CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS. 403 



the population are catholics in several of the British West India 

 islands, viz., in Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Trinidad ; 

 but, in every one of them, the church of England has the lion's 

 share. In Trinidad, where the catholic religion is now, and has, 

 since the capitulation in the year 1797, always been supported 

 from the general funds of the colony, the church of 45,000 catho- 

 lics costs the colony 4,500, and that of 17,000 episcopalians, 

 5,500, besides extra allowances. For the last thirty-four years 

 the catholic bishop had been in the receipt of 1,000 per annum 

 as his stipend : our present governor, Captain Charles Elliot, has, 

 by the advice of a protestant committee, and with the aid of an 

 irresponsible council, reduced that sum to 500 sterling. This 

 was but a first attempt at further aggression, as proved by the fol- 

 lowing fact. The present administrator of the diocese being an 

 alien, the governor has withheld the entire stipend ; and even 

 refuses to recognise the bishop's authority in matters of church 

 hierarchy. The withholding of the administrator's stipend, be- 

 cause he was an alien, was a questionable right, but the act, in 

 itself, was certainly mean and derogatory ; because the catholics 

 of Trinidad, and not the administrator, have to bear the conse- 

 quences : but, to refuse to recognise the authority of the latter in 

 the appointment of parish ministers, is an undue interference, and 

 an assumption of prerogative, of which every liberal and impartial 

 man cannot but disapprove. In fact, Captain Elliot's partial and 

 vexatious policy has been condemned here, not by the catholics 

 only, but, it may be said, by the whole community as proved 

 by the petition to the Queen, signed by many of the most respect- 

 able protestant inhabitants of the colony, in support of a petition 

 addressed to Her Majesty by Her Catholic subjects of Trinidad, 

 praying for interference and redress. The measures adopted by 

 the governor are viewed with extreme jealousy and suspicion by 

 the catholics, and may prove an unhappy source of ill-feeling. 



Should the correctness of my views on church establishments 

 be admitted, I say they are particularly applicable to this island 

 of Trinidad : for, not only do two-thirds of the aggregate popula- 

 tion profess the catholic religion, but those catholics are the 

 descendants of the first settlers who surrendered by capitulation, 

 and as such, have not settled here as a matter of choice. 



To conclude my observations on our administration, I have to 

 add but one remark. At one time the principal officials, in the 



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