Government Of The Cape Of...
The Times, 1824-12-10T00:00:00

- runDAc Opinion.is8now deddadly -against all the measures of the Government in tho_caseof-A;1r. Greig, and'the r4tet for the sup; pression of hit paper is.univer2il.,. From the lknowledge I had of the whole of that iransaction and'of theliberal turxwhichthe press, during the short existence of thatjouinal,had given ts mer''s minus, I was confident tliat this woida bethe eiinp'uimpression; buttlie result has been hastened,and the feeli;gzrenldered m'uch stronger, by several incidents which have since tnennpla6' '0 t'edme bf these incidents I shallgive you a brief, ccount. Aftertlie press bad been put down, and reputation andsuccessin life rendired asinsecutre as every thiing else raust be under such as systeti of goverrnment as prevails here, we began to look around us for some sehelme of amusemient, vhich, without alarming the most conscious despots, might leaa mean to know. and value each other. For thiq, and many other utseful pur. poses, nothing appeared so convenient as a literarv societe.- A Air. X airbairn, on hip first arrival in the colony about 12 months ago, proposed to several of the better iufornme people in Cape town, the formation of such a society, together with a library, and museum of natural historv, &c., on the plan of siruilar institutions in Eng-, land. At that time, however, not a single individual could be found to second his view though aU agreed that could the thing be ac- camplished, thlc colony would derive great advantage frenn it. In the mean tile he endeavoured by means of the press to explain hs views of the subject, and not without success; for on the scbetne's being -proposed again last month, no less that 61 of the IPost respect- able inhatitants of Cape-town came eagerly forward in the course ofone week. Among these were Sir John Truter, the Chief Justice of the colony, two members of the courts of justice, most of the re- spectableadvocates,clergy, and physicians. From the interior ofthe co- lony the most pleasing assurances werereceivedofzealeis assistance in collecdng specircens, andotherwiseforwarding tbe objectsof theinsti- tution. in short, it was evident that the colony was ripe for the es. tablishment of a highly interesting and promising literary instltu - tion; and as there exists no doub- of its success, it was thought that his Excellency the Governor miught not think it beneath the dig- nity of his station to accept the office of patron. At a preparatory meeting, therefore, it was resolved that ten of tbe members, the Chief Justice ainon- the rest, should wait upon his Lordship, and request him, in the name of the society, to accept of this honour. Unless you knew something of this personage. you could not believe what followed. lHe declared tbe I ho e busi. ness to be illegal, and dangerous, and highly obnoxious to him in every respect, and .so terrified the Chief Justice, as to eb- tain his authority for stating that he (Sir John) desired to have his name w7ithdrawn from the list of members. This happened when Sir John asked him when it would he most convenient for him to receive the deputation. The other members of the de. putation, not choosing to expose themselves to personalincivility. instead of waiting upon himn in a body,.discharged their duty by sending a letter to him through the Colonial office. To this they, received a most insulting answer, implying that his Lodship gave no credit to their modves, and absolutely refusing to grant the In. stitution his countenance. At the same time, he ordered the Fiscal to proceed against thoseinsolent men whohad dared to think of litera- ture or science under his Government. The Fiscal accordingly sum- moned Mr. Fairbairn a-nd the Rev. Dr. Philip before him, and after informing them that he understood that they had been forming a society, told them that in so doing they had infringed a colonial law, and subjected themselves to a heavy ps:alty. They desired to know what lawv he mesRt; upon which he paulled from a mass of paperm a dusty manuscript volume and read them a proclamation dated 1800, the object of which was to prevent treasonable associations among the Dutch, who were at that time suspected of a design to deliver up the country to the enemy. Dr. Philip said, he could not 3ea- gino that this preclamation could by any perversion of purpose be made to bear against a literary society, especially as the Chief Jus- tice, and many other lawyers well 3cquainted with the laws and re- glations of the colony, had entertained no scruples on the subject. The Fiscal Raid he must do his duty, and other men's conduct was no rule to him. MIr. Fairbairn theni requested to aee the law in question; and having considered it a littlc, had no difficulty in com- pelling this learned magistrate to admit the following propositions, viz._' Ist, That the rule only applied to rho persons in whose hotse a regularly and fully constituted society had been assembled. 