every thing they possessed. 
 
 14. My first business, on arriving, was to ascertain^the 
 exact state of Upper Coorg, from which quarter alone was 
 any risk to be apprehended affecting the tranquillity of 
 North Malabar. 
 
 15. I immediately dispatched persons to Veerajahpet, 
 the principal mart in Coorg, and to all the intervening- 
 marts below the Ghauts, which the Coorg traders pass or 
 frequent, with orders to bring me correct accounts of what 
 they saw and heard, and to inquire particularly at the 
 stations of the Post-runners, whether the Post from Madras, 
 which passes through Upper Coorg, had been intercepted 
 or delayed. 
 
 IG. From the nearest places of resort the messengers 
 returned with reports, that every thing was perfectly quiet 
 and tranquil, all transactions going on as ordinarily, and 
 numerous Coorgs, with droves of salt and grain bullocks, 
 proceeding as usual, to and from Cannanore and the Coast. 
 
 17. The persons sent to Veerajahpet returned after 
 attending one of the weekly markets held there. They
 
 133 
 
 reported, that the throng of people was so great, particularly 
 of people from Mysoor, that the market had in fact lasted 
 two days instead of one. The Post had not met with an 
 hour's delay. 
 
 18. No proofs more conclusive than these could be given, 
 showing the peaceful and satisfactory state of the country, 
 both above and below the Ghauts in this vicinity, and in 
 Western Mysoor. Until the pressing of the people as 
 Coolies for Military Service began, similar reports con- 
 tinned to be brought, and were regularly transmitted by 
 me to Tellicherry, for the satisfaction of the residents there 
 during the time I remained absent. 
 
 19. Such, Sir, was the calm, orderly, and tranquil aspect 
 presented by the country, when, let my astonishment 
 be conceived, to find my doors beset on the morning of 
 the 8th April, before seven o'clock, by a crowd of people, 
 all loaded with Pepper, and all clamouring to have Rupees 
 given to them in exchange for it. 
 
 20. Pepper, and not money, is the medium of exchange 
 best known to the people. It is their universal custom to 
 hoard their Pepper and to part with it in small quantities, 
 never at once, and that chiefly, when the tax-gatherer 
 demands his money payments. It is iience a daily traffic 
 throughout North Malabar. Saving the few roads I have 
 made, there are here none but mountain paths. Not a 
 cart nor beast of burden is known off' the few Government 
 roads; all the inland traffic is by porters. A load of 
 Pepper is three maunds, or 102 lbs. : the two great marts 
 for the commodity are the maritime Towns of Tellicherry 
 and Cannanore. 
 
 21. The disastrous commercial advices from England 
 had made me desirous not to increase my stock of Pepper. 
 Solicitous, however, not to give birth to the smallest doubt 
 or uneasiness among the people, as to the cause of any 
 reduction in price at that time, on the 7th, I had reduced 
 the price for the day following, the 8th of April, one Rupee 
 a Candy.
 
 134 
 
 22. On the 9th, there was, from sun-rise to sun-set, a 
 perfect rush of people with their Pepper, and a crowd of 
 other Natives, all in the same consternation, flocking 
 hither for news and advice. On this day, I learned from 
 them the cause of this unprecedented scene : from the 
 7th, every shop in Tellicherry and Cannanore had been 
 shut; not a Native would buy a grain of Pepper, 
 
 23. On the 10th, the day was not long enough to weigh, 
 ( Pepper is weighed by the single Maund,) receive, and 
 pay for all the Pepper that came pouring in. Persons 
 whom we had never seen nor heard of before, respectable 
 Bramins and heads of families, from the extremity of the 
 neighbouring districts, arrived in one universal panic, 
 intreating for money. Although I refused not a grain of 
 their Pepper, giving to the Hindoos, who are the bulk of 
 the population, a Rupee more, I talked to, and endea- 
 voured to reason with them, but in vain. It was in vain 
 that I argued, that I remonstrated with them, that I told 
 them truly all I knew of the occurrences in Canara, that I 
 besought them not to be alarmed, but to take back their 
 Pepper, and return quietly to their homes. Their fears 
 made them deaf to every thing I could say. "We had 
 no wish to sell our Pepper," they exclaimed, " we kept 
 it for our Niggdee (assessment); but the Saheb-mars 
 (British functionaries) must know what has happened better 
 than you that are here. There they are, arrived from Man- 
 galore in a ship and Pattamars, with their wives and 
 children ; the Saheb-raars at Tellicherry have detained 
 the ship, and what can this be for, but to go away too, 
 and leave us at the mercy of thieves and robbers ? Better 
 get what money we can, and fly too ! " Whither, poor 
 creatures, they knew not ! Among this panic-stricken mul- 
 titude were some of the Mapillas from Cottapurumba, four 
 miles distant; some of those very Mapillas who, at the very 
 time, were declared by name in one of the Madras papers, 
 the Conservative, the reputed organ of the Government, to 
 be all ripe for insurrection.
 
 135 
 
 24. All men liave heard of, some men have seen, a run 
 upon a failing Bank in a remote town in England, have 
 witnessed the awful picture of despair and distress, which 
 the scene exhibits. Sir, this is not a town, it is not a 
 village: it is the solitary dwelling of an Englishman in 
 the middle of the Jungles of India, without even a ham- 
 let near, save that of my own labourers. Let a man ima- 
 gine to himself the scene of terror and dismay, that was 
 here exhibited to me ; a scene occasioned, not by any pri- 
 vate imprudence nor calamity, such as may induce ruin 
 and bankruptcy, but by an universal belief among the 
 Natives in the end and dissolution of all Government! 
 No, Sir ! as long as memory endures, the grief, the shame, 
 the indignation, caused by such a spectacle, will never be 
 effaced. 
 
 25. The urgent letters I wrote to Tellicherry, the remon- 
 strances I addressed to all the principal Natives there, 
 with whom my word would have weight, but still more, 
 the example I set, restored some degree of confidence : 
 the shops in the Towns and Bazaars, were re-opened, and 
 the buyers resumed their purchases. But the desire there 
 evidently was in the people, so opposed to their rooted 
 habits and prejudices, to get rid of their Pepper, and pos- 
 sess themselves of all the money they could collect, showed 
 but too plainly that the feeling of security, in the strength 
 and stability of the Government, had received a fatal and 
 alarming shock. 
 
 26. I, therefore, persisted in purchasing all the Pepper 
 that was offered. In twenty-four days (from the 7th to the 
 30th of April ), I paid away for Pepper, Rupees 16,986, 
 in sums from one quarter of a Rupee, and half a Rupee, 
 to 222 Rupees, the highest sum any seller received. 
 Up to the 22nd of May, and not until then, was I satisfied 
 that the minds of the people were tranquillized, and the 
 late scenes, in a degree, obliterated, the sum paid away
 
 136 
 
 was Rupees 25,189,* the quantity of Pepper received, 
 in quantities of 2h pounds and upwards, was 223,173 
 pounds, upon which, when sold in England, I estimate 
 my loss will be from 8,000 to 10,000 Rupees. 
 
 27. The Government requires me to substantiate what 
 1 say. Sir, there are the facts, accompanying are the 
 accounts, the daily accounts, J with the name of every 
 man entered, during the first twenty-four days (the others 
 are forthcoming), the pounds of Pepper he brought, and 
 the Rupees he took away. The Government demands 
 witnesses; I refer the Government to a whole population. 
 IVor let me be mistaken. This disclosure has been extorted 
 from me. The feeling which dictated any sacrifice, to pre- 
 serve unsullied the honour and reputation of my country, 
 is something very different from any feeling which either 
 courts praise, or quails at censure. 
 
 28. On the 18th of April, the arrival of a guest, a 
 gentleman from Manilla, induced me to return to Telli- 
 cherry. 
 
 29. It was then that I learned, in detail, not from 
 choice, nor curiosity, nor inquiry, but from necessity, from 
 the sole staple of conversation, from facts and particulars 
 in the mouth of every gentleman I met, and of every 
 respectable Native, an explanation of what had hitherto 
 passed my comprehension, the causes which had convulsed 
 this Province, from one extremity to the other. For 
 if dismay and alarm had prevailed throughout North 
 Malabar, South Malabar had been the scene, if possible 
 of greater; insomuch that a Native gentleman of Calicut, 
 whose means of information are the very best, told me 
 that the Rajahs and principal persons there had secreted 
 
 * It is necessary to bear in mind the very different value of money in 
 Malabar and Canara, and that to tlie receiver and the giver, a rupee may 
 there represent a pound sterling elsewliere. 
 
 l \'oucher A, (not printed, being loo voluminous.)
 
 137 
 
 all their gold and valuables, and had taken steps to fly 
 instantly into Travancore ! 
 
 30. From this explanation I learned, that the first shock 
 which the public confidence received, was the arrival at 
 Tellicherry, in a Pattamar * from Mangalore, of five ladies 
 with their infants at the breast, without food, without 
 water, some without a change of raiment, or a mattress to 
 lie on. These ladies were five out of a number of eleven, 
 who, with thirteen children, were put on board a Pattamar, 
 in the river of Mangalore, on the 4th of April. A cry was 
 raised, " the Coorgs are coming ;" the cable was immedi- 
 ately cut, there was no crew on board, the boat drifted to 
 near the river's mouth, there grounded, beat violently on 
 the sands, and nearly filled with water ; in which state, 
 drenched to the skin, and expecting her every moment to 
 sink, these ladies passed one whole night. On the follow- 
 ing morning, they were descried and succoured. But the 
 five in question and their children, without any other re- 
 freshment than a cup of tea, some in their drenched attire, 
 were put on board another Pattamar and sent off to Telli- 
 cherry, there to appal every heart by the exhibition of their 
 present sufferings, and the anticipation of their future 
 woes. 
 
 31. The second great shock received, was the arrival of 
 the Eamont on the 6th of April at Cannanore, bringing all 
 the other ladies and children, two gentlemen (one, it is 
 said, compulsorily) and the two Judges of Mangalore ; who, 
 as is known to all, officially, and, I believe, conjointly, re- 
 ported to the Government that they feared all human aid 
 to Mangalore was vain : that the abandonment of the place 
 by all the Europeans and Sepoys had imanimousli/ been 
 determined upon, and fruitlessly attempted, on the 4th of 
 April, but that they (the writers) and the persons with them, 
 
 •^ An open coasting vessel.
 
 138 
 
 it was feared, alone survived to bear witness to the truth of 
 tlie tale. 
 
 32. Sir, if my wonder was not dissipated, if my absence 
 and position made me the last person to hear all these 
 astounding particulars, it was relief inexpressible to hear 
 them, possessed of the assurance that not a single Euro- 
 pean, nor hardly a Native, life had been sacrificed at Man- 
 galore, that the British flag had long since replaced that of 
 the Insurgents, and that the British authority was either 
 restored, or had continued unshaken, throughout all the 
 ancient districts of Canara. 
 
 33. Then it also was that, of the European residents at 
 Tellicherry, I was, I believe, the last to read, what had 
 been in all other hands, the letter of the 15th of April, 
 (a copy of which accompanied my letter of 3 1st of May,) 
 from the Native of Mangalore; giving to his family an 
 account of the state of terror and anarchy into which that 
 town was plunged from the 3d of April, and of the scenes 
 he himself witnessed on the 4th and on the 5th, the day of 
 the first attack. No sooner did I read this letter, than I 
 urged its immediate dispatch to the Government, in order 
 that the attention of the Government might be timely 
 awakened to events, the real nature of which was no longer 
 a doubt to the Natives of the two Provinces, nor to any of 
 its own servants. 
 
 34. Solicitous, moreover, to have more information, and 
 being possessed of property at Mangalore, I dispatched 
 thither some queries, founded on the details given in this 
 letter, and directed some of the rebel ammunition to be 
 sent to me, for the purpose of comparing it with the kinds 
 which the Natives, in this neighbourhood, fabricate and 
 use. 
 
 35. The answers returned to the queries fully bore out 
 the letter : it was further completely borne out, before my 
 return to Tellicherry and before, I believe, every gentleman
 
 139 
 
 there, by the testimony of Hadjee Oomur,* a very respect- 
 able and opulent Malioniedan Merchant of Mangalore, who 
 witnessed the two attacks upon the town, and who stated 
 to all, that the number of armed insurgents did not exceed 
 500. The Hadjee having successfully defended his pro- 
 perty from pillage during the attacks, no longer deeming 
 the persons of his large family secure, when numerous 
 troops entered the place, came with them all to Tellicherry. 
 36. It was also on my return, that I obtained an expla- 
 nation of another incomprehensible circumstance. The 
 panic-struck people had repelled all my arguments to calm 
 them, by declaring that the European Residents had en- 
 gaged and detained a ship to embark in and sail away. 
 On the arrival of the Eamont at Tellicherry, it occurred, 
 first I believe to a valued friend of mine, that the services 
 of this ship might be valuable, in transporting a body of 
 troops to Mangalore. He proposed, and all others con- 
 curred, that she should be detained at the joint private 
 expense, until the offer of her was made to the Officer 
 Commanding the Provinces. The intention of this patri- 
 otic and considerate act was beyond all praise. Unfortu- 
 nately, its object seems not to have been freely and unre- 
 servedly communicated to the Natives. They saw and 
 heard only, that the ship was detained at the height of the 
 alarm, and they jumped to the conclusion, not now I fear 
 to be easily eradicated, that, as at Mangalore, so she was now 
 engaged for no other purpose, than to bear all the residents 
 away. Of such moment is it, at all times, but particularly 
 in times of alarm and disturbance, that public men who 
 not only represent, but who are, the Government, should 
 weigh with scrupulous care the imj)ressiou which the best 
 intentioned, as well as the most indiflerent, act may make 
 on the minds of the Natives around them. 
 
 * Also by Abdul Lalif, another Maliomedan morcliant, and by tliu 
 Mooftee of the Mangalore Court, who likewise came away to Tolliclierry.
 
 140 
 
 37. The events I afterwards heard of were, the Procla- 
 mation of Martial Lawin Canara, the assembling of a Court 
 Martial at Manoalore, the centre of agitation and excite- 
 ment, presided over by the Officer there commanding to 
 try the Prisoners, and the abdication by His Lordship in 
 Council, in their case, of his prerogative of life and death 
 into the hands of the Officer commanding the Provinces. 
 
 38. On the 15th of April, the Bombay Troops reached 
 Mangalore. The troops that had been poured in from 
 Cannanore and Mysoor had, as was known, long pre- 
 ceded them. It was after this intelligence had been public 
 several days, that a scene was acted at Tellicherry which 
 shocked me past endurance. 
 
 39. On the 20th or 21st of April, I beg the date may be 
 attended to, a gentleman drives down full tear three miles 
 from his house to the beach, where a group of others, 
 myself of the number, were assembled ; throws himself 
 from his Bandy, his horse a sheet of foam, bestows not a 
 sign of recognition upon any one, seats himself on a stone, 
 pulls a letter from his pocket, and reads aloud to all pre- 
 sent, " that all Canara was in revolt, all JMysoor and all 
 Coorg ready to rise, and that the most formidable and 
 extensive insurrection India ever saw was on the eve of 
 breaking out." He had stopped on the road a gentleman 
 driving a lady, and had at first read to them, that a most 
 extensive massacre of Europeans had taken, or was to take 
 place ! I appeal to this gentleman, if he did not. The 
 authority for this intelligence was declared to be unde- 
 niable; every word of it was credited, and then came 
 reproaches and upbraidings of the Principal Collector for 
 keeping so large a sum in his Tellicherry Treasury; of the 
 temptation it held out to the Coorgs to come, and sack, 
 and burn the European houses; of the ease with which the 
 exploit might be performed before any one was aware of it ; 
 of the risk it heedlessly exposed the Europeans to: and 
 then came suggestions of the propriety and necessity of
 
 141 
 
 removing this treasure. Its removal into boats had, I hear, 
 been mooted once before. 
 
 40. And who was the person who thus conducted him- 
 self? What was the scene of this conduct? The scene 
 was, the populous town ofTellicherry, the Sudder (principal) 
 station of the two Provinces of Malabar and Canara, open 
 to the sea, with a defensible Fort, within sight of the can- 
 tonment of Cannanore, and about a hundred miles away 
 from any disturbances. The person who thus conducted 
 himself was the first Judge of the Provincial Court, in 
 standing the oldest Civil Servant, in rank the first man 
 in the two Provinces, and, at the very time, the Judge 
 actually on his Circuit to Canara, there to hold criminal 
 Sessions ! 
 
 41. Let it be imagined possible that, after the Irish 
 rebellion was known to be entirely suppressed, and the 
 authority of the Government firmly restored, an English 
 Chief-Justice (the comparison will, I fear, be set down as 
 odious,) could produce at Tilbury Fort, a letter in the 
 manner I have described, and there read from it to all who 
 might chance to hear, that Ireland was again in a flame, 
 Scotland ripe for rebellion, Wales in arms, and the most 
 formidable insurrection England ever saw, ready to burst 
 upon her ; and thereupon, that he should express his 
 doubts, lest his house and furniture (his house from which 
 he is obliged to see such a Cantonment as Canna- 
 nore!) sliould be plundered and burned, before he was 
 aware of it, and suggesting that all temptation should 
 be removed that might lead to so probable and so heinous 
 an act. 
 
 42. Such a scene in England would be more than in- 
 nocuous. Far different, however, might its consequences 
 be on the spot where it was exhibited. The readei- knew 
 not, but that the contents of ihe letter he |)roduced might 
 be sent, that moment, to the Papers, as every absurd, 
 calumnious, tale has been sent, and disseminated, on the
 
 142 
 
 authority of the first Judge of the Provinces to the four 
 quarters of the country. 
 
