a complete remedy for that illegal occupation of lands which is intended to be provided against. The ejectment of the negro labourer from those grounds which he had occupied upon giving him three months previous notice, is effectually se cured by the existing laws. My Lords, the Attorney and Solicitor-General of this country, in their printed opinion, properly referred to those laws as they unquestionably are in force, and as furnishing a suitable remedy. But with respect to the illegal occupation of other lands, the provisions which are contained in this order in council betray an extraordinary degree of ignorance of the actual condition of those lands. My Lords, those lands have been granted to individuals by patent, and consist of wood and are uncultivated. Their boundaries have either not been run, or, if run, not perfectly distinguished or frequently disputed. Under the provisions of this act a stipendary magistrate would be invested with a jurisdiction to try some of the most difficult and complicated questions, namely, those which involve disputed boundaries, upon which the negroes might have made a settlement. My Lords, I defy this law to effect the purpose which is contemplated, or to effect it without doing manifest injustice to the person who may be the lawful owner of those lands, or entitled to them as being included within the callings of his patent. His title may be good, but he cannot sustain that title against a possession which may have been acquired without his knowledge, for that possession would completely protect him from being dispos sessed under this law. My Lords, in concluding my observations on the first clause, I beg to state, that in addition to the objection which I have urged against the principle of that clause, there are these objections arising from the character of the subjects upon which the Assembly are to legislate under this restriction which justify me in expressing to your Lordships my firm persuasion-my candid conviction, that the Assembly will not, and, I take leave to say, ought not, to resume the exercise of their legislative functions, if that clause remain in the Bill. My Lords, I have now arrived at the second clause of the Bill, which invests the Governor with the power of re-enacting certain temporary laws which expired last year. They are of two descriptions. I have stated to your Lordships, that there are seven of those laws by which taxes are imposed, and the proceeds of those taxes appropriated. Now, my first proposition, which I state as the correct result of a careful perusal of those temporary tax acts is, that although these acts are expired, yet, that under other acts which are in force, a revenue is raised, more than sufficient to meet the ordinary exigencies of the civil government of the Colony. Your Lordships, therefore, are not called upon to revive those tax-acts from any necessity of furnishing a revenue before a certain period. Indeed, I do not suppose that this necessity will be alleged on the part of the Government -I know, that not many weeks since, the Secretary of State for the Colonies did not believe that such necessity existed. Indeed, it cannot be urged, consistently with the actual state of the revenue laws of Jamaica, My Lords, I am exceedingly desirous that your Lordships should be fully in possession of the character of these acts, and of the revenue which is at the disposal of the Government; ; I therefore entreat your Lordships' attention to them. The first is an Act imposing a duty on tonnage, and for regulating how the duty payable on gunpowder is to be received. Now it may be supposed, in the Colonial Office, that this is the tonnage duty which produces 25,000l. per annum. It is not so; but it is a duty which is paid upon each vessel entering and clearing the island, as a substitute for a certain quantity of gunpowder which, under the revenue act of 1st George the 2nd, chapter 1, every ship was obliged to deliver in kind. This tonnage duty produced about 2,700l. Now, what is the effect of this law having expired? Why, instead of this duty being paid in money, under this Tonnage Act, it would be paid by the delivery in kind of the gunpowder, under the permanent Revenue Act of 1st George the Second, and the consequence is, that a person who is bound to pay it in kind will prefer paying the duty in money. So that, in truth, that branch of the revenue is still existing, only in a different name, and under a different law. My Lords, the next Acts are, the 1st Victoria, c. 8, for laying an additional duty on all wines, brandy, rum, &c., the 1st of Victoria, chapter 11, for laying a duty on goods, wares, and merchandize, not being the growth, production, and manufacture of the United Kingdom. My Lords, the duties imposed by these two expired Acts, also exist under laws which are still in 45,000l. still raiseable under existing laws. force, as, for instance, part of those duties are imposed and levyable under that permanent Revenue Act, to which I before called your Lordships' attention, passed in 1728, 1st George the 2nd, chapter 1. The rest of the duties are, when no Colonial Act is in force, levied under an Act of the Imperial Parliament, passed in the 3rd and 4th of the late King, chapter 59. The duties levied under that statute of the Imperial Parliament, being payable to the receivergeneral, are applicable under the general laws which are still in force, and which appoint and provide the salaries of the servants of the Government, namely, the Governor and judges, the clergy and others. My Lords, the next Acts are those of the 1st of Victoria, chapter 12 and chapter 19, for laying a duty on all horned cattle, and on horses. Now, the duty which is raised on the former of these Acts, is about 1841. The duties are imposed by these Acts, not for the purpose of raising a revenue, but to operate as a prohibition upon the importation of cattle into the Colony, to the prejudice of those who breed cattle there. Now, when your Lordships