The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-03 00:00:00

that the keeper was obliged to put the prisoners in chains
attached to each other ; and. in fact, to the imprison-
ment they added every species of torture of that sort
they thought proper. These unfortunate persons were
thrust into these hot-houses, or prisons, or cells, to
which they might be sent by almost any person that
chose to do so. To whom, then, were these persons
entrusted ? Were they men of respectable character ?
The head gaoler and the supervisor might, but the per-
son who had the management and controul of these
prisons was the boatswain, himself a convict, and too
frequently a man of infamous character ; and they had
it stated in Captain Pringle's Report, that the gaoler,
his wife, and the supervisor were frequently absent for
four or five days, leaving the whole charge of the prison
to this inferior officer. It was well known that during"
the day there was no classification—no separation of tin
sexes ; and the party who confined the females at night
in their cells, was the boatswain. And yet that was
the species f religious instruction to which the Noble
and Learned Lord referred.—( Hear, hear.) It was
unnecessary to go over these painful enormities, but it
was enough to say, that the Act was not one which
would satisfy any person who wished to see the condi-
tion of the negro population ameliorated and improved.
Lord Sligo, in one of his despatches in 1836 stated that
he had applied to the Assembly, but that there was no
chance of their attending to his applications. He had
sent them forty cases of females on whom the grossest
cruelty had been perpetrated, and had mentioned in-
stances in which men confined in their gaols had been
deprived of the necessaries of life, of persons for whom
medicines had been ordered, but which were never given,
and death had been the result. Whyookeas this ? Be-
cause the boatswain was present but the supervisor was
absent. Yet, notwithstanding such atrocity, in all these
cases verdicts were returned of " Died by the visitation
of God."—( Hear, bear.) Were these things to go on
without some remedy being suggested ?—( Hear, hear.)
Numerous instances of frightful and terrific outrages
crowded upon his memory while he was addressing
their Lordships, but it was unnecessary for him to
detain their Lordships by repeating them.—( Hear,
hear, hear.) The Noble and Learned Lord had
stated that the Government should have appointed
local magistrates and that they would have visited the
prisons. Indeed ! The Noble and Learned Lord might
have seen that those special magistrates with every
power given to them by the Governor, had repeatedly
endeavoured to penetrate into those recesses of cruelty,
but were repelled, and, as it was said, by the Law.—
( Hear, hear.) The result was ti,at by the Act of
1837, the Governor had not the slightest power of in-
spection. When asked by Sir Lionel Smith in No-
vember to remedy these grievances, the House of As-
sembly referred the matter to a Committee, but adopted
no measure. The House separated in December and
met again in February, but not one word was said
about a Prisons Bill. The Noble Lord concluded by
saying, he considered he would have been guilty
of a gross dereliction of duty if he had refrained any
longer from requesting their Lordships to redress these
grievances.—(Cheers.)
The Marquis of NORM ANBY did not feel it
necessary, after the statement he had made last
night, to enter into a discussion of the topics touched
on by the Noble and Learned Lord. He had never
concealed his opinion that the best remedy for the abso-
lute abrogation on the part of the Assembly of Jamaica
at such a crisis, and before the great experiment of
negro emancipation should have been carried to a suc-
cessful issue. was the measure originally proposed to
the other House of Parliament; but he had never as-
sumed that the suspension of the constitutional privi-
leges even of such an Assembly—which, however, he
could not agree with the Noble and Learned Lord was
a popular Assembly—was a light matter. The Noble
and Learned Lord had said the Jaimaica Assembly had
the subject of prisons under consideration in a Commit-
tee. Why, that was the very thing of which he com-
plained, that the Assembly did nothing but refer the
subject to Committees--(Hear, hear)—and if the House
of Assembly were well informed on this matter, then
were they well informed of those horrible outrages to
which his Noble Friend (Lord Glenelg) had just
alluded.--( Hear, hear.) Whether the flogging of fe-
males was a proper or improper practice, was not a
question that could take so long a time to consider
and determine upon. But then it was said, if it was
so requisite to make laws for the new state of society
in Jamaica, why not leave it to the agitators to do so ?
In the first place, lie would answer, that the Assembly
would not pass such laws because they had said so.
They had said they would not, unless their Lordships
did, what he trusted they never would do, acknow-
ledged they had been wrong in that course of legisla-
ture which his Noble and Learned Friend had proved
was so absolutely necessary.—(Hear, hear.) The
Learned Counsel (Mr. Burge) had stated that the
House of Assembly would never pass laws regulating
contracts which should interfere with the formation or
regulation of contracts by the stipendiary magistrates.
He (the Marquis of Normanby) felt that he was speak-
ing the opinion of all the generous people of England,
when he said, " that the time had not yet come for
abandoning the negro exclusively to the care of those
whose interests were directly contrary to his.—( Hear.)
