Erith, James Thomas

Governor of the Cape of Good Hope 7+c 7+c 7+c /
May it please your Excellency /
On April the 21\st/ 1823 I addres+sed your /
Excellency by Memorial and therein prayed you would be pleased to /
* Mr * and M\r/ Onkrught to surrender their accounts. But /
four Posts having now alapsed with out any answer from your Excellency /
I cannot account for the delay in any other way then the applications /
must have sliped your memory thro the Multiplicity of Busines+s /
which must ingros+s your Excellencys attention _ But hope you will take /
it into your Most serious Consideration as the number of applications I have /
made for the adjustment of those two cases makes it appear very /
Singular that I cannot obtain an answer _ /
I have now to lay before your Excellency a Circumstance /
which I pray you will be pleased to overrule that I may obtain that /
justice which I have no Doubt I shall do when I am permited to lay my /
Grievances in Person at your Excellencys Feet /
Understanding Your Excellency had been pleased /
to send me up a Colonial Pas+ _ on the 18th of March Last I aplied /
to the Landdrost when I received a reply as follows /
Copy /
Grahams Town /
18th March 1823 /
M\r/ J. T. Erith /
His Excellency the Governor has been /
pleased to grant you a Colonial Pass, which you can /
obtain at my Office, on producing the usual certificates from /
Vandue Masters and the Agent of the Sequestrator /
that their are not any claims against you /
I am your ob\t/ Serv\t/ /
Harry Rivers /
Landdrost /
After some weeks delays and I had been put /
to great Expense _ I at last got the sequestrators Certificate (for /
the Vandue Masters I had had some considerable time) and produced /
them to the Landdrost _ When to my great surprise he refused /
Giving it _ on pretence that the District Clerk had claims against /
me for Expenses in cases in which I had been casted at the Court /
of Circuit_ /
I beg leave to appriz+e your Excellency that thro /
the Mistakes and Errors of those in office the [very cases] that the District /
Clerk is now making his Charges for _ was never investigated into by /
the Judges _ therefore how he can demand fees for such manner of pro=ceedings /
is quite Uninteligable _ Independant of which the Bills sent /
in have neither Dates nor Days _ Months _ or Year _ nor can I get /
>
the Information Officially altho I have Writen for it several times /
It seems therefore the Predetermination of those in Office /
to draw such a Phalant round your Memorialist that without your /
Excellency commands it to be sundered _ it will be Impossiable for him to /
keep the Colonial Laws Inviolate (which he has never yet broken) and /
submit to the present purposely Procrastinating System _ at the /
same time the ruin that is attending his Family which such a Scene of /
Oppression and Cruelty is resorted to by such Subterfugs _ Is Incalculate /
for the present moment Property of mine has been seiz+ed (ever since last /
February) and part left unsold _ and I cannot get any account of it _ /
I will be needles+s for me to Intrude on your /
Excellencys time by recapitulating to you all the serious Complaints I have /
frayed for an Investigation into _ The numeorus requests I have made /
for the Ballance of my Deposit _ The repeated Prayers for a Pas+s and the /
Charges I have prefered respecting the Injuries I have sustained _ will all /
be found in my former Memorials _ I have even called for Punishment if I /
merited it _ But not to be made a private Sacrafice of _ Unheard _ and /
now that your Excellency has been pleased to send up a Pas+s _ the Land=drost /
is resorting to such steps merely to keep me on the Frontiers that the /
late transaction may be buried in Oblivion _ Thus time Elapses _ Busines+s /
is Procrastinated _ and the result is My Family is Ruined _ /
While such a system is carried on against your Memorialist /
it proves how far a Magistrate can go to retard Justice _ for I must * /
and the late transaction will I am sure bear me out in my opinion _ that /
Life is its self is not safe in a District where a Landdrost can as+sume /
Such Authority as to order My House and Property to be Burnt _ /
And as your Excellency alone has the power /
to break all such Combinations in the High and Exalted Station you hold /
I earnestly pray you will be pleased to order my Colonial Pas+s to be Deli=vered /
up to me _ and that no Impediment is to be put in my way to pre=vent /
my leaving the Frontiers _ as I am ready to Defend all points they can /
bring against me _ Even _ when I arrive at Cape Town _ not wishing to /
shrink from any just Accusation they can bring forward _ If properly /
met and allowed to be replied to _ /
And your Memorialist wil Ever pray /
James Thomas Erith /
Grahams Town /
2\nd/ of June 1823 /