PRESS

against the

REGULATIONS.

CALCUTTA:
1823.

MEMORIAL TO THE SUPREME COURT.*

To the Honourable Sir Francis Magnaghten,

Sole Acting Judge of the Supreme Court of
Judicature at Fort William in Bengal.
My Lord,

In consequence of the late Rule and Ordinance passed
by His Excellency the Governor General in Council,
regarding the Publication of Periodical Works, your
Memorialists consider themselves called upon with due
submission, to represent to you their feelings and senti-
ments on the subject.

* In 1823 Mr. Buckingham, the proprietor of a newspaper
named the Calcutta Journal published at Calcutta, having incur-
red the displeasure of the Government of Mr. Adam, the then
(Officiating) Governor General, was ordered to leave the country,,
and soon afterwards a Rule and Ordinance was passed on the
14th of March 1823, curtailing the freedom of the press. Accord-
ing to the Act of Parliament, 13 Geo. III. Cap. 63, every
regulation made by the Governor General then required to be
sanctioned and registered by the Supreme Court before it passed
into law, (a provision since repealed by Sec. 45 of 3 and 4 Wm.
IV. Cap. 85.) Leave was obtained by Mr. Furgusson, Barrister -
at-law, on behalf of Mr. Buckingham for protesting against
sanction being accorded to the Regulation by the Supreme
Court. The matter was heard by Sir Francis Macnaghten. It
was for this occasion that this memorial was drawn up and was
read before the Court by the Registrar on the 31st of March
1823. The Supreme Court having, however, registered the
regulation, a petition to King Geerge IV. was drawn up by Ram
Mohun Roy, signed by many respectable men and sent to*
England. The petition follows this memorial.—Ed.