APPENDIX.] OF JAMAICA. 307 



NUMBER XVII. 



Extract of a letter from the Earl of Carlisle to Mr. Secretary Coventry. 



St. Jiigo de la foga, 23^ November, 1679. 

 SIR, 



The assembly meeting on the aStji of October, I, with the council, 

 went to them ; commanded the council's report of the 28th of May, and 

 his majesty's letter of the 3ist o-f May last, to be read a~ain to them; 

 pressed them very much to consider how much it imported at this juncture 

 for the interest of the island, that they should pa^s these laws I brought 

 to them under the great seal of England, or at least part of them j de- 

 siring that any one or more of the assembly would there and then argue 

 the reasonableness of their objection, which none of them would under- 

 take j and so I left the bydy of laws with them. They having the last 

 session passed a vote, that the raising money and disposing of it, was the 

 inherent right of the assembly (of which I had no account either from the 

 members or their speaker, in fourteen days afterwards, they presuming 

 it to be their privilege that their proceedings should be kept secret from 

 nae) : I then appointed and swore them a clerk, which before used to be of 

 their own choice ; and this they are very uneasy under. 



They proceeded to read over the body of laws: Notwithstanding the 

 great care, pains, and trouble I had taken with them, both apart individu- 

 ally as well as assembled together, they threw out and rejected all the laws, 

 again adhering to their former reasons, rather than admitting or honour- 

 ing those from their lordships for ru.les of obedience. 



I thereupon presently, with the council, framed a bill of revenue inde- 

 finite, and sent that to them : but that had no better success; and they 

 then attended me with the address to be presented to his majesty, which I 

 herewith send you; as also the humble desire of justification of his ma- 

 jesty's council thereupon, which I and they earnestly desire your favour 

 in humbly presenting to his majesty, being una.nimously agreed to by all 

 the council : but col. Samuel Lang (chief justice of the island, whom I 

 have found all along since my arrival here to be a most pertinacious abet- 

 tor and cherisher of the assembly's stubbornness in opposing this new 

 frame of government, having had a hand, being their speaker, in the 

 leaving the king's name out of the revenue bill) refuses to join with the 

 council in this their genuine act, and has sufficiently possessed himself of 

 the opinion of the assembly, by advising and assisting them in the framing 

 of their address ; thinking their resolutions to be unalterable ns hi', own, he 



