The Sun.
London, England, 1826-08-24 00:00:00

THIJRSPAY EVENING, AUGUST g 4, 1826

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

REPORT OF THE cOmMIANIONERS Or INQUIRY AT THE CAPE or
Coon HOPE, DATIZO 7TH OF !Ammo., 1825, UPON THE

COMPLAINTS ADDRESSED TO MS COLONIAL GOVERNMENT, TO
THE KARL BATMUROn
MR. BISHOP BURN, AND TO nu HOUSE OF COMMONS ET

CaPe-town, Cape of Good Hope, Dec. 7, 1825.
My Lord,—ln pursuance of the instruction- that accompanied
the voluminous correspondence of Mr. Bishop Burnett, and other
documents that were communicated to us at your Lordship's re-
quest by Lord Charles Somerset, we proceed to submit to your
consideration our report upon the complaints that were addressed
to us by Mr. Burnett in the course of our visit to the Eastern
district at the dose of the year 1823. •
with Mr. Wilmot
We have further noticed the principal points that he has urged
in the course of his subsequent correspondence
Horton, and the petition that-4 a more recent period has been
presented in his name to the House of Commons.
We have already stilted to
your Lordship, that we had dis-
tinctly apprised Mr. Burnett, in the rear 1824, that our inquiries
into his grievances wouldbe limited to those that had an appa-
rent or real connexion with the operation of the existing laws and
institutions ; but that we couldinot hold out to him any expectation
of speedy redress, more especially if we should find that he had
neglected or omitted to avail himself of those modes of obtaining
it that the law, of the colony afforded.
The principal cause of.his complaints appeared to be founded
in the alleged injustice and illegality, of certain decisions pro-
nounced by two members of a commission of circuit, who tried
several actions, in which be was plaintiff or defendant, at Gra-
ham's-town, in the year 1823 ; the severity and oppressive con-
duct of his opponent in these actions, the act of' the sequestrator
in prematurely publishing his insolvency in the Gazette, and the
general effect of these measures upon his character and credit.
Mr. Burnett also very strongly complained of the partial and
irregular system by which the commissariat department made its
purchases of green forage for the supply of the cavalry of the Cape
Corps ; and the injurious effects of this system upon the efforts of
the emigrant settler, to avail themselves of the only market that
was open for the produce of their lands. 'He also complained of
the rejection' of a claim that he had made upon the same depart ment for several loads of grass that had been cut upon his land for
the use of the Cape cavalry, which he alleged that Major Somer-
set, who commanded the corps, had promised to discharge before
he took his departure from Graham's-town in the year 1822.
We perceive that upon later and more public occeeions he, has
denounced certain other practices in the Commissariat Department
deduced from its connection with the establishment called the
" Somerset Farm," which has lately been dons away ; and that he
has adverted to the influence alleged to have been exercised by the
Governor over the disposal of Government bills by the Commis;
eery, and the regulation of the periods of drawing, both of which,
if attended with the inconvenience or effects stated by Mr. Bur-
nett, have been removed by the enforcement of the regulations
issued 'by the Lords CommisSioners of the Treasury, and by the:
facility that is now afforded in the exchange of paper currency for
Government bills at a certain fixed rate.
We do not consider it necessary to take any particular notice in
this place of the complaint that was made by Mr. Burnett of the
refusal of the local Government to include him inthe general issue
of rations provided for those settlers who had emigrated under
the guarantee of pecuniary deposits,, which were to be reimbursed
to them on the fulfilment of. certain:conditions. Mr. Burnett had
withdrawn himself before, he left England from the engagements
into which they had entered, and arrived at the Cape with au en-
tire freedom of choice as to pursuits or destination, with a claim
upon Government, in consinetteirof your Lordship'srecommend-
talon, for a grant of land proportionate to the means that he
brought, or should be able to prove that he brought, with him
for its cultivation. Several memorials from him upon these sub-
jects are recorded in the office of the chief secretary to this Go-
vernment, and couched in vehement and frequently offensive lan-
guage ; but we find, that et a subaelitent period, Mr. Burnett
partook of the issue of ration', by order of the magistrate at
Graham's-town, to the amount of 720 six-dollars, for which he
is still indebted to the Government. He proceeded to the district
of Albany, after having received information that the lands of the
river Knysna, upon which he was desirous of settling, were not
