CEYLON—CAPTAIN WATSON'S PROCLAMATION. (Hansard, 11 February 1850)

§ LORD J. RUSSELL

had to request the indulgence of the House with reference to a statement which had been made in the House, which had occasioned considerable pain to an hon. and gallant Officer, who, it would be remembered, had been alluded to in the course of the debate on Wednesday last, in reference to the affairs of Ceylon—he meant Captain Watson—who was the son of a distinguished officer, and who had himself been for more than twenty years an officer in the Army, and who was now attached to the Ceylon Rifle Brigade. The statement, as reported in the public papers to have been made by the hon. Member for Inverness-shire, on the occasion he referred to, was— We have heard much from the hon. Member for the West Riding of Yorkshire about the savage proclamations of Field Marshal Haynau and others. But listen to the proclamation I am about to read—a proclamation of one of Her Majesty's officers in Ceylon, entrusted at the time with the full and responsible power of deciding the question of life and death with respect to the subjects of that colony. The proclamation is as follows: 'That unless all those who have held concealed the effects of Golahella Rata Mahatmeya, deliver over to me such property, or give information about the same without delay, such persons shall be killed, and their property confiscated.—A. Watson, captain commanding.' Now, I ask the House, is this a proclamation for the destruction of mad dogs or of human beings? I confess, Sir, when this proclamation was first brought under my notice, I was perfectly astounded. I could not believe such a production possible, and thought there must be some mistake. But there is no mistake about the matter. I have in my possession two of the original proclamations, signed by Captain Watson's own hand—proclamations which have received the full sanction and cordial approbation of Her Majesty's Government; and those Gentlemen who are so ready to denounce Austria for her acts, are the supporters of that Government."—Hansard, vol. cviii. p. 425. Now, Captain Watson was a gentleman who, upon the suggestion of the hon. Member for Buckinghamshire had been summoned as a witness to give evidence before the Ceylon Committee, and being consequently in this country, he had an immediate opportunity of seeing the statement of the hon. Member, and having read it in the public papers, he had written to Earl Grey a letter, repudiating the charge made against him in that statement, which letter 642 having been forwarded to him (Lord J. Russell) by his noble Friend, he felt bound, in justice to Captain Watson, to read it. The letter was as follows:— 22, Craven Street, London, Feb. 7. My Lord—Owing to absence from London, it was only this morning that I saw in the morning papers of yesterday the very cruel and unjustifiable attacks which are stated to have been made on my character by Mr. Baillie and Mr. Hume—who have coupled my name with acts of atrocity more suitable, as they say, for the 'destruction of mad dogs,' than becoming proceedings which involve the lives of human beings. In attendance as I am, pursuant to a summons from Ceylon, and about to be examined before a Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into recent events in that island, I cannot but feel deeply wounded by this ungenerous attempt to damage my reputation, and discredit my testimony by anticipation. Nor will your Lordship fail to perceive the prejudice to justice which must ensue from bringing forward such imputations in places where I have no means to meet and repel them, instead of reserving them for the approaching investigation, when opportunity would be afforded me for defence; and, in any event, the charge and its refutation would go together for the decision of the public. The evidence on which I have been thus assailed, is a document said to have been produced by Mr. Baillie, described as a 'savage proclamation,' and purporting to bear the name of 'A. Watson, captain commanding.' It threatens with death and confiscation of property all persons who should fail to make disclosures as to the abstraction of the effects of Golahella Rata Mahatmeya; and Mr. Baillie is said to have declared that all doubts as to its authenticity are effectually set at rest by his possessing 'two of the original proclamations signed by Captain Watson's own hand—proclamations which have received the full sanction and cordial approbation of Her Majesty's Government.' Had opportunity been afforded me by Mr. Baillie, before thus pledging his own veracity and impugning my honour, I should have informed that Gentleman, as I now do your Lordship, that the document in question is utterly spurious; that I never issued or authorised such a proclamation; and that he has been misled by an unprincipled forgery. The other allusions which have been made to supposed acts of mine, by both Mr. Baillie and Mr. Hume, are alike devoid of all foundation in fact, and so soon as an opportunity shall have been afforded me in the approaching Committee, I shall have no more difficulty in disposing of them than I have in denouncing the fictitious proclamation by which these Gentlemen have been so grossly imposed on.—I have, &c. ALBERT WATSON, Captain, Ceylon Rifle Regiment. To the Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c. He had thought it due to the hon. and gallant Gentleman, whose character had been aspersed before the House and the public, to give him the advantage of this his refutation of the charge brought against him; and he had not another word to say on the subject.