No. 931. MONDAY, DEC. 12, 1825. THE POLITICAL EXAMINER. Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.-POPE. TREATMENT.OF MR BUCKINGHAM BY THE RULERS OF INDIA. We have often expressed our opinion, and have given our reasons, in favour of a Free Press in India. It is not our present purpose to enter upon that general question: we wish now to exhibit to our readers one instance of the conduct of the Indian Authorities who oppose the freedom of the press, towards an individual whose only crime was a sincere and consistent exertion to promote, by what he deemed the best means, the civilization and happiness of a vast commentative Pamphlet on the Press in India. The essay was given, not munity of British subjects. Mr BUCKINGHAM was the founder of his own fortune. He owed his success in the world entirely to his industry, his integrity, and his talents. After spending a considerable portion of his life in maritime commerce, and in Oriental travels, of which he has given the public the interesting details, he settled in India, and established the Calcutta Journal on a borrowed capital. That paper rose into eminence and prosperity so rapidly, that he was enabled, not only speedily to repay the capital advanced, but to raise the property to the saleable value of 40,000l. and to derive from it a clear income of 8,000l. a year. Just before leaving India, he in fact sold one quarter of it to a number of persons for 10,000l. being four years' purchase of the net profits. Mr BUCKINGHAM resided in India under the usual licence from the Court of Directors of the East India Company. Under the protection, and upon the faith of that licence, he reared this large literary property: with a similar reliance the purchase of a quarter of it was made from him. The confidence he felt in the safety of his property was augmented by the conduct of the Marquis of HASTINGS, then Governor-General, who not only abolished the censorship, but took credit in his public declarations for bestowing upon British India the blessings of a Free Press. However much his Lordship liked the éclat of an enlightened policy towards the press, he was nevertheless not at all disposed to earn it by anything beyond mere profession. He took offence at the most moderate censure of official persons or things; he threatened Mr BUCKINGHAM with a revocation of his licence, and what is legally termed "transmission to England." Something like shame however prevented the execution of the threat by the Marquis; but as soon as he left India, his temporary successor, Mr Adam, with the quick instinct of a courtier, recalled the licence by an arbitrary decree, and banished Mr BUCKINGHAM. In the correspondence which took place on the occasion, a series of articles were designated as tending to bring the Indian Government into hatred and contempt. To read the language of the official papers upon this subject, one would suppose that the Calcutta Journal had been violent and inflammatory; but so far would that supposition be from the truth, that we venture to say, any reader of the English newspapers, Whig or Tory, would consider the denounced articles as literally tame. The principal matter of offence indeed was some sneering at the appointment of the Reverend Dr Bryce to a post in the Stationery Office!-a personage who has actually been censured by the Scottish Church for misconduct, and deprived of his clerical character. No regard was paid to the valuable service Mr BUCKINGHAM had rendered to India by the establishment of a journal which, without reference to politics, was conducted in a manner that excited the respect of men of all parties, which widely circulated scientific and general information, which contributed largely to local improvement, and which assisted in the creation of an intellectual activity among the natives. Neither for this important service, nor for the strong claim which every man has to enjoy the fruit of his own labour and skill, was any consideration shown:-he had sneered at the Scotch Parson turned supervisor of foolscap and goose quills; and he was banished, tended ill effects of free discussion in India? It would seem however that a design secretly existed to pursue Mr BUCKINGHAM in his exile with the desolating arm of power, by utterly destroying the property he had left behind him, from which he derived his support. Accordingly, after his removal, all the newspapers in Bengal were placed under a licence revocable at the mere will of the Government. Mr ARNOT, who was left by Mr B. in the editorship of the Journal, speedily followed his predecessor into banishment, because he had ventured in his paper simply to allude to Dr Bryce as the cause of Mr BUCKINGHAM's sentence! These mean and deadly persecutors continued to watch sharply for an opportunity of striking another blow at the property; and they found one in the republication, by the Calcutta Journal, of Colonel STANHOPE's moderate and arguall at once, but section by section, in the newspaper, and consequently was not completed for some weeks. When the series was concluded, however and not before the