Art work of the Kandyan convention (English translation)
Henry Marshall, Deputy Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, was probably the first Britisher to write on Ceylon after the "conquest". Although he came to Ceylon in 1808 he may not have been present in the Audience Hall on 2nd March 1815 at the conference between Governor Brownrigg and the Kandyan chiefs assembled, but he certainly was given first-hand news of the ceremony that had taken place. In his book "Ceylon, a General History of the Island and its Inhabitants" (1846. Reprinted 1954) Marshall gives an account of the signing of the Kandyan Convention by the two parties, and comments thus

 

The Kandyan convention signed between the Kandyan Chiefs and the British, indicate that approximately a third of the Kandyan ministers signed in Tamil, a third in Sinhala and the remainder with Portuguese influence

"The doctrine of our right to seize a territory which suited us, provided we could only find an excuse for quarrelling with those who rule over it, has seldom been publicly avowed, however frequently it may have been acted upon, but there seems to be a great propensity in the Saxon race to seize or acquire the possessions of contiguous estates, without such reference to consistency, justice, or good faith.

Robert Brownrigg, Governor of Ceylon 1812-1818
Sri Wickrama Rajasimha

An improvement of the condition of the inhabitants of a state, by delivering them from alleged oppression is sometimes assigned as a pretext for subjugating and taking possession of a country; but perhaps the principle of kindness and humanity towards a people is very rarely indeed the real cause of war, professions of this kind being frequently used as a cloak to cover visions of glory, renown, and grasping ambition." (p. 114)

Elsewhere in a note to Brownrigg’s earlier Call to War against the Kandyan king, Marshall says –

"To obvert a dominion, or to extirpate a dynasty, is rarely, I believe, assigned as an object for making war: in the present case, it was punishing Kannessamy for the imputed sins of his predecessors." (p. 209)