TRINIDAD : THEN .AND NOW. 



105 



When I arrived in this colony, there were a number of 

 very bad subjects in it, and it was threatened with a 

 general subversion of good order. Brigadier-Gene- 

 ral Picton restored good order, maintained the police, 

 protected commerce and the importation of provi- 

 sions, and tripled the value of land in cultivation. I 

 have known him to be extremely just towards all the 

 inhabitants of the colony, without any prejudice to 

 any of the various foreigners. ' ' 



The Hon. Philip Langton said : — " I had the 

 honour of being intimately acquainted with General 

 Picton ; and all the respectable characters, that I 

 ever heard speak of hdm in the colony, join me in 

 considering him an active, intelligent, humane, and 

 disinterested magistrate, warmly attached to the in- 

 terests of his sovereign and of this colony. ' ' 



Mr. M 'Callum, what does your ghostly spirit say 

 to this t Were you not aware of it when you wrote 

 your letter dated 12th December, 1804 to Mr. Joseph 

 Marryat — to be found in the preface of your book — 

 when he, of his good nature, threatened to take an 

 action against the newspaper that was at that time 

 publishing your articles or letters, on Picton, and yet 

 your vindictive nature would not allow you to 

 retract. I wonder if Mr. Langton included Mr. Ful- 

 Iarton and Mr. M 'Callum in the phrase in his reply 

 M all respectable characters, etc " ! 



The verdict delivered at the second trial is rather 

 curious. It found that torturing was legal at the 

 time in Trinidad, and absolving the defendant of 

 malice against Luisa Calderon " independent of the 



