12.-In the exercise of this freedom, I ventured to call in question the policy and the liberality of the Court of Directors, in some of its former, and still more of its recent acts, as applied to the immediate administration of Lord Hastings himself. I hesitated not to speak as Englishmen would do at home, on all the passing events of the times, from whatever source they emanated, with that freedom which bad only truth for its limits, and the honest intention of public good for its end. The conduct of the Bombay Government, or of its public officers, on occasion of its first expedition to the Persian Gulf; the defects of the equipment of its second and now pending armament; the publication of the entire report of the meeting at Madras, convened to consider of the address to Lord Hastings, which was not suffered to be published at that Presidency, but which was reprinted afterwards by the Government Gazette here; and, in short, topics that would be too numerous and too tedious for me to detail here, but which must be in the recollection of all persons by whom the Calcutta Journal has been read, were all touched on with freedom; and it was impossible for me, while these constantly passed unnoticed by the Government, not to be confirmed in my opinion and belief, that the sentiments of the Governor General, as expressed in his reply to the address of the inhabitants of Madras, were not merely abstract doctrines or general truths, pronounced without a specific object, but were the principles by which his Lordship's conduct was actuated, and the grounds on which he founded a system of liberty of discussion and freedom of publication, which he originally intended to be reduced to practice, and of which he had consequently permitted the free exercise as consonant with these sentiments, and as meeting his avowed approbation. 13.-I regret, however, to learn, by the tenour of your letter of the 12th instant, that I have mistaken the extent of the indulgence and freedom which his Excellency meant to allow to the Indian press. I did conceive, when the Governor General pronounced " that the triumph of our beloved country over tyrant-ridden France spoke the force and value of that spirit, to be found only in men accustomed to indulge and express their honest sentiments," that his Lordship had extended to us the privilege of the same honest expression of our sentiments in India. If, however, I have been in error in drawing this inference, my regret is considerably heightened by the recollection that I have contributed so zealously, and so imminently to the risk of my fortune, health, and reputation, as I have done, to lead others into the error into which I have myself fallen. 14-From your letter of the 12th instant, I must conceive the full existence of those restrictions of 1818, which I had believed to have been abrogated, as that letter makes it the basis of my offence, that my "remarks on the Government of Fort St. George are obviously in Orient, Herald, Vol, 1. App. violation of the spirit of those rules to which my particular attention had before been called." And because of this violation of a law, which I had the strongest reason to believe annulled, you peremptorily command me within the short space of three days, to make a distinct acknowledgment of the impropriety of my conduct, by retracting opinions that I honestly conceived and honestly expressed; to make a full and sufficient apology to the Government of Fort St. George, for the injurious insinuations expressed by me against its conduct, without my being convinced of the injustice or falsehood of such opinions, and without my entertaining a sense of having acted wrong; and further, to have this couched in terms that shall express what you may approve, rather than what my own heart and conscience would dictate, by commanding me to transmit to your office within three days a draft of such retraction and apology for your revisal and approval, previous to its publication, on pain of forfeiting all the protection of this Government, and being proceeded against in such manner as may be deemed fit. 15. It is impossible for me to express to you, Sir, how I feel humbled by such a demand, in the rank which I deemed myself to have held among my fellow-citizens in India, as owing to the Government of this portion of the British empire the warm and loyal attachment of an Englishman, but as being also protected, in my rights and property, in return for that allegiance, by the permanent justice and equity of the British laws, to which alone I conceived myself responsible for crime, and at whose tribunal I should bow to the decision of my judges, with that feeling which ought to characterize a subject of a free, but just and equitable government. This, however, is not a topic for me to indulge in; and when I proceed to an explanation of the immediate cause of the remarks published in the Calcutta Journal, which have occasioned your present demand of a retraction and apology, I have only to beg that you will entreat the patient attention of his Lordship in Council to what I have to offer on that head. I regret the length of the detail into which it may lead me, but when the ends of justice are to be promoted, I confidently rely on his Lordship's indulgence and impartiality for a hearing. 16.