And in this regard I may be excused for mentioning to Your Grace that the find- ing was arrived at some months before it was published, and that I was in perfect ignor- ance as to its tenor, until its publication. Surely as my motives were purely public spirited, officers of H.M. Government should not have used me as it suited their purposes and no more. If it were necessary, I could urge a claim to be heard, but I am confidant Your Grace will listen to me, and not force me to silence under the conviction that I have simply had in this matter my labor for my pains.
I should further mention that a few days subsequent to the publication of the finding, Mr. Mercer met Mr. Caldwell at a banquet at the Freemason's lodge, the former being the provincial Grand Master of the fraternity.
And now may it please Your Grace for the existing evils which denote a per- petuation of the system which has caused this colony to earn the unenviable notoriety it has attained. In the case of the Queen v Tarrant, Nov. 1858, when the Verdict was against the plantiff, the defendant's costs amounted to $750. These the government having to pay, Sir John Bowring caused a letter to be addressed to the acting Attorney General remonstrating against the exorbitant amount allowed. At foot I append a copyof the despatch.
In the case of the Queen (at the suit of Colonel Caine) v Tarrant, March 1860, Dr. Bridges was retained as Attorney for the prosecution, (during the administration of His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson). The verdict was for the plaintiff, the sen- tence being one year's imprisonment in the Criminal Gaol. Mr. Mercer, Dr. Bridges, and Mr. Alexander, then Registrar and taxing officer of the Supreme Court, and now acting Colonial Secretary, united to make this sentence as severe as possible and to effect the victim's ruin, in which they effectually succeeded. To an application which Mr. Tarrant made for some relaxation of the Criminal Gaol discipline, Mr. Mercer and a strong partisan of Dr. Bridges, named Lyall (for whom Dr. Bridges had obtained a seat on the Legislative Council) visited the Gaol as Justices of the Peace, and not only reported unfavorably as to the application, but thrust as much indignity as they could upon the sufferer. The Governor of the Gaol, also a nominee of Dr. Bridges and a strong partisan of the clique I have named, did his utmost to aggravate the sentence. Mr. Alexander taxed Dr. Bridges' costs at $2,500 about. If there was any difference between the two cases I have cited, it surely ran in favor of the former as far as costs are concerned. Half of Mr. Tarrant's term of sentence was remitted by the Governor, because His Excellency was aware from a note which Sir John Bowring wrote to his son, then resident here, that instructions would be received to that effect by the mail next expected.
Upon Mr. Tarrant leaving the Gaol, he was arrested on a writ of ca. sa. at the suit of Dr. Bridges, for these costs. He was cast into the Debtor's prison, and there re- mained three months longer, subjected to all the annoyances which the ingenuity of the before mentioned Gaol governor, formerly a Drill sergeant, could devise. He had the Costs retaxed, but with no better result. The whole bar was retained against him and he could obtain no redress. Taken from the Court after his sentence direct to the Gaol, without being allowed to call at his office for one minute, even to arrange his pri- vate papers, his business was abandoned. In a short time his goods chattels and effects. were seized by his other creditors to prevent their falling into Dr. Bridges' hands, and were sold by the Sheriff for a trifle. Finally, the full amount of the bill of costs, with in- terest at one per cent month, had to be paid. Were Your Grace cognisant of the whole merits of the case, sympathy with the sufferer would not be withheld.
I do not mean to infer for one moment that Mr. Alexander partook of any por- tion of the proceeds of this spoliation, but I do assert that some short time afterwards, Dr. Bridges got up a petition on his behalf, in which he induced all the legal profession to join, praying the Governor and Legislative Council to increase Mr. Alexander's salary. Or it may be that the application came from Mr. A. himself, and was backed by the whole of the legal profession. Dr. Bridges certainly made himself busy in the matter, and as certainly the circumstance of Mr. A. being the recipient of fees of office, was care- fully and artfully concealed. I should further mention that upon Dr. Bridges leaving the Colony, he appointed Mr. Alexander as his agent-a connexion which doubtless still exists.
