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TPJNIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



pendiary Justices who take the preliminary depo- 

 sitions in each case before returning it for trial to a 

 higher court, and I must bear this testimony to the 

 pains — with few exceptions — taken by them and 

 therefore Mr. Lovesy, and magistrates who have 

 come after him, have been unanimous in passing 

 these strong strictures on the Jurors of Trinidad, 

 and in this respect I am sorry to say Trinidad is in 

 as bad a state Now as it was Then. 



Trial by jury was first introduced into Trinidad 

 in 1844. Before that date the system of trial was re- 

 gulated by an order in Council bearing date the 20th 

 June, 1831 and was as follows. In all criminal trials 

 before three judges and three assessors, the latter 

 were chosen from the members of the Cabildo of the 

 Town of Port-of-Spain to deliberate and vote with 

 the judges upon the final judgment to be pronounced 

 in every criminal case, and the verdict was to be the 

 verdict of the majority. 



That trial by Assessors was not desirable is fully 

 illustrated by a scene which occurred at a Criminal 

 trial on the 1st May 1832, when the two Assessors, 

 the Alcaldes, appointed to sit with the judge refused 

 to do so, with the result that the sessions were abor- 

 tive. The judge was Chief Justice Scotland and Sir 

 Lewis Grant was the Governor at the time. A full 

 account of it may be read dn the Port-of-Spain Gazette 

 of the 23rd and 30th May, 1832. This failure of en- 

 forcing the law led to the Order in Council of the 

 15th August 1832, and eventually to our present jury 

 system. 



