CO129-090 - Public Offices & Others - 1862 — Page 261

My

Ford Butte

Your Grace's most obedient Servant,

Yy Murro.

Cov 15

10297

orong

none

Hope to December 1862.

My Lord Buke,

2 FEB

1863

12th

259

I addressed Your Grace on the 8th Inst., upon the subject of the Judge of

the small cause court of this colony referring cases to the arbitrement of that proclaimed culprit D. R. Caldwell.

I sent my letter, as custom prescribes, to be forwarded to Your Grace through the Colonial Secretary, and received a reply from Mr. Alexander, the acting in- cumbent, of which the enclosed is a copy. The tone is so objectionable, the style so undignified, the dictation so unbecoming, that I feel it a duty both to myself and to the public service, to call Your Grace's attention to it. I have refrained from replying to it, as recrimination would merely tend to bring constituted authority into disrespect.

Referring Your Grace to that portion of my letter of 22nd August which contains certain charges against Mr. Mercer and Mr. Alexander, I ask Your Grace to imagine for one moment what my feelings must have been upon first perusing the origi- nal of the letter of which I enclose a copy. That these two funtionaries were both deep-c ly cognisant of that wickedness and corruption which prevailed for years in this colony and which caused it to become a scoff and a reproach, cannot I submit be doubted, and that they are still warm friends of more than one of the culpable parties whom H. M. Government caused to be removed, to the end that the scandal generated by their mis- deeds might be silenced, is equally certain. It is my conviction that these two publie officers, as the charges against them in my respects. of 22nd August will prove, are the leaven of the old corruption in this Colony, and they, well knowing this conviction, might surely have spared themselves the indignity of forcing upon me a written rebuke merely embracing their own opinions upon a subject in which the notorious name of Caldwell is mixed.

Relative to the conduct of Mr. Ball in referring cases from his Court to the culprit Caldwell (which Your Grace will observe from the plain tenor of Mr. Alex- ander's unbecoming letter, the Acting Governor supports and justifies) I find that I have not sufficiently explained myself. The cases so referred were not removed from the small cause court and placed by consent into the hands of Caldwell-not at all: Caldwell was substituted for his honor Mr. Ball, and the award or decision of the culprit became a rule of court with which the Judge had to comply. Your Grace should understand that Caldwell now practices as a law agent amongst the Chinese. It is hardly to be wonder- ed at that the lawyers should assent to a reference to the culprit, because he can and does influence business. And with their recommendation combined with other con- siderations, it can hardly be expected that the sheepish litigants will offer any objec- tions. Therefore any inference deduced from the fact of the reference, favorable to the culprit, is a fallacy, The defilement of the bench in submitting to such reference is pal- pable. Sir Hercules Robinson's report of the enquiry by the Executive Council, ab- undantly unfolds the proofs of Caldwell's manifold felonies and malversations of office. These, having brought foul scandal upon British institutions from the culprit's connec- tion with the administration of this colony, he was ignominiously dismissed the service. Is it to be tolerated that after all this, a British Judge in the face of a crowded court, should delegate the dispensation of Justice to such a man, actually making the machinery of the law available to enforce his decree ?

My Lord Duke, I pray you dispel from your thoughts the idea that vin- dictiveness prompts this strong language. A public journalist should be a public moralist. If what I have explained be not gross public immorality, my judgement greatly errs. My opinions being strong upon the point I respectfully claim the privilege which the rules of Her Majesty's service accord, and I address Your Grace with con- fidence as the only source to whom an appeal can be made.

To His Grace

The Duke of Newcastle KC. G.

Her Majesty's Pâncipal Secretary

of State for the Colonies,

Downing Street.

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