 43. If the smallest tittle of this monstrous intelligence 
 had been true, the oldest Civilian, the highest functionary 
 in the two Provinces, one would think would have been the 
 man, above all other men whatever, to bury it in the deepest 
 recesses of his own breast, lest, if even whispered to him- 
 self, echo should hear and repeat the damning tale. But 
 when every part of it was so plainly monstrous, so palpably 
 unworthy of a moment's belief, what must have been his 
 state of mind, what his calmness and self-possession, both 
 before and at the time, when, instead of tearing such a 
 letter into a thousand pieces, and warning the writer how 
 he again trifled with a person holding his, the First Judge's, 
 high and responsible station, when, instead of this, he flies 
 to produce it, and publishes its contents, it may be said, in 
 triviis ! 
 
 44. The same functionary scrupled not to proclaim, with 
 all the authority of his acuteness, let him say that he did 
 not also write it, as an undoubted proof of the treasonable 
 intentions lurking in the breasts of the inhabitants of Telli- 
 cherry that, " for some days, they looked as pleased as if 
 they had got the Lac of Rupees in the Lottery!" Ad- 
 mirable and characteristic illustration of treason in a Native 
 population ! This gentleman will suffer me to interpret for 
 the inhabitants, since they cannot interpret for themselves, 
 this look, big with a lac of meaning, which they put on. 
 I can assure him, upon their own indubitable testimony, 
 that they merely meant to express by it those feelings of 
 jeering and derision, at the blank looks they saw which, 
 convulsing them internally, at length mastered all Native 
 powers of face ; feelings which men would vent elsewhere 
 in shouts to rend the earth. 
 
 45. This, Sir, was the real, and, they trust, the ex- 
 cuseable, meaning of " the looks" of the people of Telli- 
 cherry ; looks, which they hope will not be held to
 
 143 
 
 compromise a century and more of unshaken loyalty and 
 fidelity conspicuously proved to the British Government.* 
 
 * The Fort and Factory of Tellicherry, a territory about five miles 
 long, and not one mile broad, have been in the peaceable, uninterrupted, 
 possession of the British Crown since the year 1668, a period of 170 
 years. During the same period, if small things may be mentioned witli 
 great, England herself has witnessed one Revolution, and three formida- 
 ble Rebellions. In the war with Hyder, of 1769 — 70, when the British 
 power was reduced to the lowest ebb, when Hyder overran the Carnatic, 
 when his troops filled Malabar, and securely held all Canara, when not 
 a Rupee remained in the Bombay Treasury, nor a man could be spared 
 for the defence of Tellicherry, the Chief and Factors received orders to 
 abandon this, the remaining British settlement in the Province, and 
 remove with all the public property to Bombay. 
 
 In this extremity, all the heads of families, Hindoo and Mahomedan, 
 Nyr and Mapilla, with one spirit and with one accord, came forward, 
 and voluntarily bound themselves in writing before the Chief, not only 
 to enrol themselves, but to contribute for the defence of the place, one- 
 fourth of the rent of all their rice fields, and one-fifth of that of all their 
 gardens, both estimated in pi'oduce, according to the ancient, uniform, 
 equitable, and invariable practice throughout India, previous to British 
 rule. 
 
 This engagement, the first land-tax the inhabitants had ever known, 
 was joyfully ratified by the Chief, in the name of the Government of 
 Bombay, and the place was maintained and saved. 
 
 Among the numerous and important political consequences which 
 speedily resulted from this signal and timely act of fidelity and devotion, 
 a prominent one was that, in the subsequent war with Tippoo, a large 
 division of the Bombay army was enabled speedily to advance from the 
 Western Coast, and by effecting a junction with Lord Cornwallis under 
 the walls of Seringapatam, powerfully contributed to secure the peace, 
 which the Governor-General then dictated to the Sultan, (1792) one of the 
 chief conditions of which was, the cession of the whole of the Maritime 
 Province of Malabar, an area of about 6,000 square miles, and a popu- 
 lation of 800,000 people, to the British Government. 
 
 The last survivor of this band of faithful and devoted men, a patriarch 
 of nearly one hundred years, died about four years ago. Often have 1 
 heard from his lips a narrative of the scene which then passed ; ascene, 
 when despair and despondency in the Chief and Factors were exchanged 
 for gratitude, confidence, and exultation. This man lived to see the 
 co7'H-rent of one-fourth of his rice lands, which he had engaged to pay.
 
 144 
 
 46. But what was the meaning, which the First Judge 
 fixed to these " looks" himself, and designed should be af- 
 fixed to them by those to whom he addressed himself? His 
 meaning, at the time and under the circumstances, could 
 be no other, than that the inhabitants of Tellicherry were 
 exulting in their hearts at the reported capture and burning 
 of Mangalore by the Insurgents, at the defeat of the Sepoys, 
 and the massacre of all the Europeans! 
 
 47. It was the first and the oldest British functionary 
 in these two Provinces, who circulated this belief in the 
 diabolical treachery and malignity of a people, among 
 whom he has been dwelling in peace and security for the 
 last twelve years. This gentleman says that, throughout 
 the course of nearly forty years service, he has " made it a 
 
 converted really into a money tax of one-half; and the produce rent of 
 his gardens, of one-fifth, into a money tax of often more than a half: 
 he lived to see a succession of tax-gatherers follow each other yearly, 
 and, year by year, come and survey his gardens, there count and note 
 every tree he had planted, and, wiien the first fruit appeared on its 
 branches, rate the tree as full bearing, and exact from him the full 
 money tax ; he lived to be compelled to choose by the Madras Govern- 
 ment between the following alternatives — either to pay the full money 
 tax upon all his past hearing trees, or to have them all cut down — to 
 have cut down, before his eyes, all his past bearing Cocoa-nut, Betel-nut, 
 and Jack, trees, he having no further right nor property in them, he being 
 a biped creature, paying revenue, nothing more ! 
 
 All this did this Mapilla, for he was a Mapilla, live to see; all this do 
 his descendants, and the descendants of his fellow-townsmen and 
 fellow-subscribers see, and patiently suffer ; those descendants have 
 also lived to be taunted and branded, as traitors to the British Govern- 
 ment because a tumult occurred 100 miles off, and because they were 
 the astonished hearers and spectators of all that followed this tumult in 
 Canara and Malabar! This has been their treatment; their treatment, 
 after they and the people of Malabar universally (as also of Canara) gave, 
 only four years ago, another most striking proof of their fidelity, in 
 having resisted, to a man, all the offers and inducements which the 
 Coorg Rajah, seated on his Musnud, and with a full treasury at his 
 command, held out to them to join him in his hostilities against the 
 Government.
 
 145 
 
 point not to encourage %vliat are called Native visils.'" The 
 practice, on this authority, must be held indisputable: I 
 truly believe that not a Rajah nor Native of rank crosses 
 his threshold; and they will admit, that he knows as iiiuch 
 of the people and of the country, as the day he entered the 
 latter. But they presume that his candour has made him 
 prefix this declaration, as a standing motto, to all the 
 voluminous Sessions and Circuit Reports he has yearly 
 compiled, to be transmitted to the Court of Directors, and 
 consulted by the English authorities, as correct and faithful 
 expositions, founded upon his personal knowledge and 
 inquiries, of the internal state of two important and distant 
 Provinces, over all the tribunals of which. Criminal, Civil 
 and Magisterial, he presides in chief. But where, I ask, was 
 his sense, not of justice, not of consideration, to the people ; 
 if twelve years of their marked and uniform respect and 
 attention, if 42,000 Rupees of their toil and sweat paid 
 yearly to him, had failed to imbue a human breast with 
 feelings of kindness and trust? where was his sense of duty 
 to the Government, at a time when that duty required 
 him to be the foremost man in showing, and in committing 
 the first man who failed to show, the most unbounded 
 confidence in their loyalty and attachment; a time, when 
 commotion agitated one Province, and alarm the other ; 
 where was his sense of duty to the Government he serves, 
 and to his country, when, at such a time, he, the First 
 Judge, could publicly exhibit, and inculcate a totally op- 
 posite belief? If such conduct towards the Natives of their 
 European rulers, if such wanton sowing of dragon's teeth 
 among them, produce not this portion of the earth in the 
 fulness of time, bristling with armed men, arrayed against 
 every man and every thing that is English, Divine Justice 
 sleeps! But the First Judge has served his Annuity; the 
 reaping of this harvest regards not him. 
 
 48. To witness such conduct, to hear such a speech, 
 is, I own, a just retiibution which injured humanity has 
 
 M
 
 14G 
 
 doomed me to suffer, for preserving silence on another 
 occasion. 
 
 49. That a Judge should voluntarily and freely state, 
 that he had hanged the wrong man, and wrongly trans- 
 ported another for life, in a case of murder; that he 
 should state this to the Judicial Officer, who committed 
 the case for trial before him ; that this Officer should 
 declare to the Judge, that he also had come to the same 
 harrowing conviction, relative to the innocence of these 
 men; that this Officer should instantly prepare, for sub- 
 mission to tlie Court of Fonjdaree Udalut, the irresis- 
 tible grounds of his conviction, terminated by an earnest 
 prayer to be allowed to take further evidence in the 
 case; that he should communicate these grounds to the 
 Judge, and beseech him to concur in, and support, the 
 prayer; that the Judge should distinctly refuse; that 
 one of the Judges of the Fonjdaree Udalut should thank 
 God that he had had nothing to say to the case; that 
 another of the Judges should express his fears, lest a 
 judicial murder had been committed ; that the collective 
 Court should, nevertheless, at the distance of eighteen 
 months after the reference made to it of this case, affirm the 
 first conviction, and negative the prayer ; that the Judge, 
 he who had condemned, and now believed in the innocence 
 of, the two victims, he who knew that the survivor of them, 
 the one whom the gibbet had spared, was by his, the 
 Judge's sentence, wearing out his days as a transported 
 felon, he who believed the real murderers to be still abroad ; 
 that this Judge, on learning the decision of the Fonjdaree 
 Udalut, should declare, in writing, that "decision to be 
 most satisfactory ;" that 1 should know all this, hear all 
 this, have afterwards in my possession the perfect proofs of 
 the innocence of these two unfortunate men, and that I 
 should have maintained public silence, is an offence, it is a 
 crime, to humanity and to society which merits all the 
 punishment I have suffered. With deep contrition do I
 
 147 
 
 ask pardon of God and the people for it ; although truth 
 be the witness, that all that a powerless, private, man could 
 do, to bring' forward the case, I atteinj)ted, and that if a 
 competent Court had existed, I would have prosecuted it.* 
 50. Not satisfied, however, with seeing a traitor in every 
 Native face, an enemy in every form, the Post, the Press, 
 private correspondence, and the public Papers, every Euro- 
 pean weapon, which the ignorance and helplessness of the 
 Native render him incapable of wielding in self-defence, 
 was relentlessly turned against him, in order to disseminate 
 an universal belief in the lurking treachery and disaffection 
 of the people.i" The Members of the Government will 
 say, whether this belief was not sought to be impressed 
 privately upon their minds. At Ootacamund, Wynaad 
 was reported to be in so disturbed a state, that the Sub- 
 collector of Malabar, whose presence was urgently required 
 on the Coast, was afraid to bring his wife through the dis- 
 trict, one under his own charge ! From Bangalore, the Com- 
 missioner of Mysoor officially reported to the Government, 
 with all the solemnity of a King's speech, that he " con- 
 " tinned to receive from all parts, the most satisfactory 
 
 * Since this leUer was first printed, I have learned, accidentally, but 
 from undoubted authority, that the late Governor of Madras, to whom I 
 transmitted the proofs of the innocence of these two unfortunate men, left 
 behind him a minute, recording his opinion that they had been convicted 
 on insufficient evidence. Sir F. Adam quitted India in March, I in 
 December 1837. To the hour of my departure from Tellicherry, not a 
 word had been heard of this minute. What became of it ? 
 
 I have now no hesitation in declaring to those who are acquainted 
 with the people and the country, that in this case one Native was put to 
 death, and another transported for life, upon evidence, that would not 
 have justified the conviction of one of the lower animals. 
 
 f Throughout the Bombay Presidency it was reported and believed, 
 that " the Coorgs, Mapillas, and Nyrs of the Coast were all in a state of 
 rebellion. All the different Brigades (of the Bombay army) received 
 orders to hold themselves in readiness to march at an hour's notice." In 
 Ceylon, the 90th Light Infantry (Queen's) were under orders for em- 
 barkation and field service on the Coast ! 
 
 M 2
 
 ]48 
 
 " assurances of quiet, and that the only danger of disturb- 
 " ance to the public peace was to be apprehended from the 
 " turbulent population of Malabar!" The turbulent popu- 
 lation of Malabar! a population guiltless of even a tumult 
 for the last thirty years ! numbers of whom I saw, and 
 every other man might have seen, humiliating and mourn- 
 ful sight to behold I with natures so emasculated, as to 
 have lost the instinct of self-defence, and to know no 
 safety but flight ! 
 
 51. Who was it, Sir, that so industriously and perse- 
 veringly disseminated these calumnies, both in society and 
 among the European public ; calumnies that have been 
 repeated by the Press of Bengal and Bombay, and which 
 will be re-echoed in England?* Who was it that thus 
 
 * Since my arrival in England, 1 have Uirned to some of the English 
 Papers, and content myself with inserting, as specimens, the two follow- 
 ing extracts of " Mangalore News," the first from a daily Paper, the 
 Momivg Herald, the other from a weekly Paper, the Naval and Military 
 Gazette : — 
 
 Morning Herald, Sept. 4, 1037. 
 
 Invasion at Mangalore. — The following is an extract of a letter 
 from an Officer of H. M. S. Winchester, dated Bombay, May 5, 1837 :— 
 "The Admiral fixed the 15th of April as the day of our sailing for 
 Colombo, when, on ti>e evening of the 11th, an express was received of an 
 invasion at Mangalore, and the hostile appearance of the Coorgs before the 
 town to the number o/" 30,000 men, with the declaration from the autho- 
 rities that they could hold out but a few days longer. A messenger was 
 sent on shore by the Captain to state that, at the request of Sir Jolni 
 Keaii, Commander-in-Chief, the Winchester would sail with a part of 
 II. M.'s 6lh regiment, and a Brigade of Artillery, at daylight next morn- 
 ing; and, therefore, to prepare accordingly and be on board; and at 
 eleven o'clock the next day we sailed for Mangalore, with 200 of the 6th 
 regiment, commanded by Major Crawford, and the Artillery, which were 
 to be followed by the Hugh Lindsay, with 200 more. Mangalore is 
 about 400 miles to the southward of Bombay ; and on our passage down 
 we spoke the Atalanta steamer, from England, having touched at Cochin 
 for coals. She informed us that the Coorgs were in great force at Man- 
 galore; and a Major of the , commanding 600 men, had been 
 
 defeated by them. This news being taken on to Bombay, tlie Atalanta
 
 149 
 
 laboured to poison the mind of the Government with 
 doubts and suspicions relative to the allegiance, not of 
 individuals only, but of the masses ? Was it the Natives, 
 
 and Amherst, Company's sloops of war, sailed the following day with the 
 23rd Regiment to reinforce us. We arrived at Mangalore in forty-nine 
 hours from Bombay, having had a splendid passage, and found the 
 town still in the possession of the English. The Coorgs had been twice 
 repulsed ; but they succeeded in burning the houses of the Collector, 
 
 Judge , and many others, with all their property ; and it was by 
 
 the greatest miracle that the ladies escaped on board ship, and got down 
 to Cannanore, where the 57th regiment are yet quartered, and Wellman, 
 Bate, and many of our old friends are there also. We landed the troops 
 immediately. Captain Uniacke was ready with his detachment of Royal 
 Marines, to share in the glory if necessary. In a few days after, the 
 Atalanta and Amherst arrived, when we went to Cassergode, and landed 
 the 35th regiment there, a distance of thirty miles south of Mangalore. 
 We returned to Mangalore in a few days, and found the enemy had dis- 
 appeared everywhere ; and as we could be of no further assistance, 
 started immediately for Bombay, and arrived here yesterday." 
 
 Naval and Militarj/ Gazette, Sept. 16, 1837. 
 
 [From a Courespondent.J — Observing that the statement in your 
 Paper of the 9th inst., relating to the affair at Mangalore, has created 
 some doubt as to its authenticity, t/ou muy rely upon the following fads 
 luleli/ received from that quarter: — 
 
 " Towards the latter end of March, Mangalore was attacked by a 
 numerous body of insurgents, and, during a few hours, burned to the 
 ground, with ])roperty to a considerable amount, the insurgents declaring 
 
 no war to the Europeans. Major , of the Company's N.I., gallantly 
 
 defended the place, and thereby saved the lives of all the civilians and 
 women on the station ; some of the latter escaped on board a vessel acci- 
 dentally in the roads, others by boats to Tellicherry and to Cannanore. 
 So well organized were the insurgents, that all communication was cut 
 off with the Mysore, and tiie different places on the coast, for several 
 days; at length Mr. of the Civil Service, with the wives and fami- 
 lies of other Civilians and Officers, arrived in open boats at Cannanore, 
 
 and having reported these facts to Brigadier , commanding II. M. 
 
 57th Regiment in Malabar, that Officer immediately ordered 100 men of 
 tiie 2nd N. I., 400 of the 4th N. I., the flank Companies of U. M. 57th 
 regiment, and a Company of Artillery, I'ioncers, Lascars, ^c. &c., under 
 Colonel , who arrived without molestation, and relieved Major
 
 150 
 
 or was it Europeans 7iot in the Service ? It notoriously 
 was not. I beg it may be distinctly remembered by all 
 men that, on the occurrence of what was bruited forth as 
 insurrection and civil war, it was no Native, nor English 
 " interloper," that it was not one of these two classes, who 
 exhibited to the world, "with damnable iteration," such a 
 picture of the blessings enjoyed by the Natives under the 
 Honourable Company's Government, and of the hold this 
 Government possesses on their affections, after a century 
 and half a century of rule, that a distant, contemptible 
 outbreak, of a few hundred wild men, sufficed to sever in 
 a day every tie of allegiance and attachment, and to set 
 
 's party at Mangalore, on the 12tli or 13th of April. In the mean- 
 while Brigadier placed the Fort and Cantonments on the coast on 
 
 the \var establishment, which restored confidence to the Rajahs and other 
 Chiefs who had applied to him for protection, in that neighbourhood. 
 On the 16th of April, 200 of H. M. 2nd regiment arrived from Bombay ; 
 
 shortly after. Colonel 's party was considerably augmented by other 
 
 detachments of troops from the northward, and, when the last accounts 
 
 left Mangalore, orders had arrived from Madras directing Brigadier 
 
 to proceed with a large force to take possession of the Lower Coorg 
 country, and probubhi into the Alj/sore. lieports, however, had reached us, 
 that the Niars to the southward of Cochin were in open rebellion against 
 the authorities, arid that European troops might be required in the Travan- 
 core district." 
 
