and most valuable libraries ever before collected in India, especially of standard works, not easily procurable in that country, and admitted by the Bishop of Calcutta to have been admirably selected. As Mr. Buckingham was unwilling to abandon the hope of being able to return to India again, after his case had been examined in England, he left this library behind him, with instructions to have it opened as a circulating library for the accommodation of the British residents, and for his own profit. But so determined were the Indian authorities to crush their adversary if possible, by cutting off all his resources, that they absolutely refused to allow this library to be opened, because it might be beneficial to the man they were determined, if possible, to destroy!

The whole of the evidence given in the Parliamentary Report is full of interest, but we content ourselves with extracting from the general summary the following paragraphs, as specimens of the rest, from the facts proved in evidence.

"1. That Mr. Buckingham was residing in India, in the year 1818, under the legal sanction of a license granted him by the East India Company, in England, and recognised by their public authorities in Bengal.

"2. That he established, at considerable labour and expense, a daily newspaper, entitled the 'Calcutta Journal,' which is described by one of the principal functionaries of the Indian Government as having created a great taste for literature and the prosecution of enlightened pursuits,' and which is also proved by others to have been very generally read and approved by the British community of India.

"3. That, animated by the public professions of the Governorgeneral of India, Lord Hastings, as to his removal of all restrictions from the Indian press, save those of responsibility to the regular legal tribunals and the verdict of a jury, Mr. Buckingham commented occasionally himself, and at other times permitted his correspondents to comment, on the public measures of the Government in that country.

"4. That some of these articles were complained of, to the extent of seven or eight only in the course of about five years, some few of them being made the subject of legal prosecution, and others only of

remonstrance and warnings of banishment in the event of their being repeated.

"5. That in the only legal proceeding which was persevered in and carried before a jury, Mr. Buckingham was acquitted; and that in the cases merely remonstrated against, the explanations and reasons tendered by Mr. Buckingham, in his replies to such remonstrances, appear to have convinced the Governor-general that the articles complained of did not deserve the severe punishment of removal from the country.

"6. That on the resignation of Lord Hastings, a short period elapsed before the arrival of his successor, Lord Amherst, until which, the supreme authority was exercised by Mr. John Adam, as senior member of Council.

"7. That during this interval an appointment took place, by which the office of a Clerk for the supply of stationery to the public departments of Government was conferred on the Rev. Dr. Bryce, the head of the Presbyterian establishment in India.

"8. That Mr. Buckingham wrote in his journal an article, in which the duties of such an office were shown to be incompatible with a due discharge of the reverend gentleman's sacred functions.

"9. That for writing and publishing this article Mr. Buckingham's license to reside in India was withdrawn, and he was ordered, without a trial, investigation, hearing, or any process of law, to quit India, on pain of being seized and sent out of the country by force.

"10. That at this period, and for some time before, Mr. Buckingham's Journal was in such general esteem and request, as to have become extremely profitable, yielding an income of between 6,0007. and 8,000l. a year, and being estimated at the full market-value of four lacs of rupees, or 40,000l. sterling. On this estimate it was divided into 400 shares of 100%. each, seventy of which were purchased by bankers, merchants, civilians, and others, on which the purchasers realised large dividends of actual profit, which were paid to them at quarterly periods.

"11. That on his arrival in England, Mr. Buckingham found that the Indian Directors and the Board of Control had both concurred, not merely in condemning the measure of Dr. Bryce's appointment,

but in annulling it on the ground of its impropriety, and ordering Dr. Bryce to be immediately removed from his office.

"12. That, notwithstanding this, the Court of Directors refused to permit Mr. Buckingham to return to India, even to collect the sums of money that were due to him there, which, from the nature of his business, were very widely scattered, by which he was prevented from winding up his affairs, and saving something from the wreck.

"13. That subsequently to Mr. Buckingham's banishment from India, where he left his extensive establishment under the protection of the laws as they then stood, and which were sufficient to guard it from any violation, a new by-law or regulation was passed by the Indian Government, giving themselves the power (which previously had no existence) of placing every journal in the country under a license, to be granted by the Governor-general, and to be revocable at his pleasure, without reason assigned.

"14. That the editor left in charge of Mr. Buckingham's Journal published in it, section by section, and from time to time, the contents of a pamphlet, originally published in England, written by the Hon. Leicester Stanhope, on the subject of a free press in British India, which publication was not complained of, nor remonstrated against in any way, during its progressive appearance.

