'It will not, I hope, be deemed disrespectful to Government, that, whilst they are pleased to adopt measures which must deprive me of every means of subsistence, and destroy all my present prospects in life, I should request them to assign the grounds of so severe a proceeding; and thus afford me an opportunity of explaining whatever circumstances may have given them an unfavourable impression of my conduct.

'But should they have determined, at all events, to enforce their resolution against me, without acquainting me with their motives, or should the explanations which, after knowing them, I could give, be deemed unsatisfactory, I beg leave, previous to a compliance with their orders, to state some circumstances peculiar to my situation, which, I have no doubt, the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council will find not unworthy of his consideration.

'Some time ago, two gentlemen became bail for me in a sum of money, and as I have no means of exonerating them, but such as my continuance in this country would afford, it becomes my duty to represent to the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council, the injury which my being sent to Europe would occasion to individuals, certainly not implicated in any offence that I may be supposed to have committed.

'I am, besides, a married man, Trusting it is not the wish of the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council to part me from my wife, and being, by the present measure, deprived of all my resources, I hope it will not be deemed unreasonable in me to expect that the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council should order a passage to be provided for her, with suitable accommodations.

'With respect to the security required, having already given that of the two gentlemen above alluded to, for my personal attendance, on the 25th of October next, at the Supreme Court here, I submit, with deference, how far I can, with propriety, ask security that I shall return to Europe before that period.-I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,

'Calcutta, 13th of July, 1798.'

'CHARLES MACLEAN.'

On the following day, Dr. Maclean received private information that orders had been issued to Captain Mouggach to permit him to remain in his house until the Mildred should be on the eve of sailing; then to force open his door, and to carry him on board that ship. From the 9th to the 20th of July, he kept his door almost constantly shut, went on with his business as well as the nature of such a situation would permit, and patiently awaited the result. Early on the morning of the 20th, he received the following communication :

To Mr. Charles Maclean.

'SIR,-I send you this to apprise you, that I have a full answer to your letter addressed to Government, dated the 13th instant, and to acquaint you that I shall call myself with it in the course of this forenoon. In the meantime I have to observe, that there will be no occasion for your concealing yourself from me, as a security is only required for your fulfilling the contents of the letter which I shall deliver to you, and which security, I am well assured, you have in your power to give on the shortest notice.

This business being settled, it will free you from all restraint, or fear of being apprehended in the streets, which might be the case should matters remain unexplained.—I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

'J. MOUGGACH, 'Fort William, 20th July, 1798. 'Captain, Town-Adjutant.' An answer was immediately returned, as under:

'To Captain J. Mouggach, Town-Adjutant, &c.

'SIR,-Before I received your note of this morning, I had resolved to write to you to-day, intimating that I should be ready, at three o'clock to-morrow afternoon, to deliver myself into your custody, or to take such other steps as the Government may direct, in order to ensure a compliance with their first requisition.

But as I am ignorant of what may be the contents of the letter which you now have to deliver to me from Government, and cannot therefore judge how far it may be proper in me to comply with their present wishes, I must be excused from consenting to a personal conference to-day, unless you previously assure me, upon your honour, that I shall not be molested, if I should be unable to assent to the propositions which you may have to make.

On my part, I beg leave to assure you, that, far from intending to evade, I am preparing, with as much speed as possible, to comply with the orders of the Right Hon. the Governor-General in Council, to return to Europe by the Mildred.

'Should you, in the meantime, have anything to communicate by a note, I shall be happy to attend to it; and I have to express my regret that it has been necessary for me to give you personally so much trouble. I remain, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, 'Calcutta, 20th J 1798. 'CHARLES MACLEAN.'

About noon of the same day, Captain Mouggach called at Dr. Maclean's house, and after promising, upon his honour, that his person should not be molested, was admitted. He delivered the following letter:

'To Mr. Charles Maclean.

SIR,-In reply to your letter of the 13th instant, I am directed by the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council to ac

.

quaint you, that he has thought it proper to require you to return to Europe.

'Firstly,-For publishing, in a newspaper, a letter containing an insinuation of improper conduct on the part of one of the public Magistrates in the discharge of his duty, and, when called upon to make an apology for that offence, refusing, in the most disrespectful terms, to make such apology.

'Secondly, Because the Governor-General in Council finds, that that you are the same person whom Government before ordered to return to Europe, in consequence of your having quitted the ship to which you were attached, and remained in the country without permission; an order which could not be enforced, from your having removed yourself out of the reach of the officers who were directed to execute it.

'In consideration of the circumstances stated in your letter, the Governor-General in Council will allow you to remain in the country until the 25th of October next, provided that you immediately give satisfactory security to proceed to Europe, in any ship which may sail after that date, and in which he may require you to embark.

'The Governor-General in Council can have no intention of separating you from your family, and a charter-party passage will be allowed you both in the ship in which you may be ordered to embark, agreeably to the established usages on such occasions.—I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

D. CAMPBELL, Sub-Secretary.

'Council Chamber, July 19, 1798.'