in the disposal of Government, early in the year 1820. He took
a lease of a farm, named "Doom Valley," advantageously situated
in the immediate vicinity of Graham's -town ; and in consequence
of au application to the acting Governor, Sir Rufane Donkin, he
received a grant of land adjoining this farm. Although our in-
quiries respecting the means and resources brought into the colony
by Mr. Burnett have not been of a direct nature, we are led to
conclude that they were very limited, and chiefly, if not entirely,
consisted of the credit that he might possess in Englanfl, in conse-
quence of his relationship to some of the members of a respectable
mercantile house near London.
Through the recommendation of the acting Governor, the su-
perintendent of the government-farm at Somerset was induced-to
advance to him a certain quantity of stock and grain, amounting
to the sum of nine hundred rix dollars ; and it appear" that he ob-
tained similar advances from a subordinate officer of the same
establishrnenti
Mr. Burnett repaired to his farm, and applied himself with
avidity to the production ofgreen forage for the use of the cavalry
of. the Cafe Corps, stationed at Graham's-town ; having been en-
couraged in this pursuit by the great demand that Lieutenant-
Colonel Somerset informed him existed for green forage, and by
the facility with which it was supplied from the gardens and al-
lotments of the officers of the corps, 'and of the inhabitants of
Graham's-town.
A lease of this farm had been executed by Mr. Hart, the owner,
dated -the 13th of June, 1820, in favour of Mr. Burnett, in which
it was stipulated that he should berg:possession of it for three years
at an annual rent of 600 rix dollars, commencing on the 6th day
of May then past, with an optionof renewal at the end of the term
for three years longer, and a power of purchasing the farm, at
any tune during its continuance, for the sum of 7,000 rix dollars.
Mr. Burnett entered upon the land; and, in consequence of an cep_
!plication that he made to the acting Governor, Sir Rufane Donkin,
-he received in the same year a grant of land, consisting of 1,200
acres, as well as a building allotment at Bathurst, subject to a
condition of locating seven. persona on the former, as soon as he
could obtain them from Cape-town, and of constructing a house
upon the latter within three years from the date.
Although Mr. Burnett had expressed himself greatly dissatis..
fied with this grant in several memorials, and had importuned
the Colonial Government for an extension of it, yet, he himself
bears testimony to its value, in letters, dated the 9th of August
and Ist of November, 1820—that he possessed "a place under
such singular advantages, that he. could not brie foresee a most
prosperous issue to lila undertaking; and that, fiom its command
of wood and water, and its contiguity to Graham's-town, it was
considered the finest and most valiable grant on the frontier."
Mr. Burnett immediately commenced the cultivation of his
land, sad' employed a considerable. number of labourers and
workmen in throwing up fences, and in the improvement and
embellishment of some garden-ground on the farm of Mr. Hart,
as well as in repairing some small cottages that.ht found upon it.
He also built an ornamental rustic lodge, and surrounded a large
portion of his garden-ground with park' Palings. Hiving esta-
blished a connexion with a mercantile house in Cape-town, he
ip
continued to receive supplies from them, consisting
partly of ar-
titles that' were wanted in the district, but, that they were not of
a deser
tuna value of his farm.tion that would -lend to augment or inipeoe, 'the agricul-
About the commencement of the year 1821, he received an ap-
plication from Mr. Hart for the payment of his account for ad-
ranges, which,
as lie
was unable to liquidate, became the sub-
ject of judicial process, issued from the Coot! of Juetice in the
month of February in that year. It is neeeseary here to observe,
that on the 24th Of the.satas month, Mr. Burnett told executed,
before the Secretary of the 40trid, of Ilitenhage, an assignment
of all his property, including Credits, favour of the merean-
tilt-house at Clispe-towu that had mode pecuniary advaneeitohim.
Idorivation having bevo reaixtft by this house respecting Mr.
Burnett's credit 'in England that was not satisfactory, ilnd the bills
that he offered t,hi'm lisiYrneint hiring been tendereireo, Tale.
without success CaPe4oiVi, . they wire induced to accept the
assignment and mortgage of all his properly of every description,
which he was flintier Impowered, to occupy and retain r their
fo
benefit,. transmitting ltahern an annual account of their' proceeda. The justrument-war executed before a notary of a neighbouring
district, with a view to avoid the injuviouo effect,' thin the ,ota.

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