have a petition from any of the proprietors of Jamaica, who are suffering from the nonexistence of these Acts, it will be time enough to talk of their expiration as a grievance, and call upon Parliament to interpose for its redress. My Lords, the amount raised under the Land Tax Act is about 23,000l., but your Lordships should be aware, that the money which is raised under the expired Act of 1837, did not become payable till after the 15th of September, 1838; consequently, the proceeds of that tax were applicable to the expenses of the yearin which wenoware. The same observation applies to the Act for levying a tax upon live stock, and upon trade. These seem to be the only two sources of revenue which are raised alone under expired Acts. All the other sources of revenue are raised at this moment under Acts in existence, namely, the Permanent Revenue Act, and the Act of the Imperial Parliament. To that I add the surplus of appropriated revenue. To make that intelligible to your Lordships, you should be aware that the amount raised under the Permanent Revenue Act, specifically appropriated, is 10,000l. per annum, that is, 8,000l. under the 1st Geo. 2, c. 1, and a further sum of 2,000l., under a subsequent Act, but the amount of the duties, which were intended to raise that sum, produce a great deal more than 10,000l. The excess produced beyond what is appropriated by the Permanent Act, is 18,000l. This sum is applicable to the other public services of the island. You have, then, 63,2141. My Lords, there is an Act passed last year, imposing a further duty on exports and imports. That Act produces 60,000l. That Act does not expire till the 31st December next. You have, then, 123,214l.; but I have a right to take the 10,000l. of the permanent revenue, because that contributes 2,500l. towards the Governor's salary, and it also contributes a sum towards the Forts and Fortifications. I have, therefore, to add the additional duties which are raised under the British Act, which amount to 60,000l., and I have also to add those different duties, which I mentioned just now, amounting to 72,000l., which would bring an amount of actual revenue at the disposal of the Government, applicable to the payment of the Governor, judges, clergy, and all public officers of between 200,000l. and 300,0001. My Lords, there is no pretext, therefore, for saying, that the immediate want of revenue requires the re-enactment of the temporary Money Acts, because there exists, without these expired Acts, a revenue adequate to the purposes of defraying the expences of the civil Government. There may be individual creditors, whose demands are unpaid, but the faith of the Assembly is pledged to their payment by that resolution, in which they contemplate them, as well as all civil servants, and those persons rely upon the performance of that pledge by the Assembly. They are not the persons asking your Lordships to destroy, or suspend, or impair the functions, or discredit the character of the Assembly. They regard that body, as representing them, and as their sure protection and safeguard. My Lords, you do not want this Bill; you need not violate the consti Now, my Lords, this result is plain, from the state of the Revenue Acts. The tonnage duty does not expire till 1843. Under that Act, the sum of 25,000l. is raised. Another source of revenue is the Stamp Act, under which the sum of 20,000l. is raised. That Act does tution of Jamaica for the purpose of raising not expire till the 31st December, 1839. a revenue to answer the immediate purMy Lords, I have just now mentioned | poses of Government. Then, my Lords, with respect to the other Acts, which are not Acts imposing duties, I take leave to assert, that there is no one of those expired Acts of such nature as to create a necessity for its revival by the Governor in Council. There is not one of those Acts, in respect of which the public can sustain any injury whatever, whether it be revived in the next six months, or in the next twelve months. The first of these expired Acts is the Act for establishing the rules and articles of war. In the first place, that Act is never in force, by an expresss enactment which it contains, except in martial law. Martial law can be proclaimed only by the Governor. The rules and articles of war apply only to the militia, and the militia cannot be called out without the authority of the Governor, and the Government considers the militia not a proper force to retain. Therefore, they cannot complain of the non-existence of this law. commenced under the authority of a previous law, and the contract entered into would be still subsisting, and the contractor in executing those works could sustain no prejudice. The Commissioners of Forts and Fortifications are in the same situation as the Commissioners of the Board of Works. They are limited in their powers-they can advance no money which has not been previously sanctioned by the Assembly. My Lords, it has been said, that there was no person to superintend the public buildings. I answer, the Island Engineer and Surveyor of Public Works, still hold their offices and execute their duties, for they are not dependent upon these expired Acts. These pretexts are too puerile to deserve any serious notice. Is the Government prepared to show that any calamity has befallen any public building in Jamaica or that any injury has resulted or can result from these laws having ceased to be in operation since the 31st December last. My Lords, the next Acts are the Act appointing Commissioners to inspect the books of the Receiver-General, and to inspect the public accounts, and the Act appointing Commissioners to superintend public buildings in the Island, which are annual Acts, and the Act appointing Commissioners of Forts and Fortifications, which is a triennial Act. Now with respect to these three Acts, I believe no one who has the slightest acquaintance with Jamaica can gravely assert in this House or elsewhere that any injury