-On the 27th of August, 1819, his Lordship in Council was pleased to sanction an arrangement for my payment into the Postoffice of this Presidency a monthly sum, in consideration of which the Calcutta Journal was to be guaranteed to pass free to all the stations to which the Post-office regulations of this Presidency extended; the amount of which sum was to be computed according to the actual postage due on the Numbers of the Calcutta Journal that had been despatched from the General Post-office here within the same month, namely, August, 1819. Mr. Hall, the late Postmaster General, was instructed to C carry this arrangement into effect; and in the first interview which I had with him on this subject, he himself gave me the option of two modes of forming the computation of the monthly sum to be paid. One of these was to have the postage calculated from Calcutta to certain limits, where the Post-offices of the other Presidencies commenced, and to have the papers marked "Paid" to those limits only, leaving the postage beyond them to be paid by the persons to whom they were addressed: the other mode was to have the computation made according to the amount of the whole postage due on the papers from Calcutta to their separate ultimate destinations, and, on payment of this sum to have them stamped "Full Post Paid," which would ensure their free passage, without further impost, all the way. 17. As the great object that I wished to accomplish was an equalization of price, and a uniformity of system for the transmission of the Journal all over India, I preferred the latter mode, though to me by far the most expensive. I distinctly asked, however, whether the Postoffice regulations of this Presidency, which was marked in the contract as the limit of my privilege, did extend to the receiving postage for letters to any part of India, and guaranteeing them free and without charge to wherever they might be addressed; and Mr. Hall satisfied me that they did, by showing me the Post-office registers, in which letters and papers were entered for places under the respective Governments of Bombay, Madras, and Ceylon, the postage of which being paid here, guaranteed their free passage all the way to whatever places they might be addressed; and these same registers proved also that a reciprocity of system existed under those Governments with regard to the transmission of letters to places under this Presidency, as every dawk brought letters from Ceylon, Madras, and Bombay, the postage of which was paid at those respective places, and they reached the Post-office here, marked "Post Paid," without having borne any additional impost at any intermediate station, or without being subject to any additional charge on their delivery here. It was clear, therefore, to us both, that as far as receipt of postage on the papers, and their free transmission to their ultimate addresses was concerned, the Post-office regulations of this Presidency extended all over the British Possessions in India, either by law, or by custom and mutual convenience: this, at least, was the practice, and it seemed so clear, at least to the Postmaster General and to myself, that we did not deem a reference to the Government necessary, but fixed the computation of the monthly sum on this principle, and executed the bond for the amount conjointly in this belief and impression. 18.-The full postage on the papers was then actually paid by me, in this contract, and they were marked, as all letters and papers so paid are marked, with the Post-office stamp "Full Post Paid," and despatched accordingly. At first, for a period of about a month, as nearly as I can collect from the letters of different correspondents under the Madras Presidency, they were allowed to pass free to Madras, but the postage from Madras to stations beyond it under that Presidency was charged to the persons to whom they were addressed. Even in this, however, there was a distinct acknowledgment of the principle and practice, that the mark of "Full Post Paid" should guarantee any letter or paper to its ultimate destination; for in a letter of Mr. Sherson, the Postmaster General at Madras, addressed to John Babington, Esq. Collector at Calicut, dated December 6th, 1819, attested copies of which I have been furnished with, the charge of postage from Madras to places beyond it is thus explained:-Mr. Sherson says, "In reply to your letter of the 25th ultimo, I beg to state that the Calcutta Journals from the 1st of September last, although marked on the envelop Full Post Paid,' are inserted in the lists which accompany the mails from Calcutta, Post Paid to Madras only,' consequently the additional postage from Madras to their destination was charged, agreeably to the regulations, until the 25th of October last." 19. Here then was a distinct acknowledgment, that, but for the manner of registry in a list, of which of course I could know nothing, the papers would have gone all the way free, on the same authority as they reached Madras free, namely, that they were marked "Full Post Paid." Through whose mistake this entry was made in the Post-office list, as differing from the stamp on the envelop, and thus subjecting my subscribers to such loss as this distinction created, I did not inquire; but having learnt that this was the case from private letters, long before the copy of Mr. Sherson's correspondence reached me, I had applied to Mr. Hall to represent the irregularity of such a step, as charging postage on the Calcutta Journals within the Madras territory, when I had already paid the full postage on them here. Mr. Hall saw and confessed the injustice of this charge, and immediately despatched a letter to Mr. Sherson, saying that the full postage had been paid on all the Calcutta Journals sent from hence, and adding, that the regulations of the Post-office of this Presidency empowered him to guarantee for this equivalent their free passage all the way. 20. This letter reached the Postmaster General at Madras on the 25th of October, the date fixed in his letter to Mr. Babington, up to which period the postage from Madras to Calicut had been paid; and in the same letter he says, "But