232 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK, n. 



Of the laws thus passed, the principal relate chiefly 

 to regulations of local policy, to which the law of 

 England is not applicable, as the slave system for in- 

 stance. || In this and other cases, the English laws 

 being silent, the colonial legislature has made, and 

 continues to make, such provision therein, as the exi- 

 gencies ot the colony are supposed to require; and on 

 some occasions, where the principle of the English 

 law has been adopted, it has been found necessary to 

 alter and modify its provisions, so as to adapt them 

 to circumstances and situation. Thus, in the mode of 

 setting out emblements, the practice of fine and reco- 

 very, the case of insolvent debtors, the repair of the 

 public roads, the maintenance ot the clergy, and the 

 relief of the poor, very great deviations from the prac- 

 tice of the mother-country have been found indispen- 

 sably requisite.* 



|| Thus the evidence of a slave is not admissible against a white person. 

 Again, although by a very early law of this island, slaves are considered 

 as inheritance, and are accordingly ?ubje6l to the incidents of real pro- 

 perty, (for as they go to the heir, so may the widow have dcwer of them, 

 and the surviving husband be tenant by courtesy j and this holds equally, 

 whether slaves are possessed in gross, cr belong to a plantation), yet in 

 respect of debts, slaves are considered as chattels, and the executor is 

 bound to inventory them like other chattels. 



* An outline of the law of insolvency may not be unacceptable to the 

 reader. Adebtor, afterthree months continuance in actual confinement, 

 may obtain his liberty under the following conditions j three weeks previ- 

 ous to the next sitting of the supreme court, he is to give notice by pub- 

 lic advertisement, that he means to take the benefit of the act, and to 

 that end, has lodged all his books of account in the hands of the mar- 

 shal or keeper of the goal, for inspection by his creditors. He shall then 

 on the first day of term, be brought by petition before the court, where 



