Miscellaneous
B
C
enquiry.
...
A great mistake marked the beginning of the new enquiry. A general conviction prevailed that it would be a mere waste of time to prosecute the matter. Nobody but myself responded to the notification to attend, and even I was urgently entreated by those who warmly sympathised with and supported me to decline all connection with the enquiry. But I had so identified myself with the denunciations of the abuses which had been long prevailing that I felt it impossible to retain my self-respect and be silent. Your Lordship will please take note that it was impossible to obtain Chinese testimony due to the apprehension of the vengeance of Mr. Caldwell and his native coadjutors. I handed in a list of twenty-four charges against Mr. Caldwell.
The enquiry commenced on the 13th August 1860 and concluded on the 24th September 1861, the Council having sat for thirty days. The result was a finding which honourably acquitted Mr. May with thanks for his integrity and public spirit, Mr. Caldwell being dismissed with ignominy. Governor Robinson addressed a special despatch to the Secretary of State on the subject, dated 15th December 1861, explanatory of the finding. Mr. Caldwell was therein pronounced to have been culpably and intimately connected and associated with an infamous pirate whose influence over Mr. Caldwell invested him (the pirate) with immense power, enabling him to tyrannize over the lower orders of Chinese without their daring to complain, as they were in terror of their lives on account of him.
The Governor further stated that this pirate was constantly in trouble and that on all occasions Mr. Caldwell proved himself his steady friend and ally, sometimes as Justice of the Peace sitting on the bench and sometimes as Protector of the Chinese - that public repute pronounced the pirate an extortioner, a recipient of bribes for gambling houses, a confederate of pirates, and a receiver of stolen goods - that by the great influence he derived from his intimacy and connection with Mr. Caldwell, he frequently managed to pervert and obstruct the course of justice for the protection of his friends and the destruction of his enemies. These grave charges form only a small portion of the finding - I extract sufficient for my present purpose only.
At the twenty-sixth sitting of the Council (on February 1861), some correspondence was read which had occurred subsequently to the previous meeting between the Government and Mr. Caldwell. It seemed that Mr. Caldwell had lost a sum of public money which the Governor had decided that he should make good. In the first place, $160 per month had been stopped from Mr. Caldwell's salary, and then a moiety of $140 - Mr. Caldwell alleged that, having to pay $150 per month to his creditors under a deed of compromise, the residue of his salary was insufficient to maintain himself and his large family, and that therefore he absconded in order that he might be able to maintain himself. The Governor replied that Mr. Caldwell should be allowed to draw his full salary until a finding should be arrived at. Mr. Caldwell declined this offer, refused to attend the Council further, and made over his functions to his Chief Clerk. Thus it came to pass that only five out of the twenty-four charges which I laid were investigated. May I beg Your Lordship to bear this circumstance in mind.
I had been well aware for some years prior to Mr. Caldwell's dismissal that a number of Chinese...