1831.] Colonial Affairs. 185 



another magistrate? But this, we presume, would not have answered 

 the purpose of the sect of which Mr. Whitehouse is a member ! 



We consider it unnecessary to give at length the manly and straight- 

 forward defence of Mr. Bridges. We believe the above declaration of 

 the Attorney-General in his favour, will be sufficient for his exculpation, 

 in the mind of every honest man. He does not deny, that he used fair 

 endeavours to rescue Williams from what he calls the trammels of the 

 missionaries, " but I used no threat, no compulsion, nor indeed could 

 I use any with those who were not under my control. When I observe 

 around me many who were once contented, now poor, spiritless, and 

 dejected, I cannot, as a Christian clergyman, behold the progress of 

 such extensive mischief, without employing my humble, but zealous en- 

 deavours, to save my flock from wholesale misery ; but I have never 

 controlled their religious feelings by unfair means; my house is open to 

 family prayers every evening, but I have confined my interference to 

 inviting them there, and to the offer of my best advice/' 



With regard to the maltreatment of a female servant, Mr. Bridges 

 alludes to it as a former effort of sectarian malignity, perpetrated through 

 the artful accusation of a suborned slave, and " defeated only by the 

 fortunate circumstance of my possessing European domestics :" and he 

 justly complains of the prejudice and injury done to him in his profes- 

 sional character in England, and the ruinous expense entailed upon him 

 in consequence of these unjust accusations. 



The letter of Mr. Betty is equally manly and straightforward, 

 although written with a degree of heat which, perhaps, under the cir- 

 cumstances of the case were justifiable, or at least excusable. After 

 deprecating the interference of the sectaries between master and servant, 

 he says, " I certainly did confine Henry Williams in the St. Thomas-in- 

 the-Vale workhouse, for disobedience of my orders, in fact, openly setting 

 me at defiance before the rest of the slaves. I had an undoubted right to 

 do so, and I do not consider myself responsible for that act. That he 

 became sick there, and that I removed him, is equally certain ; and had 

 he died there, these canting hypocrites would have reproached me with 

 having been the cause of his death, although an able medical person 

 regularly attends the establishment. Twenty-three years' experience, 

 and the visible alteration in the manners and habits of the slaves teach 

 me," says he, " that these dissenting preachers will inevitably bring the 

 country to ruin ; especially if their most improbable calumnies are cou?t- 

 tenanced by the highest authorities in the State." 



He states, as a proof of the mildness of his treatment of the slaves, 

 that in every property under his management, the numbers have in- 

 creased ; and, finally, he indignantly adds, " Conscious that I have done 

 nothing deserving of reproach, I am ready to meet any charge which 

 may be preferred against me in a court of justice, where my actions will 

 be investigated before a legal tribunal of twelve honest men ; but with all 

 the deference I feel for the Colonial-office, I never will consent to answer 

 interrogatories." A resolution which appears to have given great offence 

 in Downing-street ! 



These communications from the Earl of Belmore were followed by a 

 very long letter from Lord Goderich, who had now become Colonial 

 Secretary. We have read over that letter most attentively, and we 

 profess ourselves totally unable to discover any thing like that liber- 

 ality and fair consideration, and support, to which Mr. Betty, as a 



M.M. New Series. VOL. XL No. 62. 2 B 