 These statements, however delivered as bond fide, defy all correction. 
 Those who desire to see many more similar ones, have only to refer to 
 the Papers and Publications of the same date, which profess to be the 
 sources of correct East India intelligence. But I entreat the English 
 reader to remember, and I am sure he will not remember it without a 
 blush, that these are the accounts to which he is obliged to trust for all 
 information relative to a distant, a prostrate, people ; who have neither 
 the means of knowing what is written and published to their prejudice, 
 nor the ability of exposing its falsehood ; while they are the certain 
 victims to the universal indifference in their fate and fortune, generated 
 by this wide-spread belief in the hatred they bear, and in the treachery 
 and disaffection tiiey are ever ready to show, to their English rulers.
 
 151 
 
 them whetting their daggers for the throats of the European 
 functionaries ! * 
 
 52. In ordinary cases there are some limits to indigna- 
 tion ; but where are the limits, where the bounds, to it, 
 when it is known, and can be proved as plain as day, that 
 these calumnious reports, which compromised millions of 
 innocent, defenceless, men, which might have led, as in 
 Canara, to the proclaiming of Martial Law among them, 
 and to all the unavoidable excesses resulting from the 
 military occupation of large provinces, as it has led to the 
 increase of troops, had not one atom of foundation, save 
 in the imagination of those, who spread these reports to 
 cloak their own ungovernable fears. 
 
 53. I now appeal to the Governor and the Commander 
 in Chief, individually. They cannot be tainted with the 
 odious, vindictive, spirit of caste, they are not candidates 
 for the Direction. As British subjects of the highest rank, 
 and vested with the highest trusts, I ask them to survey 
 this vast dependency of the Empire, to reflect upon the 
 
 * Whoever will be at the trouble of looking over the files of the Madras 
 Conservative for April last, will find paragraphs of " News " from Ca- 
 nara and Malabar, which he would almost be disposed to think had been 
 sent, with the ink fresh, from the Council Chamber to the Printing Office. 
 There is not a Madras Paper which can be said to be known to the Na- 
 tives in the Provinces, so that a free press is, at present, to them what 
 the sun is to the blind, or rather what the sun is to the inhabitants of the 
 Arctic regions during their long dreary night. While he is kindling and 
 enlightening and vivifying the rest of the universe, on them his glorious 
 rays shed no light, no radiance ; for them he has no warmth, no heat, no 
 existence ! A people so defenceless are the very people whom, it would 
 be supposed, a generous, paternal Government, commanding the services 
 of salaried Law Officers would interpose to shield with the law from 
 defamation ; on the same ground, that the weakness and ignorance of 
 children and minors are held to render them the peculiar objects of pub- 
 lic legal protection. Yet the Papers published on, private letters swarmed, 
 and the Government took not one step to trace the reports, and to give 
 the authors an opportunity of substantiating publicly what tlicy wrote.
 
 152 
 
 delicate breath of opinion which chains every portion of 
 it to Biitish rule. 1 usk them, by any supposition, however 
 strained, to place themselves in my very humble situation, 
 to imagine themselves land-holders of forty years' posses- 
 sion in a remote part of the country; and there to behold, 
 when exerting all their influence, and expending their 
 fortune, to preserve order, and inspire confidence among 
 the Natives, to behold, as I did, almost in an instant, a 
 terror and panic spread past belief, the apprehended dis- 
 solution of all Government, their own property, and that 
 of every other man in the country, rendered not worth a 
 day's purchase, even hardly safe from the temptation held 
 forth to its immediate plunder.* I ask them to think of 
 this scene, to revolve all that I was obliged to hear, and 
 doomed to see, on my return to Tellicherry, and I then 
 ask his Lordship and his Excellency, as British Officers, 
 how they would feel their uniform to wear, if, after this, 
 they had maintained absolute silence towards the Govern- 
 ment? I anticipate both their ansvvers. Sir, I, too, am a 
 British Officer. 
 
 54. Not to be precipitate, however, I waited for the 
 Officers of the Government to come forward, and put the 
 Government in possession of facts and details, which were 
 flying from mouth to mouth. I anxiously waited for nearly 
 two months, after the British authority was re-established 
 in Canara, in the hope of seeing some public notice, other 
 than lavish, indiscriminate praises in the Gazette, which 
 should satisfy the people of the two Provinces, that the 
 Government was not wholly uninformed of the real nature 
 of the events which had occurred, and of the danger to 
 
 * It has been established by the clearest evidence, at the last (July 
 1837) Criminal Sessions for South Malabar, held at Calicut, on a trial for 
 burglary; in which a house was entered and robbed of all it contained, 
 as deliberately and undisguisedly as in open day; that the crime was 
 committed, as confessed by the perpetrators, for the reason that "now 
 was the time (the time of the aluini)to get ricli, by robbing all those who 
 were so ! "
 
 133 
 
 which their persons and property had been causelessly 
 exposed. 
 
 55. I expected, in common with all other men, that, 
 without particularizing those events perhaps, or naming 
 individuals, the Government would so far sympathise in 
 the losses and sufferings which its peaceable, unoffending, 
 subjects had endured, from no fault nor misconduct of 
 their own, as to publish a strong, earnest, and energetic 
 remonstrance, appealing to the honour, the patriotism, the 
 sense of duty, of its (European) servants ; recalling to them 
 the vast trust reposed in their hands; reminding them that, 
 when all other exclusive privileges and monopolies were 
 proscribed and rooted out, the great and magnanimous con- 
 fidence of their country had virtually continued to them, 
 the exclusive privilege of governing and ruling over one 
 hundred millions of their fellow men ; had still continued 
 to them the glorious monopoly of doing, in their public and 
 private capacity, to these millions, that boundless sum of 
 moral, intellectual, and physical good, which the fervent 
 wishes of the British people, embodied in one aspiration, 
 desired should mark and distinguish the future connection 
 of Great Britain with India; that the public servants are 
 the sole depositaries of all power, of all influence, and of 
 all authority, the sole mirrors which reflect upon those 
 beneath them, the honour, the dignity, and the authority 
 of the British Government ; that they are also the sole 
 reporters of their own acts and of their own conduct ; and, 
 lience, that not a thought, it was to be hoped, could find 
 entrance into their breasts, which could lessen that honour, 
 lower that dignity, or impair that authority. 
 
 56. It is superfluous to say, that I waited in vain for 
 any such appeal ; nay, the public (and private) dispatches 
 to Mangalore were reported to be only the more and more 
 encomiastic, the powers they conveyed only more and more 
 unlimited, the identification of the Government, with every 
 act and proceeding held there, only the more entire and 
 complete.
 
 154 
 
 57. I, therefore, at length, deemed it my duty to address 
 the Government, with the design of strongly awakening 
 its attention to the character it was filling in the eyes of 
 the people of Canara and of Malabar ; a character, which 
 seemed to me incompatible with the diffusion and continu- 
 ance of quiet and contentment in these Provinces. I wrote 
 warmly, for I felt warmly ; I feel so now, and shall so 
 feel, as long as feeling I have. But I wrote as generally 
 as my design permitted ; with two or three exceptions, I 
 am a stranger by name to every Officer, Civil or Military, 
 in Canara. 
 
 58. My letters, despatched under the safeguard of official 
 confidence, had hardly reached Madras, when copies of 
 them were transmitted, with profound mystery and secrecy, 
 to Mangalore, coupled, as it appears, with an intimation, of 
 a Commission of enquiry being probably held, in conse- 
 quence, at some future time. 
 
 59. If the circumstances I detailed were unknown to the 
 Government, yet should nevertheless prove true, candid and 
 impartial men, solicitous alone for the truth, will, I think, 
 admit, that no course was more imperative, both for the 
 honor of the Empire and the satisfaction of India, not only 
 that no step should be taken, which might be construed 
 into a design to render inquiry illusory and abortive, by 
 making the discovery of the truth impracticable ; but that 
 no step should be indirectly permitted, which might be 
 open even inferentially to the same construction. 
 
 60. If my letter was sent to Mangalore with the know- 
 ledge of His Lordship in Council, with this decisive proof 
 before my eyes, that, from the hour of its receipt. His 
 Lordship in Council, the final Judge and the nominator of 
 the Commission, was determined to throw the whole weight 
 of his station, of his authority, and of his opinion into the 
 opposite scale ; it would be the height of presumption and 
 indecency in a private, unsupported, solitary, friendless, 
 individual like myself (even if every public man regarded
 
 155 
 
 not himself as bound to follow the example set) to array 
 himself against His Lordship in Council. 
 
 61. If my letter was privately transmitted to Mangalore, 
 by Officers high in the confidence of His Lordship in Coun- 
 cil, the result, in defeating and compromising the ends of 
 enquiry, is the same. In this event. His Lordship in Coun- 
 cil can alone vindicate his authority; it is the weight of 
 His Lordship in Council, which can alone now pursue, with 
 any hope of success, an enquiry into events and occur- 
 rences of more than six months' date, involving the conduct 
 of high Public Officers exercising supreme authority, and 
 removed 500 miles away from the seat of Government. 
 
 62. If it were possible that I could be guilty of such 
 gratuitous cruelty, not to say mockery, the humanity of 
 His Lordship in Council would never suffer me to produce, 
 as witnesses before the Commissioners, the Natives of 
 Mangalore who have unreservedly communicated to me, 
 what they saw and what they heard. His Lordship in 
 Council would not suffer any Natives to be placed in a 
 situation, where they would be compelled to choose between 
 their fears and the truth on the one hand, and, on the other, 
 the inculpation of their European rulers, irresistible from 
 rank, from office, from power, from emolument, from con- 
 nections ; actively busied up to, and during, the very hour 
 of enquiry, in pursuing, seizing, and committing for trial 
 capitally, all persons suspected or accused of participation, 
 overt or covert, in the late disturbances,* and fully prepared 
 
 * I was informed by a Native of Mangalore, tliat he saw the town- 
 crier go about the town, about a month ago (October, 1837), witli a 
 paper in his (the crier's) hands, from which he read aloud, that all per- 
 sons were forbidden to speak of the late disturbances, under pain, if 
 heard, of being taken up and committed to Jail. I asked the reason of 
 this Proclamation. "To frighten and silence the people," replied the 
 man. "As to committing prisoners," said he, " if there was another 
 Jail at Mangalore, as large as the present one, that too would be filled 
 with them." Observing my great surprise and incredulity relative to 
 the Proclamation, he produced a Talook Gomastah to corroborate what
 
 156 
 
 to meet enquiry by public, recorded, approbation. If they 
 were spared now, these witnesses would believe that it 
 would only be to be marked and hunted down hereafter.* 
 
 he said. Of the "rebel" prisoners, the Special Judicial Commission 
 had, by the middle of September, tried 200, who were not half the num- 
 ber of those whose trials were then determined upon ; and as the Com- 
 mission did not leave Mangalore before the beginning of February, not 
 less than about 500 persons, in addition to those executed by Martial 
 Law, must have been arraigned and tried upon the Madras Statute of 
 Treasons, in consequence of this unhappy outbreak. There remains to 
 know how many more died in Jail, a Jail proverbially deadly and fatal 
 to the Natives confined in it. 
 
 * Not content with preserving a silence of months, the mark of appro- 
 bation which, in the eyes of the Natives, would be considered as the 
 strongest the Government could pass on the occasion, not satisfied with 
 this course which, in their minds, would be open only to one construc- 
 tion, the Government went beyond it. The Government (it is to be 
 placed in a most painful situation to have to state facts which stagger all 
 belief) even went beyond the law ! The Government vested the Magis- 
 trate of Canara, individually, with the power of pardoning any persons 
 whose evidence he might require, to convict the prisoners he himself 
 seized and sent up for trial, and coupled the investiture with the obser- 
 vation, that the Government put "the most implicit trust in his exer- 
 cising the power with the soundest discretion." By law, (Regulation 8, 
 of 1802, Section 20,) the power of pardoning accessaries is vested solely 
 in the Governor in Council, upon the recommendation of the Fonjdarry 
 Udalut, and that for the crimes specified, viz. " murder, gang-robbery, 
 arson, and the like." The Regulation, of course, contains no clause, no 
 provision, by which he can divest himself of this power, and depose it at 
 will into other hands. Further, in rebellion, the imputed crime, all 
 being [principals, none can be made accessaries or approvers. 
 
 What a spectacle, from first to last, was presented to die Natives ! In 
 the case of the prisoners condemned by Martial Law, they saw those 
 ])risoners led to death, without the Government deigning to satisfy itself 
 of their guilt: in the case of the other prisoners, they saw the Govern- 
 ment set aside the law, strip itself of the prerogative of pardon, and vest 
 that prerogative, unlimitedly, in the Magistrate, in order to secure con- 
 victions ; and this at a time, when it was formally announced to lite 
 Public, that the Government were sending Commissioners to Mangalore 
 " to investigate the affairs of Canara, &c. !" 
 
 The Government and the people of England expect the willing obe-
 
 J 57 
 
 63. I admit that the design has been well laid, that 
 ample time has been given to marshal tlie incidents, and 
 prepare the conclusion : — 
 
 " Et quED sibi quisqiie timebat, 
 Unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere." 
 
 But I must be forgiven, even when the intended moral 
 is the warning of the Native Spectators by my exam- 
 ple, if I decline to fill the blended part of dupe and victim, 
 in which it is designed that I should singly act and 
 suffer. 
 
 64. At this present time, nearly seven months after the 
 events, in this, the eleventh hour, with all the statements 
 in the official letter of the Judge of Mangalore, uncontra- 
 dicted as regards the public, with every functionary, whose 
 conduct that letter professes to relate, maintained in autho- 
 rity at Mangalore, and exalted by power and praise, the 
 
 dience of the Natives of India. They are prepared to exact that obedi- 
 ence, upon the requisition of the local Government, with all the phy- 
 sical force of the Empire. If the settled design had been to goad on 
 the Natives of Canara into rebellion, to imbue every man in the Pro- 
 vince with an indelible spirit of hatred and abhorrence of the British 
 Government, to keep their minds kindling with a fever of indignation, 
 let me put it to any upright, impartial, man to pronounce, whether a 
 more likely or more effectual course of measures than this could be 
 taken? And when it is known, that the Natives have humbly and 
 patiently borne and submitted to all, that not a tumult has occurred, not 
 an order been questioned nor disobeyed, nor any of the functionaries 
 continued over them treated with anything but respect; is it, I ask, in 
 the power of human beings to give more convincing proofs of their 
 peaceful, orderly, quiet dispositions? Is it in the power of men to give 
 a more unanswerable denial to the charge of disaffection, sought to be Jived 
 upon them, in order to colour this treatment ? Or is it possible for men 
 to show more forcibly, how truly they deserve that a strict, an impartial, 
 and a public inquiry be made, without respect to persons or authorities, 
 into the transactions of Canara, and into every circumstance connected 
 with them, in order that the British Government may truly know, who 
 have been the breakers of the law, who the fomenters of sedition ; what 
 all the miseries, and indignities, and sufferings, heaped upon this people ?
 
 158 
 
 question is not, what I can substantiate, nor, let nie say 
 with all respect, can it be made the question. 
 
 Go. All that a loyal subject and private man could do in 
 his position, to preserve and maintain inviolate the honour 
 and authority of the British Government, during a season 
 of public ferment, I did. * But the supreme Guardians 
 
 * Voucher B. 
 
 Principal Collector's Office, on Circuit, 
 Kiikanchcrr^, \9tli Oct. 1837. 
 
 TO F. C. BROWN, Esq. 
 Sir, 
 
 I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
 the 16th inst., requesting me to state my opinion, as to how you dis- 
 charged your duty to Government, as a British subject, and as to the 
 example you, as an individual, set the inhabitants at the time of the 
 unfortunate outbreak in Canara in April last. 
 
 2. In reply, I have no hesitation in saying, that the calm firmness 
 displayed by you during this period, was attended by the best results, 
 and restored confidence to the people around you, who had been consider- 
 ably alarmed by the ill-timed and unnecessary fears of others; and that 
 the example you set generally was the talk and admiration of the Natives. 
 I may also add, that I learnt from one of the European gentlemen at 
 Tellicherry, whom I saw shortly after, that your determination and ex- 
 ample had been highly useful, and under the circumstance then brought 
 to my knowledge for the first time, very valuable. 
 
 3. Nothing called, at that time, for an official report from me to 
 Government, as Malabar was happily quite free from any participation 
 in the disturbances of Canara; otherwise, I should certainly have stated 
 freely my opinion, as regarded the share you had in allaying the excited 
 feelings of those around you. As some accounts, however, would be 
 looked for from me, they were submitted in a demi-official form ; and 
 I had occasion in these letters, to notice the information that I had, at 
 different times, received from you ; 1 stated also generally, that your 
 conduct, throughout the trying time, " had been admirable." 
 
 I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 F. F. CLEMENTSON, 
 Principal Collector and Magistrate.
 
 159 
 
 of that honour and authority arc the Governor in Council 
 of Madras. The noble trust is not vicarious ; it is inde- 
 feasible. That honour and tiiat authority, it is declared 
 by all men, received a fatal shock, the national name a deep 
 stain, by the attempted abandonment of Mangalore by 
 every Officer, Civil and Military, on the morning of the 
 4th of April, twenty-four (36) hours before an insurgent 
 appeared ; this abandonment, all but unanimously sub- 
 scribed in writing, has been officially known to, and has re- 
 mained unquestioned by, the Government for nearly seven 
 months. This is now the cause ; two Provinces of the 
 Empire are the Witnesses, the People of England must 
 hereafter be the Judges. No private man can be suffered 
 to interfere, and distract the attention from the public, 
 privileged, actors to himself. 
 
