Clubs and Societies in British Guiana to 1844. 
By James Rodroay, F.L.S. 
EFORE the arrival of the English in 1796, no 
clubs or BOCietiea appear to have been in 
existence in these colonies, or, if there were 
any, they must have held set ret meetings. It may be 
presumed that .something like political clubs had been 
formed before 1773, as In that year a Proclamation was 
issued in 1 )cmcrara and Essequebo, authorising the Fiscal 
to prevent any meetings tu discuss the action of the 
Government, to arrest the persons concerned and have 
them whipped. This was confirmed and re-published in 
1785, and appears to have had the effect of stopping 
everything like open discussion in the " two rivers," and 
causing the political agitation to be carried on in the 
mother country for the next four years. This kind of 
thing had already happened in the case of Berbice in 
1769, when a kind of Protection Society was formed in 
Amsterdam by representatives of the planters, which 
carried on a struggle with the Berbice Association against 
obnoxious taxes. This appears only to have been kept 
up as long as was necessary, that is until the States 
General gave their decision on the points in dispute. 
With the arrival of the English however, in 1796, some- 
thing like a club was found necessary, and this appears 
to have originated at an inn or coffee house in Stabroek, 
which afterwards went by the name of the Union Coffee 
House. Both English and Dutch joined the " Union" or 
<( Eendragt" Society, and we may presume that its name 
was derived from this fact. The exact date of the 
