CHAP, v.] WEST INDIES. 231 



The legislature of Jamaica is composed of the cap- 

 tain-general or commander in chief, of a council nomi- 

 nated by the crown, consisting of twelve gentlemen, 

 and a house of assembly containing forty-three mem- 

 bers, who are elected bv the freeholders, viz. three 

 ' > 



for the several towns and parishes of St. Jago-de-la- 

 Vega, Kingston, and Port Royal, and two for each of 

 the other parishes. The qualification required in the 

 electer, is a freehold of ten pounds per annum in the 

 parish where the election is made; and in the repre- 

 sentative, a landed freehold of three hundred pounds 

 per annum, in any part of the island, or a personal 

 estate of three thousand pounds. In the proceedings 

 of the general assembly, they copy, as nearly as local 

 circumstances will admit, the forms of the legislature 

 of Great Britain ; and all their bills (those of a private 

 nature excepted) have the force of laws as soon as the 

 governor's assent is obtained. The power of rejec- 

 tion however is still reserved in the crown; but until 

 the royal disapprobation is signified, the laws are 

 valid. 



inferior clerk outbidding his employer (the resident deputy) and stepping 

 into his place. It may be doubted whether both the seller and buyer in 

 such cases are not subject to the penalties of the statute 5 and 6 Edw. VI. 

 against the sale and purchase of offices relating to the administration oi 

 justice. By an excellent law, however, which passed in the administra- 

 tion of the present /narquis of Lansdown then earl of Shelbuine, the 

 grievance will m a great degree be prevented in future, for it is enacted 

 by the zad Geo. III. c. 75, ihat from thenceforth, no office to be exercised 

 in the plantations shall be granted by patent, for any longer term than 

 during such time as the grantee thereof shall discharge the duty jr. 

 person. 



