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I have the honour to remind H. E. of my appeal to the Secretary of State, and of his own repeated absolutions of Mr. Caldwell, against which I have presented that appeal.
I do this the rather, because I perceive that, at least two of the "charges" or "accusations" which are contained in H. E.'s "list,"—I mean Nos. 15 and 16—were stated to Lord Stanley and to none else, in my letter of the 17th instant, and no where else, and merely by way of support to the charge which I did make and prove, but which H. E. overruled, that of being concerned in the brothel, No. 48, or the management thereof.
Not willing to obstruct any enquiry which H.E, may be now advised to make into the subject-matter of my appeal, I must respect fully decline to accept any share in the responsibility, attaching to the examination of a document, not yet referred back, for that purpose, by the minister to whom alone it was directed.
Not desiring, in the least, to shelter myself from whatever interrogatories I may be asked to underly, or to withhold whatever help I may be asked to afford, I must not vitiate or waive my appeal to the Imperial Government.
Therefore, not inhibiting the course, now at the twelfth hour taken, I must not sanction it, ready to be a witness, I deny that I am any longer an accuser, altogether eschewing the function of prosecutor before a Tribunal, now, as H. E. informs me, on the point of being named by him, to investigate a case which, I am aware, has been already judged by H. E. himself—I shall, nevertheless, cheerfully furnish the members of the Commission collectively, or individually, with whatsoever assistance they may think me capable of rendering, in the course of their enquiry.
I cannot close this protestation, without including my grave objections to the way in which the "List" has been prepared; both with respect to what it omits and to what it contains.
I. To what it omits—Because it does not contain the least reference to some of the stronger facts: e. g., the "accusations" (for H. E. holds these and "informations" to be synonymous) brought by Mr. Cleverly and Mr. Forth, on the authortty of the Land Office and Treasury books, and by Mr. Gilmour, the Treasury Clerk, on his own authority, corroborated at the last moment by the confession of Mr. Caldwell; and importing against the latter, not only the guilt charged in No. 17 of the "List," and others of its "charges," but also that of a twice-repeated falsehood told in defence, and to which I presume