of the assault, but which was of such a nature that his previous confinement was deemed a sufficient punishment.

7. The King against two slaves, Hector Munro and L'Amour Roche, belonging to Belle Vue estate, for refusing to obey their master's orders, and resisting him and the overseer, and for seducing the other slaves to the same disobedience; and also for improper and insolent conduct towards the commandant of the district. The slaves on Belle Vue estate had usually had Friday given to them (out of crop, we presume,) for their own provision grounds. As a punishment for some laxity of discipline (not turning out in the morning earlier than half-past six), the owner instructed the overseer to inform them, on Thursday evening, that the next day (Friday) would not be allowed them as usual. Only a few of the Negroes, however, came to work. The owner, Mr. Byam Redhead, sent the driver to inquire the cause and to summon them to work. They refused, saying they were entitled to that day. Mr. Redhead complained to Mr. Armstrong, the commandant. The commandant came upon the estate and called the Negroes together, and, being unable to discover the ring-leader, selected Hector for punishment. Hector said he would not submit to be punished. The commandant then ordered the driver to seize him. Upon this all the Negroes, among whom was L'Amour, began to run, looking over their shoulders and brandishing their cutlasses, (a fact, however, which was contradicted by most of the witnesses,) saying they were men, and would defend themselves. The women also behaved riotously, and ran off in another direction. The prisoners were found guilty, and were sentenced-Hector to eighty and L'Amour to one hundred stripes, under the superintendance of the commandant, and in the presence of a medical man.

8. The King against Jean Griffis, a slave, for the wilful murder of another slave; for assaulting and striking a watchman; and for stealing two bunches of plantains. He was found guilty of the murder and condemned to be hung. The Protector appealed to the Governor and Council, who confirmed the sentence. The prisoner suffered death accordingly.

9. The King against Anaclato Hospidales, a slave, for an

assault on the manager of the estate on which he was a slave; and for assaulting and wounding two other persons of free condition. The manager and the slave had been dining and drinking rum together, and were both drunk. The outrage was clearly owing to this circumstance. The prisoner was found guilty and condemned to receive fifty lashes, which ought rather to have been inflicted on the manager.

10. The King against William Dallaway a slave, for being a notorious thief and vagabond, and for stealing a trunk of clothing of the value of fifty dollars. He was found guilty, and sentenced to receive eighty lashes with a cat o' nine tails in the public market-place.

11. The King against Zaire Lingere a female slave, for running away for nearly two years from her mistress's service, and embezzling her property, to the amount of 1207. Zaire had been employed by her mistress, Madame Victoire Bernard, to sell goods for her, and had always conducted herself well, and made faithful returns of her transactions. She had been entrusted with goods to sell to the value of 500 dollars, and had paid about 400 dollars of the amount; but had absented herself since December 1822, with the remainder. It was proved on the part of the prisoner, that a free person, named Cæsar Mandingo, had taken from her, on credit, goods to the amount of 100 dollars, which he had not paid. She told him she would not quit his house till he had paid her. When, after some time, she returned to her own house, she found she had been robbed of the goods she had left there, and being afraid to return to her mistress had gone back to the house of Cæsar Mandingo, where she had been detained ever since. She was found not guilty, and discharged.

We have been more particular in recording the above eleven cases, making the whole of the criminal prosecutions, in which slaves were in any way concerned, occurring in six months, among a population consisting of upwards of 40,000 persons of all classes, 22,000 of which are slaves; because it has been asserted by the Trinidadians not only that the Order in Council would demoralize the slaves, and be productive of a multiplication of crime, but that, during the

૨

time it had been in operation, their anticipations had been more than verified. How little foundation there is for such an assertion, the preceding authentic details will testify. In the only two cases which can be referred to the head of insubordination to authority on the part of the slaves, the persons in authority were themselves evidently and chiefly in fault. In one case a man deprives his slaves of the day that had been usually appropriated to their own provision grounds, expecting them nevertheless to feed themselves. In the other, the manager sits down in the house of the slave, and gets drunk with rum belonging to the slave, and then prosecutes the slave for having, when in a state of intoxication, induced by his own encouragement and example, committed an assault upon him. Nobody will deny that under these circumstances the criminals were punished with sufficient severity. The manager's pot-companion is visited with fifty lashes of the cart-whip; and the two assertors of their rights are condemned, one to 80, and the other, to 100 lashes.