Government intimated their displeasure; but instead of removing the existing Editor, as they had removed his two precursors, they suppressed the journal altogether by withdrawing its licence! The injustice, the cruelty, the indecency, of this act, are demonstrable from their own declarations. When the regulation was made for placing the journals under a licence, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sir FRANCIS MACNAGHTEN, would only register it upon the express condition that the property vested in newspapers should be respected. When Mr ARNOT was banished, the Government justified that punishment as being the only one they could enforce “ without injuring the interests of the sharers in the property." Yet, in the teeth of these pledges and declarations, and notwithstanding they had ample power to visit their displeasure upon the actual offender, the lofty Rulers and Guardians" of 100 millions of human beings chose precisely that mode of revenging themselves, which most injured persons wholly innocent of the offence, and least affected the offending individual; and this merely in order to inflict another wound on a banished and crippled adversary!! But even this is not all. Base, mean, malignant, and scandalous, as was this proceeding, the persecution did not end even here. The Shareholders for the Calcutta Journal, who had purchased the quarter sold by Mr BUCKINGHAM, very naturally appealed to the Government against this outrageous destruction of their property for the offence of an individual who might so easily have been personally punished without impoverishing them. Ashamed or embarrassed, the Governor-General (Lord AMHERST), promised a renewal of the licence; on the faith of which insidious promise the very large and costly establishment of the Journal was kept up for several weeks, during which its subscribers fell off, and resorted to other papers, particularly to the Bengal Hurkaru, then edited by Lord AMHERST'S physician and protégé, Dr ABEL. At length, the Government determined, in breach of promise, to issue no licence unless a servant of their own should be appointed Editor. Mr BUCKINGHAM'S agents, terrified at the decay of his property, acceded even to this monstrous condition; and a day was fixed for the re-appearance of the newspaper. On the evening before that day however, the Governor, having again changed his mind, or pretended to do so, forbad the publication under the original name. Another delay took places months passed away, and the frightful waste of money continued, be cause the Government could not fix on a new name. When Lord AMHERST did graciously resolve upon a title, it was-(Oh exquisite ignorance of the satire upon himself!)-that of "the British Lion." Again was the journal about to re-commence, and again was it suspended by another change of my Lord's resolution. The murder came out at last-the sham pretences were practically abandonedit was unblushingly avowed, that no licence would be granted as long as Mr BUCKINGHAM, or any of the original shareholders, had the slightest chance of remuneration from the property! To this desperate avowal the persecutors were driven by the unlimited concessions of Mr BUCKINGHAM's agents. They hoped by sham pleas and hard conditions to tire out the parties concerned, and so to get the property To be driven from home-to be forced to abandon a flourishing property created by, and in a great measure dependent upon, his That there was no necessity for the destruction of the Calcutta Jourindustry to be compelled to relinquish just hopes of augmented nal, even upon the presumption that the slight use of the liberty of the fortune and fame,-all this, it might be supposed, would have satisfied press which Messrs ARNOT and SANDYs had made, must be stopped, the hostile feelings of the prosecutors of Mr BUCKINGHAM. The appears obvious when we consider that, in addition to prosecution of the example was made the power asserted-the severe punishment of individual, the old censorship might have been revived by the stroke of an such an offence remained to deter others from its commission:-what official pen ;-which would have still left the paper in question a valuable more could be desired, for the mere purpose of preventing the pre-property as a mere vehicle of news and advertisements. sympathy and public spirit of the FRIENDS of FREE DISCUSSION I Britain afforded to an injured individual that redress which the rich and powerful bodies who had wronged and robbed him sullenly and unfeelingly refused. CITY. On Thursday, a Court of Common Council was beld at Guildhall, when Mr Deputy JOYNER moved the vote of thanks to the late Lord Mayor, upon whose conduct in the discharge of his arduous duties i would be a waste of words, he said, for him to pronounce any eulogian, PETITION OF MR WOOLER. sacrificed without the necessity of their openly confessing their real Since his return to this country, Mr BUCKINGHAM has, as our readers must have seen, made the most spirited and persevering endeavours to obtain redress. He has demanded it of the Directors and of the Proprietors