§ SIR W. WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that Mr. C. A. Radice, promoted in The Calcutta Gazette, of 10th April last, to act as District Magistrate and Collector of Mymensingh, was, under orders of Sir Antony MacDonuell, acting Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, on the 24th of August last, condemned to forfeit his grade of acting joint Magistrate, and for 6 a year to receive no promotion, permanent or temporary; whether he is aware that in those orders it was stated that Mr. Radice not only acted in defiance of the law, but also in a manner calculated to inflict gross and unmerited indignity upon a respectable Brahmin landholder; that his proceedings showed a vindictive attitude; and that his conduct was absolutely indefensible, and constituted a very flagrant abuse of power; and whether, if the answer is in the affirmative, he will state upon what grounds the punishment awarded to Mr. Radice has been remitted by Sir Charles Elliott, and Mr. Radice promoted to a position of independent authority?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.I believe that the facts are substantially as stated in the first two paragraphs of my hon. Friend's question. In reply to my telegram, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal reports that the appointment of Mr. Radice was to fill a temporary vacancy occasioned by the ill-health of a collector whom it was necessary to remove at once. He was on the spot, and no officer could have been sent from a distance without inconvenience.