Travels Through North Atnerica 



generally found to have the fairest cause.* Were 

 the governor to interpose his authority, were he to 

 refuse to grant flags of truce,f or not to wink at 

 abuses, he would at the expiration of the year be ex- 

 cluded from his oflRce, the only thing perhaps which 

 he has to subsist upon. Were the judges to act with 

 impartiality, and to decide a cause to the prejudice 

 or disadvantage of any great or popular leader, they 

 would probably never be re-elected; indeed, they are 

 incapable in general of determining the merits of a 

 suit, for they are exceedingly illiterate, and, where 

 they have nothing to make them partial, are man- 

 aged almost entirely by the lawyers. In short, to 

 give an idea of the wretched state of this colony, it 

 has happened more than once that a person has had 

 sufficient influence to procure a fresh emission of 

 paper-money, solely to defraud his creditors: for 

 having perhaps borrowed a considerable sum of 



* The form of their judical oath, or affirmation (says Douglas, 

 in his Summary), does not invoke the judgments of the omniscient 

 God, who sees in secret, but only upon peril of the penalty of per- 

 jury. This does not seem (adds the same author in a note) to be 

 a sacred or solemn oath, and may be illustrated by the story of 

 two profligate thieves; one of them had stolen something, and told 

 his friend of it: well, says his friend, but did any body see you ? 

 No: then, says his friend, it is yours as much as if you had bought 

 it with your money. Vol. ii. p. 95. 



f It was usual during the late war for several governors in North 

 America, on receiving a pecuniary consideration, to grant to the 

 merchants flags of truce, by which they were licensed to go to the 

 French West Indian Islands, in order to exchange prisoners. The 

 real scope and design of the voyage was, to carry on a prohibited 



[128] 