Thereafter Mr. Alexander became a marked man for Governmental favors. The situation of Chief Magistrate falling vacant, he was selected to fill it and placed above an- other in a very unseemly manner. He continued in this acting appointment, performing the functions of Registrar of the Court in addition, until the absence of Mr. Mercer, when he was selected over the heads of several, in an equally unseemly manner, or perhaps more so, to fill the acting appointment of Colonial Secretary
I now proceed to the subject of the suppression of the Colonial Surgeon's re- ports. If it be the wish of II. M. Government that the opinions and the interests of this community, as regards their own municipal affairs, should be ignored, and the voice of the press actually repudiated, still I cannot believe that Your Grace will ever sanction the suppression of official medical reports, exposing as they certainly must, the sanatory effects of municipal mismanagement. I pray Your Grace to take especial notice that the Colonial Surgeon is one of the very few heads of departments who is not upon the
A
Legislative Council, and I cannot fancy a more forcible illustration of the illusion which II.M. Government labors under, regarding the efficiency of that body, than a relation of the circumstances connected with these suppressed medical reports. The Council, as I have already averred, is simply in effect composed of the heads of departments meeting to discuss their own acts, and to regulate their own salarics and allowances. It is the most unlikely of all conceivable contingencies, that honorable members under such circum- stances will meet to find fault with each others acts. Recrimination would in such case be inevitable, and a very different state of affairs arise, on the point of decorum, to that dignified propriety which at present characterises the sittings.
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The sequel will however prove, that although the Colonial Surgeon is not on the Legislative Council, and although he is an efficient and public spirited officer, yet that the unique system which prevails renders his efficiency and public spirit nugatory to a great extent. Soon after I first did myself the honor to address Your Grace, a month ago, the Colonial Surgeon was subjected to a persecution at the hands of His Excellency the Governor, under the threat of suspension, for being suspected of having furnished me with a portion of the information which I communicated to Your Grace. I know not how the matter was arranged, but I learn on good authority that His Excellency on one occasion so far forgot himself, as to throw the bundle of reports at the Surgeon's head. Since the departure of the last mail, medical reports for the past year have been published in the local Gazette. They are reduced to the shape of a mere abstract, abundantly proving that the steps adopted to intimidate the Colonial Surgeon have pro- duced the effect intended. I would respectfully submit that if the Reports as they originally stood were called for, a perusal of them must inevitably tend to corroborate the views I have ventured to express to Your Grace.
Four or five other officers of Government have also recently been intimidated in like manner, and for the same reason, but I am not aware whether suspension was or was not threatened. A threatening letter was written to the Colonial Surgeon, as 1 have been told, by the acting Colonial Secretary himself, and bore no number. I do most respectfully submit to Your Grace, that if such a system be in accordance with the wishes of Her Majesty's Government, a new phase becomes eliminated regarding British institutions. Here is a self supporting Colony without the smallest voice in its own municipal affairs, with a local government that not only deems itself exclusively responsible direct to Your Grace, but which insists upon its own representations of its own conduct being the only materials which shall be supplied to Your Grace whereby to judge of its acts-intimidating, under threat of suspension, such of its own subordi- nates as it may suspect of communicating its secrets to the Press, and suppressing official reports lest their tenor may be displeasing to Your Grace.
I can arrive at no other conclusions than those I have expressed. I respect- fully take the ground that the system I have indicated bred the abuses which by the finding of the Executive Council, I have proved existed, and as the result of my labor was merely the removal of an effect leaving the cause untouched, I feel it a duty to in- trude myself upon Your Grace in the manner I now do.
In conclusion I beg to say that I firmly believe I can prove every statement contained in this letter, and I beg of Your Grace, in case my veracity should be in any way impugned, to grant me an opportunity of explanation, ere concluding to discredit
me.
I remain,
My Lord Duke,
Your most obedient Servant.
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