_. We write his name after
Mr Bennett: but it is quite useless to study the pronunciation of it,
seeing that he was hanged in 1812 (the year of Moscow)--a fact for which
we are thankful as often as we think of it. _Pil_. (surely _Tilawe_ cannot
be pronounced Garlic?) managed to get the king's head into Chancery, and
then fibbed him. Why Major-General M'Dowall (then commanding our forces)
should collude with Pil Garlic, is past our understanding. But so it was.
_Pil_. said that a certain prince, collaterally connected with the royal
house, by name Mootto Sawme, who had fled to our protection, was, or might
be thought to be, the lawful king. Upon which the British general
proclaimed him. What followed is too shocking to dwell upon. Scarcely had
Mootto, apparently a good creature, been inaugurated, when _Pil_. proposed
his deposition, to which General M'Dowall consented, and his own (_Pil.'s_)
elevation to the throne. It is like a dream to say, that this also was
agreed to. King Pil. the First, and, God be thanked! the last, was raised
to the--_musnud_, we suppose, or whatsoever they call it in Pil.'s jargon.
So far there was little but farce; now comes the tragedy. A certain Major
Davie was placed with a very inconsiderable garrison in the capital of the
Kandyan empire, called by name Kandy. This officer, whom Mr Bennett
somewhere calls the "gallant," capitulated upon terms, and had the
inconceivable folly to imagine that a base Kandyan chief would think
himself bound by these terms. One of them was--that he (Major Davie) and
his troops should be allowed to retreat unmolested upon Columbo.
Accordingly, fully armed and accoutred, the British troops began their
march. At Wattepolowa a proposal was made to Major Davie, that Mootto
Sawme (our _protege_ and instrument) should be delivered up to the Kandyan
tiger. Oh! sorrow for the British name! he _was_ delivered. Soon after a
second proposal came, that the British soldiers should deliver up their
arms, and should march back to Kandy. It makes an Englishman shiver with
indignation to hear that even this demand was complied with. Let us pause
for one moment. Wherefore is it, that in all similar cases, in this
Ceylonese case, in Major Baillie's Mysore case, in the Cabool case,
uniformly the privates are wiser than their officers? In a case of
delicacy or doubtful policy, certainly the officers would have been the
party best able to solve the difficulties; but in a case of elementa