Here, probably for the first time in the history of the world, the atrocious principle is avowedly acted upon, that an individual may, at the caprice of a Governor, and without the form of a trial, be removed from his business and means of subsistence, to the destruction of his property, and all his prospects in life, and banished to a distant country, for having merely made an insinuation' of improper conduct against a Magistrate, the truth of that insinuation being notorious, from facts immediately before the world; and the still more base principle, if possible, that, for an offence against the law, an apology to a Governor is the appropriate atonement ! This insinuation of improper conduct, and the refusal to make an apology, were immediately followed by the destruction of an income between seven and eight hundred pounds per annum, the annihilation of all present prospects in life, the removal of the person from India to England, and, as if these various punishments were still inadequate to the grievous offences committed, from that time to the present moment, being a period of nearly thirty years, has Dr. Maclean been doomed to suffer the infliction of a general and unrelenting persecution from the numerous adherents of despotism, for having endeavoured, as far as depended upon him, to maintain the liberty of

the Press inviolate in India; for, after all, that will be seen to have been the real question at issue.

Under the head' firstly' of this letter, the offence alleged branches into three parts, of which the last, besides being, like the others, unfounded, is exceedingly ludicrous. Dr. Maclean is accused of having expressed his refusal to apologise for his insinuation in the most disrespectful terms.' His words are, as my insinuation can

be proved to be well founded, I must beg leave to decline making the apology required.' How these terms can be deemed most disrespectful, excepting in the distempered brain of an Eastern satrap, it is difficult for a man of plain understanding even to imagine. Under the head secondly,' is a new charge, which is totally groundless. The former order of Government alluded to, was founded on a misrepresentation, which is explained by a letter, subsequently inserted, of Captain Hudson of the Houghton, an attested copy of which was sent to the Governor-General. For several years after the occurrence alluded to, Dr. Maclean was a constant resident of the Town of Calcutta, and might at any time have been sent to Europe by Sir J. Shore (Lord Teignmouth,) had he delighted in acts of despotism, and in employing the Town-Adjutant to hunt his game. There have been always in India thousands of persons similarly situated, pursuing their respective avocations without molestation. But subsequent to this determination of the Marquis of Wellesley, there was no safety, whether with or without the protection of a license, for the adherents of a Free Press. This was the great offence!

The concluding paragraph of this official letter graciously condescends to state, that a charter-party passage' will be allowed Mrs. Maclean in the same ship, agreeably to the established usage on such occasions.' The intimation of this most impudent and mendacious remark respecting' established usage,' was, doubtless, to induce a belief, that to send ladies to Europe as charter-party passengers, was quite a common occurrence, although it is more than probable that not an instance of the kind eyer happened. To what pitiable shifts are governments reduced, when they find themselves under the necessity of seeking to give a false colouring to base and indefensible transactions! The accommodations of a charter-party passage are, room to swing a hammock among the sailors, and a certain daily allowance of salt-beef, biscuit, and spirits. Now, if such accommodations were never offered to a lady by any former Governor-General, what becomes of the established usage on such occasions? But, even if the case had repeatedly occurred, precedent cannot justify an act of indecency any more than an act of oppression.

At this period, it seemed not improbable to Dr. Maclean, that, by availing himself of the authority of the Supreme Court of Judicature, -Sir Robert Chambers, the Chief-Justice, being well disposed to grant him the protection of the laws of England,-he might have

defeated the Governor-General, in so far as to be able to remain in India in defiance of his will: but, considering that he would have been a permanent cause of contention between these high parties; that his property and prospects would be, at any rate, sacrificed in the struggle; and that the liberty of the Press in India, the real object at issue, as had already been rendered manifest by the abject apologies dictated to the Editor of The Telegraph,' would have been extinguished without opposition or complaint, but from a solitary individual; whilst, although the fact eventually turned out to be otherwise, it would have been unreasonable at that time not to have entertained some expectation of ultimate redress in England for these complicated acts of oppression, as well as of punishment, for the public delinquencies which they involved, he deemed it more judicious, as well as more becoming, not to resort to any indirect means of partially eluding the despotism of the Marquis of Wellesley, but to meet it at once, leaving him loaded with the guilt and responsibility of the unqualified exercise of that open and profligate tyranny, by which he seemed desirous of early distinguishing his Indian government. Under these impressions, the following answer was written :

To D. Campbell, Esq., Sub-Secretary, &c.

'SIR,-I have received your letter of the 29th instant, stating the reasons of the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council for requiring me to return to Europe.

'In answer to the first, be pleased to inform the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council, that I refused to make an apology for the insinuation of improper conduct on the part of the Magistrate of Gauzeepore, contained in my letter of the 27th of April last, published in 'The Telegraph,' not only from a thorough conviction of its truth, but also because such apology might operate unfavourably towards my friend, Mr. Allan Maclean, in his endeavours to procure redress for a series of the most ignominious oppressions perhaps ever exercised upon a British subject in India, endeavours in which I was, and am still determined to support him by all the means in my power. If the terms of my refusal have seemed to convey disrespect, I can only say that it was not in the smallest degree intended; and I am even convinced, that, upon a re-consideration of my letter, it will appear so to the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council himself.

'Respecting the second charge, I beg leave to state, that the order of the former Governor-General in Council for my return to Europe, was founded upon a misrepresentation of the manner in which I had quitted the ship I was attached to; and that the explanation given was such as induced him not to enforce that order. What was then submitted in my justification, has been since confirmed, beyond a doubt, by the acknowledgments of Captain Hudson of the Houghton, which I have the honour to enclose for the information of the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council.