"respecting the preparing of the returns of Sir Rufane's grants, "so far as he has been concerned in them, and to say that he is "fully prepared to answer any further questions His Majesty's "Commissioners may think necessary to ask, in vindication of "the part he has had in those returns.

"EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM.

"At an early period after His Excellency's return to this "Colony, the Inspector of Government Lands and Woods re"ceived His Excellency's commands to make out returns of the "grants made by Sir Rufane Donkin, while in the administra"tion of the Government during His Excellency's absence.

"These returns having been completed, His Excellency wrote "to the Inspector on the 28th February, 1822, that the list was "not made out in the manner he had wished, having (as His "Excellency conceived) particularly expressed that the grants "" which went through the regulated ordeal* should be omitted, 66 6 as well as those to officers who deserved consideration. It "did not belong to the Inspector to judge of the deserts of "military officers, he could therefore not act on this part of "His Excellency's directions. Those grants which were to be "inserted, (His Excellency added,) I have marked with a X "on the list of returns above alluded to.'

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"Accordingly, the Inspector made out a second list in con"formity to those directions, as crossed off by His Excellency on the first list, which when completed still did not please "His Excellency, and a third list was directed to be made, "copied from the numbers on the first list, which His Ex"lency, in his own hand-writing, gave to the Inspector for "that purpose. The selections so made in the first instance,

**Ordeal." Although Mr. D'Escury writes English very well, he is not an Englishman. By "ordeal" he means no more than a certain official process and examination, ending ultimately in his Office, through which all grants of land are supposed to go before the grant is made.-R. S. D.

"and the consequent state in which His Excellency intended "to send those returns home, appeared to the Inspector so

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irregular and hazardous, that he felt it a duty, both to the "Governor and to himself, to point out what he thought objec❝tionable in them; and having arranged these objections under "their several heads in a memorandum, for his own satisfaction "and use, he ventured to represent those objections to His "Excellency in his first interview with him, after having sent "in the first corrected list;-the Inspector has here added a "note, giving the numbers which, although the declared object "of this list was to send home those grants only that had not "passed through the regular forms, are of that description, "but nevertheless were directed by His Excellency to be left “out, which consequently the Inspector considered as a very "strong objection to being sent home; and which could not "fail being pointed out by Sir Rufane himself whenever he "should be called upon to explain his reasons for having made "the other grants so complained of, the more, as the principal "grant among those so omitted was that to Captain Somerset, "to which the others, also left out, it might have been con"strued, were added only as a cover, and would then give to "the whole a very unfavourable appearance.

"In a note the Inspector received from His Excellency on "the 17th April, 1822, in reply to one from him respecting the "re-copying of some of the sheets, His Excellency says,"There is no necessity for having this paper written over "again; as I must keep a duplicate, that one will serve ex"tremely well.' The whole must therefore have been copied "in His Excellency's private Office, and the Inspector can "therefore not vouch for any part of what has actually been "sent home, as it is very possible that still further alterations may subsequently have been made, with which the Inspector "has not been made acquainted, any more than with the re"marks His Excellency has thought proper to make upon any "of the grants those lists contained, for which His Excellency "directed that a very broad column should be made, and left "vacant, to be filled up by himself.

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"NOTE ALLUDED TO IN THE EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM."

"The declared object His Excellency stated, to have in view "by transmitting a list of the grants made by Sir Rufane Donkin, was, that His Excellency felt it to be one of his first duties not "" to conceal' the misapplication of the public property manifest "in those grants, and therefore more particularly selected "those which did not go through the regulated ordeal previous "to their being determined upon; the following are of that "description, yet they were nevertheless, according to His Ex"cellency's own correcting, directed to be left out.

"What induced Sir Rufane to grant this very valuable piece "of land, taken from the pasture ground of Graham's Town "to Captain, now Major Somerset, does not appear; but it is "difficult not to feel surprise, when, although this grant was "by His Excellency's direction omitted in the list made out "by the Inspector, it still belongs to those His Excellency "so strongly disapproved, that, nevertheless, His Excellency "should almost immediately after his return, viz. 15 January "1822, have added another valuable portion to this very "grant, to the extent of 178 morgen, (356 acres,) at only "five rix dollars per annum, notwithstanding that the removing "of the seat of local magistracy to Graham's Town, and the "consequent extension of that town, then already in contem"plation, had rendered the reserving of that land the more "essential; yet this additional grant was made by His Excel"lency, and that, too, without suffering it to pass 'through the regulated ordeal,' the omission of which he so much repro"bated in Sir Rufane's grants.

"Whatever His Excellency's motive may have been for not "sending home the original general returns, the Inspector can"not presume to investigate. His Excellency says in his note of 28th February 1822, that it was in order not to give my Lord

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"Bathurst the trouble of picking out those grants to which " he wished to draw his Lordship's attention, from among those "that had gone through the regular forms; but from this "trouble his Lordship would have been equally freed by the " remarks His Excellency intended to write opposite to particular ❝ numbers, which of course would have attracted his Lordship's "notice distinct from the others, and the whole would then have « been a regular and complete document; whereas now, it remains "to be explained why such or such grants were omitted, while "such or such others, under corresponding circumstances, were "added, and so vice versa, which gives to these lists as sent "home, the character of a partial statement, instead of a regular official document, and being thus irregular throughout, yet being known to have been prepared at the Inspector's Office, "the Inspector, as stated before, feels it due to himself to dis"avow any participation in the said irregularities; which as they "must unquestionably have been pointed out by Sir Rufane * himself, would consequently, unless so disavowed, be im"puted to the Inspector, either through neglect or otherwise. "C. D."

But to resume. No sooner had I got rid of these 112 interrogatories, than I was pursued to Rome with more correspondence about the Cape.

* I never took the trouble of doing this-I met the 112 accusations at once in the face, and gave in my justification of the principles on which I had acted. There is not one of those grants which I would not make over again, on principle, save and except only the grant to Major Henry Somerset, who, as Deputy Landdrost of Albany, in reporting it officially to me, made such a Report as misled me, and induced me to make a grant to him, which I have admitted to have been improper and unjustifiable. Yet this is the very grant which Lord C. Somerset thinks proper to leave out of a paper meant to enlighten the Secretary of State on the nefarious practices of my corrupt administration. R. S. D.

The inquisition was resumed on my return to England, Lord Charles Somerset still instigating it from the Colony. Your Lordship's Under Secretaries have been absolutely fatigued, and no doubt surfeited, by the immense correspondence they have in succession carried on with me, up to Saturday night last inclusive, when I received a letter from Mr. Hay, desiring an answer to a question, which I had answered in full above three years before to Mr. Wilmot Horton. This letter of Mr. Hay's was precisely the last atom, which, by its addition, rendered the load insupportable any longer, and which determined me to throw it off. But is it to be wondered at that my patience is at length exhausted? Is it to be wondered at, or can your Lordship be surprised, or displeased, at my being roused at last, after five years' forbearance, to do myself justice, and in this public manner, to bring to issue the plain and simple question, whether your Lordship was right or wrong in the first opinion you were pleased to form of my services? and whether or no the tone of your correspondence, and your late refusal to see me, coupled with many other circumstances, are to be taken as proofs that Lord Charles Somerset has satisfied your Lordship not only that my principles of Government were wrong, but that all he has done, and undone, is right?

To an award on this point I look as an act of justice, and to this award, if I do not obtain it sooner, I shall call the attention of the House