THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 439 



ers in the city of Bristol presented a petition in 1816 deprecating the inter- 

 ference with the local institutions in the colonies.' In the Bahamas the tidings 

 of the activit}' of the opponents of slavery and the slave-trade seemed to be 

 unknown, or at least unnoticed, until the year 1815, when, on the return of 

 some inhabitants of the Colony from London, information of the movement 

 was brought to them. Two publications of the African Institution, one 

 "A Plan for the Prevention of the Unlawful Importation of Slaves" the other 

 a pamphlet entitled "Reasons for Establishing a Registry of Slaves/' were laid 

 before the local Assembly." Wild misapprehensions at once beset the mem- 

 bers of the House of Assembly. Almost total ignorance of the intentions and 

 methods of the African Institution, or as to what Parliament might do, pre- 

 vailed. It was only known that something was proposed to be done for the 

 regulation of their slave property; it might be anything. In this state of 

 mind the Assembly met in the summer of 1815. Dissatisfaction was expressed 

 by some of the members at the failure of the Colonial Agent, George Chalmers, 

 to keep their commissioners of correspondence informed of the progress of 

 this dangerous movement. Believing that a total destruction of the slave 

 property of the British West Indian colonies had been determined upon, re- 

 gardless of the rights and interests of those concerned, the House decided 

 upon an appeal to Parliament." A committee set to work to inform the House' 

 of the progress of the movement for registration. It described the African 

 Institution as a society "having no connection with, or interest in, the colo- 

 nies, and ignorant of the conditions in the colonies, and of their local interests 

 and usages," which had "put on foot ruinous schemes, and proposed colonial 

 degradation and injury on a comprehensive scale." In behalf of the Bahamas, 

 the committee denied the existence in them of the evils of which the reform 

 party complained ; denied that registration could remedy such evils if they did 

 exist; and expressed their conviction that, according to English law, their 

 " venerable charter of privileges " was to protect them from any such inter- 

 ference from outside the Colony." The whole report is taken up with an 

 arraignment of the abolitionists and a refutation of fancied arguments in 

 favor of the registration. The presentation of it was followed closely by a set 

 of resolutions on the rights of colonial Englishmen, which, together with the 



^Loc. cit., 1816, pp. 87-88. 

 " H. v., 1815, p. 105. 

 » H. v., 1815, p. 45. 

 ^'Loc. cit, pp. 105, 106. 



