the bahama islands 505 



Eefoems in the Magisteact. 



This system as instituted with the local justices did not continue long, 

 but it had done harm to the cause of reform. Colonel Colebrooke came in 

 March, 1835, and in his first despatch on the magisterial system he pointed out 

 defects which were demanding remedy. Prom reports of the magistrates he 

 found out that the expense of the existing system was too great, that many 

 settlements on the Out-islands were not being visited often enough, and that 

 the salaries of the magistrates were not large enough to maintain those officials 

 as they should have been.^' A little later he discovered also that the local 

 justices were altogether incompetent to perform the duties required of them."'" 

 Wherever the English justices had gone in the Out-islands the effect of their 

 visitations was altogether salutary. Disorders were suppressed, quiet was 

 restored, and the spirit of insubordination that had prevailed in some places 

 was cahned.™ It was, however, physically impossible for them to make the 

 tour of all the Out-islands in any reasonable period of time, and the exposure 

 to heat and rain was so great as to incapacitate them, in a large measure, for 

 their work. The local justices had, on the other hand, generally failed to keep 

 the peace, or even to gain the confidence of either negroes or whites ; "° they had 

 too often neglected their duties in their districts and had punished offenses 

 severely and indiscriminately with the result that harmonious relations between 

 the classes were not promoted or encouraged.'" The calls from the Out- 

 islands for the stipendiary justices continued to increase, and it was imperative 

 that some one should be sent to them to adjust matters between the employers 

 and their men."'' 



Lieutenant-Governor Colebrooke determined upon a reformation of the 

 whole magisterial system. He applied to the home government to send out as 

 many more of the special justices as possible, urging that any number of them, 

 however small, would aid in the restoration of order. The House of Assembly 

 concurred with him in the necessity of securing, by some means, a more efficient 

 service from the magistracy, and on the recommendation of the executive voted 

 to change the whole plan to that of a system of circuits. The cost of 

 this promised to be less than that of the system then in operation. It also 



°" Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 9. 



'^Loc. cit., No. 60. 



=™H. v., 1834-35, p. 184; also Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 53. 



™ Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 22. 



"^Loc. cit., No. 60, Aug., 1835. 



'<" H. v., 1834-35, p. 184. 