II. The number of slaves manumitted by private contract from the 24th June to the 24th December 1824, amounted to sixtyfive, besides twenty-four manumitted before the Chief Justice, and eleven more whose cases were undecided, making in the whole one hundred. Of the eighty-nine actually liberated, twenty received their freedom without any valuable consideration, and sixty-nine purchased their freedom, the whole sum paid by them amounting to 10,2067. 18s. being on an average 1477. 18s. currency for each slave, or about 651. sterling.

Ten cases occur of slaves applying for their liberty, but who, on being appraised, found the appraisement to exceed their previous expectations, and the funds they had accumulated therefore to be inadequate to their redemption.

III. Four actions had been brought by the Protector, for debts owing to slaves by free persons, and judgment was given in all of them for the plaintiff. The amount of these four claims was about 4107. currency.

IV. The Returns of punishments for three months only,

from 24th June to 24th September, are curious and most important. No fewer than 446 proprietors make a return of no punishment exceeding three lashes having been inflicted on their slaves during these three months. These 446 proprietors are possessors of slaves varying in number from 1 to 121, and, in the whole, of 5915 slaves, being upwards of a fourth of the whole slave population of the colony.

Returns of the punishments on 189 estates are given. They amount to about 1230 in three months, and include all inflictions above three lashes to the men, as well as those to which the women were subjected. One, two, or three lashes however, frequently repeated in the course of the day, might of course add largely to the sum of punishments, and there is nothing in the law to prevent the frequent repetition of these minor inflictions.-The number of women who are punished with confinement in the stocks for different periods of time appears to exceed the number of men who receive punishment by confinement and flogging. The largest classes of offences consist of noise, and neglect of work; insolence and disobedience; not finishing tasks; and being from half an hour to an hour too late in the morning; likewise the getting drunk; false pretence of sickness ; quarrelling, &c. Not cultivating their gardens, is also a frequent source of punishment. Another is the failing to bring the required portion of grass for the cattle; a work, be it remembered, which is quite an extra work, after the prescribed term of labour in the field is over; and which, though a severe aggravation of the slave's toil, is never mentioned, except incidentally, by the West-Indians. Absence from prayers is also punished on some estates with the whip or the stocks. We proceed to make a few extracts from this record, merely as a specimen of its general tenor.

1. Jean Philip of Le Vivier-" for being absent from his garden on the Saturday afternoon, and not appearing at grass with the rest of the people, nor at prayers on the Sunday evening; also for refusing to turn out on Monday morning to his work, alleging he was sick; the doctor having visited him did not think proper to give him any medicine, but ordered

him for duty the following morning*”—punished by the manager with confinement for thirteen hours of the night in the bed-stocks, and eighteen lashes.

2. Grenville of Bon Air, "for striking and ill-using his wife," punished by the manager with twenty stripes.

3. May of Bon Air, "for being three mornings behind the others in going to work," punished by the manager with ten stripes.

4. Margaret Jones of Dinsley, "for bringing a small bundle of grass, and impudence when reprimanded,” confined in the bed-stocks one night.

5. Paterson of Garden Estate, "for telling a lie on the overseer," put in the stocks; but on the next day he was taken out, the lie not being proved; but afterwards put in again, being found guilty of the charge, and punished with twenty lashes. 6. Jack of Golden Grove, for bringing false charges against the manager," punished by the commandant with twenty-four lashes.

7. Jack Abole of Orange Grove, "for making a false complaint to the commandant," punished by the commandant at his own works with twenty-two lashes.

8. Gatto Campbell of Carapichaima Hall—“ for doing bad work in the field, and answering the owner when found fault with, that it was well done: he returned only after being ordered twice, and with great reluctance and murmuring, to mend his work"-twelve lashes.

9. Martilla of Mount Pleasant, "for turning out late," in the stocks one night.

10. Frankey of ditto, "for going off the estate without a 'pass," confined two nights.

11. Paul Collins of Vineyard, "for disobedience of orders, and not bringing grass," punished with twelve stripes. 12. Peter Delezée of ditto, " for dancing to the drum after the hour appointed by Government," twenty-five stripes.

13. Mary Anne Babrick of ditto, "lost twenty-five minutes' work," and was imprisoned in the feet-stocks one of the hours of noon of the same day.

* If the doctor gave him a day's respite from labour, it was a proof that his indisposition was not altogether feigned.