220 TRINIDAD. 



of the courts. There were several of these officers, and a suitor 

 filed his action in the office of that escribano who best suited his 

 purposes. The escribanos were also conveyancers, and had the 

 custody of all original deeds prepared by, signed before, and 

 attested by them ; these officers being Spaniards, the deeds were 

 drawn in the Spanish language. Such an arrangement was 

 evidently liable to many and serious inconveniences, too evident 

 to require to be pointed out. Sir Ralph Woodford, both with a 

 view to provide a remedy, and to introduce the English lan- 

 guage into the tribunals of the island, managed to obtain the 

 surrender of the deeds into the custody of a suitable and responsi- 

 ble officer, by resorting to the following stratagem : he first called 

 for an index to be furnished, by each escribano, of all deeds in his 

 office, describing the nature and effect of the deed, the property 

 transferred or mortgaged. The indexes once obtained, were 

 verified by the island secretary and registrar, deposited in his 

 office, and the governor thus got possession of the key to all the 

 power vested in the escribanos. He next published a royal 

 order in council forbidding the use of any other than the English 

 language, either in drawing deeds or in judicial proceedings ; and 

 as few of the gentlemen filling the office of escribano understood 

 that language, their functions ceased de facto, and the deeds in 

 their possession were transferred from their custody into that of 

 the island secretary, whose office then became the registry-office. 

 In 1817, an order in council was promulgated, establishing a 

 registry-office, and appointing a registrar of deeds, who also filled 

 the office of secretary of cabildo. 



The English practice and the English laws were gradually 

 introduced. In the year 1844, the criminal law of England and 

 trial by jury were adopted ; the trial by jury in civil cases, in 1848. 



The indiscriminate introduction of the civil law of England 

 was opposed by Chief Judge Scotland, and, I believe, on good 

 grounds. It was specially enforced under the government of Sir 

 Henry Macleod and Lord Harris, with the ever-ready assistance 

 of our present attorney-general, Honourable Charles William 

 Warner : his predecessor, the lamented Edward Jackson, had 

 shown more discretion. 



At present, the judicial establishment consists of the following 

 courts : Supreme Civil Court, comprising the Complaint, Com- 

 mon Law, and Equity Courts Petty Civil Courts the Supreme 



