HC Deb 19 May 1865 vol 179 cc561-2
MR. VANSITTART

said, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, Whether his attention has been drawn to the Memorial of Mr. Buckle, relating to his arbitrary dismissal from the office of Civil and Sessions Judge of Moorshedabad by Mr. Beadon, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, contrary to the protests of the Judges of the High Court of Judicature, Calcutta; if so, what steps he has taken on the subject?

SIR CHARLES WOOD

, in reply, said, he did not think the terms of the question conveyed an accurate notion of the facts of the case. Mr. Buckle, who had been employed in the Opium Department, had been appointed a Judge according to the old practice of providing in some way or another for members of the Civil Service, and in dealing with causes without a jury he gave satisfaction. He was subsequently removed to a Court where he sat with a jury, and the High Court at Calcutta made representations to the effect that he did not satisfactorily conduct trials with juries; in fact, that he was not competent to sum up evidence. Upon that representation Mr. Buckle had been removed from his post and from all judicial employment, but he (Sir Charles Wood), believing that the reasons for removing that gentleman from all public employment were insufficient, had requested the Lieutenant Governor to give him some other employment for which he was qualified.