THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 579 



made charges of unfairness at the polls and petitioned the House to allow him 

 to occupy the disputed seat. Counter charges, and petitions were offered in 

 behalf of his opponent. A House committee secured information and made a 

 report on the matter. This report may have been impartial and the subsequent 

 action of the House just, but it was a strictly partisan vote that rejected the 

 petitions of the Anglican candidate and allowed Sawyer to take the contested 

 seat. Both his leadership and his vote would have been lost if his application 

 had failed. Again he moved for a consideration of the disendowment question. 

 Loyal churchmen attempted to postpone the evil day. But the old partisan 

 vote carried a new bill to " amend the ecclesiastical laws of the Colony." The 

 Legislative Council repeated its action of the preceding session and the measure 

 was again rejected. 



Such obstacles could, however, only temporarily check the progress of the 

 dissenters. ^ In March, 1869, the same leader pressed for the passage of the 

 same proposal, even more importunately than before. The Council no longer 

 stood in the way. It merely modified the sweeping character of the language 

 of the House bill and passed it. This did not effect an immediate withdrawal 

 of the salaries paid to church officials. The cost of each of these livings was 

 only borne by the public until it became vacant. Then the salary was with- 

 drawn. This effected only a gradual disendowment, but it gained the object 

 of the dissenters and secured the retrenchment in public expenditures. 



The Anglican church was not yet free. It had been given control of its 

 property in 1869, but was still dependent on the state in other respects. On 

 an appeal to the legislature in 1875, it was made a self-governing, voluntary 

 religious body with privileges of holding a synod, making rules for its own 

 government, regulating its membership and prescribing its rites, discipline, 

 etc. At the same time some old ecclesiastical legislation was repealed. The 

 legislature dealt with the question in a liberal and impartial spirit, and the 

 church was relieved of an anomalous position in which it had been since the 

 passage of the act of 1869. The disestablishment was thus completed. 



The Educational Establishment. 



The careful efforts in behalf of education that were begun in the decade 

 1830-1840 were continued. The Assembly was impressed with the need of 

 providing adequate means of instruction, and in this it was 'encouraged and di- 

 rected by the governors who acted with it. Since the control of the schools 

 was wrested from the established church, no serious efforts bad been made to 