of the East India Company, as his right: finally, upon the receipt of intelligence of these last and terrible disasters, he has just appealed to the Directors as a Petitioner for compensation; he has called upon them to consider his losses, his ill health produced by anxiety, his sufferings of all kinds; he has entreated them at least to spare his children, and not, by sanctioning the wanton destruction of his property, to deprive them of the means of the respectable education and maintenance which they have had so much right to look to from him, but which they must despair of, if their father is abandoned to debt and trouble. But, notwithstanding various favourable intimations privately conveyed from certain leading Directors to his friends, that impenetrable body have treated alike petition and demand. All the answer obtained, from first to last, has been the cold official one, conveyed by a Secretary, that "the Directors did not think fit to make any order upon the subject." Wooler, liveryman, who had lately suffered a severe injury, by the Mr R. SLADE rose to present a petition from Mr Thos. Jonathan means which were taken to prevent his entering into an honourable profession, for which he had qualified himself. The act of oppressive exclusion had been committed against a gentleman already known as the zealous advocate of public freedom, and one against whose moral charteter no voice had been raised. He moved that this petition be referred to the Committee of General Purposes. Mr RICHARD TAYLOR, thinking this to be a question of great pablic importance, seconded the motion. The petition was then read. It recited the whole of the recent proceedings of Mr Wooler in the Court of King's Bench, upon his application for a mandamus against the benchers of Lincoln's Inn, to compe society; and the petition concluded by praying, that the Corporation them to state their reasons for refusing to admit him a member of their would instruct the City Members to apply to Parliament for an amend ment of the law, as laid down by the Judges in his case, and the effect of which was to bar the road to honourable preferment against all bet a favoured few. (Hear, hear!) Mr WOOLER addressed the Court in support of the prayer of the peti tion. The Judges had declared that no person had an inchoate right of admission to the inns of Court, to qualify him for a profession which was, more than any other, connected with the preservation of public liberty. He did not mean to dispute the law thus laid down, though he was quite ready to contend, according to the rules of common sense and reason, that the profession of the law ought to be as open as the common objection could be offered. They were always told that in England the highway, to the passage of any man, against whose character no proper road to honourable ambition was open to every man. This he must deny, if the doctrine propounded in his case was to be fixed as the law of the land; for here was an important profession from which an arbitrary exclusion was justified, and the effect of which system must be, that the honours and emoluments of it would be in future reserved for a favoured that his only anxiety was not to suffer with impunity the rights of the and partial few. (Hear, hear! In conclusion, he assured the Court. community to be impaired, by any silent submission on his part to what he could not call by any other name than an oppressive and dangerous act of power. (Hear, hear!) The petition was then referred to the Committee of General Purposes, without any opposition. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. The LORD MAYOR read the requisition, in pursuance of which this question came before the Court. We cannot call to mind any case of persecution that has occurred for a long time, even in British colonial annals, so glaringly odious as this. We are at a loss for words to do justice to the heartless cruelty, the cold-blooded malice, the impudent faithlessness, the insatiable thirst for vengeance, the base hypocrisy and trickery, which have signalized the conduct of the Indian Authorities throughout the affair; or the unfeeling shamelessness with which that conduct has been sanctioned by the Company at home. Mr BUCKINGHAM has truly observed, that if his persecutors had confiscated his property, or burnt his house and goods to ashes, when they banished him, it Mr FAVELL said that the public attention had long been drawn to the would have been merciful and honest, compared with the slower, the propriety of petitioning Parliament for the mitigation of slavery in the covert, the more effectual, and the more torturing, mode in which British colonies, and also for its ultimate abolition at the earliest practics period. This was a question which deeply involved the fate of 800,000 they have completed the ruin of his fortune. And as for the share-individuals, which affected the character of the city of London-indeed holders who bought a portion of the Journal, have they not been robbed, of the whole of the civilized world. Next to the great question of crimijust as much as if