"15. That several days after this republication had been completed, and when no injury was even alleged to have been either produced or apprehended from its circulation, the Government of Bengal issued an order, without any previous trial, hearing, or investigation, withdrawing the license of Mr. Buckingham's journal, forbidding its further appearance, and thus annihilating, at a single stroke, a property of considerable value, when its principal proprietor was at a distance of many thousand miles, and could therefore have no means of explanation or defence.

"16. That the agents of Mr. Buckingham, who were bankers and merchants of the first respectability in India, endeavoured to obtain from the Government there a renewal of the license; but after various pretexts for delay, during all which time a large and expensive establishment of men was kept up in daily hope, grounded on the positive promise of such renewal, the Indian Government at length came to the determination, that while the types, presses, and other

materials belonged to Mr. Buckingham no license should be granted to any one to use them: thus making the property utterly valueless to him.

"17. That one of their own servants, Dr. Muston (who was a sonin-law of one of the members of the Government, Mr. Harrington), having made an advantageous offer to lease or rent the use of types, presses, and other materials, for the period of a year, to carry on a journal for his own benefit, the Indian Government, though they were perfectly satisfied with the editor, who was indeed one of their own officers, refused to grant a license for such a paper, on the alleged ground that they had no security but that, at the end of the year for which the lease was to be given, the influence and control of Mr. Buckingham might again return to the paper, though Mr. Buckingham was then in England, and, as was well known to the Indian Government, would not be permitted to return.

"18. That after still further ruinous protractions and delays, the avowed determination of the Indian Government not to allow the property to be used for the establishment of any journal, so long as Mr. Buckingham was to derive any pecuniary benefit from it, compelled the agents of that gentleman to sell it on such terms as they could obtain in a market where, by the very operation of this determination of the Government, there could be few competitors for its use; and, accordingly, the materials of an establishment which had cost upwards of 20,000l. sterling, and five years of time, to bring to the state of perfection and profit described, were sold for so small a sum, and had become encumbered with such heavy charges by the delays and difficulties adverted to, as to leave Mr. Buckingham not only without proceeds, but very largely in debt.

"19. That the license which the Indian Government refused to grant to Dr. Muston, to carry on a journal, by renting Mr. Buckingham's materials, from which both parties might have been benefited, the same Government granted to Dr. Muston himself, immediately that he became possessed of these materials as his own; the effect of this being, therefore, not to suppress the sentiments which the journal might contain, as the editor would in both cases be equally free from Mr. Buckingham's control, but to take the profits from the original owner, and transfer them to the subsequent possessor.

"20. That the copyright or goodwill of this long-established and popular journal, with all its consequent profits, thus taken from Mr. Buckingham, and conferred upon Dr. Muston without purchase or consideration, was ultimately sold by the latter gentleman for his own benefit to the proprietors of another Indian paper, the 'Bengal Hurkaru,' to whom the subscribers were accordingly transferred.

"21. That Mr. Buckingham has now been in England twenty years, during which he has been subjected to the greatest difficulties, arising out of the losses described; but he has, nevertheless, persevered in every legitimate aud honourable mode of appealing to the India Directors, to the Board of Control, and to Parliament; the authorities of the Government of India being so protected, as to render it impossible to obtain redress from them through a court of law.

"22. That the result of all these proceedings has been to entail on Mr. Buckingham the total ruin of all his property and prospects in India, by the utter extinction of his establishment there, which was not over-estimated at the value of 40,000l. sterling; and by the accumulation upon himself, as the party responsible for all the liabilities of the concern, of debts to the extent of nearly 10,0007. more."

With the opinions of eminent men publicly expressed, as to these transactions, it would be easy to fill several pages; but of these also we confine ourselves to a few only-the excellent and venerable Lord Denman, late Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench; Lord Abinger, one of the most learned judges of the land; the upright Sir Edward West, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bombay; Lord John Russell, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee; and Lord William Bentinck, late Governor-general of India.

Lord Chief Justice Denman said "Mr. Buckingham had been torn from his business, from his friends, from all his hopes, and had been sent to a distant country, where he was ruined, and was, perhaps, on the very verge of beggary. It was horrible to hear of such things. It was horrible to see anything like an attempt to introduce into this country that Indian atmosphere, which he for one was not prepared to breathe. He considered this to be one of the most cruel, oppressive, and unjustifiable acts which he had ever known to have been committed by a British governor, in the history of the colonies, bad as they were."