864 TRINIDAD. 



ordinance 1852, the following clauses have been introduced in 

 sense : Where action could be maintainable against "hundred in 

 England," action is maintainable against the inhabitants of wards; 

 the costs of prosecution of crimes are to be borne by the ward in 

 which they are committed; expenses of maintaining patients in 

 hospitals, are to be borne by the ward in which such persons last 

 resided. These changes are, evidently, the result of the unfor- 

 tunate policy which prevailed of enlarging the civil list, and 

 increasing every other branch of expenditure. The ordinary 

 revenue soon became inadequate to the expenditure ; and, to the 

 local funds were transferred expenses previously defrayed from the 

 general revenue the ward-rates being thus converted into a mere 

 increase of taxation for general purposes. That some of the 

 alterations made in the ordinance, have faeen introduced without 

 any consideration of justice, becomes evident from the following 

 elucidations : A man leaves town for any part of the coast or 

 country : on his arrival, he gets into an affray, and death ensues ; 

 he is arrested, tried, and executed. The entire costs of his trial 

 and execution, heavy as they may be rendered by distance, are 

 charged against the ward X, because the crime was committed in 

 ward X. Again, a labourer works all his life in ward A ; he 

 becomes invalided for life, and is taken by some friend to ward B, 

 where he spends one week or one month : being a stranger to the 

 ward, they manage to send him to the hospital ; he is declared 

 incurable, and yet, ward B is charged with the expenses, because 

 he- last resided there. 



To familiarise the country districts with the principles of Muni- 

 cipal Institutions, by intrusting the inhabitants in their working, 

 was certainly the predominant idea in the mind of Lord Harris. 

 Again, to place within their reach elements and essentials of 

 civilisation which they did not previously possess, was another 

 philanthropic motive. But what has been done subsequently ? 

 Where are the local improvements contemplated ? Where are 

 I do not say the asylums for the destitute, and infant schools 

 but, where are the school-houses ? and how many wards are there 

 with no school at all ? New burdens have been laid upon the 

 wards, when they could not even defray the most essential expenses 

 contemplated in the first ordinance. I will only add, that local 

 taxation, when raised for specific purposes, is like a sum of money 

 invested on trust for special purposes. To divert it from that 



