18G Evil Consequences of Sectarian Influence in Colonial Affairs. Q FEB. 



magistrate, and the Rev. MY. Bridges, as a clergyman of the Church of 

 England,, were, injustice, entitled to expect under all the circumstances: 

 on the contrary, the letter evinces a captious disposition to consider 

 them guilty, to bear them down by the weight of authority, and to 

 involve them in the trouble and obloquy of further discussion. In short, 

 we do not think Dr. Townley himself, the organ of the Wesley ans, 

 could have written a letter calculated to give a stronger impression 

 of undue bias in favour of the sectaries ! " With the most conclusive 

 moral evidence," says his lordship, "he (Whitehouse) might be defeated, 

 if his witnesses were slaves," (a matter likely enough, if the facts are 

 as we believe them to be !) "or in the humble condition of life to 

 which he belongs, Mr. Whitehouse may not have the funds necessary 

 for conducting a prosecution." A gratuitous supposition, especially 

 Considering that Whitehouse would have had the support of ample 

 funds at the disposal of the Wesleyan methodists ! ! 



In short, Mr. Whitehouse refused to attempt to establish his charge, 

 upon oath, or otherwise ; and, in reply to his letter declining to proceed, 

 the governor's secretary tells him, " You had two courses to pursue, 

 had you been able to substantiate your charge against Mr. Betty. One 

 would have been by referring the case to a council of protection, for 

 which you might have called all your witnesses, and their attendance 

 would have been enforced by the magistracy. This course you did not 

 think proper to adopt, and it is now too late to resort to it ; and the 

 other, by placing documentary evidence in the Crown-office. But you 

 cannot be ignorant, that it is not in the Attorney-General's power to 

 adopt any criminal proceeding, unless the charge is preferred upon 

 oath." This letter is followed by another explanatory one from White- 

 house, and the correspondence is closed by Lord Goderich's letter to the 

 Earl of Belmore; the character of which is, in our opinion, much of the 

 same complexion as the former one ; inasmuch as it evinces a very 

 unfair disposition to consider one party guilty and another innocent, 

 although the charge rested entirely upon the ipse dixit of a man who 

 had, at the same time, made several distinct charges against another 

 gentleman, which charges, according to the letter of the Attorney- 

 General, appear to have been malicious and entirely unfounded. In the 

 interim Mr. Betty died, and, of course, all proceedings have been 

 dropped. 



We are sorry this parliamentary document will go out to the colonies ; 

 for we are satisfied it is only calculated to inflame the minds of the 

 colonists, and to destroy all confidence or cordiality of co-operatiori 

 with his Majesty's present colonial minister. 



The unfounded accusations brought by Whitehouse, have in the mean- 

 time, however, answered every purpose of the sectaries. They have 

 been trumpeted fortli at every anti-slavery meeting throughout the 

 country, as undoubted facts. They have served as the groundwork for 

 declamation, and for raising up those numerous petitions for the destruc- 

 tion of West India property, which have been poured upon the tables of 

 both Houses of Parliament, from the sectaries in all parts of the kingdom ; 

 and now that the mischief is done, and after the parties accused, 

 although innocent (for it is but fair to suppose, under all the circumstances, 

 that Mr. Betty was so}, have been held forth to public execration in 

 every quarter of the United Kingdom forth comes the refutation ! ! 



Further comment seems unnecessary : we leave it to our readers to 

 draw their own conclusions. 