2d., Thait im the present case no fully constituted soCiety existcd, and that the two meetings which had taken place lgeing merely pre- paratory, were not within the meaniaq of the act. And finally, that another meeting roight be held leally, and properly, and with- out any danger of being interrupted by him.' In a few hours, low. ever,after this, the Fiscal having got new light opon the subject, sent for SI r. Pillans, another of the members, and warned him that the society being obnoxious to l,ord Charles, any further meetings would be ilegal I " A nuemorial was now presented to his Excellency, signed by about forty of the most respectable names in Cape-town, praying simply for perrmission to form a Literary Society, a Library, and Aluseum, without requesting any patronage or countenance. To this last application was returned a contemptuous ret'usal. " It may be mentioned, in passing, that while these things wvere going on, the emissaries of the Govemnient werc busy in conveying setretly the most false reports respecting the objects and nature of the society; but the whole of their papers, together twith a list of the mtemnbers, having been got suddenly through the press, and laid bc- fore the publie, before the p rioter was aware how unacceptable a piece of service he waadoing to his masters, the most determinedapologists of the Governor's conduct were in an Instant effectusly slenced. "These proceedings went far to convince the most superficial that the Govemrnment here was decidedly hostile to literature as well as to the freedom of the press. Their next step places them in a still more odious point of view. 'I At the last meeting of the Society for the relief of the distressed settlers, an attempt toget possession of the sums raised by thehumane in different quarters of the world for this purpose, was made through Mir. Wilberforce Bird, and seconded by a Air. Buck-ton, who, in the course of the debate, insulted, with iUiberal accusations, the gentlemen who, by their charitable activity, maw be said to bave created the fund. By some lucky accident, Dr. 'Philip had got at a Government secret of some moment, and very material to his case. It seems a similar society had been in existence sonme time ago, un- der the patronage of the Government, wtiich had raised considerable sums, but by some oversight or other hael forgot to distribute them. When Mr. Bitd was presging his motion to have the local authori- ties included in the committee, the Doctor warned him that he had something to say which vwould decide the question apainst him, but whlich he wotild willingly avoid mentioning provided he would withdraw his motion. Bird, however, persisted;' and this faet, with several others of a similar nature, was produced, not one syl. lable of whicli he could contradict; and the meeting, of course, threw out his notion. This defeat and disgrace are highly-resented, and a proseoution is preparing against Dr. Philip and Mr. Ruther. ford for having senadalized the local authoritics . Thiz last named gentleman informed the meeting that he alid himself gone twice through the whole locations of the settlers, had been in cvery house, and, he beliaved, had seen everyt family, and that his conviction was, that the local authorities not only had not ti3e, as some alleged, but that th!ey wanted inclinationX to afford the settlers proper relief. " A man named BridekirR has been induced to commence a news. paper on the ruins of that of MIr. Greig. An odd incident arose out of this circumstance. His Excellency sent for a Mlr. Pugh, and told him lie understood Mr. Pugh had spread a report that Bride- kirk'l paper was under control, and desired Mr. Pugh to contradict this most erroneous statement; for lie assured him, on his honour, that it was totally uatounded. Pugh said he certainlv had statedl to several personsB oie allegation alluded to, and lie had done so be- cause he knewv it to be true! IHis Lordship, with real surprise, asked him how he knew. ' I know,' said Pugh, ' from Mlajor Mills, who has sten the proof-sheets on your Lordship's table, with the names of the writers annexed to each article 1' Pugh is proud of this act of heroism, and niakes no secret of it. " The At emorial to the King in Council, praying for a free press in this colonv, has been forwarded to England. " Should the freedom of the press be granted to this colony, I have no doubt any actiye printer of sound judgment and discretion might realize a handsome fortune by a n1ewspaper alone. A ma- gazine would also meet encouragement; and these would of course, pave the way for somethin;g else. In the mean time, notiing can be dons. This Governor lies on the encrgies of th c olony like & night- mnare; and should his lease be renete(t, even the merchants of spirit will find themselves obliged to abandon the place." j,GOVBRNMRT OFTHE_CAPE OF GOOD jIOPE. I EXTRACT OrA LE.TER DTb CAPrE p6 rOoD -- .C IR t .. . =. 2. All