Response to Major General Wilson-1

C.O. 54/40

Downing Street
19th Sept. 1811

To: Major General Wilson.

Sir,

His Majesty's Government, having judged it expedient, previously to the departure of Lieutenant General Brownrigg to assume the Governor of Ceylon, to enter into a particular consideration of the affairs of that Colony, they have not failed to avail themselves of the opportunity which the presence of General Maitland afforded of reviewing with the additional lights his local knowledge and experience could so well supply, the several Regulations and Arrangements which have been adopted or proposed for the improvement of the Colonal Administration.

On this occasion the new Cgarter of Justice and the Instructions with which it was accompanied have naturally claimed particular attention, and some of the provisions of the Charter appear, from the information with which Government has een furnished by General Maitland, to lead to s much practical inconvenience and to such a change in the Administration of Government i points in which no change appears to be necessary, that it has been determined immediately to revoke or modify it, and to prepare a new instrument freed from those objectionable provisions to be caried out to the Colony by the Governor.

It is scarcely to be expected that this letter can reach you in time to prevent the publication in the Colony of the Charter of which Sir Alexander Johnston was the bearer. Should the publication however not have taken place at the receipt of this Dispatch, I am to signify to you the pleasure of His Royal Highness The Prince Regent that it should be postponed. In the more probable event of the actual publication of the Charter it is His Royal Highness's pleasure that the introduction of any new Regulations or Arrangements, either under the authority of the Charter itself or of my Instructions to the Governor of the 30th of September 1810 should as far as possible be avoided and that the former system should be preserved and acted upon with as little variation as circumstances will admit until the arrival of Lieutenant General Brownrigg, who will certainly sail n the course of the next month and who will be fully possessed of the final decision and arrangements of His Majesty's Government and furnished with the necessary authorities for carrying them into execution.
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C.O. 54/40

Downing Street,
5th Nov 1811.

To: General Brownrigg
No: 1

Sir,

Herewith I transmit to you His Majesty's Commission under the Great Seal appointing you as Governor and Commander in Chief in and over he Settlements on the Island of Ceylon together with the Instructions under the Royal Sign Manual for your guidance in the execution of the duties of that appointment.
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