would be sustained from those Acts continuing unre-quence of the expiration of the other Act, vived for eight months longer. For what to transmit to some public officer a list of are those Acts? Under the Act appointing Commissioners to inspect the books of the Receiver General, the only Commissioners are the members of the Assembly, but they have no power to raise money, and they have no power to apply money which has not been previously voted by the Assembly. The Board of Works and the Commissioners of Forts and Fortifications consist of the Governor, Council, and Assembly, but their powers are strictly confined to the application of money which has been previously voted by the Assembly. The Commissioners have no power whatever to apply one farthing or to contract any engagement which has not been previously sanctioned by the Assembly. My Lords, I have heard it said, that all public works were suspended in consequence of the Act having expired. This could not be. If the public works had been commenced, they must have been Then comes another Act-an Act in aid of the 5th of William the 4th relating to the registry of fire arms. There are two very strict coercive Acts still in force for the purpose of preventing the improper distribution and use of fire arms. The 6th of William the 4th, chapter 30, which continues in force till the 31st of December, 1840, is fully adequate to guard against every evil, although the clerk of the peace might not be obliged in conse those particular arms in his possession. My Lords, another expired Act, the Clergy Act, 6th of George the 4th, chapter 17, was first passsed for seven years, and has since been continued by Acts from year to year. That Clergy Act consolidated all the previous clergy laws and repealed them. This Act which has consolidated and repealed them having expired, the former laws revive, and under the former laws the Clergy, and Rectors, and Curates, receive the same stipends which they would receive under this consolidated Act, if it had not expired. The Bishop and Archdeacon are not dependent upon this Act for their salaries, because they are paid by the Treasury of this country. They hold both their appointments under their patent. So that, in fact, the Clergy as to their stipends and duties are precisely in the same situation as if this law had not been passed, and they were receiv. ing their stipends under the old law. The) the Court itself, even if there were no Act is no inducement to send a debtor to prison, nor is there any inducement for a debtor to enter a prison for the purpose of fraudulently taking the benefit of the Insolvent expiration of this Act has not produced, nor could it produce, any inconvenience to either of these persons. There is no one provision in that Act in relation to the execution of process issuing from the Court of the Bishop which could not, if required, be enforced by the authority of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the Island. The next Act which expires is, the Petty Debt Act. It is a law of rather modern date. It was passed in the year 1834. It gave to two Magistrates cognizance of debts to the amount of 51., which was subsequently increased to 10/. But do your Lordships suppose, that there is no jurisdiction in Jamaica which can take cognizance of debts of a small amount, and that creditors for those sums are obliged to go into the Supreme and Assize Courts? In the first place, to the extent of 40s. a single Magistrate has authority; and in every parish in the Island, except the precinct of St. Catherine, where the Supreme Court is held, there are Courts of Common Pleas which have cognizance of debts to the amount of 20l. So that there is not a failure of the ordinary jurisdiction to which suitors might resort for the recovery of small debts, as it would seem, was supposed by those who put forward this law as one which it was of the greatest importance should be re-enacted. My Lords, I come now to the Process Law, and I was very much surprised to hear it said by persons who ought to know better, that in consequence of the expiration of this law, there can be no Court sitting no juries convened-and that, in short, the Courts will be shut up in Jamaica. My Lords, so far from that being the case, the Courts are continually sitting, and would continue to sit, even if this law was never re-enacted again. My Lords, what are the enactments of this law? There are some of them which if the Governor, with the advice of the Council, exercises the power of re-enacting them will present a strange appearance in these days, for there are many clauses which make provision for the manner in which slaves are to be sold by the Deputy Marshal. Of course those are inapplicable. He is not to revive those clauses, but what are the other provisions? My Lords, with respect to all the provisions of that Act, they partly relate to the regulations of the duties of the Provost Marshal, and his deputies, and the Clerk of the Crown, and others, all of which I take leave to say, whatever, could make for the regulation of those who are its own officers. It possesses authority independently of that Act. There is no authority given by that Act, which the Court might not exercise, if that Act be never re-enacted. My Lords, that law contains a provision as to the manner of obtaining the names of persons from whom the panels of juries should be formed. It provides, that the Clerk of the Peace of each parish shall transmit to the Provost Marshal before a certain day a list of the inhabitants of the parish in order that the latter may make out the panel. That list is to be made out after the 25th of March, and on or before the 20th of May. The panel is to serve for the three Assize Courts following, and that made under the expired Act has been in use for every Court that has been since held. Nay, further, if this law were never re-enacted, the Provost Marshal, independently of this Act and at common law would, under the authority of the