 66. Sir, it is a general rule in the United Services of the 
 Empire, an inexorable rule in one, which not the Lord 
 High Admiral nor the youngest Midshipman can evade; 
 that, in every instance of the loss, or the abandonment of a 
 vessel committed to the charge of an Officer; even should 
 the abyss have entombed her and left but a foremast^to 
 tell the tale; the survivor should immediately appear before 
 a competent Court, and there purge the memory of his Com- 
 mander, his Officers, and his Messmates from having 
 failed, even in death, in aught demanded by the trust their 
 country reposed in them. Scarcely a twelvemonth passes 
 that this rule, which Honour and Patriotism have imposed 
 upon Justice, brings not to light, even in times of peace, 
 some heroic instance of constancy, firmness, and greatness 
 of mind displayed under appalling perils ; of a Commander, 
 the impersonation of calmness, fortitude, and resolution, 
 exhibiting in these moments, an attention to, a recollection 
 of, every person around but himself; a fertility of resource, 
 increasing with every emergence ; and so infusing his own 
 indomitable mind into the breasts of all under him, that 
 the whole ship becomes instinct with one spirit of order
 
 160 
 
 and resolution, vvhicli seems to say to the elements, " Roar 
 on! ye cannot shake the hearts of Englishmen ! " Great 
 and glorious as are the triumphs of the British name, who 
 is there that reads of one of these victories, achieved over 
 danger and death by the exercise of these god-like quali- 
 ties, without feeling his own nature inexpressibly exalted at 
 the recital ? Yet the hero of it, he, before whom men invo- 
 luntarily feel disposed to bow as a superior being, is com- 
 pelled to appear before his country, stripped of the sword 
 his hands are so worthy to grasp. Sir ! it was no vessel 
 of the Empire, it was a part of the Empire itself, it was a 
 Million and more of men, that were trusted to the function- 
 aries of Canara, to defend from the moral tempests of 
 anarchy and civil war, as long as a foot of ground remained 
 to tread on. 
 
 67. And what recollections are there not associated with 
 the theatre of this reported conduct ! Mangalore, the 
 grave of hundreds of a garrison of a few thousand (3546), 
 Europeans and Sepoys, who, the historian relates, under 
 their heroic leader Major Campbell, successfully resisted for 
 nine consecutive months the whole army of the Sultan of 
 Mysore, "amounting to 60,000 liorse, 30,000 disciplined 
 Sepoys, 600 French Infantry under Col. Cossigny, Lally's 
 corps of Europeans and Natives, a French troop of dis- 
 mounted cavalry commanded by an Officer of the King of 
 France, irregular troops to the amount of many thousands, 
 and nearly one hundred pieces of artillery." They resisted, 
 until two-thirds of " the garrison were sick, and the rest 
 had scarcely strength to sustain their arms," in which state 
 "they marched to Tellicherry, with their arms, accoutre- 
 ments, and all the honours of war." 
 
 68. The present occasion is one, therefore, when all men 
 must feel, that private regards and considerations must 
 merge in a regard for the public weal and the national 
 name. All men will echo the sentiments of a great writer : 
 " A man who loves only himself, without regard to friendship
 
 161 
 
 or desert, merits the severest blame ; and a man who is only 
 susceptible of friendship, without public spirit, or a regard 
 for the community, is deficient in the most material parts 
 of virtue." 
 
 69. I presume it will be a matter of positive instruction 
 to the Commissioners, to reject all inferior evidence when 
 the best possible can be obtained. I have already stated 
 that I repaired, on the first rumour of disturbances in 
 Coorg, to the part of the country where my influence could 
 be best exerted in preserving order, and inspiring confidence. 
 It was impossible, therefore, that I could be at Mangalore, 
 or at other places, to speak personally to events or occur- 
 rences, which happened at them : and fortunate is it, for 
 the ends of truth, that this is the case, for the persons who 
 can speak, are above exception ; they are all, " within the 
 pale," are all officers, Civil or Military, in the Service, 
 wiiose testimony will relate to events, which they either 
 witnessed and took part in, or that they heard of from the 
 actors. 
 
 70. The letter of the Judge of Mangalore, the minutes 
 of the Civil and Military trials held there, and the spon- 
 taneous confessions of the prisoners, are public, authentic, 
 indisputable records, to inform the Commissioners, and 
 direct their inquiries. I know not whether the venue of the 
 latter, as of the trials, be unalterably laid at Mangalore. 
 If it be not, and His Lordship in Council desires to abridge 
 and facilitate the labours of the Commissioners, he will 
 instruct these Gentlemen to begin them at Cannanore. It 
 was there that the Eamont landed all the persons she re- 
 ceived on board at Mangalore ; it was there that they gave 
 a narrative, fresh and vivid, of what had occurred, of what 
 was done, and had been intended to be done, up to the 
 hour of their leaving the place. 
 
 71. The Honourable Mr, Sullivan can tell the Commis- 
 sioners, I crave his forgiveness if I am in error, whether he 
 has not read an extract of a letter from a gallant young 
 
 N
 
 162 
 
 Officer, a witness of undisputed authority, comparing the 
 attacks on Mangalore to boys capturing bees' nests. The 
 Chaplain of Cannanore will relate what he heard from the 
 German Missionaries of Mangalore, who fled and took 
 refuge with him; and I appeal to the honour of every 
 British resident at Tellicherry to declare, whether the 
 events of Mangalore, as related by the Native letter- 
 writer, and by other unexceptionable witnesses, were not 
 the universal, nay, the sole topics of conversation, at the 
 period I returned among them ; whether the order given to 
 the Peons of IVlangalore, when they again started into life, 
 was not written from thence. They will likewise say, 
 whether some ladies were sent to Cannanore, by sea, on 
 the plea that the land road (13 miles) was unsafe, and 
 whether a remonstrance was suggested to be addressed 
 to the Officer Commanding the Provinces, upon the danger 
 and imprudence of further lessening the number of troops 
 at Cannanore. 
 
 72, The arms, means, and equipments of the Insurgents, 
 will be best estimated from all the captured munitions of 
 War, which are doubtless at hand, and ready to be pro- 
 duced; their designs and numbers, from their own confes- 
 sions, from the wealth and intelligence of their wealthiest 
 leaders, and from the population of their districts. The 
 casualties of Colonel Green's detachment, 1,000 strong, 
 exposed for a whole day to their fire, will show their skill 
 as marksmen.* As to the means of resistance at Man- 
 galore, a military eye will, 1 think, have little difficulty in 
 fixing on a part of the ancient defences, which may be 
 deemed inexpugnable; and the same eye will descry a 
 Pagoda at Pootoor, stored at the time (in April) with 
 grain, supplied with water, and capable of being held 
 against all ordinary assailants. But there is another 
 position which, it is to be hoped, the Commissioners will 
 
 * The casualties on the occasion were, I believe, a Drummer and * 
 Bheestie wounded.
 
 163 
 
 visit in person ; the position chosen for the erection of a 
 Gibbet, which was in progress of being raised at Man- 
 galore, while the Court Martial was sitting, and trying 
 the Prisoners. * 
 
 73. The Principal Collector of Malabar can describe 
 the state in which he found Tellicherry, when he passed 
 through to Cannanore; and the assistance he derived in 
 discharging the very arduous and responsible duties it fell 
 to his share to perform, for some time, unaided by any 
 officer under him. 
 
 74. The two special Judicial Commissioners, deputed to 
 Mangalore, can bear witness to the manner of their re- 
 ception, and to the disposition manifested by the whole 
 population, Hindoo and Mapilla, of North Malabar on 
 their progress through the country; to the dangers they 
 ran in South Canara, after the Magistrate of Canara had 
 reported, that he could not answer for the safety of their 
 persons on the journey to Mangalore, and advised their 
 coming by sea. 
 
 * The Officer who, it is stated, stopped the erection of this Gibbet, 
 was Captain W. P. Macdonald, of the 41st N. I., the Judge Advocate 
 who conducted the Trials. Immediately the circumstance came to his 
 knowledge, with the spirit, the feeling, and humanity worthy of a Madras 
 Officer, he refused to continue the proceedings, until the structure was 
 removed. This Officer was afterwards first named as Secretary to the 
 Canara Commissioners, in echo of his own merit and qualifications, and 
 of the public voice. He had filled the same office in Kimedy, and had 
 been thanked in General Orders for his services. lie had conducted 
 the Military Trials at Mangalore, where he had resided for some time, 
 in prosecution of the inquiries into the delinquency of the prisoners, 
 necessary to the discharge of this duty, and had become officially ap- 
 prised of, and familiar with, the leading events which had there occurred. 
 A fitter Secretary could not be named, and the current phrase was, " the 
 truth will now come out." But " there, was a screiv loose somewliei-e," 
 as he wrote from Madras; where, and wherefore, may be best known at 
 Madras and Mangalore, and Captain Macdonald was not appointed. 
 I am a stranger to this Officer, and only speak of him as I have heard 
 him spoken of. 
 
 N 2
 
 164 
 
 75. Witli regard to the sentiments of the people of 
 Tellicherry,who have been so cruelly and unjustly maligned, 
 there is one proof of their innocence, even in thought, so 
 easy and complete, that 1 trust His Lordship in Council 
 will instruct the Commissioners to reduce it to the test. 
 The proof is, to direct a search for arms and ammunition 
 to be made throughout the town. After the search, I will 
 willingly give a Rupee to every male adult of the popula- 
 tion, who shall !^hovv in public, that he knows how to prime 
 and load a piece with ball, and will put a ball through a 
 common target at forty yards. 
 
 76. I have now established to the conviction, I believe, 
 of all impartial minds ; first, that there are reasons unan- 
 swerable, which preclude ray obeying the commands of His 
 Lordship in Council, to attend upon the Commissioners, 
 unfeigned as is my respect for these gentlemen, unless my 
 design was to frustrate the objects of inquiry, by under- 
 taking a duty, which pre-eminently pertains to the Govern- 
 ment, and by it alone can now be adequately discharged : 
 secondly, that if these reasons did not exist, it would be 
 presumptuous in a private man, when so many public 
 actors and witnesses are present and at hand, further to 
 step out of the sphere imposed upon him, that of a sorrow- 
 ful spectator and compulsory listener, whose offence it 
 prima facie is, that he gave expression to the feelings which 
 all men around him entertained and privately uttered. 
 
 77. There are, moreover, other considerations of not less 
 weight than the foregoing, which prescribe to me unalter- 
 ably the same conduct. 
 
 78. It was observed to me, in April last, by one of the 
 most influential Natives in the country, when conversing 
 upon the events which had transpired: "The Civit Gentle- 
 men (he used the very words) can sail away in ships, with 
 their wives and children, on the breaking out of any dis- 
 turbances, and find a full Treasury of Rupees wherever 
 they go: but what are you or I to do? how, or where, are
 
 165 
 
 we and the Koodians, (the people of the country) to take 
 away our lands and families, and what belongs to us? " 
 
 79. This pertinent question was not only put to me, 
 but the Government may rest assured, that it has been 
 put and discussed, at fiill length, by the large and intel- 
 ligent circle of this Native's acquaintance; and that sub- 
 sequent events have led them to the following answer: 
 " Either the Government knows not of these things, or it 
 does know, and is determined tu ignore them." 
 
 80. Had my lips, with baseness unheard, been sealed in 
 the same seeming silence as theirs, had I, as they, con- 
 tinued to wait, " with bated breath and whispering hum- 
 bleness," for what might next be vouchsafed to be done ; yet 
 the powerful workings of their minds upon what they saw, 
 and upon what they might suffer, upon such soul-absorbing 
 topics, as their individual safety, the safety of their wives 
 and children, and the security of their property, as involved 
 by the conduct of their European rulers, these workings 
 would nevertheless have proceeded full surely, contemned 
 and unheeded as they have been, and may be. 
 
 81. Circumstanced thus, We are driven to reflect upon 
 the primal cause, the origin and fount of all these mis- 
 chiefs; upon what must be the course of conduct, the 
 course of uniform mental discipline, which men must be- 
 come habituated to, when it is seen that, in the momentous 
 position of the British Empire in India, public men of high 
 official rank, mature age, and reputed experience, could 
 bring themselves to harbour, and to act upon, such a reso- 
 lution as the total abandonment and immediate loss of a 
 large Province, specially committed to their charge. 
 
 82. Calm, dispassionate, and impartial men who, at a 
 distance from the scene, at a distance from India, will con- 
 sider this resolution, apart even from the occasion, and 
 examine it in connection with the preceding narrative, will 
 find it hardly possible to avoid arriving at the following 
 conviction ; that the whole system of internal Government
 
 166 
 
 must permit, and sanction, so entire and unrestrained a 
 latitude of conduct in public men, must be so devoid of 
 anything like an approach to effective check, or to real 
 responsibility, is so freed from every restraint of public 
 opinion, and must teach so thorough a contempt for the 
 feelings and sentiments of the Natives beneath them ;* that 
 there is no act whatever, not even the desertion of one 
 Province, and the consequent convulsion of another, which 
 they may not hazard, with the certainty of reaping imme- 
 diate fame and reward upon their own reports, and with 
 the assurance that, if enquiry does follow, it will follow 
 only at the distance of many months, that they will be 
 amply forewarned and forearmed, be maintained in power 
 and authority, and be prepared and encouraged to meet 
 enquiry with public, recorded, approbation. 
 
 83. Such a system not merely excludes every hope in a 
 private man, it leaves room only for despair. Against the 
 Assagai', the Tomahawk, the War-club, the Scalping-knife, 
 or the Bush-arrow of the Savage, an Englishman dwelling 
 in the Colonies of the Empire, may hope to guard by 
 every prudent precaution, and by a blameless life, spent in 
 the discharge of every kind and good office towards those 
 around him. But against the passions, against the tumults, 
 against the plunder, against the anarchy, produced by the 
 flight of every authority, the end of all Government, and 
 the surrender of all public trust, no individual prudence, 
 no firmness, no virtue, can defend him. Had there been 
 British Settlers and Capitalists scattered through Canara, 
 it is they, who would have sealed tliis system with their 
 heart's blood ; it is their lives, their families, their proper- 
 ties, which, no man can doubt, would have fallen the in- 
 stant sacrifices to the infuriated Natives, stung to madness 
 at the desertion of the European Officers salaried and ap- 
 pointed to protect them, a desertion which the hapless vic- 
 tims could neither anticipate nor prevent. 
 
 * See Note at the end.
 
 167 
 
 84. The secret has thus been discovered, without vio- 
 lating the letter, of fatally and effectually blighting the 
 spirit, of an Act of the Legislature, the grand, humane, 
 enlightened, and politic provision of which, the provision 
 which bade India hope, and Great Britain and the world 
 rejoice, secured for the Act the title of " The Charter of 
 India." Whatever may be the design of the law, or the 
 promptings of the heart, the secret has been discovered, of 
 warning every European British subject of character, 
 respectability, and property, to fly far from this portion of 
 India. No man who reads what I saw in Malabar, or 
 reflects upon what occurred, and is related to have oc- 
 curred, in Canara, can have a heart so devoid of the feel- 
 ings of humanity, as to bring himself to desire, that his 
 greatest enemy should venture his property, and risk the 
 lives of his wife and children in a country, where the one 
 and the other would be exposed, sooner or later, to the 
 hazard of destruction. 
 
 85. Precluded in my own case from longer dwelling here 
 in honour and security, I have been driven to seek to sever 
 a family connection with these Provinces of nearly seventy 
 years' duration. I have been driven to offer for sale the 
 whole of my property on this Coast, this estate included, 
 the fruit of forty years' toil and dear-bought experience, 
 and a great amount of capital ; where a population has 
 been born strangers to another landlord ; where, following 
 the example bequeathed to me, the little good I have done, 
 and the hope of being suffered to do more, have been the 
 solace and the reward of days and years consumed in soli- 
 tude and obscurity, away from all the enjoyments which 
 most men deem life wortli living for. Some minds may, 
 perhaps, sympathise in the struggle which such a resolu- 
 tion cost. 
 
 86. But not a purchaser offered. In such a mart as 
 Bombay, my property, this estate purchased from the 
 Honourable Company, is not now marketable. What would
 
 168 
 
 loan-holders in the Service not say, what measures would 
 the Government not have instantly resorted to towards me, 
 or towards British subjects like me, if it were possible, that 
 I or they could be instrumental in rendering the Govern- 
 ment Promissory Notes perfectly unsaleable ? 
 
 87. Foiled in the desire to sell, there only remains to 
 me to quit the country, and return to England. To that 
 determination 1 long since came, and intended, if possible, 
 to embark in the September Steamer. But my produce 
 will not be shipped before the middle, or the end of Novem- 
 ber. I accompany, or follow it : happy, were it possible to 
 forget elsewhere events and occurrences, which, when I 
 reflect upon the sinister effect they have already had, and 
 upon the effects which I firmly believe they will hereafter 
 have, upon the honour, the character, the dignity, the 
 strenoth, and the stability of the British Government, in 
 the eyes of the people of this portion of India, I would 
 freely give my life to have averted, and to avert. 
 
 88. There is a remaining duty forced upon me, from the 
 performance of which, however painful, however fraught, 
 as the warning voice of the past repeats to me, with the 
 consummation of my own ruin, I am forbidden to shrink. 
 To preserve silence, on the subjects of this letter, would be 
 treason to the people of England. With the people of 
 England it must rest, seriously to reflect upon the conse- 
 quences involved in them ; and to weigh, with deep and 
 patient attention, what the moral, intrinsic, value of this, 
 their greatest, inheritance purchased with the best blood of 
 their country, is likely to be, when, their long minority 
 ended, they shall be suffered to take possession, and be 
 permitted to see, to survey, and to examine its real condi- 
 tion and past Government, by the light of their own un- 
 hoodwinked, unobstructed senses, and of their impartial, 
 enlightened, and unprejudiced understandings. 
 
