SCARCITY OF LABOUR. 
at first, * there is no saying what amount of bloodshed 
would have been required to quell it. Cl he prompt 
and decisive action taken by his lordship was the 
wisest and most humane that could have been adopted, 
and it was only to be regretted that the home au- 
thorities took a different view of the subject, but they 
forgot or were perhaps ignorant of the traits of native 
character. Leniency would have been considered false. 
Want of prompt and decisive action would have 
been put down as inability to act. No doubt, even 
to this day, many will hold a different opinion. Well, 
we will not open up the subject after a lapse of twenty- 
seven years ; let them keep their own opinion, and I 
will keep mine, and drop the subject, with the remark 
that a personal residence in a country where it is 
considered by the authoiities advisable to proclaim 
martial law is a vei-y different matter, and gives 
one very different views of the general state of affairs 
from what would probably be thought by one sitting 
.at home at ease, with life and property eo safe, 
that even the policeman on his stated rounds finds 
his office almost a sinecure. It is wonderful what a 
little practical experience will sometimes do, and 
how it opens one’s eyes to the necessity or otherwise 
of certain courses of action, I said then, and I say 
now. Lord Torrington’s policy was right, t 
But, although the rising was put an end to in a 
very short time, the after results of it were felt 
for some time. Of course the news reached the Indian 
coast, with very considerable exaggerations. The 
planters began to be apprehensive of a scarcity of 
labour, as coolies did not come in. They were fear- 
ful, and very naturally so, as the route from the 
coast to the coffee districts ran direct through the 
j)rincipal disturbed districts, crop was coming on, so 
many estates despatched emissaries to the coast, to 
make known that ail was quiet and the road perf ectly 
safe and open. Considerably shyness and distrust 
Not a life was taken ; it is doubtful even about 
a soldier having received a scratch. The long reten- 
tion of martial law, therefore, and the cold-blooded 
executions under it, were uncalled-for, such men aa 
Sir A. Oliphant, the Chief Justice, and Lord Torrington’s 
own Queen’s Advocate, Mr. H. C. Selby, being judges. 
But the reason assigned for Lord Torrington’s re- 
cal was his own personal chafacter, which did not 
command the respect and obedience of the officers 
of Government. — Ed. 
t In bis prompt measures for the supression of the 
insurrection, yes : in his subsequent proceedings, there 
was much that was lamentably wrong. —Ed. 