in consequence of a recent communication received from the Postmaster General at Calcutta, the charging of inland postage on the Calcutta Journals transmitted from this office (at Madras) to out-stations, ceased on the 26th of October." This was a still more distinct acknowledgment of the principle that the Post-office regulations of this Presidency did extend to all places under the British Government in India, as far as the receipt of money and free transmission of letters or papers were concerned; and it was thought so by the Government of Madras as well as by the Postmasters of that Presidency, since this practice of suffering it to go free, because marked "full post paid," continued with the consent of the Madras Government for a period of a montb, at the end of which, on the 26th of November, an impost was ordered to be put on it, not from Madras to the stations beyond it, in consequence of any difference between the Post-office lists and the stamps on the covers, as before, but from Ganjam to Madras, and onward, although the full postage continued to be paid monthly by me here, and the same Post-office stamp-duty was affixed as usual. 21-At the same time that these charges were made on the transmission of the Calcutta Journal, other papers and letters, marked exactly in the same way, were suffered to go free, both from Calcutta to Madras, and from stations under that Presidency to Calcutta. It was impossible for me to regard this apparently partial application of a rule to my papers, which did not apply to other covers going in the same way, otherwise than as a marked distinction; and as I had the strongest reasons to know that the Calcutta Journal had become particularly obnoxious to that Government, from my publication of the report of the Madras Meeting to address Lord Hastings; of courts martial by which officers arrested on certain charges had been honourably acquit ted; and many other documents which had not been allowed publication at Madras while private letters, which I could not be permitted to cite in evidence, confirmed me in this opinion, I could not otherwise account for the application of an impediment to the passage of the Calcutta Journal through the Madras territories, which was not applied to any other description of correspondence transmitted by the same dawk. 22.-On my application to Mr. Hall, the late Postmaster General, to understand distinctly how these apparent inconsistencies were to be explained, he stated to me, that Mr. Secretary Lushington had communicated to him, that he had misconceived the intentions of the Government, which were, that the papers should go free to Ganjam only, and be paid for by me thus far. As I had no wish to oppose the authority of Government, and no reason to dispute its intentions, I readily assented to this (to me) new interpretation of the contract, as far as it applied to the future transmission of the Journal; and the Government, in its justice, as readily granted to me a proportionate deduction of the sum that had been entered in the monthly computation for postage to all places beyond it, while the papers were to be marked in future "free to Ganjam only." But as this could take no retrospective effect, I became subjected to a heavy loss, in being obliged to refund to my subscribers all the sums they had paid for postage beyond Ganjam, as I 23.-All this was, unquestionably, an aggravation of evils to which I alone was subject, and, as it appeared to me, without just cause; for although the last and most decided interpretation of the Government had fixed that the paper should go free to Ganjam only, and in future be so marked, yet the Madras Government or Postmasters, who would be justified in exacting a postage on it beyond Ganjam when marked free only to that place, were not to be justified, as it appeared to me, in making this exaction when it was marked "full post paid," and when other covers, bearing the same mark, were not subject to the same rule. To add to these evils, the application of the rule as it now stands, namely, the payment of a postage beyond Ganjam, has already lost me many, and will probably occasion the loss of many more subscribers to the paper beyond that place, and thus subject me to a still further monthly loss, during all the time that the contract may continue in force; as, whether I despatch my usual number of papers, or only one to a station under that Presidency, the full amount of the monthly contract, including the postage from here to Ganjam, must be paid by me. The loss has perhaps already equalled 5,000 rupees; but the far greater evil is, its breaking up and entirely destroying a system of uniformity, from which I had counted on certain permanent results, in extending the circulation of the paper all over India, and in being thus enabled to obtain a remuneration, at some future time, for the risk and expense incurred to effect that object, the hope of which, if the Government still continues to give the contract its present interpretation, is entirely destroyed. 24.-I am aware that governments cannot enter into the feelings of individuals, or take their private sufferings into account in their decisions on their public rights and wrongs; but when it is considered, that, by an unaccountably varying application of a rule, from a certain branch of the Madras Government towards myself, all the hopes that I had founded on what I conceived, and had good grounds for believing, to be a just interpretation of my contract with the Government here, (namely, the me to retract. extension of its authority to guarantee the free nothing which this Government could ever wish postage of letters or papers paid for here, all over India,) are overturned in that quarter, I shall, I hope, be forgiven for having felt very sensibly, however indiscreet I might have been in giving publicity to the expression of those feelings. 