 89. I have only one request to make to his Lordship in 
 Council. Ample time has been given to store up and
 
 169 
 
 accumulate against me the odium of public men. To ex- 
 asperate it among all, it has been stated that I have written 
 many letters to Bengal, on the same subject. I have never 
 written one ; but as the present letter may possibly convey 
 some information to the Right Honourable the Governor 
 General of India, my request is, that his Lordship in Coun- 
 cil will have the goodness to send a copy of it to his Lord- 
 ship the Governor General. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient humble Servant, 
 
 F. C. BROWN.
 
 170 
 
 NOTE TO PAGE 166. 
 
 " Were there a species of creatures intermingled with men which^ 
 though rational, were possessed of such inferior strength, both of body 
 and mind, that they were incapable of all resistance, and could never, 
 upon the highest provocation, make us feel the effects of their resent- 
 ment; the necessary consequence, I think, is, that we should be bound, 
 by the laws of humanity, to give gentle usage to these creatures, but 
 should not, properly speaking, lie under any restraint of justice with 
 regard to them, nor could they possess any right or property^ exclusive 
 of such arbitrary lords. Our intercourse with them could not be called 
 society, which supposes a degree of equality, but absolute command on 
 the one side, and servile obedience on the other. Whatsoever we covet, 
 they must instantly resign. Our permission is the only tenure by which 
 they^ hold their possessions : our compassion and kindness, the only 
 check by which we curb our lawless will : and as no inconvenience ever 
 results {to us) from the exercise of a power so firmly established in 
 nature, the restraints of justice and property being totally useless, would 
 never have place in so unequal a confederacy. This is plainly" (says 
 the ethical writer on Justice, who thought the condition he described 
 could never be that of any human beings) " the situation of man with 
 regard to animals." 
 
 I shall be accused of exaggeration ; in the face of the testimony of a 
 life, given to endeavouring to strengthen the Government, and to recon- 
 cile the Natives to it, by daily exhortation and example, whoever might 
 be the local depositaries of its authority, I shall be denounced for pre- 
 judice and distortion. Let, then, those who seek for materials to inform 
 and guide their opinions, who desire to have facts, as the fouiydation 
 whereon to base their judgments, consider dispassionately the following 
 narrative, and pronounce upon the amount of security of person, upon 
 the degree of individual liberty, and upon the extent of the rights to 
 property, possessed by, and permitted to, a people under a system of in- 
 ternal Government and law, to which the detail will furnish an index. 
 
 In the middle of last July, I was told that an opulent and respectable 
 Native land-owner and merchant, living at the distance of some miles 
 from me, had called and wished particularly to speak to me. I went to 
 him, and, to my surprise, found him in the custody of a Delayet (a 
 hi«her kind of silver-budged official, of whom a number are attached to
 
 171 
 
 the persons and suite of European Collectors and Magistrates) and of 
 two inferior Peons. He told me, that these persons had come to his 
 house at Eerikoor, produced to him a paper from the Joint Magistrate, 
 with a seal upon it, and directed him to sign it; that after he had signed 
 and returned the paper, the Delayet said he had orders to search every 
 part of his, Paree's house (Mehnee Paree is the Native's name) for the 
 other gun he had found in his well, and which the Magistrate heard he 
 had secreted ; whereupon the Delayet and Peons entered his house, 
 turned into the street all that it contained, the Grain, the Pepper, and 
 every other thing, and probed and sounded it in every part : they next 
 went to the rooms of the women of his family, and there did the same. 
 He said that this was the second time his house had been searched in the 
 same way, the first time by the Talook (county) Officers. Not finding 
 any trace of the gun, the Delayet took him into custody, together with 
 one of the Coolies (a Teean) whom, with others, he had employed to 
 clear out the well, and were now taking them both to Tellicherry; 
 when, as they passed my house, he begged to be allowed to stop and 
 see me. 
 
 The Delayet, before whom all this was stated, confirmed its truth ; 
 his man, whose father had long been in our service, made no scruple in 
 telling me his belief, that there never was more than one gun found in 
 the well, and that the story of the second was a fabrication. Nevertheless, 
 the old man Paree, his prisoner, upwards of 72 years of age and in bad 
 health, was in great and natural alarm ; he said, he had never in his life 
 been suspected nor accused of a crime, was wholly unacquainted with 
 Courts and Cutcherries, and he, therefore, entreated that I would give him 
 a note to the Joint Magistrate, to testify that he was a man of good cha- 
 racter, not turbulent, nor ill-disposed (as his appearance and health, and 
 the feebleness of his years, visibly bore witness), and that he was de- 
 serving of belief on his word. 
 
 It happened that 1 was thoroughly informed of the occurrence, which 
 had led to his apprehension on this suspicion, of what seemed to be con- 
 sidered as constructive treason ; this finding, accidentally in his well, of 
 a piece of ordnance, a two or three pounder, two and a half or three feet 
 long, which one able-bodied man easily carried on his shoulder; and 
 hence was aware of the truth of all that he stated. The most consi- 
 derable and influential Nyr, living close to Eerikoor, named Anunden 
 Ejamahnen, or " Lord" Anunden, as tlie Natives style him, liad called 
 upon me a few days after the discovery, about two months before, in the
 
 172 
 
 end of April or the beginning of May, and had mentioned the particulars 
 of it. He added, that a report had been got up of a second gun having 
 been found, in order to extort money from Paree, but that in reality 
 there was only one. 
 
 To give, when possessed of this information, the note he asked to an 
 old and highly respectable Native, like Paree, would have been, at any 
 time, an act of simple justice and humanity on my part : but, at that 
 particular time, after the ferment and agitation into which the Province 
 had been thrown, and from which the Natives were only slowly recover- 
 ing, it became a positive duty to prevent, by every means, the refiring 
 of the same train which might follow, if this accusation known to be 
 groundless, raised against a man of blameless life and respectable con- 
 dition, of his having produced one gun and secreted another, for the pur- 
 pose of selling this other gun to the Coorgs, were credited by the Joint 
 Magistrate, and hastily acted on. I, therefore, immediately gave him 
 the note he asked to tliis gentleman, and he and the Cooley continued 
 their journey, as prisoners, to Tellicherry. 
 
 The finding of the gun was this. Some three or four years before, 
 Paree had bought a ground at Eerikoor, which had been part of the 
 family property of one of the head servants (Karistens) of the Beebee 
 of Cannanore, and had settled it, according to the usual custom, upon 
 his daughter and her infant son. During the dry season of 1836, he 
 had endeavoured to clear out an old abandoned well in this ground, but 
 had desisted from alarm, on seeing masses of the sides fall in on the 
 workmen. In 1837, a drought, unparalleled for severity and duration, 
 desolated the country for eight months; from the beginning of Sep- 
 tember, 1836, to the end of the following April, not a drop of rain fell. 
 The cattle were perishing in hundreds ; most of the wells, even in the 
 vicinity of the sea, were dry, and water became very scarce for the uses 
 of the people. In this state of suffering, Paree, in the hope of getting 
 a supply for his own family and for his neighbours around, and being 
 best able to bear the expense of the work, again had recourse to the old 
 well, and resumed the clearing of it. After the workmen had been so 
 engaged three or four days, they first found some pieces of copper and 
 metal and other remnants; they then came to something longer and 
 weightier, which proved to be, to their surprise and that of every body 
 else, what they called " a Great Gun," (V'alia Tok). The neighbours 
 and town's people flocked to see this gun hauled up; when up, tlie four 
 Mookistens, or Parish Elders, immediately came to see it; they sent for
 
 173 
 
 the Potail (Adigaree), and lie came. He and the Elders thereupon 
 drew up and dispatched a formal proch verbal of the discovery to the 
 County (Talook) Cutcherry; the county Duffadar (Head Constable), 
 and a body of Peons arrived at tliis time ; he and they all saw it. They 
 were on their way to receive, and escort to Mangalore, a body of 
 Canarese prisoners, who had been seized in Coorg, and were being 
 marched down after the late outbreak; thus establishing the fact, that 
 the well was being dug, and the gun found, aj'tci- this outbreak was 
 universally known to have been suppressed. 
 
 The gun was then taken away to the County Cutcherry, whither 
 Paree, although ill, was summoned (a day's journey from his home) and 
 a particular deposition of its finding taken from him. About six or eight 
 days after, the Potail and Parish Elders were likewise there summoned, 
 and similar depositions taken from them. The gun was next removed 
 from the County, and sent, with all the reports, depositions, and exami- 
 nations, to the Magistrate's Cutcherry at Tellicherry. 
 
 It appeared from them, that nor Paree, nor Potail, nor Elders, nor 
 neighbours, nor any one else could, in their ignorance, explain how the 
 gun came into the well. It never was suspected, nor charged against 
 Paree, that he hid, or that he or any one else knew of, the gun being 
 there; it never was doubted, but that the gun was found by pure acci- 
 dent, in the manner described, buried six or eight feet in the mud : the 
 charge conslructivelj/ against him was, that he had found tivo guns, had 
 produced only one, and secreted the other, with the intention of selling 
 this other to the Upper Coorgs; to the Upper Coorgs who, let it be re- 
 membered, had continued steadily faithful throughout the late commo- 
 tion in Canara, and had very mainly and actively contributed to its sup- 
 pression; and of selling this gun to them, after the commotion was en- 
 tirely suppressed. Whence the inference arrived at against him seems 
 to have been, that he was a traitorous, evil disposed person, who che- 
 rished hostile designs to the British Government, designs of aiding its 
 overthrow with this hidden two or three pounder, without powder or 
 ball. He had at this time, like every other man, the Government war- 
 rant for having, if he pleased, in his open, undisguised possession, fifty 
 guns ; the people being authorised and enabled by public proclamation, 
 two years before, to have arms. 
 
 From my inquiries, and from a knowledge of the previous history of 
 the country, the explanation of the gun being found in the well, was 
 simply this. Until the pacification of the Province, about forty years
 
 174 
 
 ago, the Beebees of Cannanore and the ancestors of Lord Anunden, 
 neighbouring chiefs, were constantly at war. As regularly almost as 
 the season came, inroads and forays were made into each other's lands, 
 always accompanied, and generally led, by the head servants (Karistens,) 
 Nyr and Mapilla, on each side. The gun in question is just the kind of 
 ordnance, that would be the piece de reserve used in these onslaughts ; 
 and a deep well, in a ground at Eerikoor belonging to a Mapilla leader, 
 the very place in which it would be deposited for security, whether after 
 success, and certainly after disaster. 
 
 Paree, on his arrival at Tellicherry, a two days' journey from his home 
 and family, was taken with the Cooly, to the Cutcherry before the Joint 
 Magistrate, to whom he delivered my note. The Magistrate desired 
 him, through an interpreter, to speak the truth, and asked, where was 
 the other gun ? He assured the Magistrate that only one had been 
 found, and offered to give any security to be named, in attestation of the 
 truth of what he stated. Without anything more passing on the occa- 
 sion, without any further proceedings being held, or any other questions 
 asked, he was handed over to the custody of the Cutwal, who took and 
 immediately lodged him in the town Watch-house, with strict orders to 
 the Peons in charge, not to allow him to speak, or be spoken to, by any 
 person whatever, not to allow the persons who should bring him food to 
 approach him, nor to suffer him to go to a Mosque to prayers. These 
 orders were strictly obeyed ; in this abode, this nightly receptacle for 
 the reputed thieves and sweepings of the streets, and in this state, he was 
 kept three days and three nights. At length, on the fourth day, the 
 Cutwal inquired what was to be done with his prisoner, and how much 
 longer he was to be so confined. On this, Paree was ordered to be 
 brought up. This day, some of his friends had prepared, and brought 
 for presentation to the Joint Magistrate, a Petition stating his advanced 
 age and infirm health, and praying that he might be released on bail. 
 On seeing this Petition, the Sheristedar, or Head Native Officer of the 
 Cutcherry, came up and declined to receive and present it : the Petition, 
 he said, was unnecessary, Paree should be released on his producing 
 bail for his appearance. One of his friends stepped forward, and be- 
 came bound in a penalty of 100 Rupees, that Paree should attend daily 
 at the Cutcherry (the outside of it) from nine in the morning, until five 
 or six in the evening. Bail, at the same time, and of the same kind 
 was offered, bj/ Petition, for tlie Cooly, who had been taken into custody 
 with, and accompanied him to Tellicherry, but was positively refused;
 
 175 
 
 and this man was continued to be kept in close confinement in the Ma- 
 gistrate's Cutcherry itself. 
 
 A few days after Paree's visit to me, I was surprised to see three of 
 the Eerikoor parish elders (JNIookibtens, the fourth absconded) arrive at 
 my house, all also in the custody of Peons, and all on their way to Telli- 
 cherry. These men are not in any respect Government Officers ; they 
 are the respectable chosen elders, or Church Wardens, of their several 
 parishes, who discharge gratuitously, and at a yearly great sacrifice of 
 time and personal trouble, many local duties and inquiries essential to 
 the purposes of Government, and the good order and well-being of their 
 community ; and whose very least reward for these great, though noise- 
 less, services, ought to be, all the return they ask, some show of respect 
 and consideration evinced to their persons and character, by the paid 
 Officers of the Government. 
 
 The Mookistens, on seeing, appealed to me, and earnestly besough 
 me what to do : they declared, they had only seen and heard of one gun 
 being found in Paree's well ; that they had so reported and stated at the 
 time at the County, but it was now said that there were two guns, and it 
 was insisted upon by the Peons, who had them in custody, that they were 
 to say so too at Tellicherry. On hearing this, one of the Peons present 
 turned round, and abused them grossly before my face, called them all 
 liars, and threatened them with the consequences, if they persisted in 
 their denial on their arrival at Tellicherry. 
 
 I endeavoured to pacify them as well as I could, told them not to 
 heed any threats, but to proceed quietly, and if what they had before 
 stated was the truth, to repeat it before the Joint Magistrate, without 
 fear of being punished, or found fault with. 
 
 They proceeded, and were delivered at the Cutcherry. After attend- 
 ing there daily for eight or nine days, without being once called up, or 
 questioned, or examined, living all the while at Paree's expense, one 
 afternoon they were suddenly given in charge of a Peon, together with 
 the Cooly who had, until that hour, been kept in confinement in the 
 Cutcherry, with orders to the Peon, that he was to proceed without stop- 
 ping, and deliver them all, and a letter of which he was the bearer, that 
 night to the County Peshkar who, with other County Officers, had ar- 
 rived at Eerikoor, in pursuance of fresh instructions to resume a strict 
 search for the missing gun. 
 
 The season when this occurred was the height of the rains. At dusk 
 the same evening, the party reached tlie neighbourhood of my house.
 
 176 
 
 thoroughly drenched. Arrived there, the Parish Elders refused to go a 
 step further that night; there remained about sixteen miles of bad road, 
 through an unfrequented Jungle ; they had had no food since the morn- 
 ing, while the Cooly had twice dropped down on the way in a fainting 
 fit. The Peon insisted on his positive orders; a violent hubbub arose, 
 and they all came to me. I, of course, directed them all to be provided 
 with food and lodging for the night, and gave the Peon a note to 
 exonerate him from blame for the delay. 
 
 The next morning they continued their journey, and the species of 
 investigation and inquiry for the gun, which followed on their arrival at 
 Eerikoor, before the County Officers, will be best learned from the 
 following statement of his examination before these Officers, made by 
 one of the persons examined, (I insert one only) one of the Coolies who, 
 in the exercise of his calling of a day labourer, had been employed in 
 clearing out the well : — 
 
 Statei7ient of , of Eerikoor, made on the 5th August, 1837. 
 
 " Friday week yesterday, as I was sitting in the shop of , a 
 
 Kavye-district Peon, and Mookisten came, and took me near to the 
 
 Manatah Pagoda, where were assembled the County Peshkar, the 
 Police Gomastah, and the Mookistens. The Gomastah said to the 
 Peon, " Take this man to a distance, and after questioning him accord- 
 ing to custom, bring him back." On this, the Peon took me to the 
 river side, to a place where there was no one else, and said, " Tell the 
 truth." " I will," I replied. lie then asked, " How many guns were 
 found in digging M. Paree's well ? I hear two were found." I said, 
 
 " I, and , and , (two persons named,) it was, who dug M. 
 
 Paree's well, we found only one gun, no more." On this, the Peon first 
 
 abused me ; " You son of a b , you son of a thief, tell the truth !" 
 
 On my saying, " What I have said is the truth, why do you abuse me ?" 
 he first struck me on the back of the head, and then hit my chin up with 
 his fist, saying, " Do you think I will let you alone, until I make you 
 tell the truth ?" I began spitting blood, and said, " If it is the Saheb's 
 orders, that you are thus to beat and abuse me, by way of asking ques- 
 tions, do so." He then took me by the back of the neck, shoved me, 
 and took me before the Gomastah. 
 
 I there told the Mookistens how the Peon had ill-treated me: " iliey 
 said, "Tell it to the Peshkar and Gomastah;" which I did before all.
 
 177 
 
 Neither of them said anything. The Gomastah, Peshkar, and Peon 
 
 then took me, , and (two persons named) to a short distance 
 
 from where the rest were, put each of us apart, examined, and took a 
 deposition from each, which depositions they never read over to us, nor 
 do I know whether what we said, or what we did not say, was written 
 down. I only said what I saw. On their desiring us to sign, we 
 signed, fearing if we said we would not, until the depositions were read 
 over, that we should be subject to worse treatment than we had already 
 suffered from the Sirkar Officers, whom it was vain for us to think of 
 opposing or resisting. I was unable to speak from the pain in my jaw. 
 
 I told all this when it happened to my father." (Signed) . 
 
