The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 741: BRITAIN GAINS POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

BRITAIN GAINS POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.

During this eventful year the sovereignty of Great Britain was extended over the island of Ceylon. The King of Candy, who possessed the interior, by his atrocities, compelled the inhabitants to throw off his yoke. Early in the year, General Brownrigg, the governor cf the British possessions on the coast, issued a proclamation declaring that he made war on the tyrant alone, and that protection would be afforded to his oppressed subjects. He penetrated to the capital amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants; the king-was delivered into his hands; and a treaty was concluded by which the British authority was established in the whole island, the rights and immunities of the chiefs being secured: torture and mutilation were abolished, and no sentence of death was to be executed without a warrant from the British governor. Thus this fine and fruitful island was added to “Britain’s wide domain.”