Erith, James Thomas

Governor of the Cape of Good Hope &c &c &c
May it please your Excellency
On April the 21 1823 I addressed your
Excellency by Memorial and therein prayed you would be pleased to
Mr and Mr 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 Business
which must ingross 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 Paz _ on the 18th of March Last I aplied
to the Landdrost when I received a reply as follows
Copy
Grahams Town
18th March 1823
Mr 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 obt Servt
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 apprize 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 proceedings
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 seized (ever since last
February) and part left unsold _ and I cannot get any account of it _
I will be needless 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 Pass 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 Pass _ the Landdrost
is resorting to such steps merely to keep me on the Frontiers that the
late transaction may be buried in Oblivion _ Thus time Elapses _ Business
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 assume
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 Pass to be Delivered
up to me _ and that no Impediment is to be put in my way to prevent
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 of June 1823