 Even these examinations and the others, thus conducted, failed to 
 produce a trace of a second gun. Paree's house was searched for the 
 third time, as it had been searched twice before, his well, the wells of 
 his neighbours, and the tanks, were drained and examined ; the 
 Nullahs and river banks were explored, the grounds (Parumbas) dug, 
 and the Jungle around carefully searched : all in vain; the two-or-three 
 pounder was nowhere to be found. The County Officers were in a great 
 dilemma : their orders were, to send in their report to Tellicherry vntft 
 the missing gun, orders which I had the means of knowing, they con 
 strued to mean, that they were not to send their report without the 
 ordnance. But as no trace of the latter could be got, they hit, as I 
 heard, in their fear and perplexity, upon the following expedient to 
 save themselves : — They decided on reporting, with Lord Anunden, ray 
 first informant, sitting beside them, their belief in a second gun, that 
 it was most probably buried in the sands of the river, which being now 
 filled by the rains, no further search could then be made, but that an- 
 other search properly conducted, when the water should subside, would 
 doubtless bring the gun to light. 
 
 A day or two after this report was received at Tellichery, and 
 twenty-hvo dai/s after Paree had been taken into custody, and there 
 detained, he was called up, and asked whether he was ready to enter 
 into the security, which he offered to give the day he was brought in. 
 He said, he w^as ready; he was thereupon desired to produce a rupee 
 to pay for the requisite stamp ; after this preliminary, a Bond, of which 
 the following is a translation, was drawn out, and after he had duly 
 executed it before the Joint-Magistrate, he was told that he was now 
 permitted to return to his family and his home. The gun, his property, 
 
 was confiscated. 
 
 O
 
 178 
 
 " Security Bond executed by M. I'aree, inhabitant of Malaputtum 
 parish, in the town of Eerikoor, and County of Kavye, to the all- 
 powerful Company Sirkar. 
 
 " The Joint Magistrate of Malabar having summoned and examined 
 me in consequence of its having been said that, besides the large g-un 
 in my possession, which was taken to the County (Cutcherry) I had 
 another large gun wliich I meant to sell to the Coorgs, and I having 
 declared to the Magistrate, that there was no other than one large gun, 
 and the Magistrate having desired me to give a Bond to that effect; I 
 hereby declare the truth as follows : There is in my possession no other 
 large gun whatever. I have neither secreted, nor have I sold to any 
 one, any large gun. If, therefore, any large gun be found in my posses- 
 sion, or be found anywhere else with my privity, at any time; if, at any 
 time it be found that I have sold, herebefore or hereafter, any large gun 
 to any one whatever, or given one away, or secreted one, I engage to 
 appear and be responsible to the Sirkar (the Government) for the same. 
 If I do not appear, I engage to pay to the Sirkar a fine of 500 Rupees; 
 if I do not pay this fine immediately, I and my heirs, consent that. 
 it shall be levied out of any property wliatsoever belonging to me. 
 I have subscribed this Security Bond before two witnesses at Tellicherry, 
 22 Karkadagum 1012, (4 August, 1837)." 
 
 Such is a narrative of the treatment which this Native publicly re- 
 ceived, such the treatment to which was subjected, before all his country- 
 men, this man arrived at the very verge of human life, beset with the 
 mental and bodily infirmities of his years, of spotless character, the head 
 of a numerous and respectable family, of age enough to be the Grand- 
 father of the Joint Magistrate, as considered, as esteemed, as respected, 
 in his own country and rank of life as, I must be suffered to say, the 
 Father of this gentleman in his. Tlirice is his house entered, thrice 
 searched, and sounded, and emptied of all its contents ; the privacy of 
 his women's apartments is similarly violated ; he is then summoned to 
 the District Cutcherry, he is next taken into sudden custody, dragged 
 away in the depth of winter, two days' journey from his home and family, 
 and lodged like a malefactor, for three successive days and three nights, 
 in a Watch-house, the nightly den of the thieves and vagabonds of the 
 town, with strict orders that no human being be suffered to have access 
 to him, or he to a house of prayer. On the fourth day he is tliought 
 of, and turned out of his prison, in the manner that an animal would be 
 from a pen, and ordered to pass all the hours of every day in outward
 
 179 
 
 attendance at the Cutcheiry, under pain, if lie absents himself, of being 
 fined 100 Rupees. On the twenty-second day of this attendance, he is 
 brought before the Joint Magistrate; and witliout being accused of any 
 crime whatever, without being confronted witli any accuser, witliout 
 hearing a single witness, without being told one word further of tiie 
 reason of (or the smallest reparation being offered, or judged necessary 
 to be offered, to soften, to excuse, or to palliate in any way) this treat- 
 ment, imprisonment, and detention, and without being furnished with 
 any clue, to enable him to trace and expose a false accusation, and ob- 
 tain redress for all that he has suffered, he is ordered to sign and 
 execute a stamp Eiond; which, being bought with his own money, the 
 act is made to wear the appearance of being his own free, voluntary, 
 unsolicited act, binding himself unci /lis lieirn in a penalty of 500 
 Rupees, equal to him to 500/., in case a gun be, at any time hereafter, 
 found or traced to him. lie is made to suffer this treatment, because 
 he has been guilty of conduct, not merely guiltless, but innocent, not 
 merely innocent but blameless, not merely blameless but, in the highest 
 degree, kind, considerate, charitable, and praiseworthy; because two 
 months before, during a visitation of Providence, so cruel and desolating 
 as a fervid drought in the Torrid Zone, he ventured to resume the 
 clearing out of a well, on what is miscalled, his property, in order to 
 get a supply of water to allay the pressing wants of his faiiily and his 
 neighbours; because he did this, ciJ'Ltr the commotion in Canara had 
 been suppressed, and because, in the progress of the work, a two or 
 three pounder gun was found buried in the mud of this well. The 
 treatment which the day labourers he employed received, for following 
 their calling, and gaining their bread by the sweat of their brow, was, 
 that one of the number was, with him, taken into custody, and marched 
 a prisoner to Teliiclierry, where bail for this man was refused, and he 
 was kept in close confinenent, in the Cutcherry itself, for many days, 
 (his mother supported by his labour starving,) until his state was such 
 that, on the day of his release, he fainted twice in a walk of twelve 
 miles; the other men are abused and assaulted by the Native Officers 
 deputed to examine them, because they persisted in saying, as at first, 
 that tliey found only one gun in the well, and knew nothing of any 
 other. The public treatment which the Mookistens, the respectable, 
 chosen Elders of their community, received, because their eyes saw, and 
 their ears heard of, only one gun, and could not out of this one make 
 two, was, first to be bandied to the County Cutcherry, then like criininals- 
 
 o2
 
 180 
 
 to Tellicheny, the prisoners of Peons, who insulted and abused them 
 all the way; to be kept there from their homes and concerns for several 
 days, and sent back unquestioned and, as they came, prisoners. 
 
 Such was the treatment which all these persons met with at the 
 hands of the Revenue and Police Officers; for as the Joint Magistrate 
 is also Sub-Collector in his districts, so all his Native subordinates are 
 both Tax-gatherers and Police Officers: such the outrages, indignities, 
 and contumelies, all these innocent, blameless, men were subjected to in 
 their persons and individual liberty, without hesitation, without pause, 
 without comment; and this, immediately after a season of unexam- 
 pled public agitation ; the whole affair being treated and regarded as a 
 common, ordinary, occurrence, an every-day matter, dealt with and 
 disposed of according to the usual practice and routine of Magisterial 
 office. 
 
 The Joint Magistrate, I have no doubt, is naturally as kind, well 
 intentioned, and considerately disposed, as any Officer in the Service; 
 and such is the system in which many of the modern statesmen and 
 law-givers of Madras are, from the first, schooled and familiarized, 
 that I am persuaded no one would feel greater surprise than himself, 
 at any part of these proceedings being considered open to question or 
 objection, as deserving of blame for harshness, wantonness, arbitrariness, 
 irreflection, or caprice; no one more convinced than Viimself, that every 
 part of them was regular, formal, authorized, and customary, within the 
 strict bounds of the powers which as Sub-Collector and Magistrate, he 
 conceives to be undeniably vested in him, over the acts, the persons, 
 the liberty, and the property of every Native whomsoever, of what- 
 ever rank, degree, or condition, in his Sub-Collectorate ; or in his 
 Province, whenever interest or seniority shall raise him to be the 
 Principal Collector and Magistrate of a Province, containing a million 
 and more of men. Not a doubt, nor a misgiving, nor a suspicion, I 
 am sure, crossed his mind in the course of these proceedings, of the 
 lesson that was being authoritatively taught by them, to be practised 
 by all his Native subordinate Officers, whenever promotion and removal 
 to higher grades shall give them an opportunity of " bettering the 
 instruction;" and if unhappily, on the present occasion, the people had 
 given vent to the indignation witli which they burned, if, wrought into 
 momentary fury at seeing the whole power, the whole authority, and the 
 whole influence of the alien Government ruling over them, employed 
 and engaged, for days, in labouring to make the conduct proveably
 
 181 
 
 true, innocent, and exemplary, of an old, infirm, helpless man, appear 
 falsified and treasonably criminal, in order to overtake this man with 
 condign punishment, and to cast a suspicion of disaffection generally 
 upon the whole of them as a body; if, seeing this, the people had risen 
 tumultuously, and headlong burst the bars of his ignominious prison, 
 the Magistrate would, instantly and unhesitatingly, have called for 
 troops, and British troops would have come, and would have exterminated 
 them, while no other eye than the eye of Heaven saw and marked, that 
 they had been driven to desperation by treatment, which it will be else- 
 where inconceivable that men should be men, and bear. 
 
 F. C. BROWN. 
 London, June, 1838.
 
 183 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 There are, settled at Mauritius, two foreigners, the joint 
 proprietors of an estate which now yields them a clear 
 income of 10,000/. a-year. This estate, bought with the 
 fruits of their honourable and successful industry during 
 their residence on the island, is a model estate, where 
 planters and persons go who desire to see an example of 
 skill, science, economy, and good management applied to 
 the growth of the sugar-cane, and the improved manufac- 
 ture of sugar. The annual expenditure upon this estate 
 cannot be less than 40,000?., nor the indirect contributions 
 to the revenue short of at least 5000/. 
 
 Both these foreigners read, write, and speak French cor- 
 rectly ; they are welcome guests at every English and French 
 house, respected visitors at the Government House. One 
 of them has rendered important public service. Reader, 
 English reader, desire you to know who these estimable 
 men are ? who these two foreigners are, increasing so greatly 
 the prosperity of their adopted country, and adding so praise- 
 worthily to the general wealth of the British Empire. Learn 
 then, that they are both of them Natives of the Presidency of 
 Madras, the one of the Northern Circars, the other of Tanjore! 
 The latter will tell you, as he tells all who ask his history, 
 that he is a man of high caste, and was born to competent 
 hereditary landed property in his own Province; but that 
 the continued exactions and oppressions of the Collector 
 drove him forth a wanderer on the earth, abandoning family, 
 kindred, friends, country, property, every good held
 
 184 
 
 dear by man. Reader, you have heard, and you will con- 
 stantly hear, that Biitish India contains 100 millions of 
 men; these 100 would, at the present hour, be 200 mil- 
 lions, for it is a thinly peopled country compared to its 
 extent, and its population only requires food to double in 
 25 or 30 years. Think you that, with only 100 millions of 
 men, having preserved to them the same property in the 
 land of their fathers as these two, their exiled countrymen, 
 have acquired under the fostering spirit of British laws 
 in the rock of Mauritius, India would be poorer than she 
 now is — that her revenues {the land tax having fallen off 
 from 16 millions to 10) would be less than they now are, or 
 her commercial value to Great Britain more fractional com- 
 paratively than it is? Think you, if these 100 millions 
 knew and felt, every hour of their lives, that they bad a 
 hearth and a home of their own to defend, they would be 
 slow, led on by British landholders and capitalists, in defend- 
 ing such possessions against all enemies, whether foreign or 
 domestic ? Would you not, knmoing that they enjoyed these 
 blessings, laugh to scorn all the attempts that Russia, 
 with her thousand secret emissaries, or any other rival or 
 enemy whatever, European or Asiatic, open or concealed, 
 could make to debauch their allegiance, and convert theni 
 into covert traitors against the British Government ? 
 
 Do you wish to see the contrast ? Do you desire truly 
 to know what the sum of blessings really is which the 
 Natives of India have granted to them to possess, to 
 enjoy, and to defend ? Discard and despise the volumes 
 of pompous, self-laudatory generalities by which, perhaps 
 w'ithout design, but certainly without examj)le, the con- 
 fidence of a great and generous people has been duped and 
 deluded, and its patience tasked in a degree never before 
 witnessed. It is not from 16,000 studiously penned folios, 
 from any governing class, it is by descending to record par- 
 ticulars, patiently noted and learned on the spot from direct 
 communication with the people, that the operation of a
 
 185 
 
 Government upon their happiness and well-being is to be 
 truly known and gathered. Insist henceforth upon having, 
 and upon hearing periodically, from independent, unbiassed 
 witnesses, and from every region of India, full, minute, and 
 authentic particulars of a system, which leaves no person 
 and no thing throughout the country uninterfered with, or 
 untouched — which makes a King, and fixes the hire of every 
 artisan and day-labourer, prescribing that he shall receive 
 so much, in reward of his day's toil, and no more ; which, 
 in fact, sees in him, from the hour he first draws, until the 
 moment he resigns, his breath, nothing but a creature made 
 to pay revenue, to be grateful that he lives, and — to be silent. 
 
 Every word of the previous pages, addressed to the Court 
 of Directors, was sent to the press before the receipt of the 
 late intelligence from India, which has made known to all, 
 that Russian spies and emissaries have been traced, tam- 
 pering successfully with Native powers, both on the frontiers 
 and in the heart of the British territories, and that the whole 
 population desire nothing so ardently as their success. 
 
 It is no longer a choice, it becomes a duty, to throw 
 every possible light, even at the risk of prolixity, upon the 
 causes of this universal hatred and dislike to the Govern- 
 ment, which are now felt to exist among the Natives — causes 
 spurned and despised in India, and unsuspected in Eng- 
 land ; and to show why it is, that a countless and submis- 
 sive population are all believed by their local rulers, to turn 
 a greedy ear to every liope that is whispered to them from 
 afar, not of regaining self-dominion, for of that desire they 
 are not susj^ected, but of seeing a change from their present 
 to any other foreign masters. 
 
 The following letters, as will be seen, were never designed 
 for publication ; the first, meant solely to serve, gave umbrage, 
 I fear, in a quarter which demands and deserves at my hands 
 every service, public or private, in my power to render. The 
 particulars it details, however, are such that they cannot 
 now be withheld, whatever their shape or their words.
 
 186 
 
 TO Esq., SUB-COLLECTOR. 
 
 Anjarakandy, 27th June, 1837, 
 
 My Dear 
 
 I mentioned to you the case of some Teers (Culti- 
 vators) who had taken the lease of a morass in Cottayum 
 (a County), for the purpose of draining, clearing, and cul- 
 tivating it ; but who were arrested and stopped in the 
 middle of their labours by the assessment which the revenue 
 Officers fixed upon the land. As the case requires to be 
 fully known, I will give you the particulars of it at length. 
 The following is a translation of the lease, which was 
 granted to these persons by the proprietor of the land, one 
 of the Rajahs of Cottayum : — " This is the lease of a swamp 
 " executed by the Cottayum Ponerye Rajah, in favour of 
 *' Teers, PaddavadeeKannen, and Oochumel Tolen Cootty, 
 *' of Ponerye. The river having now for many years over- 
 " flowed, and the jungle overgrown, two Paddy fields called 
 ** Oochumel and Ottakandum, belonging to my South Pa- 
 ** lace, in the Padnakara Deshum (Parish), and of the 
 *' yearly rent of 200 Dungays of Paddy, I have hereby 
 " granted to you, in consideration of these fields being waste 
 ** and salt-water swamps, a lease of them for ten years, rent 
 *' free. — (Here follow the boundaries.) At the expiration 
 " often years, when the jungle has been rooted out, and 
 " the fields brought into cultivation, you are every year to 
 " bring to, and measure at, the Erroovetty Palace 200 
 " Varum Madda Dungays of Paddy, as the rent of the 
 " same. If this Deed (royal writing) is mortgaged to any 
 " person whatsoever, the act shall be null and void. Dated 
 " 3 Kannee, 1007 (18th September, 1831)."
 
 187 
 
 On obtainino- this lease (for which the only consideration 
 paid were 6 fanams (2s. 6d.) as the writer's fee), the tenants 
 immediately set about the first and most indispensable work, 
 that of constructing a dam along the bank of the river 
 bordering the swamp, of sufficient width and solidity to 
 exclude the salt water at spring-tides, and to bear the pres- 
 sure of the Monsoon floods. This work, and that of rooting 
 out the dense matted jungle, with which the swamp was 
 overgrown, both laborious and, to persons in their circum- 
 stances, most expensive tasks, occupied them the whole of 
 that year, 1007, and the one following. In 1009 (1833), 
 the fields were sown for the first time. In Meenom (March 
 1834) of that year, long after the crop was reaped and off 
 the ground, and when nothing remained on it but the stubble, 
 a Talook (county) Officer came and looked at the fields, and 
 assessed them for that year in a motiey revenue of 70 rupees. 
 The rent which the tenants contracted to pay, at the expi- 
 ration of 10 years, an exemption which could alone have 
 tempted them, or any other men in their senses, to under- 
 take the reclaiming of a morass was, as we have seen, a 
 rent hi kind of '200 V. Dangays of Paddy, equivalent to 
 180 Macleod, or Government, seers, which at the average 
 price of 30 rupees per mil seers, would be rupees 5.1. 60. 
 The Government demand, therefore, amounted to more than 
 13 times the reserved rent for one year, and to upwards of 
 one third more than the whole reserved rent for 10 years ! 
 But the stipvdated rent represents, as of all Paddy fields, 
 one-third of the grow produce ; so that the tenants were 
 called upon to pay an assessment of upwards of four times 
 the entire gross produce of their fields, supposing the fields 
 had been redeemed and brought into perfect cultivation, a 
 task not to be completed under several years. 
 