Mr ADAM and Lord AMHERST had entered their nal law, this subject most deeply interested the feelings of all good men houses with a file of soldiers, and carried off their plate or pictures? He trembled when he came forward to discuss it, recollecting as he did We perceive that a Meeting of Proprietors of East India Stock is that it had already been exhausted by the greatest constellation of genia to take place on the 22d, when this flagrant case will be fully gone Granville Sharpe, Wilberforce, Brougham, Buxton, and indeed every which had ever shone in modern times by Pitt, by Fox, by Burke. into. If they have not lost the sense of policy as well as of justice, name that had doue honour to their country. The melancholy coas they will vote redress and compensation to Mr BUCKINGHAM. deration which arose in his mind was, how little had been done, noWithout extra matters of this kind to provoke indignation, the people withstanding the splendid talents which had been devoted to the prome of England are beginning to ask themselves for what good object they tion of this great object. Such was the state of things in the colonies are paying some millions a year to a Company of merchants who that not only the efforts of the Government at home, but of the grea misgovern an enormous, territory on the other side of the globe, and West India proprietors themselves, were set at nought, by the agent fatten on its spoils ? who managed the affairs of the colonies on the spot. (Hear.) It we said by their opponents, that the more they stirred the surer would the disbelieved in the accomplishment of any such result; but he had th be of causing anarchy amongst the slave population of the colonies. H cause so much at heart, that, as Horne Tooke once said, there are wes things than a little auarchy, and he entirely agreed with Mr Tooke whe he declared-" Give me a little of the purgatory of anarchy itself, i preference to the permanent hell of despotism." (Hear.) He thoug it quite impossible that the English mind would any longer tolerate prevalence of colonial slavery, in these enlightened times, when event lower brute creation were made the objects of legislative protectio The present question did not regard slavery in the abstract, but Negro slavery which exisied in their own colonies within the domin of the British Crown. The very word seemed alien to the British es and, however modified, seemed ill to comport with the spirit of their stitutions or religion. It was a forced service during life-a service et pelled by the cartwhip. It was a service without reward, unless the fu In default however of all proper feeling on the part of those who are bound to grant redress, there is still a body upon whom the honest, straightforward, consistent, and talented Editor of the late Calcutta Journal has at least the claim of sympathy. We trust that the conductors and supporters of the liberal press in England-that all in fact who feel how much of civilization, of weath, of fame, and of happiness, this country owes to even the circumscribed portion of public discussion it has enjoyed-will be happy to afford-partial relief to one who has sacrificed health and fortune in the noble attempt to impart the like blessings to a large portion of his fellow-creatures. To supply aid sufficient to remove all pecuniary embarrassment, might be easily managed by the co-operation of the readers and conductors of the liberal press, without the least burden to individuals. And it would be some consolation, and no small triumph, to record, that the and shelter and clothing they gave their horses could be called wages. odious and impolitic system of slavery in the colonies. He denied that Slaves had no legal rights slaves were happy, as the last gentleman had asserted; but if they longed in fact to their mats of property, Whatever they possessed be They were at all times liable to be sold, were, it would be no argument with him for the continuance of a practice or alineated, or mortgaged, or demised, at the will of the master, as abso- alike repugnant to the doctrines of Christianity and the principles of lutely as cattle. The colonial slave had no civil rights whatever. He | Englishmen. He ridiculed the old and now exploded notion, that these was properly a chattel-a thing, not a person. He could not sue or be poor blacks were a race of inferior beings, incapable of cultivation and sued. He could not be informant, prosecutor, or witness, in any cause high improvement, and showed that when possessed of power they had affecting a white or free person. He might be plundered and beat-nay, never degraded themselves, by inflicting upon their oppressors the cruel3 even mutilated and killed, without the possibility of redress, unless free ties of which they had been themselves so often the victims. He denied persons saw and would testify to the wrong. Whatever laws ostensibly that by getting rid of this system of bondage, which had been so long seemed to protect them, were nullified by the entire rejection of their the reproach of the country, it was intended to let loose 800,000 human -evidence in courts of justice. The slaves dared not even defend them- beings, who were without cultivation or employment. Everything was -selves by any kind or degree of resistance against violence exercised intended to be accomplished prudently, though firmly. On this part of *towards them, not only by their masters, but by white or free persons of the subject it was curious to observe the line of argument taken by the any description. And while every benefit arising from civil society was opponents of the abolition. Those who advocated the freedom of the withheld from the slave-among others, the benefits of education—he blacks, were anxious to educate them and inculcate in their minds the was liable to a much harsher criminal code (over and above his subjec- truths of Christianity; but those who opposed them loudly declared that tion to his master) than the free classes. He was restrained and punished they must not be taught these refinements, lest the property of the by laws of the most unjust and merciless character, which applied to planters should be endangered, and in the same breath they declared him exclusively. He was deprived also of the same means of trial and the people could not be emancipated uutil they were more elevated in defence which were allowed, to free persons. He was even deprived of the moral scale of society. This, in fact, was the language of the enemies the master's interest in his defence, by being paid for in case of convic- of abolition:-" You shall not give emancipation till you prepare the tion. The worthy gentleman then referred in detail to the different Par- slaves for it by education; but you shall not give education for fear of liamentary reports respecting slavery, and to other publications, for the endangering our properties." (Hear, hear!) !!! purpose of showing that the present system in the colonies was not likely 2 to be mitigated by the local assemblies, or their agents on the spot; and that unless Parliament, added by the powerful voice of the people, interfered, slavery, hereditary and perpetual would be established-a tyranny keeping the wretched negro in bondage, as a thing, a chattel, a species of property disentitled to the culture and fostering protection of humanity. By what authority did they arrogate to themselves the right to inflict so much misery upon any class of their fellow creatures? Milton had beautifully said 1907 Authority usurp'd from God, not given, He made not Lords, such title to himself Mr GALLOWAY strongly supported the motion, which, when supported with temper, was, he was quite convinced, well calculated to effect a great public good. He entirely approved of the gradual and temperate course which had been pursued by the abolitionists, who had from time to time taken whatever concessions were offered to them, still steadily pursuing the attainment of their main object-the gradual abolition of negro slavery. All the apprehensions which were predicted by the ene mies of abolition had disappeared. Liverpool was to have sunk into insignificance as a town of commerce; but yet, what was the Liverpool of the times to which he alluded, and that of 1825, the great emporium of commercial wealth and enterprise? He repeated his perfect convietion that all the other forebodings would prove as visionary, and that both poliey and principle alike concurred in the ultimate abolition of slavery throughout the British colonies.. The motion was carried with only the four following dissentients:→→ Mr S. Dixon, of the Tower ward; Mr C. Stuart, of the Tower ward; Mr Dixon, jun., Langbourn ward; and Mr E. Hughes, Queenhithe. IRELAND. NEW CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. The Colonial Assemblies said, the slave population was unfit for manumission, and yet they took all the pains in their power to prevent their being instructed and rendered more domitable. In proof of this hostile disposition to religious instruction and improvement, he referred to the outrageous conduct pursued towards the Missionaries at Demerara and Barbadoes, and contrasted the mild forbearance of the unhappy negroes, At the meeting on Wednesday week, Mr O'CONNELL alluded to the with that evinced towards them by their white oppressors. Under these Address from the Catholics of New York.That Address," he said, circumstances, nothing remained for the people of England, but to rally" has naturally and unavoidably created a most lively and powerful round the Government at home, and strengthen their hands, to enforce sensation. It is, in reality, a spirit-stirring document, I do not know the observance of a better system in the colonies, and the ultimate eman- that in the course of my life I ever read any production with more uncipation of the slaves. He protested against the use of any violence in mixed feelings of pleasure, of gratification, and of gratitude. It has the operation of this beneficial change. Let the utmost care be taken of originated with men whose only fault, if they had a fault, consisted in the property of the colonists, and let them, if they made out a case for loving