,496 JAMAICA. 



t>erceived very il:rong traces of it in the before-cited ftatutes ; and 

 the expediency and propriety of rigorous penahies, were pointed 

 out to them, from time to time, after the reign of EHzabeth, by 

 the ftar-chamber judgements. Many other vertiges befides re- 

 mained flill frefh in the mother-country, which were iiipporred 

 by law; in the regulation, difciphne, and puniHiment (for ex- 

 ample) of vagabonds, of labourers, of apprentices, of foldiers, 

 leamen, the workers in coal and faltmines; all which favoured 

 much of the antient coercions under which they had lain, and 

 whicli indeed to the prefent hour have been little more relaxed, ex- 

 cept by mitigating the cruelty of fome punhhments, and giving a 

 prote<flion in life and limb againft wanton violences, vvhicli in 

 truth is no contemptible triumph over the extreme feverity of 

 th^ir primitive bondage. The penal laws in England were always 

 fanguinary, and ftill retain this favage complexion ; which has 

 given occafion to an ingenious author to aHert, " that they feem 

 " rather calculated to keep Jlaves in awe, than to govern freemen ; 

 *' they feem to contradift all notions of juftice, and confound all 

 *' diftinflions of morality. By the ignominy they impofe in many 

 " cafes-, they bend the mind to the loweft ftatc of fervitude ; by the 

 *' rigour thay indifcriminately inflift, they adopt the principles of 

 <♦ defpotifm, and rciskQfear the motive of obedience [z]." 



One of the greateft imputations againft the Negroe laws is, that, 

 In many cafes, they leave the puniftiment to be inflicted arbitrarily 

 by their judges. This is precifely adopted from the law-martial, 

 enaded for the difcipline of the fleet and army, which leaves the 

 puniftiment to be invented, as well as proportioned, by the court. 

 The Negroes iu our colonies might, perhaps, have fared better, if 

 their mafters had taken the Athenian flave code for their guide, 

 inftead of ranfacking the ftatute-law of England for modes of 

 judging and chaftizing them. But the idea of affimilating to the 

 practice of the mother-ftate influenced them to this conformity in 

 thofe points, which perhaps lefs merited their imitation than any 

 other. It was a further difadvantage, that the firft form of govern- 

 ment, exercifed in thefe colonies, was of the military kind ; whofe 

 iandions did not tend in the leaft to diminifti their judicial afpe- 



[z] Confiderations on Criminal Lair. 



5 rity. 



