A RIDE TO THE BARRACKS. 



19 



marked that regularly the merits of the case were so 

 clearly brought out, that, when it was committed to 

 the jury, there was no question about the verdict ; and 

 so satisfactory has this system proved, that, though an 

 appeal lies to the Queen in Council, as Mr. Evans, the 

 foreman, told me, but one cause has been carried up 

 in twenty-two years. Still it stands as an anomaly in 

 the history of English jurisprudence ; for, I believe, in 

 every other place where the principles of the common 

 law govern, the learning of the bench and the ingenui- 

 ty of the bar are considered necessary to elicit the truth. 



At daylight the next morning I was roused by Mr. 

 Walker for a ride to the barracks. Immediately be- 

 yond the suburbs we entered upon an uncultivated 

 country, low and flat, but very rich. "We passed a 

 racecourse, now disused and grown over. This is the 

 only road opened, and there are no wheel-carriages in 

 Balize. Between it and the inhabited part of Central 

 America is a wilderness, unbroken even by an Indian 

 path. There is no communication with the interior 

 except by the Golfo Dolce or the Balize River ; and, 

 from the want of roads, a residence there is more con- 

 fining than living on an island. 



In half an hour we reached the barracks, situated on 

 the opposite side of a small bay. The soldiers are all 

 black, and are part of an old Jamaica regiment, most 

 of them having been enlisted at the English recruiting 

 stations in Africa. Tall and athletic, with red coats, 

 and, on a line, bristling with steel, their ebony faces 

 gave them a peculiarly warlike appearance. They 

 carry themselves proudly, call themselves the Queen's 

 Gentlemen," and look down with contempt upon the 



niggers." 



We returned to breakfast, and immediately after 



