578 HISTORY 



finances of the Bahamas. Eetrenchments now became necessary in order to 

 keep salaries and expenditures adjusted to the depleted state of the revenues. 

 A hurricane accompanied by an enormous destruction of property occurred in 

 1866, and added to the embarrassment. By 1868 the deficits had become so 

 great as to threaten the credit of the Colony, and some difficulty was experienced 

 in securing a readjustment of the finances. 



DiSENDOWMENT OF THE ESTABLISHED ChURCH. 



Convenient methods of reducing public expenditures were now sought for. 

 Some of the members of the House of Assembly found an expedient in a 

 proposal to withdraw the public support from the established church. The 

 majority of the people of the Colony were not favorable to that church, and the 

 double tax for church purposes on the members of dissenting congregations 

 was viewed with displeasure. The process of disestablishment had been begun 

 already, and in the then low state of the revenues it seemed to be an opportune 

 time to begin the agitation for disendowment. A great reduction in expendi- 

 tures would be effected if the cost of the church establishment were saved to 

 the Colony. 



During a session of the legislature in March, 1868, a member of the 

 House brought up the question without previous warning. He introduced a 

 set of resolutions embodying a scheme for the disendowment. His proposals 

 were carried by a majority of four, and a committee was at once appointed to 

 bring in a bill in accordance with them. Such a bill was readily passed in 

 the House. But in the Council it was rejected. When this intelligence reached 

 the House, Sawyer, the leading advocate of the bill, proposed to call upon the 

 Governor to dissolve the Assembly and order a new election. The same 

 majority that had carried this bill for the disendowment carried this proposal 

 also. The Governor, however, regarded such a call upon him as an attempted 

 infringement of the prerogative. He expressed his ignorance of the alleged 

 discontent on the part of the people as to the church question, and refused to 

 dissolve the Assembly. The House now unearthed a number of precedents for 

 its request for the dissolution, caused the resignation of its presiding officer 

 and adjourned for three months. Before the expiration of that period 

 a dissolution occurred. On the meeting of the newly elected representatives in 

 June of the same year, a disputed seat in the new House occupied first place 

 in the deliberations of the session. According to the returns, Sawyer, who 

 had led the attack on the established church, had failed to be elected. He 