Ireland too well. (Cheers.) It originated with men who bear remuneration, be reimbursed by the country for any losses which should the first stamp for moral character, and who occupy the first station in be incurred in the progress of this good work. He referred to the ex- literary fame. (Loud and continued cheering.) Many of those men have ample of the black inhabitants of St. Domingo, to show that these negroes been the victims of false accusations, and others have sacrificed them were capable of enjoying great refinement, and of being made an influ-selves to the exaggeration of a principle which undoubtedly is in itself ential part of the great family of the world, if treated like human beings grand and noble. They were obliged to quit their native country, but entitled to the kindly offices of humanity; and concluded by expressing they quitted it with characters unstained, with reputation unblemished, a hope that the resolution he was about to propose would receive the and they carried with them the esteem and the regret even of those who approbation of that Court, and go forth to the country as an object of differed from them in political opinions. The advice, or I may rather say the co-operation of such men, deserved our warmest gratitude and respect. It is our interest, not less than our duty, to speak out manfully and fairly to rejoice in that comfort and sympathy of foreign nations to exult that on the Continent the bigotry of England will be exposed ; and that in America we have a race of brothers daily increasing in num bers, in influence, and in importance, who will proclaim our wrongs from Cape Horn to the regions of Panama. We cannot too gratefully hail the kindness of our Irish-American friends. I will therefore, at a future opportunity, embody my sentiments in a resolution, for transmission to New York, unless my humble judgment shall be overruled by the superior intellect of others. imitation. The resolution for a petition to Parliament was then seconded by Mr PELLATT, jun. who entered into a history of the condition of slavery, which was repeatedly applauded by the Court. On the question being put in the usual manner, Mr DORNFORD declared his cordial approbation of the motion; and though he did not wish to say anything respecting the late Lord Londonderry, yet he could not help observing, that if the time had been when the voice of an English Minister could have forbade the re-occupation of the throne of France by a Bourbon, the least that ought to have been done on the part of England was the attainment of a security that no flag in Europe should sanction this odious trade in human beings.(Hear!) Mr S. DIXON observed, that the slave population of the colonies were, taking all things together, more happy than the general labouring classes of this country. Why not leave this question in the hands of the Government, which had so effectively taken it up, and despatched proper persons to make the necessary enquiry, and to see that everything was done which could be practically accomplished? Indeed, for the sake of the negroes, he was anxious to impede this violent scheme of emancipation. As at present situated, from the birth of the infant to the decrepitude of age, the negro was the object of superintending care, and the great mass of these people had, in the lapse of time, become Creoles. Were they, therefore, to let loose 800,000 of these poor people, in a state of utter incapacity to provide for themselves? He entreated, therefore, the Court to pause before they inconsiderately pressed the adoption of measures which would inevitably produce a fearful result in the British Colonies. Mr. JAMES warmly supported the motion, and said that every en Fightened man who had thought on the subject had condemned the Mr COPPINGER observed that the Address was a document worthy of the free land that gave it birth, the occasion that called it forth, and the characters from whom it emanated, the enlightened advocates of civil and religious liberty. It was a consolation that the true character of their enemies would be proclaimed to the globe; that the constitution of England, which, had been held up as the envy of surrounding nations, and the admiration of the world," would be exposed in all its deformity and that the demon of bigotry, if it could not be compelled to hide its diminished head, would at least be forced to stalk abroad with the mark of the beast on its forehead. For this Ireland was indebted to the Catholics of New York. He had long cherished a wish, that a statement of their wrongs should be published to the world. He had been often tempted to undertake the task himself, in the absence of one more qualified; but, thanks to the noble sympathy of the people of America, it now became unnecessary. They were resolved that the clanking of Ireland's chains should be heard by her enemies, and that if her rights were still denied, her oppressors should hide their heads in shame. Already had the flapping of the Republican eagle struck terror to the heart of the Monarchical lion; and the manner in which that address had |