GENERAL HISTORY 



113 



certain tax.'' By another law, 

 any slave who came to the island, 

 if not claimed by his master 

 within a certain time, was sold 

 for the benefit of the public. 

 The whole of these laws were 

 founded on a principle diametri- 

 cally opposite to that which 

 formed the basis of the British 

 constitution ; they went to render 

 the state of slavery perpetual. 

 With respect to those laws which 

 appeared so well calculated to 

 benefit the slave population, they 

 not only were not executed, but 

 were never designed to be to. 

 On this point, the observatiqn 

 contained in a dispatch from 

 governor Prevost to marquis 

 Camden, written in January 1805, 

 affords very strong evidence : 

 He says " Tlie act for encourag- 

 ing the better government of 

 slaves lately passed in Dominica, 

 appears to have been considered, 

 from the day it^was passed till 

 this hour, as a political measure, 

 to prevent the interference of the 

 mother country in the manage- 

 ment of the slaves." 



The hon. and learned gentle- 

 man then digressed to the case of 

 one Huggins in the island of 

 Nevis, who had already been 

 brought to trial for cruelty to 

 slaves of his own, and was lately 

 tried for the same crime towards 

 tlie slaves of another. A Mr. 

 Cottle, on leaving the island, left 

 Huggins as his attorney. He 

 whipped two young lads very 

 severely for receiving a pair of 

 stockings which had been stolen ; 

 ordering them to receive 100 

 lashes each, though 39 lashes was 

 the highost which was allowed by 

 the law. Two female relations 

 were also subjected to the lash 



Vol. LX. 



for no other offence than that of 

 their shedding tears. Huggias 

 was brought to trial by the king's 

 senior counsel, exercising the 

 duties of attorney-general ; and 

 though the facts were established, 

 he was acquitted. 



Sir Samuel R. coiKjIuded with 

 moving for " Copies or Extracts 

 from all Dispatches, Letters, and 

 Papers in the office of his Majes- 

 ty's principal Secretary of State 

 for the Colonial Department, 

 which in any manner relate to the 

 cases of John Baptist Louis 

 Birmingham, Alexander le Guay, 

 and John M'Corry, against whom 

 bills of indictment were preferred 

 by his majesty's attorney-general 

 for the island of Dominica, and to 

 the presentment made by the 

 Grand Jury of the same island on 

 the -ith day of February 1817, 

 and to any presentment made by 

 the Grand Jury at Dominica at 

 any subsequent period, which in 

 any manner relate to the power 

 of the owners of slaves in the 

 same island to send their slaves to 

 be kept to hard labour in the 

 public chain, and to the right 

 which the governor may have, by 

 virtue of the royal prerogative, to 

 remit the punishment of slaves so 

 condemned by their masters to be 

 kept to hard labour." Also, 

 " Copies or Extracts from all 

 Dispatches, Letters, and Papers, 

 in the office of his Majesty's 

 principal Secretary of State for 

 the Colonial Department, which in 

 any manner relate to the case of 

 Edward Huggins the elder, tried 

 in the island of Nevis in May 

 last, for cruelty to certain slaves 

 under his charge.'' 



Mr. Goulburn, after a speech 



for the most part apologetical, 



fI3 concluded. 



