THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 497 



the House had not recovered from their violent state of agitation at the conduct 

 of Sir James Smyth, and an amendment was passed in 1835/°° which, taken 

 together, formed, in the words of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, " the 

 most arbitrary vagrancy law in the West Indies." " Hard labor and imprison- 

 ment " threatened all idle, drunken and disorderly persons, and those who could 

 not give account for the correctness of their lives,^"^ and the possession of a kit 

 of burglar's tools branded the holder as a rogue or vagabond to be dealt with 

 summarily."°^ It was evidently aimed at the emancipated classes, and the 

 Governor was given powers capable of great abuse/°^ These same acts forbade 

 under penalty of five days imprisonment the assembling for " no specific and 

 lawful object, loitering and carousing ... in the liquor shops, loud singing or 

 whistling, flying kites in or near highways, and calling loudly in the markets 

 to attract customers." ^°* Apprentices could leave the Colony with the consent 

 of the masters, and could secure passports certifying to their identity.^°° 

 Rights 'Pertaining to Contracts. — A more liberal spirit was shown in the 

 regulations between the employers and apprentices. Every agreement to which 

 an apprentice was a party had to be attested by one or more literate witnesses.""' 

 This provision seemed not to have operated successfully. It seems probable that 

 there was a laxness in securing to the negroes a full understanding of the 

 terms of the contracts into which they entered. In 1837 a full understanding 

 of all agreements was made necessary to give binding force to contracts with 

 apprentices.'"' The most common form of agreement was that of task work 

 which was substituted for the regular labor of the apprentice.'"^ This form of 

 contract was employed to some extent from the beginning of the apprenticeship 



""^ 5 William IV, 17, passed Jan. 1, 1835. 



^°^LoG. cit. See also Sess. P., 1836, 15 (appendix), pp. 77-78. 



''-5 William IV, 17. 



^"^ Sess. P., loc. cit. Part of the danger in this lay in that when some local 

 man became administrator of the government for a time the disposition to apply 

 these acts strictly could easily work great wrong. 



*"^ See these acts in Sess. P., 1836, 49 (appendix), No. 66. These laws were 

 still in force on February 2, 1839. See loc. cit., 1839, 37, p. 487 (17). In a 

 despatch of this date from Lord Glenelg to Lieutenant-Governor Cockburn, the 

 latter was instructed to press the legislature to repeal them, and meantime to use 

 his discretionary powers to mitigate the evils that might result from the applica- 

 tion of them. 



=»M William IV, 21. 



30G4 William IV, 21. 



'<"7 William IV, 8 (1). 



^"^ See 4 William IV, 21, on the authorization of this form of agreement. 

 32 