 It being clearly impossible for them to pay such a tax, 
 they appealed to the Tahsildar (the head county Officer of 
 revenue and police). The 1'ahsildar came and reduced the 
 tax from 70 rupees to 28 \, as low, perhaps, us he thought
 
 188 
 
 lie could prudently or expediently reduce it. But this 
 reduction, great as it appears to be, still left the money 
 assessment immediately demandable, five times more than 
 the money value of the reserved rent. The result is, that 
 from that time, the Teers have abandoned their fields, 
 the dam, which cost them so much money and expence, 
 is washed away, the salt-water floods the spot at one 
 season, the rains at another, and it again is, what it was, a 
 pestilent morass. 
 
 This interference of the Government between a private 
 landlord and his tenants has, therefore, been productive of 
 nothing but pure, unalloyed mischief to all parties concerned ; 
 and as the evil is of a more serious, profound, and exten- 
 sive nature than may at first sight be apparent, you will 
 pardon me, I am sure, for pointing it out plainly and in 
 some detail. 
 
 In the first place, there can be no doubt that the imme- 
 diate effect of the proceeding has been, to rob the tenants 
 of all their outlay, in draining and clearing the swamp, and 
 in bringing it into a state fit for cultivation — an outlay 
 which, in one instance, was procured on the security of 
 other property, and the repayment of whi(^ will probably 
 consign the borrower to a jail. As the act was the act of 
 the Officers of Government, it is taken to be that of the 
 Government itself; and the impression, therefore, of the 
 suffeiers and of all around them is, that they have been 
 robbed by the Government of the fruits of their labour, 
 their time, and their money, on an occasion when they felt 
 entitled to its approbation, at least, if not to its rewards. 
 
 Were the spoiler a private individual, they know they 
 would have a chance of remedy, and might hope for redress j 
 but as it is the Government, and as the case is a {land) Revenue 
 case, it is withdrawn from the protection of all law. But, 
 superadded to the privation of all legal redress, and super- 
 added to the wrong they suffer, is the feeling to which they 
 are sensibly alive, whatever they may be able to say, that
 
 189 
 
 the hand which has been stretched out to despoil them is 
 the hand which, above all others, should be ever extended 
 for their efficient protection and encouragement in all the 
 pursuits of honest, lawful, praise-worlhy industry. 
 
 In the second place, the shock given to industry and the 
 security of property, has been as extensive as the circum- 
 stances have been known. " What possible good can it 
 " do the Sirkar (Government) ?" said a Nyr to me, when I 
 was on the spot, surrounded by a number of Natives,, and lis- 
 tening to what they had to say — " What possible good can 
 •' it do to the Sirkar, to prevent me from turning these 
 •* marshes, where there are now only thorns and alligators, 
 " into Paddy fields ? In a few years the Varum (rent) 
 " upon them would be due, in four years more the Ponnerye 
 " Rajah (the landlord) would have received his due, and 
 " been able to pay Niggdee (assessment), while the Koo- 
 " dians (tenants) and their families would have been pro- 
 " vided now and hereafter with food and employment ; — 
 " now, no one gets, or can get, anything : all is loss, all the 
 " labour, time, and expence incurred, and who, after the 
 " treatment of the Teers, will venture again to incur them?" 
 
 The countenances of the by-standers, and a waste of 
 swamp on either side where we stood, were sufficient answers 
 to the question. Had no interference of the kind been suf- 
 fered, had the private engagement of these parties, from 
 which nothing but good could accrue, been scrupulously 
 respected, I am satisfied that the whole expanse of morass 
 would, ere now, have been one scene of cultivation. 
 
 The reverse of all this, this interference has annihilated 
 the certain and immediate revenue which would be paid by 
 the Rajah, when he began to receive his rent; it has, in 
 effect, blotted out from the map of the country the spot 
 that had been reclaimed, and others similar to it that arc 
 reclaimable, constituting some of the most valuable land 
 in the country, when brought under the plough ; it has 
 sacrificed the much greater revenue, which would certainly
 
 190 
 
 iind permanently be derived, (Vom suilering these baneful 
 seats of disease and death to be converted into sources of 
 health and plenty ; and it has engendered in the breasts of 
 the liibouriniJ: population, that class the most valuable and 
 the most helpless of all, a deep inipression, that no sooner 
 is their industry exerted, and all their scanty means be- 
 stowed, blamelessly »nd beneficially, in providing a main- 
 tenance for their families, and in adding to the general 
 wealth of the country, than the Government steps in, and 
 bids them cease, and starve. 
 
 In the third place, it is not to be disguised that the con- 
 duct of the Government goes to the length of declaring all 
 leases between landlords and tenants to be null and void, 
 and of establishing it, as a principle, which the Revenue 
 Officers are ordered to enforce, that private propertj/ in the 
 hind is not recognised to exist, (juasi the Government. For, 
 for the Government to tell the tenants of a landlord, that 
 they shall not cultivate the land he has given them on a 
 lease of years, unless, as a preliminary, they pay an assess- 
 ment amounting to more than four times its gross produce, 
 is telling them that they shall not cultivate the land at all j 
 that their lease is a farce ; that the landlord has, in fact, no 
 right nor title to dispose of his laud as Jie thinks proper; 
 and that if the Government shall will it to lie waste, lie 
 waste it shall. It is impossible, therefore, for the landlord 
 not to feel that he has been stripped by the strong arm of 
 power of all property in these Paddy fields; and that he has 
 been stripped at a time, when he particularly merited to be 
 maintained in all the security of possession. To both the 
 Government and the public he had done his duty as a pro- 
 prietor; he had procured good tenants to cultivate and 
 reclaim what was before a waste; he had passed a written 
 obligation, forbearing from all demand upon them, until 
 their outlay was reimbursed ; and he had probably made 
 liberal advances (of which he is likewise a loser) to enable 
 them to proceed efifectually with their task. The Govern-
 
 191 
 
 ment, on the contrary, which fixes and demands such an 
 assessment years before he can receive a rea of rent, has 
 not supplied the land, nor procured the tenants, nor ad- 
 vanced the outlay, nor run the risk of failure. In a work 
 of great and essential public benefit, the Government has 
 not only not had the smallest share, but the part which it 
 takes is, to blight all the good that has been done, all that 
 would directly, indirectly, and immeasurably flow from the 
 work, by stripping the landlord of his land ! 
 
 The nature of the land, whether wet or dry, Paddy field 
 or Parumba (garden), waste or cultivated, can in no degree 
 afiTect the equity of this act. Every landlord in the 
 country feels the case to be his own. The principle which 
 is applied to this property to-day may be applied to all 
 others to-morrow ; and seeing that the very opposite of any 
 increase of Revenue must be really contemplated by it, 
 satisfied that the Government does not act deliberately and 
 systematically, except upon a settled design, the landlords 
 can arrive at no other conclusion than that their existence 
 is felt as a crime; that they are, in fact, a proscribed race, 
 whose extinction is doomed by the slow and gradual acqui- 
 sition of all their lands. In truth, no law of mortmain 
 was ever more certain or more fatal. It may be very well 
 
 for Mr. , who never bought nor cultivated an acre of 
 
 land in his life, and for twenty-four gentlemen echoing his 
 opinions amid the smoke of Leadenhall-street, to declare 
 that, as nothing more {more!!) than the rent of the land is 
 demanded from the Natives of India, they are, in reality, 
 untaxed. If you had bought 10,000 Rupees worth of Com- 
 pany's paper, upon the faith of receiving 5 per cent, inte- 
 rest upon it, and if the Civil Auditor had the power of 
 taking every year the whole of this interest, under the name 
 of " Assessment," Mr. , or those twenty-four gentle- 
 men, would have great difficulty in persuading you that 
 you were wholly untaxed; and in preventing you from 
 feeling, that you were robbed of 10,000 Rupees' worth of
 
 192 
 
 your honest acquisitions. If, again, you preferred land as 
 an investment to the Honourable Company's paper, and 
 after laying out your money on a farm, the rent of which 
 you expected would yield you 5 per cent, if a Collector 
 came and walked over your farm, and without knowing 
 wheat from barley when he sees them together, thinks it 
 suflicient to look at the stubble, in order to decide upon 
 the returns of your land, and your ability to pay taxes ; if, 
 after this, he were politely to ask you for no more than this 
 interest, that is, for all the rent of your farm, as your tax, 
 your incredulity, as to your paying no tax at all would, I 
 imagine, remain unshaken. But if the same functionary 
 were to ask you for four times the gross produce, as your 
 annual contribution, w'ere to declare this demand to be no 
 more than fair and reasonable, and were to assure you, in 
 the same breath, of his perfect "good intentions," if you 
 made any reply, you would probably say, " such good inten- 
 tions would make Paradise a H — 11 !" Now, in this Province 
 (Malabar), there is a numerous body of men who, until 
 about forty or fifty years ago, upon the sanctity of venerable 
 laws, upon the faith of most ancient titles, from long unin- 
 terrupted descent, and upon innumerable transfers and pur- 
 chases of land, enjoyed the whole rent of their estates with- 
 out any deduction whatsoever.* As land then sold for 
 
 * The pretence and the justification for all this interference with the 
 landlords of the country, is grounded upon certain previous official reports 
 and surveys, the authority of which no local functionary dares question, 
 even if he had the inclination during his flitting sojourn and tenure of 
 office ; or if his understood orders were not to exact revenue, and to ask 
 no questions. 
 
 The following extract from a Diary is some illustration of the value of 
 those authoritative documents, and a sample of the manner in which the 
 most notorious, the best attested, and the most ancient of the rights of 
 the people of India over their own soil have, from first to last, been in- 
 variably written and reported away by persons who, being debarred from 
 themselves holding private properly, seem to be quite incapable of appre- 
 hending what the right to it is, when acquired and possessed by the people.
 
 193 
 
 thirty and thirty-five years' purchase, much as it now does 
 in England, this rent, in the great majority of instances, 
 was not more than a return of three or four per cent upon 
 the price actually paid for the land. Since the period above 
 mentioned, the right of these landlords to a poiiioN, howso- 
 ever varying, of the rent, has never been openly denied ; it 
 has never been stated, in express terms,* that they were 
 
 Telltcherrj/, 24/// June, 1834. 
 "I had along visit of some hours yesterday evening from K. Karna- 
 gam Menon. Talking of surveys, I told him the people of Malabar 
 had to thank him for all the surveys which have taken place. He asked, 
 
 how? I said, that both Sir T. Munro and Mr. , with whom he was 
 
 Sheristedar (head Native), had stated in their reports, I concluded upon 
 his authority, that it was the immemorial custom, in the time of the 
 Rajahs, to re-survey and assess all lands, garden and field, every twelve 
 years ; and hence, it was now believed by the Government that, follow- 
 ing this practice was, in truth, adhering to the ancient custom of the 
 country. He became much excited, and asked me if it was possible I 
 could believe him capable of such gross misrepresentation; he who 
 knew, as did every man in the country, that, in the time of the Rajahs, 
 there was no such thing as land-tax at all ? He declared, that what he 
 stated to those gentlemen was, that, at the expiration of leases^t)?" waste 
 land, which were usually granted for twelve years, it was the custom to 
 fix the rent the landlord was to receive (after first paying the tenant for 
 his products); that, as to re-survei/ing Paddy (rice) fields, the thing is an 
 absurdity in terms ; because, as soon as a field is brought into thorough 
 cultivation, the produce is reaped, threshed, and divided into three lines, 
 " varum," or shares; one of which is assigned for the expences of culti- 
 vation; the second for seed and the farmer's profit; and the third, to 
 the landlord as rent ; and this being a corn, not a money rent, the quantity 
 is immutable. He added, "Thus it is ; Gentlemen do not understand the 
 customs of the country, and not knowing what they are asking about, 
 mistake what is said to them in reply ; they then make a report, con- 
 sisting of these mistakes, which the people know nothing about, and 
 never hear of, while the Government believes it all to be true, and treats 
 and taxes them accordingly." 
 
 There is the speaker, whose words I have given, to be referred to for 
 their correctness ; one of the first Natives in the country, and most de- 
 servedly pensioned for his services to the Government. 
 
 F, C. B. 
 
 Except by the Court of Directors. 
 P
 
 194 
 
 entitled to no portion whatsoever; or, in other words, 
 they have never been told in plain English, that tlieir 
 existence is an incumbrance on the earth, that tiiey are a 
 nuisance which ought to be abated. 
 
 Such language they hold to be quite superfluous, when 
 public measures are permitted, which carry irresistible con- 
 viction to their feelings : 
 
 " You take my life, 
 " When you do take the means whereby I live." 
 
 Whenever, as in this instance, the assessment exceeds the 
 gross produce, whenever it equals that produce, whenever 
 it exceeds the rent, whenever it absorbs no more than the 
 rent, whenever it absorbs so much of the rent as not to 
 leave the landlord wherewithal to exist; in short, whenever, 
 in the language of the country, the Niggdee (Assessment) 
 is more, or no more, or a fraction less, than the Patum 
 (Rent), the Jenmec (Landlord) is told, far more intelligibly 
 than in words, that he is left to starve. 
 
 Would it be wise, would it be politic, were the increase 
 of Revenue to be as great and immediate as it is certain of 
 being less, to sink such a conviction deep in the minds of 
 the landlords of the country ; that similar may be their 
 fate, at the nod of any Revenue Officer? They are men, 
 that are thus dealt with, not stocks, nor stones; I admit, 
 patient, enduring, peaceable, well-disposed, men ; but as 
 long as they are men, the authorized existence, the delega- 
 tion, and the exercise of a power, which may make them 
 the victims of such acts of caprice and folly, as the one 1 
 have instanced, must impress then, with a deep-rooted and 
 settled distrust and dislike of the Government. 
 
 I have heard of one instance, but can scarcely credit it,* 
 in which a Revenue Officer prohibited a landlord from cul- 
 tivating a piece of his own waste land, unless he gave the 
 
 * Faet.
 
 195 
 
 preliminary security of his other property to pay the assess- 
 ment fixed on the waste, in case the returns of the waste 
 should fall short of the assessment ! 
 
 Fourthly, in all communities, be they more civilized or 
 less, men feel that they have a right, as a condition of their 
 very being, to enter into agreements for their mutual bene- 
 fit; they feel, even the most untutored feel, that their 
 individual benefit cannot be productive of public injury; 
 and hence they feel, with a force greater than any demon- 
 stration, that it is among the first and most essential duties 
 of the Government they live under, to respect all lawful 
 agreements, and to uphold their inviolability. Moreover, 
 in any community purely agricultural, all men (in Malabar 
 almost all women also) are either directly interested in the 
 land, as proprietors, or cultivators, or indirectly, as creditors 
 and mortgagees ; and hence, the last class of persons, who 
 may be said to include all those not comprehended in the 
 other two classes, feel intuitively and as keenly as thelatter, 
 that it is the duty of a Government strictly to protect the 
 right of all men to private property, and to encourage its 
 acquisition by every security, with which law and authority 
 can fence it. Whenever, therefore, a Government departs, 
 or what in the result is the same thing, whenever a Govern- 
 ment is felt, whomsoever the agent, to depart in its conduct 
 from the rigid performance of these, its cardinal duties ; 
 whenever, out of its boundless authority, it interposes to 
 break, and not to maintain, the lawful contracts of indivi- 
 duals, whenever it confiscates and annihilates, and not 
 preserves, the property of any one class of the community, 
 as surely as wrong begets wrong, and injustice hate, so 
 surely does such conduct call up in hostile array against 
 it the feelings of every man whatever, without distinc- 
 tion of rank, caste, or sect, subject to its sway. So 
 indissolubly has the Great and Good Being, who made 
 man the brother of his fellow-man, knit his sympathies 
 with his kind, by the tie of a common, inseparalile interest! 
 
 p 2
 
 196 
 
 Such is the conviction to which we are brought, step by 
 step, by an examination of the case I have instanced; the 
 more cahnly and dispassionately it is considered, the more 
 strong and deep-felt will, 1 think, that conviction be, 
 namely, that this conduct must produce an universal feel- 
 ino; of fear and hatred to the Government, amon^all classes 
 of the community. I have instanced only one case; the 
 same landlord, the P. Rajah has been stripped of his land, 
 and his tenants of their outlay, in two other cases of lease, 
 similar to the foregoing, except in the amount of the rent. 
 In one of the two, the rent to be paid by the tenant, at the 
 end of ten years, was to be 100 Varum Madda Dangays, 
 equal to 83 Macleod (Government) Seers, of the average 
 value in money of R. 2. 1. 96. 
 
 The field was assessed by the Talook (County) Officers 
 at the same time, and in the same manner, as the former, 
 at R. 27 per annum, which was afterwards reduced to 
 R. 14, and which being about six times the rent, the field, 
 like the former, was obliged to be abandoned. The particu- 
 lars of the third case I have not got. 
 
 All these cases occurred at Ponnerye, an Amshum (Pa- 
 rish) only three miles distant from Tellicherry, long the seat 
 of a principal Revenue Cutcherry, and of several high 
 European Functionaries. They occurred now three years 
 ago. Of the sufferers, one is a Rajah, a man of the highest 
 rank in the country; and yet you would never have heard 
 a word of one of them, unless I had brought them to your 
 notice. Had they been solitary instances of their kind, 
 had they been the first which had occurred, had the people's 
 minds not become familiarized with them, it is hardly pos- 
 sible but that some of the aggrieved parties would have 
 found their way immediately to your Cutcherry (Office). 
 
