Wood to Newcastle

I beg to apply to your Grace for the appointment of Judge to the
Colony of Vancouver Island, now shortly to be vacant on the
retirement of his Honor Mr Cameron the present Chief Justice. I
have had the honor to furnish to the Colonial Office testimonials in
my favor on the occasion of my applying for a judgeship at Port Natal
in the summer of 1861 an appointment then erroneously supposed to be
vacant copies of which I understand to have been taken, & to which I
beg now to refer.

I have practised my profession in this Colony for more than a year,
and I believe I may challenge any enquiries you may be pleased to
make that I have conducted myself with ability, & shewn myself
possessed of professional knowledge fully adequate to the
administration of Justice here or elsewhere in her Majesty's
Colonies—and thus I have maintained to the utmost of my power the
character & honor of my profession. I left England to practice in
the Colonies fully relying on what I understood to be the practice of
the Colonial Office not to make appointments of Judges at home,
unless convinced from the advice of the Governor of a Colony, that
there was no one in that Colony qualified to occupy the position of
Judge.

I am aware that there is a resolution of the House of Assembly of
this Colony to the effect that a retiring pension to the present
Chief Justice of this Colony would not be given unless his successor
be appointed from home thereby implying that in their judgment for
some reason or another, no barrister in this Colony is eligible for
the honor. I believe I am entirely justified in saying that this
resolution of the House of Assembly was not founded in any conviction
of my own personal unfitness for the office, but upon a conviction of
what was supposed to be advisable for the general interests of the
Colony.

I need hardly say that on general grounds, the passing over barristers
of conduct and character without grave grounds of disqualification
acts as a direct injury to the Colony, in depriving it of the
adherence of an honorable & efficient bar, & tends to lower & degrade
the tone of the profession, and I think your Grace will be convinced
that there is no state of circumstances obtaining in this Colony,
which should prevent a man of firmness & integrity, apart from
questions of personal qualification, from doing his duty as a judge.

I respectfully ask your Grace not lightly to consider the privilege
of the Crown in appointing Judges in accordance with sound and
established Colonial principle & practice, and I further entreat your
Grace not to expose those now practicing at the bar of this Colony,
to the humiliation which each and all of us must feel at the entire
bar being passed over as unfit for the bench. A slur which must
pursue us in whatever Colony or place we may hereafter practice our
profession.