All the reports recently received from the special ma-
gistrates showed that the want of a contract law was the
cause of all the agitation in the labour market in Ja-
maica. The negroes would not appeal to any tribunal
in which they had no confidence, and the counsel at
their Lordships' bar, the agent for the Assembly at Ja-
maica, distinctly stated that the Assembly would never
pass any law leaving the power in the hands of the
special magistrates. Some such impartial authority
was absolutely necessary in the present state of the
colony. He sincerely trusted that such feelings would
not continue—that the two races would become more
amalgamated in feeling, but at present he, for one,
could not consent that the negroes should he left
to the mercy of a hostile tribunal. The Noble
and Learned Lord had contended that artificers
were going from this country, and that under the Bill
no contract was valid that was not made in the Island
of Jamaica. That was a question which would be fairly
discussed in the Committee. He did not think that
was the proper time to enter into the arguments in de-
fence of the second clause. He supposed some distinct
proposition upon it would be made. He would merely
take that opportunity of denying that the present fund
was sufficient for the public service. Then with respect
to vagrancy and squatting on waste lands there was no
doubt that if the Government were not armed with
power, unless some remedy were applied, ejectments
would continue, vagrancy become more general, and
that would necessarily lead to squatting. The Noble
and Learned Lord, in speaking of Sir L. Smith, had
said he was a violent partizan. . .

Lord LYNDHURST—No ; not a violent partizan.
I did not mention the word violent. I said he was not
a partizan of the Assembly.
The Marquis of NORMANBY was very glad
to hear the explanation. He had known Sir
Lionel Smith for a long time, and knew him
only as a public officer, who had discharged his duty
zealously and faithfully. It was true he was not to
remain in the administration of affairs in Jamaica, but
he (Lord Normanby) had made him an offer, and he
sincerely trusted his services would not be lost to the
country.
'The Earl of HAREWOOD read an extract from
the despatches of Sir L. Smith, but the Noble Earl
was wholly inaudible in the Gallery.
Lord BROUGHAM—Had any Noble Lord en-
tered the House after the clear and eloquent speech of
his Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Lyndhurst) they
would have thought they had heard a very clever,
clear, lucid, and eloquent speech from his Noble Friend
behind him (Lord Glenelg) relating to what took
place in 1834 and in 1838, but they would not have
heard one syllable respecting the Bill of 1839. It was
not unnatural in his Noble Friend, as he had been the
party who reprimanded the Assembly in 1834. Then
came the Noble Marquis, who had nothing at all to do
with the affair in 1834, and who was very remotely
connected with that of 1838, he finding that the Bill
of 1839 had been left wholly unsupported by his Noble
Friend, that the clause which had been attacked, and
successfully, by his Noble and Learned Friend, was left
unsupported, and the Bill being his own, he very natu-
rally came to the rescue. He trusted that no one would
think that he was fastidious or at all hypocritical when
he stated, that in his opinion the case remained exactly
where it did before the speech of the Noble Marquis.
The Noble Marquis had offered no tangible reason or
argument in favour of the clause ; he was obliged, there-
fore, to go back to the speech of the Noble Marquis of
last night upon the second reading of the Bill. They
were now then to come to the consideration of the
clause which had been so successfully and so ably at-
tacked by his Noble and Learned Friend, and
which had not been attempted to be defended
by any of his Noble Friends. He would or
could only consent to extraordinary remedies—hemust limit his consent to a measure of so odious, SO ex-
treme, and so unconstitutional a character—
limit his tolerance of such a measure to a case o abso-
lute necessity. For his opinions in that House be was
bound to answer to no one. When a measure came
ves of the people—
ons thereby fettered,
from the other House of Parliament—a measure passed
bthyouaghmajboeritdyidofnotthefereelphreigseonptaini
ti
still he was bound to approach the subject with
deference and respect, with more than tolerance, and it
was with reluctance he would ask their Lordships to
dissent from a measure so passed. In 1833 and 1834,
when Bills came up to that House with large majorities,
when in 1835 they came up with smaller majorities—
(Hear, hear)--or whether they came up now, if under
the present dispensation they should ever get any more
measures--(La.ughter)—if measures came up from the
other House with a clear, a decided majority, a clearly
expressed opinion upon the part of a great majority of
the representatives of the people, and not passed with a
chance medley--(Laughter)—hap-hazard majority,then
he would with much reluctance take the liberty of ad-
vising their Lordships to dissent from it. The Bill
before them had not been passed by such a majority—
by no such substantial majority—it was passed by what
used to be considered no majority at all—(Cheers)—it
was not a distinctly annunciated opinion ; it was one