278 Our Colonies. [Sept. 



tions of parliament, and with the wishes of the government ; and that, 

 6£ all tilings, they least deserve the imputation which has been cast 

 upon them by IMr. Huskinson, of proposing a systematic violation of the 

 Sabbath. 



The third resolution relates to the admission of the evidence of slaves. On 

 this head the act agreed to by the Colonial Assembly, provided that in all 

 criminal cases the evidence of slaves should be received on any complaint, 

 inquisition, or prosecution, with the single qualification, that the slaves so 

 giving evidence should first have been baptised — an equivalent to the pro- 

 visions of the EngUsh jurisprudence, which require that a witness should 

 be acquainted with the nature of an oath, and should believe that it is 

 binding on his conscience.* It went on to enact, that objections as to the 

 competency or credibihty of slave witnesses should be received in the 

 same, and no other manner, as they would be received respecting white 

 persons, and persons of free concHtion ; and added the salutary and neces- 

 sary caution, that the consistent evidence of two slaves, who should be 

 examined apart from each other, should be given within twelve months 

 from the commission of the crime charged, before any white or free 

 person should be convicted under it. These provisions go far beyond 

 the recommendations made on this subject by the British Government, 

 which declared expressly, that " the admission of the evidence of slaves 

 is not to extend to cases where a white person, or person of free condition 

 shall be chai-ged with, or prosecuted for any capital crime." And it is 

 a most important fact, that during the very short operation of the act 

 now under consideration, the evidence of slaves was admitted in two 

 capital cases. In one, the oifender, a white man, was convicted, partly 

 on slave evidence, of murder ; and in the other a man of colour was 

 convicted of manslaughter,, solely on such evidence. 



The fom-tli resolution has for its object the legalization of the marriage 

 of slaves. On this point the proposed act provided, that slaves who 

 had been baptised, may be married by any clergyman of the established 

 church, if such clergyman should, upon examining the slaves, be satis- 

 fied that they had a proper knowledge of the nature and obligation of the 

 contract, and shoidd produce a written consent from their owners. In 

 hmiting the performance of this ceremony to ministers of the established 

 church, the colonial legislature not only adopted a precaution, which 

 their experience and local knowledge of the state of the colony had 



• Tlie true construction which the English Government intended to put on the Orders 

 in Council, is contained in a speech of the late 3Ir. Canning, deUvered in Parliament, 

 on the 16th of Blarch, 1824. The whole speech is no less admirable for its honesty and 

 benevolence than for the eloquence which it displays : every part of it might be satisfac- 

 torily appealed to by the colonists, as a vindication of their readiness to comply with the 

 expressed wishes of the Government ; but there is none that affords a more striking proof 

 of this than that part in which he speaks of the qualifications under wliich slave evi- 

 dence is to be received. " It would be as wild," lie said, " to say that the evidence of 

 slaves sliouldbe indiscriminately admitted in all cases, as it would be unjust to exclude it 

 in all cases. In this country a person in the condition of a slave — I do not mean politi- 

 cally but morally, — an infant, whose mind is not sufficiently expanded to be able to estimate 

 the obligation of an oath, is not permitted to give evidence. It is first ascertained by 

 examination that the mind of the infant is in fact so matured as to be capable of compre- 

 hending that obligation. It would be improper to admit tlie evidence of blacks without 

 a similar guard." — ( Canning'' s Speeches, vol. v. p. 204, Ridgway's edition.^ Compare 

 this with the disallowed Slave Law Consohdation Act of Jamaica, and let any honest 

 man say whether the Legislature of that Island have not fidfiUed the spirit — nay, whether 

 tliey have not exceeded the utmost scope, of that order iu council. 



