TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW. 



87 



you, they will despise you ; and you may easily fore- 

 see the consequences 



" There is but one line of conduct by which you 

 can extricate yourself from all these difficulties. The 

 circumstances of the conquest have virtually com- 

 bined in you the whole power of the government. 

 You are supreme political, criminal, civil, and 

 military judge. You unite in your own person the 

 separate powers of the governor, tribunals, and royal 

 audience of Caracas ; our laws enable you to judge 

 summarily, without recusation or appeal. Circum- 

 stances like the present have been foreseen by our 

 lawyers, who have provided remedies equal to the 

 occasion. You are not shackled by forms or modes 

 of prosecution. If you do substantial justice, you are 

 only answerable to God and your conscience/ ' 



Such was the advice of a man who had for many 

 years held high offices under the late Spanish govern- 

 ment, and that it was justified is fully shown by the 

 action which the Grenada government had to take, 

 (as already shown in the chapter bearing on Chacon) 

 and the instructions issued by Abercromby, (already 

 alluded to, the full text of which can be seen in 

 Robinson's Memoirs of Picton, page 37). 



When " the hour " came " the man 99 was found 

 in the person of Sir Thomas Picton, appointed to be 

 the first British Governor of Trinidad. In the name 

 of its English King, and on behalf of the British 

 nation, and in proof that he ruled well, I quote 

 the following passages from Joseph's History of 

 Trinidad. 