25.-In communicating these changes, and the steps that had been taken by the Madras Government, to demand from my subscribers the postage on the Journal from Ganjam, as well as the arrangements made by me to render it less inconvenient to them, by taking on my own hands all the present and a still greater future loss, I simply stated that measures had been taken by the Madras Government to impede its circulation, (by which I meant the levying the postage on it while marked "full post paid,") and added my belief that they would no doubt have formed a correct opinion as to the motives in which these measures had originated, leaving it entirely to their own construction. Neither in the statement of this fact, nor in the expression which follows it, can I therefore see any thing that I could honestly express a sense of impropriety in having used. 26.-In stating that my desire to extend the circulation of the paper rose in proportion to the obstacles opposed to it, I only gave utterance to a feeling that has actuated me from the first hour of my public labours up to the present: and in saying that discussions were to be met with in this paper, on topics that were seldom touched on in the Indian prints, I mentioned a fact so notorious, that it would be the grossest violation of truth to deny it. 27.-The next paragraph of my Notice to subscribers under the Madras Presidency, which speaks of the sacrifice I had determined to make, and calls the postage from Ganjam to Madras, a tax levied by order of the Madras Government, contains nothing which, in my estimation, could offend, without a great misconstruction of its meaning. Of my own sacrifices, of course, I may at all times be permitted either to speak or be silent; but when I spoke of a tax, I meant simply the postage, and in saying it was levied by order of the Madras Government, I meant that it was actually charged on the Calcutta Journals, by some branch of that Government, whether subordinate or otherwise, it was impossible for me to say, although the full postage on those papers had already been paid here. This is also a fact, which, as I could substantiate, it would be a dereliction of my duty to deny. 28. In saying that I was willing to incur a further voluntary sacrifice, or to give the paper gratis to the subscribers under the Madras Presidency, for their patronage of free discussion, I acted only in conformity with the principles by which I have been constantly guided in my public labours; and in saying I hoped to see that free discussion made subservient to the great end of public good, for which alone it was granted to us, I think I can have said 29.-The next paragraph in this Notice states that the measures of the Madras Government, (by which I wish to be distinctly understood as meaning that branch of it under whose cognizance this act came,) in refusing to let the paper pass free beyond Ganjam, though marked full paid here, had already occasioned me a considerable loss. This I could, if necessary, prove. 20.-The close of the Notice says, "We trust that the dissemination of sound principles in politics, and free inquiry on all topics of great public interest, will meet no check by this means, but that the triumph of liberality over its opposite quality will be full and complete, whatever obstacles may be opposed to it, or in whatever quarter such opposition may originate." 31. In this I am free to declare, upon my honour, that by "these means," I meant simply the check which the circulation of my paper had suffered by the levy of the additional postage, and I was vain enough to consider that sound principles and free inquiry were disseminated and encouraged by the circulation of that paper, which I could hardly be expected to express my contrition for having said. By "the triumph of liberality over its opposite quality," I meant the use of these terms as applied to principles as well as actions. I conceived Lord Hastings's removal of the restrictions from the press, to evince liberal principles; and I hoped that this would triumph over its opposite at Madras, as it had done recently at Bombay. I considered the consent of this Government here, to an arrangement granting me the free circulation of my paper for a given sum, to be a liberal act, and I hoped that this would supersede an opposite practice at Madras, as it does in Bengal and Bombay now. When I added a hope that this triumph would be full and complete, in whatever quarter an opposition to it might originate, I meant no more than the words literally import, as I supposed that such opposition might as well arise in a subordinate as in a supreme authority, and and in a medium one as easily as in any other. In all this, therefore, I have advanced nothing that I did not honestly believe, and which does not still appear to me unobjectionable. 