Court, execute the venire. He must summon a jury by serving a notice on a sufficient number of persons to attend the Court. He must return persons qualified by law; of those persons he makes the panel under the inspection and control of the Court. If this process law were not revived for the next two years, he would look at the list which the Clerk of the Peace had transmitted already or he would, at his own expense, employ the Clerk of the Peace to make a list of the inhabitants qualified to serve on juries. The return which the Provost Marshal would make to the Court, and from whence the panel would be formed, would be of the same description and procured in the same way as at present, and theSupreme Court would, of its own authority, secure such a return as would answer the urgency of the venire, and at the same time not be burthensome to individuals. My Lords, the next is the Act for the relief of Insolvent Debtors. Under this Act, the debtor obtained his discharge only upon the condition not merely of being in prison, but of delivering up all his effects-the creditor has no motive for sending his debtor to gaol if he cannot obtain the distribution of his effects, but he has a motive for not sending him to gaol; because, if the debtor has no property, the creditor is subject to the bur den of supporting him in prison. There Debtors' Act. the enactment of those subjects of Legislation which are mentioned in the first clause of the Bill, I ought to have brought to your Lordships' attention the unparalleled injustice of the Government in resorting to that pretence, I ought to have reminded your Lordships, that this same Government had prohibited the Assembly from previously legislating on these subjects. Yes my Lords, under the recommendation of the Select Committee of the negro apprentice My Lords, the last of the expired Acts, the Police Act, which was introduced in 1834, and which expired on the 3rd of December last, as it is an annual Act; now, my Lords, I beg leave to say, if it is intended to be represented that the island is left without a constabulary force, that is not the fact. There is an Act, quite independent of the Police Act, (the 4th William 4th, cap. 59), which gives enlarged powers to the Justices of the Peace, to appoint the requisite constabulary force. I find that Lord John Russell, in his des patch of the 15th of February last, speaking of all the Acts that have expired on the 3rd of December, 1838, says:-" On looking them over, I find none, except the Police Act, the want of which may occasion immediate danger, and I trust that this will have been obviated by the means you propose to adopt for substituting a constabulary force on a small scale, in lieu of the former Police." House of Commons on const My Lords, we are now at the end of the month of June. We have heard ship in 1836, her Majesty's Government conveyed to the Governors of the Colonies, and through them to the Assemblies, their opinion, that on every account it was desirable, that legislation on all subjects affecting the future condition of the emancipated population after they had ceased to be apprentices, should be postponed as near as possible to the period of the termination of the apprenticeship. The Report of that Committee contains this strong language. "In conclusion your Committee would observe, that it appears to them to be most expedient, that such enactments as are intended to come into operation after 1840-" (that being the period fixed by statute for the termination of the apprenticeship), "should as much as pos of no tumult, we have heard of no violence |sible be delayed till that period shall arrive or insubordination which required this police establishment to suppress. Sir Lionel Smith himself suggested, and no doubt adopted his own suggestion of another and adequate civil force. It cannot therefore be represented to your Lordships, that the expiration of this law furnishes a ground upon which you could be justified in retaining this clause of the Bill. My Lords, I have now concluded my description of these temporary Acts-of which this Bill gives you no description, and conveys to you no information. I submit to your Lordships with perfect confidence, that your Lordships' interposition, would not be warranted by the want of the provisions of any one of these temporary Acts. Danger there is none, inconvenience there is none, pretext there is none, to require that your Lordships should invest the -or at all events be postponed till the time that more immediately precedes it." Now will it not be an act of injustice the most flagrant which was ever committed, to make the urgency of new laws for the altered state of society in Jamaica, a pretext for subverting the constitution of that Colony when the Government has told the Assembly of Jamaica by its Governor, that they were not to pass laws of this description, but to postpone them until that new state of society was immediately about to commence. One other instance of injustice can alone equal it, and that is urging as a pretence for re-enacting by an unconstitutional authority those temporary laws, by which the Revenue is raised, that those temporary Acts have been suffered to expire, when in fact, the Assembly by their Resolution and Address, offered to Governor of the Colony, with this uncon-re-enact, and would have re-enacted them, stitutional power of reviving any of these and would have raised the Revenue if the temporary Acts. But I repeat, that if Government had not prevented them from there were danger, if there were inconvenience, if there existed a pretext, it was created, and has since been, and is now continued by the Government. My Lords, when I was dealing with the pretence, that there was an urgency for doing so. It was the Act of the Governor who refused to let the Assembly proceed, who kept them in prorogation, and to the Governor and the Government, and not the Assembly must be attributed the fact, that these temporary Acts have not been |