 The people of Malabar, it is commonly said, are ever 
 ready with petitions and complaints. I will tell you, in 
 their own words, why one of the parties, the Teers, did not 
 complain. " Where was the use of our petitioning? " said
 
 197 
 
 they. "The petition would have been sent in the common 
 course, to the Talook (County), for inquiry and report. It 
 was tlie Talook Officers who set aside our leases ; of whom, 
 and of whose two assessments, we complained. They 
 would have said, in reply, that our assessment had been 
 reduced from R. 70, the first imposition, to 28^, less than 
 one half; that instead of being grateful, we complained of 
 even l/iis moderate demand, which plainly showed that we 
 were troublesome, disputatious persons ; that the fields 
 were under cultivation, and well able to pay Niggdee 
 (Assessment). The Saheb (Collector) must trust, in such 
 matters, to his Karistens (Native Officers); and whose 
 story would be believed, theirs, with this appearanee of 
 truth and moderation, and the Cutcherry servants to back 
 it, or ours, which we might not render properly intelligble? 
 And if we had been ordered to pay the Assessment they 
 might, in return, have demanded it from our other property." 
 That such would be the reply, returned by the Talook 
 (County) to the reference, is obvious, and that it would 
 appear, prima facie, so satisfactory as to disarm suspicion, 
 and establish the groundlessness of the complaint, can 
 scarcely be doubted. Nevertheless, I am not disposed to 
 impute blame to the Talook Officers. From intercourse 
 with Native Servants, in general, I am satisfied that the 
 Talook (County) Officers felt persuaded they were doing no 
 more than a duty, especially prescribed to them, as the 
 business of the surveys and assessments they are dispersed 
 over the country annually to make. To prevent his vigi- 
 lance from slumbering, a second follows the steps of a first, 
 to detect his omissions and expose his errors. They have 
 often told me, what they cannot tell yon, that it is no fault 
 of theirs, if they are sent to survey fields, when nothing 
 but the stubble remains on the ground, or to rate a tree by 
 looking at the leaves; they will candidly confess, that they 
 were not bred on a farm, but from boyhood, in a Court or 
 Cutcherry, that they have no experience in land, of its
 
 198 
 
 modes of culture, products, returns, accidents ; but tliut 
 being ordered to assess it, as if they had, they obey; and 
 they will freely say, that being Sirkar (Government) Ser- 
 vants, anxious for advancement and emolument, and know- 
 ing that under-assessment is always held to be criminal, 
 while over-assessmentis usually extenuated intoover-zealand 
 honesty of purpose, they make a point of leaning in every 
 case to the Sirkar (Government), leaving the aggrieved to 
 seek redress, where reduction is not open to suspicion. 
 
 All these things are talked of among themselves openly 
 and unreservedly. But, in addition to the etiquette preserved 
 with you, there is another reason why you are not likely to 
 hear aught against surveys and Jummabundies (annual 
 assessments) from them ; and that is, because it has become 
 a proverbial expression that " Surveys are the best trade 
 going." Everything, therefore, and every person around 
 you, combine to keep you in the dark, while the Govern- 
 ment has interposed its will, in order scrupulously to bar 
 the only avenue by which the truth could possibly reach 
 you. If the Rajah, as the proprietor of this land, as the 
 inheritor, or the purchaser, it matters not which, of the fee- 
 simple, had an undoubted right to execute the leases he 
 granted to his tenants, (and it will hardly be denied in 
 terms, under any Government English even only in name, 
 that he had not this right,) it would follow in a Government 
 of law, in any Government that did not place him, and all 
 men with wrongs like him, out of the pale of the law, that 
 he would have his remedy, prompt and effectual, provided 
 by the law, not only for his leases having been treated as 
 waste paper, and his property confiscated ; but, assuredly, 
 the law would award exemplary damages for the ejection of 
 his tenants, and the non-culture of his land for five years, 
 and this, upon the palpable, self-evident ground of the 
 injury which, through him, the public had received. His 
 tenants would, in like manner, and for a like reason, obtain 
 immediate restitution and ample indemnity for their losses.
 
 199 
 
 Hence, on the very first instance that occurred, you would 
 have had public knowledge of it, you would have had the 
 satisfaction of aiding its investigation, and you would have 
 laid down to rest with the consoling reflection, that no 
 instance of similar tyranny could recur in the districts 
 (counties) under your charge, even were all the public ser- 
 vants banded against you, without the certainty of detection, 
 of punishment, and of redress. It is not you who would be 
 loaded with an odious and impracticable responsibility — 
 that of trusting numerous men with the power to oppress, 
 and that of tracing and exposing every instance of op- 
 pression. 
 
 How different is the present state of things, how calcu- 
 lated to awaken a crowd of startling reflections ! It is at 
 the lapse of years, and privately from me, a solitary indi- 
 vidual — a foreigner, like yourself, in the country — one of a 
 race till lately proscribed, that you receive, rather by acci- 
 dent than design, the first intimation of these acts of tyranny ; 
 the sufferers despairing or fearing to raise their voices in 
 complaint, because their case is a Revenue case, because, 
 for Uiat express reason, the public Justice of the country is 
 peremptorily interdicted from even listening to them, and 
 because their oppressors armed, as they know full well, 
 with Police as well as Revenue Powers, are the witnesses 
 against them, and the Judges ! When we speak of a law, 
 we mean no more than a proclaimed general rule, adminis- 
 tered by Officers, representing the Government, and placed 
 above all temptation — who are sworn to a|)ply the rule, 
 without bias or favour, in determining whether any act or 
 conduct complained of has wronged an individual, and 
 through him the community at large, either in his property 
 or person ; if so, to redress the wrong, and to punish the 
 wrong-doer. For this class of wrongs, and all its ramifi- 
 cations affecting every man in South India, arising out of 
 the appropriation and usurpation of the land of the people 
 for the behoof of the Government, there is no law, there
 
 200 
 
 are no Courts, no Judges ; and this, for the avowed reason, 
 lest tlie public Revenue should be endangered ! 
 
 Public revenue, which must ever be measured by the sum 
 of" private revenue, or, in other words, of private property — 
 private property which knows no measure, nolimit, so long as 
 it is vested with security, which security it can alone derive 
 from the law. Property, therefore, is the child of law, or 
 rather, as a great man has said — " Law and property are born 
 " together,and will die together; previous to law, no property 
 " — take away the law, and there is an end to property." 
 
 I know no subject more replete with painful, humiliating 
 reflections than to think, that the authors of a state policy, 
 which bade the law be dead in cases of land Revenue, are 
 the idols whom all men are called upon to bow down and 
 worship. What elsewhere would be indelible opprobrium, 
 is here fame ! The every-day phrase of, " things xvill last 
 mij time," which lias become incorporated into the language 
 of India, is the true and faithful, but unintentional, index 
 to the general cast of thought, engendered by this wise and 
 humane policy, and of the ever-present feeling of instability 
 and insecurity to which it gives birth in the minds of those 
 who administer it. Apply the same principle to money — 
 to Company's paper — which is only one species of property, 
 its nature comes immediately home, and one turns revolted 
 away at the abuse of power, at the abuse of reason, which 
 would make the public rapine of money the parent of public 
 revenue. 
 
 I have entered gravely and seriously into an examination 
 and exposure of this case, but not more gravely or more 
 seriously than I think it deserves. What specially deter- 
 mined me to this course, — what, in fact, has made it 
 imperative, — were conversations I had, after the Canara 
 affairs, with two of the oldest retired Native servants. 
 These men have no individual grievance, are men of rank 
 and consideration, and cannot be suspected of disaffection ; 
 but the late extreme, most lamentable, and unfortunate
 
 201 
 
 panic, which was propagated from one end of the country 
 to the other, had ruffled and broken the usual cahn of the 
 surface — it was an occasion, when even cautious men 
 speak out; and the subdued feeUngs rose and found vent 
 in a bitterness of tone and remark, which flashed conviction 
 to me, as to what was passing in the minds of the upper 
 classes of Natives, and formed the leading subject of con- 
 versation among them. I am no alarmist; but most true 
 is it, that I have reflected, from that time, upon my own 
 situation here with a doubt and solicitude I was before a 
 stranger to. What, indeed, more natural, than that the 
 Natives should feel, and at a fitting time say to me : " You 
 were seated and settled amongst us; You, at least, were no 
 flitting bird of passage, nor chance sojourner; 7/ou have 
 not the plea of ignorance, which thei/ may offer, to palliate 
 oppression; for t/ou not to reveal, was to sanction it." The 
 house I am now writing from, was once burned to the 
 ground, and my Father and Mother turned penniless on the 
 world, by men who were stirred to vengeance by a similar 
 conviction — truth and the public records can declare how 
 erroneous! It is in me, therefore, a duty to state my con- 
 scientious belief, that there prevails throughout all classes 
 a deep, intolerable feeling of hatred and disgust, at the 
 insecurity of property, and the destruction of all confidence 
 and all enjoyment, produced by these annual surveys and 
 assessments; and a yearning to be rid of them, that would 
 turn to almost any quarter for relief. Pause upon this one 
 instance : a Revenue Officer and Smveyor demanded 100 Rs. 
 as the price of not raising the Annual revenue of an Amshum 
 (Parish); the money was collected and paid to liim ; after 
 which the Jumma (yearly demand) comes back from the 
 Talook (County), raised by him 80 Rs. ! After this, think 
 for a moment what might be tlie consequences, if the People 
 were only brought to believe, that five or ten thousand 
 Arabs, or Russians, or Turks, any nation thei/ t/iink a 
 match for our European Troops, had landed, and would
 
 202 
 
 deliver them from Revenue Surveyors! Nor let it be 
 forgotten, that their credulity is in proportion to their 
 ignorance. 
 
 The wit of man can devise but one mode of putting 
 an end to iniquities like these; that is, by fixing the 
 demand upon the land for twenty-five years, and by 
 enacting, that so long as this demand is discharged, any 
 Revenue Officer interfering with the proprietor, in any 
 manner whatsoever, shall be sent on the roads for fourteen 
 years. There are but two springs that can animate and 
 invigorate human industry ; the certainty of enjoying the 
 present, and of benefitting by the future. Dry not up 
 these springs, for with them withers every germ of attach- 
 ment to the Government. Restore security, and revive 
 hope, the balm of life, wherever life there is, and the peo- 
 ple of Malabar will ever show themselves to be as indus- 
 trious, as enterprising, as submissive to the laws, and as 
 attached to the Government, as any people subject to its 
 sway. 
 
 I have addressed you, because you are on the spot, and 
 I had mentioned some of the particulars of this letter, but 
 pray communicate it to * 
 
 I am, yours, (fee, 
 
 F. C. BROWN. 
 
 * This letter, addressed privately to the Sub-Collector, relates only 
 three cases of rice-fields, the undoubted property of a private landlord, 
 which were abandoned by the cultivating tenants, in consequence of the 
 exorbitant money assessment fixed upon, and demanded for, these fields 
 by the Government Surveyors and Assessors, who are a t.so the Govern- 
 ment Revenue and Police Officers, in immediate authority over the cul- 
 tivators, — demanded eight years before the landlord was entitled to 
 receive a rupee of rent. 
 
 I instanced only these three cases, my object and my wish being 
 merely to lead to enquiry, and, if possible, to redress. 
 
 But, besides these three, there were in this one parish alone, fourteen 
 other fields, all also the private property of individuals, — all, like them.
 
 203 
 
 TO THE HEAD ASSISTANT-COLLECTOR OF MALABAR, 
 TELLICHERRY. 
 
 Anjarakandy, 6 Jh/j/,1 832. 
 Sir, 
 
 I HAVE the honour herewith to transmit an answer 
 to your Malayalim letter (the Native language) of the 28th 
 ult., requiring to know the quantity of Tobacco consumed 
 
 in progress of being cleared, reclaimed, and cultivated, all of which 
 were also obliged to be given up and deserted by the tenants for the very 
 same cause. I particularly asked the head of the parish (Potail) and 
 the Accountant, whether there had been anything underhand in the 
 granting or taking of the leases, whether there had been any attempt at 
 fraud or concealment on the part of the tenants. These authorities de- 
 clared there had been nothing of the kind ; that, so far from anything 
 clandestine being thought of, the tenants gave due notice that they had 
 obtained cultivating leases, in conformity to the 'uiunemorlal practice of 
 the country, and in the usual form, and were going to reclaim the lands 
 leased to them. 
 
 The date of the letter is June 1837. On the 2d or 3d of December, 
 two or three days before I sailed from Tellicherry, as I was passing the 
 Sub-Collector's Cutcherry, the Head of the Parish and the Accountant 
 ran out to speak to me. They said that they themselves, and the princi- 
 pal and most influential persons of the Parish had all been sent for, and 
 were now at the Cutcherry, where they had received positive orders from 
 the Head Slieristedar (chief Native Officer) to make the refractory culti- 
 vators, whose cases I had related, and ivho were also brought in and 
 there detained, to make these men consent and submit in writing to pay 
 the Government Assessment fixed upon their fields; rather than pay 
 which, when first demanded, the cultivators had borne the loss of all 
 their outlay, and had abandoned their fields for four whole years. There 
 is a favourite Madras Revenue phrase called, " Sumjui'shing the Rt/ots." 
 Is the meaning of the phrase desired ? This is the real, uniform, prac- 
 tical, meaning of it ; using means like these to force the Natives, by the 
 instrumentality generally of head Native Officers, to cultivate the land, 
 upon any terms whatsoever that are dictated to them by those Govern-
 
 204 
 
 monthly in these five Parishes. I have stated tliat this 
 quantity fluctuates from three to five Chippums (the name 
 of the package in which the Govt. Tobacco is retailed) ac- 
 cording to the season of the year ; and the explanation of 
 this fluctuation is so completely illustrative of the con- 
 dition of the lower classes of people, who are the great 
 consumers of Tobacco, that I beg you will permit me to 
 say a few words upon it, in English. 
 
 The falling off' in the consumption from five to three 
 Chippums, or two-fifths of the whole quantity, takes 
 place during the months of Meedhoonum, Karkadagum, 
 and Chingum (June, July and August); during which 
 months there is no demand for labour, for there remains 
 nothing to pay it with, and a stop is put by the annual 
 rains to the inland carrying trade, which, in the absence of 
 every species of carriage or beast of burthen, necessarily 
 employs a great number of men. In Kannee (September) 
 the first crop of rice comes in ; other crops follow, Ponuni 
 (hill rice), Modum (dry grains), Moondone (December rice). 
 Pepper; the carrying trade is resumed, and the consump- 
 tion of Tobacco increases, until the return of Meedhoonum, 
 when the same falling oflf takes place as before. 
 
 nient Officers, not allowing them even to abandon it; and making, first, 
 their property (if tliey have any), next their persons, answerable for the 
 entire demand ; nay, I have known their children to be taken up and 
 confined for it, and I have known this act to be J'ruitlesslj/ represented 
 and complained of. There was, I much fear, on the present occasion, 
 another lesson to be taught to these Natives, and to all others around 
 them ; the lesson of the good they would get, by presuming to go to a 
 European }iol in the service, and comjjlaining to him, because he would 
 listen and could understand them, of the losses, grievances, and oppres- 
 sion they suffered from the public Officers: in whose hands, it is their 
 own universal conviction that the union of all Revenue and of all Police 
 authority over them is expressly designed and maintained, for the sole 
 purpose of stifling their complaints, or if they should venture to make 
 a eomplaint, of providing the means whereby their hardihood shall 
 sooner or later be punished, the crime being one that is never forgotten 
 nor forgiven.
 
 205 
 
 The quantity of Tobacco which a labouring man, if he 
 can buy it, consumes a day is one-quarter of a pice, or 
 half a farthing's, worth ; and it is an undoubted fact that 
 for three months of the year, he is without the means of 
 purchasing even this quantity of what to him is, not a 
 luxury, but a necessary of life; for if he would starve 
 without rice, he cannot loork without Tobacco. I repeat, 
 that he cannot earn this money, or the money's worth. 
 Such, after forty years of nearly uninterrupted peace, is 
 the accumulation of capital, or, in other words, the fund 
 for employing productive labour in this country ! 
 
 Far be it from me to breathe a syllable in disparage- 
 ment o^ the good intentions of the Government towards the 
 people. But the truth must be told, and optimists awakened 
 from their day-dreams : that truth is, that wherever such a 
 state of things as I have described habitually prevails, it is 
 as plain as demonstration, that the condition of the great 
 body of the people cannot be progressive. 
 
 I have, the honour to be, 
 
 Sec. &c. 
 
 F. C. BROWN. 
 
 The official requisition on the subject of Tobacco W'as 
 addressed to me, as the person through whom the public 
 revenue of the five Parishes is collected and paid in. This 
 revenue has been so collected and paid for the last forty 
 years, and every local public duty discharged, without one 
 Rupee of expence to the Government. The Government 
 had, for tiuelve years, annually revived and kept suspended 
 over me, together with the arrears, a demand for land-tax 
 charged in the public Accounts, not against my lands, but 
 generally against the five Parishes ; the amount of which
 
 206 
 
 must have irretrievably ruined any Native placed in the 
 same situation. From the first, I had simply requested 
 that the lands, chargeable with the demand, might be 
 pointed out. This never was, and never could be, done ; 
 and the demand was finally relinquished in 1836. But in 
 1835, in reiterating this request, I took occasion to show 
 to the Government, inviting an examination of the proofs, 
 that the collection of one lac ( 1 00,000) of Rupees of revenue 
 in the five Parishes, which had cost the Government nothing, 
 had cost me 10,000 Rupees ; the greater part of which 
 sum consisted of the land-revenue balances of the inha- 
 bitants, which I had made good, from an intimate know- 
 ledge of their utter inability to pay the demand against 
 them. 
 
 F. C. B. 
 
 PrilNH'l) BV SIFWAKT AND SUMtRA^', OLD UAII.rV.
 
 ERRATtJM. 
 
 Page 60, (note)_/fli' January 1837, read Janur.ry 1838.
 
 ^VJ,
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 RECTI., 
 
 ''' MAYi 
 
 FEB 9 i 2804 
 
 tll 
 
 iBLE 
 
 
 
 UCLA AC 
 Interiibrary i.oa!i 
 1 1630 University Research 
 RETDID-UKI Box 95 1575 
 
 . ut^A^VCtSS SERVICES 
 
 *^rR 1 138piterlibrary Loan 
 
 1 1630 University Research Library 
 Box 951 575 
 
 f iif^?>ft 'l^i^fiSf ^''^^'^^' ^^ 9P095-1 575 
 
 .ENT 
 
 1994/ 
 
 DUE 3 MONTHS FROM 
 DATE RECEIVED 
 
 Form I.-p, 
 aum-l,'41(U22) 
 
 w nv n car if of tsAunsmm
 
 3 1158 01241 2911 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001 066 749 i