24 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
town and island of Bombay and the limits thereof, and the factories subordinate thereto, and all the territories which then were or thereafter might be, subject to or dependent upon the said Government.
And that the said Sir R. Rice, Knight, resigned the off ice of senior puisne Justice of the said Supreme Court of Judicature at Bombay, in November 1827, when the said Sir C. H. Chambers became senior puisne Justice thereof; and the said Sir R. Rice having resigned his office, the petitioner was by letters patent of the 30th of August 1827, appointed one of the puisne Justices of the said Supreme Court in his room; and that he took his seat as such at Bombay, on the
9th day of February 1828.
And that the said Chief Justice Sir Edward West departed his life on the 18th of August 1828; and that on the 3rd day of October in that year a letter was addressed :
“ To Sir C. H. Chambers, and the petitioner, as puisne Justices of the Supreme Court of Judicature, dated Bombay Castle, 3rd October 1828, and signed, by John Malcolm, the Governor; T. Bradford, LieutenantGeneral, Commander of the Forces; J. J. Sparrow, and John Romer, the Second and Third Members of the Council.”
Which letter was of the following tenor :
Honourable Sirs :
“We are quite aware that we transgress upon ordinary forms in addressing this letter to you; but the circumstances under which we are placed will, we trust, justify this departure from usage, and our knowledge of your private and public characters leads us to hope, that what we state will be received in that spirit, in which it is written; and that, notwithstanding your strict obligations to fulfil every part of your high and sacred duty as British Judges, you will, on this extraordinary occasion, deem yourselves at liberty to consider as much the objects, as the rules of the Court over which you preside; and viewing the intention of the Legislature in its institution, as directed to the aid and support of the Government instructed with the administration of this Presidency, you will, for a short period, be induced by our representations to abstain from