32. Thus far, however, I have been free to confess, that no language of mine can sufliciently express either the depth or sincerity of my regret, first, that any act of mine, more particularly one which could be thought an abuse of the indulgence that his Excellency the Governor General has extended towards the Indian press, should have incurred his displeasure; secondly, that so many misconceptions should have arisen with regard to the regulation of the postage between this place and Madras, and that any thing which I should have said on that subject should have given offence to the Goverment here; and, lastly, that I have not possessed time, either calmly to review, soften, correct, or alter, any thing that I have written; but must send it up immediately to Government, with all its faults, fresh from the warm feelings which have dictated what my hand has hastily traced. I may be permitted also to add, that those feelings have been considerably irritated and wounded, by my learning, that short as the period is that has elapsed since the transmission of your letter to me, the news of the pointed displeasure of the Government having been officially notified to me, together with all the circumstances of the style and tone so painful to the feelings of even so humble an individual as myself, has been made generally known, and industriously circulated throughout Calcutta; and, that, in addition to the injury which the report of my disgrace and anticipated ruin is of itself calculated to attach to my character and fortune, the aggravated misrepresentations respecting my offence and your manner of noticing it, by those who are my enemies from mere difference of opinion, on public grounds only, have already produced an effect, from which I may not easily recover. 33.-In conclusion, I beg you will say for me to his Excellency in Council, that if it is his pleasure to command me to relinquish my charge, abandon my occupations, and sacrifice with my present property, all my future hopes, long and ardently as I have toiled through misfortune and suffering to attain the footing I now hold, I shall yield implicitly to his authority. If it be his pleasure further to command me to leave the country, I have not the means, nor indeed could I wish to possess them, of resistance. If, however, his Lordship should deny me this alternative, and still insist on my expressing a sense of contrition for an act that I cannot honestly avow to be wrong, or my retracting opinions which I sincerely believed to have been correct when I uttered them, and which I still entertain, or on my publicly apologizing for the performance of an act, which, when committed, I held to be my bounden duty, I feel that I cannot promise a compliance. 34-For the past, I am willing to express this open and public regret at my discovering myself to be in error, in inferring the cessation of the Restrictions of August 1818, which I confess freely, that I, in common with every other editor, even those who contended for their being still in force, have violated, (on my own part, however, from believing that they were virtually abrogated and no longer binding,) and still deeper regret at having done any thing under the influence of such error which could have been capable of misconstruction, or have given to his Lordship in Council, or any other member of the Indian Government, unneces sary pain. 35.-For the future, if I am permitted to exercise my present avocations, I desire only to know, distinctly and clearly, what are the topics on which I am not to touch; and understanding this to be the will of the Government, in the form of a law or official regulation, I shall regard it as I have been accustomed to regard the laws of my country, as paramount to all authority, as subject to question only for the purpose of revisal and amendment, but as commanding obedience as long as it is in conformity to the constitutional powers vested in any legislative body, and as long as the application of the penalties for infringing it is uniform and impartial. I have the honour to be, &c. J. S. BUCKINGHAM. Jan. 18, 1820. It having been intimated, subsequent to the delivery of this long letter, that it would be agreeable to the Government to be furnished with a shorter one, for the purpose of being forwarded to Madras, which should be confined to the mere question of the interruption experienced in the post-office department of that Presidency, and not touch on the liberty of the press, or the considerations arising out of it in this particular instance, the following short Letter was sent in for that purpose, on the 25th. To W. B. BAYLEY, Esq. Chief Secretary to Government. Sir,-Conceiving that the letter which I had the honour to forward you yesterday, and which was intended principally as an explanation to the Supreme Government, of the remarks contained in the "Notice to Madras Subscribers," in the Calcutta Journal of the 11th inst., which had incurred their displeasure, might be too voluminous and too tedious in its details to forward to the Government of Fort St. George, I have taken the liberty to hand you this more brief explanation, confining myself wholly to that portion of the notice which might be supposed to attract the immediate attention of the Government of Madras. From attested copies of an official correspondence between Mr. Sherson, the Postmaster General at Madras, and Mr. John Babington, Collector at Calicut, who had applied for information on the subject of the postage of the Calcutta Journal from Madras to his station, I learn, first, that from the 1st of September, to the 25th of October, the Calcutta Journal was allowed to go free from Calcutta to Madras, being marked "full post paid,” without being subject to any postage from Ganjam to that Presidency; secondly, that from the 26th of October, to the 26th of November, the Calcutta Journal was allowed to go free all over the territories subject to the Government of Fort St. George, without any charge of postage whatever, either beyond Ganjam, Madras, or else. where, being still marked "full post paid;" and, lastly, that from after the 26th of November, the passage of the Calcutta Journal through the Madras territories was made subject to a postage from Ganjam onwards, though still marked "full post paid "as before, and without any variation in the terms of my contract with the Supreme Government here; or, in short, any other alteration which could seemingly warrant a deviation from the established prac |