THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 461 



rise up against such conduct as this on the part of one of their number. 13 ' But 

 he had not rightly judged this body of men. He had credited them with too 

 much anxiety for humane treatment of their slaves. This legislature like its 

 predecessors had been so extremely sensitive to encroachment on its pwn as- 

 sumed rights, and had insisted on privileges and immunities for its own mem- 

 bers, but it was not inquisitive in the case of one of a down-trodden class for 

 whose condition it was responsible. These slaveholders did not wish to have 

 the abuses which their system of bondage would permit inquired into and re- 

 vealed to the world. It was no affair of theirs. If the member had committed 

 any breach of the laws of the Colony, the courts of law were open to punish him. 

 As far as they were concerned, they would take no further notice of the 

 allegations against him, than to reply to the Governor that they regarded his 

 late message to them as an interference with their privileges which was "un- 

 warranted and wholly unprecedented." ' It would appear that the Governor 

 was not acting outside of the line of his duty in calling the attention of the 

 House to the conduct of affairs and current events in the Colony. He made no 

 request of the House, he merely called the attention of the members to this fact 

 that had been reported to him, with no comment thereon. 139 He did not expect 

 the House to proceed to the punishment of the member, further than to investi- 

 gate the case, and consider whether he should continue to hold his seat in the 

 House, for he himself expected to make Wildgoos answer at the " bar of the 

 proper tribunal " in the trial of the case. 140 He might in his own view have 

 been charged with dereliction of duty, if he had failed to call attention to it. 

 On the side of the House, it was an outburst of that traditional jealousy 

 of the Colony against alleged interference with its privileges, occasioned 

 at this time by an exasperated state of mind. This Governor had been insist- 

 ing on the consideration of this question ever since his arrival in the Colony, 

 and now the House wished him to make an end of it. Both House and Gov- 

 ernor doubtless felt that it was improbable that Wildgoos would be made to 

 suffer for what he had done. A public sentiment, that would not demand his 

 expulsion from the membership of the House of Assembly, would neither de- 

 mand his prosecution in the courts of justice. The Governor desired it to be 

 established and to become known that such conduct would not be tolerated in 



187 I/oc. cit. Governor's address to the House on this affair. Also loc. cit., 

 p. 40. 



188 H. V., 1831 (extra session), p. 38. 

 u 'Loc. cit., p. 36. Governor's address. 

 140 Loc. cit., p. 40. Governor's address. 



