THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 465 



the House of Assembly, were neutralized in the elections that here took place/" 

 The Avhole of the local population was not, however, against the Governor. 

 Some of the most influential slaveholding members of the community had 

 viewed with disapproval the course pursued by the majority of the late House, 

 and were at this time working for the defeat of that majority. The whole of 

 the free negro population was favorable to the govemment.^°* But there was not 

 a large number of this class that were admitted to elections. In spite of the 

 efforts put forth to elect men of temperate disposition, all seemed to point to a 

 victory for the opposition, in which event there would be a renewal of the old 

 difficulties and an inevitable resort to a dissolution."' It was a time of anxious 

 anticipation with Governor Smyth. The elections occurred near the beginning 

 of the new year, 1832, resulting in the return of most of the same individuals 

 who had sat in the late House, and with an addition of others of the same 

 disposition. The opposition majority in this Assembly was stronger than it 

 had been in the former one.'°° 



The Governor opened the session of the legislature on the seventh of 

 February with another appeal for the removal of the legal distinctions 

 as to race, urging that the House could surround itself with grateful 

 friends.'" A House committee hastily drew up a reply, on the receipt 

 of the executive address, and presented it to the House for its sanction, 

 rt contained a refusal either to alter the laws governing the negroes, or to 

 legislate at all while Sir James Smyth was Governor of the Bahamas. The 

 Governor was addressed in language that was unusual on such an occasion. 

 IMessrs. Malcolm and Nesbitt, the sole government members, proposed certain 



^" Loc. cit., No. 132. Some of these officials doubtless favored strongly the 

 policy of the government but dared not take active part in the elections because of 

 this influence of the House over them. Incumbents of these positions who were sent 

 out from England were generally favorable to the policies of the government and 

 were a source of strength to it in its struggles with the local legislature. 



^'■^Loc. cit., No. 127. When the petitions for the removal of the Governor were 

 sent in, the free blacks of New Providence petitioned the King to retain Sir James 

 Smyth as their Governor. There was a like petition of the whites of the same 

 island. See acknowledgment of these in Ds., S. St., 1831, No. 32. In his despatch, 

 No. 133, the Governor wrote that many of the ignorant whites at Abaco and else- 

 where signed the petitions against him, because they were under the influence of 

 the store keepers on Bay Street at Nassau. 



^" Smyth's Ds., No. 127. While the Governor was planning for the meeting of 

 the legislature, he was also planning the course he should follow in case of a disso- 

 lution without the passage of the necessary legislation. 



""H. v., 1832, p. 1. 



^"^H. v., 1832, p. 7, Governor's opening address. 

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