Report from Select Committee on the Suppression of the Calcutta Journal; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendix.

COMPANY RULE.

Published by London: Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 1834

About this Item

First edition, in the original wrappers, of this report censuring the East India Company for its treatment of James Silk Buckingham, the radical editor of the Calcutta Journal, India's first daily newspaper. Buckingham's newssheet staunchly criticized corruption and injustices perpetrated by company representatives, leading to his expulsion from India in 1823. Buckingham (1786-1855) spent much of his early life as a merchant sailor. Between 1813 and 1814, he travelled in Egypt, meeting Muhammad Ali Pasha, who despatched him to Bombay to develop trade with India. Buoyed by Lord Hastings's relaxation of censorship in 1818, Buckingham turned his newly founded newspaper into a leading dissenting voice and ignored numerous warnings from the chief secretary to the government. Seeing his expulsion by John Adam, the acting governor-general, as a test case for press freedom, "Buckingham campaigned for financial compensation for many years and redress was recommended by a select committee of the House of Commons in August 1834; but it was not until long afterwards that the East India Company conceded the injustice of the suppression by granting him a pension of £200 a year" (ODNB). This document records evidence taken from Buckingham and others in 1826 and 1834. Although the committee stopped short of condemning the company's motives, it founded the measures taken "penal to a degree which could not have been contemplated at the time of their adoption" (p. iii). Quarto. Tables in text, some text printed in red. Original blue wrappers, spine and covers printed in black, edges untrimmed. Losses at spine ends, old marking to front cover: a very good, sturdy copy.

Seller Inventory # 184988

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Report from Select Committee on the Suppression of the Calcutta Journal; with Minutes of Evidence and Appendix.
• Publisher: London: Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 1834
• Edition: 1st Edition