THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 463 



curred on June 21, only three weeks after the opening of the session/" 

 Not long afterwards a dissolution was proclaimed, and the members were sent 

 back to their constituents " to appeal to that good sense, and to that good feel- 

 ing, which have ever been found to be inherent in Englishmen in all parts of 

 the world." "' 



In the midst of the excitement over these things, the consideration of the 

 jury question for which the session had been called was forgotten. As no jury 

 act was passed, there was no provision for the calling of jurymen, except by 

 the common law, according to which colored freemen could be included in the 

 list of those called for this duty."" Another advantage was that the common 

 law did not exclude the evidence of slaves from the courts. 



Governor Smyth had succeeded in effecting some reforms in the slave courts 

 of the Colony. Before he came, the complaints of slaves had not met with any 

 considerable encouragement. Eecords of the slave courts had not been kept before 

 the year 1829, when a special instruction directing this to be done was sent out 

 by the Secretary of State.^^" These records were now, in every case, laid before 

 the Governor prior to the execution of the sentence imposed, and, on the author- 

 ity of his superior, the Governor allowed the execution of no sentences in cases 

 in which he had reason to extend the King's pardon to the offenders."' 

 Decorum and order were introduced, and enforced, in the trials of slaves, all 

 which was due to the solicitude of the Governor for giving equal justice to 

 both blacks and whites. A restoration to the position of justices in the slave 

 courts of Magistrates Duncome and Anderson, whom Governor Smyth had sus- 

 pended for inflicting punishment on slaves, worked against the success of the 

 cause in which he was laboring. Both whites and blacks accepted it as a dis- 

 approval of the conduct of the Governor, or as an indication that the home 

 government was not interested in the trials of slaves, nor in the measures for 

 their amelioration.'^' These two men were again dismissed before the end of 

 the year and finally removed from the number of the justices of the slave 

 courts. They had begun again in the same manner in which they had acted 



^" Loc. cit., pp. 57 and 61. 



"«H. v., 1831 (extra session), pp. 61-62. Also Smyth's Ds., No. 105. 



"" Smyth's Ds., 135. Half of the salary of the provost marshal was paid by the 

 Crown. The Governor now hoped that as that officer was not entirely dependent 

 on the House he could easily be induced to summon negroes as well as whites to 

 serve on juries. 



'^"Circular Ds., 1829, and Smyth's Ds., No. 133. 



''^' Smyth's Ds., No. 133, and Ds., S. St., 1831, No. 32. 



^"Smyth's Ds., No. 133. 



