202 
provinces has fallen into their 
hands, and the government re- 
mains at the disposal of his Ma- 
jesty’s representative. 
In this sacred charge it is his 
earnest prayer, that the Power 
which has vouchsafed thus far 
to favour the undertaking, may 
guide his counsels to a happy 
issue, in the welfare and pro- 
sperity of the people, and the ho- 
nour of the British empire. 
' Under circumstances far dif- 
ferent from any which exist in the 
present case, it would be a duty, 
and a pleasing one, to favour the 
re-establishment of a fallen Prince, 
if his dominion could be fixed on 
any principles of external relation 
compatible with the rights of the 
neighbouring government, or his 
internal rule in any reasonable 
degree reconciled to the safety of 
his subjects. 
But the horrible transactions of 
the fatal year 1803, forced upon 
the recollection by many local 
circumstances, and by details un- 
known before; the massacre of 
150 sick soldiers lying helpless 
in the hospital of Candy, left under 
the pledge of public faith, and the 
no less treacherous murder of the 
whole British garrison command- 
ed by Major Davie, which had 
surrendered on a promise of 
safety, impress upon the Gover- 
nor’s mind an act of perfidy un- 
paralleled in civilized warfare, and 
an awfullesson recordedin charac- 
ters of blood against the moment- 
ary admission of future confidence, 
while the obstinate rejection of 
all friendly overtures, repeatedly 
made during the intermission of 
hostilities, has served to evince an 
implacable animosity, destructive 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1815. 
of the hope of a sincere recon= 
ciliation, 
Of this animosity, a daring in- 
stance wasexhibited, inthe unpro- 
voked and barbarous mutilation 
of ten innocent subjects of the 
British Government, by which 
seven of the number lost their 
lives—a measure of defiance cal- 
culated, and apparently intended, 
to put a final negative to every 
probability of friendly intercourse. 
If, therefore, in the present re- 
verse of his fortunes and condition, 
it may be presumed the King 
would be found more accessible to 
negociation than in former times, 
what value could be set on a con- 
sent at variance with the known 
principles of his reign; or what 
dependence placed on his observ- 
ance of conditions which he has 
hithertoso perseveringly repelled? 
Still less could the hone for a 
moment be entertained, that any 
conditions of safety were capable 
of being established on behalf of 
the inhabitants who had appealed 
to his Majesty’s Government for 
protection, and yet more hopeless 
the attempt to obtain pardon or 
safeguard for the Chiefs, who had 
deemed it a duty paramount to 
every other obligation to become 
the medium of that appeal. 
How far their complaints have 
been groundless, and their oppo- 
sition licentious, or, on the con- 
trary, their grievances bitterly and 
intolerably real, may now be judg- 
ed by facts of unquestionable au- 
thenticity. 
The wanton destruction of hu- 
man life comprises or implies the 
existence of general oppression. 
In conjunction with that, no other 
proofs of the exercise of tyranny 
