GENERAL HISTORY 



117 



Tifiust have been severe. The 

 body was in a state of putrefac- 

 tion, and he could not ascertain 

 the precise cause of the deceased's 

 death. With all this evidence of 

 violence upon the body, the 

 House would be shocked and 

 astonished to hear that the verdict 

 of the coroner's jury was " Died 

 by the visitation of God.'' On 

 the subsequent trial of the rev^ 

 Mr. Rawlins, it was not only 

 proved that he was present, but 

 that he actually took a part, so 

 far as aiding and abetting, in the 

 execution of the punishment. 

 The jury, however, found him 

 guilty of man slaughter, though 

 his crime, if the evidence be true, 

 was an atrocious murder. The 

 sentence was also a mitigated one ; 

 for it was only a fine of 200^. and 

 three months imprisonment. The 

 verdict of the jury was a no less 

 extraordinary one. If they believed 

 the evidence, they had only one 

 Terdict to find : if they did not, 

 they had only one duty to per- 

 form by acquitting the prisoner. 

 Lord Bathurst makes this appro- 

 priate remark in his dispatch to 

 governor Probyn requiring the 

 minutes of the trial. " If this 

 statement be true, or in any way 

 approaching to truth, Mr. Raw- 

 lins could not have been guilty of 

 man slaughter ; it must have been 

 murder or an acquittal.'' He 

 ■would now ask the gentlemen 

 ■who charged others with issuing 

 injurious and exaggerated state- 

 ments on the subject of West 

 India matters, with what face they 

 could repeat such a charge after 

 this scene of cruelty had been 

 exposed to the public eye ? They 

 had now authentic facts, and not 

 vague rumours, to inform them. 



selves on such practices ; and he 

 trusted the House would pursue 

 the inquiry in the manner justice 

 demanded. He concluded by 

 moving " That there be laid before 

 this House a Copy of the Deposi- 

 tions taken before the Coroner's 

 Inquest which sat upon the body 

 of a Slave belonging to Hutchin- 

 son's Estate, in the island of St. 

 Christopher, of the name of 

 Congo Jack.'' 



M): Marryat began with com- 

 plaining that the hon. and learned 

 gentleman had taken an opportu- 

 nity of drawing conclusions as to 

 the general administration of 

 justice in the West India islands ; 

 merely from the single circum- 

 stance of a particular fact. As 

 to the mode of inflicting punish- 

 ment for runaway slaves, it must 

 necessarily, for the sake of ex- 

 ample, be done in a summary 

 manner, and sometimes intrusted 

 to drivers, who might perhaps 

 exceed proper bounds. The 

 punishment must be executed as 

 it generally was in the army or 

 navy. It had been stated that 

 the punishment of this slave did 

 not last longer than two or three 

 minutes, and that he was neither 

 tied down, nor heard to cry, nor 

 seemed to suffer as if labouring 

 under heavy pain. The jury, he 

 thought, could not have found a 

 verdict of murder under the cir- 

 cumstances of the case. On the 

 whole, there was enough in the 

 case to entitle it to inquiry, and 

 he could certainly have no objec- 

 tion to the motion. 



Mr. JVilberforce asked, what 

 would be thought if a transaction 

 of equal atrocity had taken place 

 in this country, and the person 

 whose duty it ^was to represent 



the 



