> ■ JAMAICA. 



On the NQith fide of the parade is a fmall building, called the, 

 \d court-houljB, where the fupreme court was formerly held, and 



the 



tion) to fee it entirely aboliilied. The judges ot tlie grand couit are vedeJ with the privilege of 

 prefidin" either in the Suriy or Cornwall courts, as well as that in Middiefex ; wherciis none of 

 the puifne judo-es, who are fpecially appointed for either of the former, are permitted to fit in the 

 latter. The number of adions, which in this fmall community are every year brought before the 

 grand court, will appear almoil incredible : yet the books of entry in the clerk of the court's of- 

 fice, which are an undoubted authority in this refpcft, fliew, that there are near four thoufand 

 new ones inlVituted/fr annum upon an average. Hence a conception may be formed of the vaft 

 quantity of bufinefs tranfa:'.cd in this court, and of the emoluments derived from it to the mem- 

 bers of the law. Among all the cuufes which lead to the multiplication of this evil, none are 

 more conducive than the following : ift, the fr;iudiilent conduft of executors ; 2dly, the transfer 

 of property from hand to hand by exchange of papers ; 3dly, the fallacious fiNtures of plats by 

 iogui(h or ignorant land-furveyors ; 4thly, the great delay of juftice by a multiplicity of ai>peal- 

 eourts ; cthly, expenfive and diffipated habits of living : of thefe, the laft-mcntioned may be 

 reckoned the principal. Property here is oftener rather nominal than real. A man, in pofTellion 

 of an eflate yielding 2000 /. per annum, fpends as inuch, aiWl lives as though he aftually had a 

 riwht to a clear income of that amount, notwithftaiiding it may he greatly encumbered. The con- 

 fequence of this muft be, that, if he fpends the whole income at the very time when he owes at 

 leafc one half of the value of his property, in a very few years he is obliged to part with both the 

 cllate and income too; efpecially if any of the ufual cafualties, Aich as the death of Negroes and 

 catile, drowth, or floods, ftiould happen to imjiair it. A wife planter, therel'ore, fliould never fpend 

 above one third of his income, nor value his property at a higher propoirion. But how preca- 

 rious foever fortunes are in this part of the woild, and liable, from various and innumerable caufes, 

 to fudden changes, and however frequent fuch inftances ; yet k\\ here take warning by the fate 

 of others, or feem awake to their oivn danger> till unhappily they experience the fame them^ 

 fclves : fo that we may apply what Juvenal laid of Rome in his days : 



IDc ultra t'ircs babltus nltor ; l.nc ali quid phis, 



^am fails eji ; intcrdum aUcnafumitur area. 



(u'Hiiiiunc id iHliuin eft : !Sic vidimus atiibitinfd 



Paupvrlale^ Sat. in. v. X79, etfcqtien;, 



" — Hftre attirM beyond our purfe we go, 



" For ufelefs ornament ai-.d flaunting (liew : 



" We take on trull, in filken robes to fliine, 



" Though poor, and yet ambitious to be fine." Dryd. 



And this is literally true of us ; for we are fo ambitiotis to live up to, or rather beyond, the no- 

 minal income of our eftates, that fometimes a perfon, wliofe produce amounts in grofs to at lead: 

 fix or feven thoufand pounds a year, is greatly dillrefled to pay his taxes, or even to raife the fum 

 of flt'ty pounds. 



In {hort, fo numerous are the la^v-fuits in the ifland from different caufes, and the fees paid to 

 council fo large, that the gentlemen of the bar make feveral thoufand pounds jJcr annum by their 

 praftice ; and, in regard to attornies, there are not fo few as one hundred ; fome of whom, in a 

 few')''ears, acquire very confuierable fortunes. The evil praftices of fome among them called 

 for a regulation by law. Accordingly, an att of alfcmbly, paflcd in 1 763, ordains, that none fliall 

 be admitted to praftiieas folicitor or proilor in any court of law or equity in this ifland, without 

 producing his admillion as fuel; in VVeftminfter-hall ; or court of chancery, king's-bench, common- 

 pleas, or exchequer in Ireland ; or unlefs he fliall have been an articled clerk five years at leall to 

 a fworu-attorney or folicitor in Jamaica, and certified upon examination before two barrillers to 



be 



