SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 285 



of it, and insisted on his making a speedy, but not wholly 

 honourable, retreat from the colony, leaving his constituents 

 in the lurch, the principal of which were the assignees of a 

 once respectable mercantile house in London. 



The arbitrary manner in which this vice-president was al- 

 lowed to act in his office, always excited disgust in every Briton, 

 who considered the trial by jury as the bulwark of his liberties. 

 As Englishmen, placed in a foreign country, we were divested 

 of that blessing. Six members of council being chosen, and 

 the president, or vice-president, (the former is the governor 

 and merely an honorary member) decide on all causes. The 

 vice-president is a professional man, and receives a salary 

 from the colony; the other six are appointed by the keizers from 

 the inhabitants of the country, and by pecuniary embarrassments, 

 are often placed in the vice-president's power, who frequently 

 has it at his option to admit a suit into court or not, and always 

 to retard its progress, besides which, he has the casting vote. 

 From these circumstances it may be clearly inferred, that the 

 vice-president is the influencing man in the court, who has 

 it in his power, from his situation and command over the 

 other members, in a great degree to turn the scale of any 

 trial, or cause. Such, I am sorry to say, was the state of the 

 courts of justice, while under the Batavian government : and 

 the terms of the capitulation have hitherto tended to resist 



