The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-01 00:00:00

GREENHOUGH V. GASTRELL•

This was a❑ appeal from an order of the Vice-Chan-
cellor, who had refused a motion f.r the inspection of
certain books in the posession of the def ndant, excepting
the documents mentioned in the schedule to the de-
fendant's answer. His Lordship affirmed the decision of
the Vice-Chancellor.

TIIORNLEY V. BURNE.
The petition here prayed, in the first place, for the ap-
pointment of a receiver of the -states of the late Lord
Crawford and Lindsay, in the island of Antigua, in the
stead of the late receiver ; and in the next, that direc-
tions might br given to carry into of -ct the manumission
of slaves, as intended by his Lordship's will. The case
presented great difficulties. It was to be observed, that
great neglect had been manifested by Mr. Buckthorne, in
not making the estate arid the hire of the negroes as pro.
ductive as they might hive been, and that such n sleet
had not been brought before this or some other Court.
The consequence of this n glect was, that the benevolent
inten'ions of the testator had been thwar'ed. The strict
law of the island appeared to have been, that a patty ma-
numitting a slave was called upon to deposit 300/ , or to
incur a penalty to that amount ; but there appeared to him
some doubt whether that was the law, and, still more,
whether it had not fallen into desuetude. The great
difficulty b, fore the Court was, that fifty-seven of the
slaves entitled to he liberated were without the means of
procuring t: eir own subsistence, some of them being in-
fants, and some past the period of active work. There were,
however, 89 slaves who were able-bodied ; and there
seemed no reason to doubt, since these slaves, whatever
their colour, were not destitute of the principles of hu-
manity, that they would support the others, many of
whom were connected with them by blood and kindred.
An experiment somewhat similar bad been tried, and with
great success, in this same island of Antigua. His Lord-
ship had before him two despatches from the Governor
of the island to the Secretary of State, from the first of
which it appeared that 2QO slaves had been liberated in
1829. None of these slaves were natives of the island,
and yet nothing could be more satisfactory than the ac-
counts of their conduct since they bad been set free. They
had employed themselves with the most exemplary indus-
try, in providing for their livelihood. The other despatch
to which he alluded was not of a less satisfactory tenor.
It appeared from the inquiries he had made, that of the
slaves, the objects of Lord Crawford's bounty, there were
13 who were artificers. They were enabled in that island,
by the exercise of their skill and industry, to earn much
more than was required for their own subsistence. There
was in this country, at this moment, a gentleman who was
Comptroller of the Customs in Antigua, and to whom
the management of these liberated slaves, mentioned in
the Government despatch, had been committed. His
Lordship had had an interview with this gentleman, a Mr.
White, which bad influenced him in making the order he
was about to pronounce. Oa the first part of this peti-
tion his Lordship ordered that Mr. White should be ap-
pointed to succeed the late receiver of the estates of Lord
Crawford. He would take care of those slaves to be
manumitted by the permission of the Government. He
would also receive the sums which the late receiver
had permitted to remain in arrear, and then it would
be seen if there did not exist some means of compel-
ling the payment of 2,5001., due to the estate. It was
his Lordship's opinion that the slaves had a right to be
liberated, even though the money was not deposited; and
they had a right also to have that money deposited, if it
could be recovered. He believed also that there was a fund
in this country—he meant the Amico Fund—which
might be applied to this purpose, although the scheme as
settled by one of the Masters was not yet completed. That
fund was to be applied to the support of British colonial
slaves, a description which included those slaves of Anti-
gua. His Lordship adverted to the fund in this way as be-
ing applicable to liberated slaves only. Now, if the condi-
tion of the deposit of 3001., required by the law of the
island for such slave, was a condition precedent, this fund
was not applicable ; but if that was not a condition pre-
cedent to the liberation of the slaves, then this Alnico
'Fund was applicable. He was inclined also to invest the
7501., or 5151. the acknowledged produce received from
the estates in Mr. White's possession, to he applied to the
free slaves, according to the will of Lord Crawford, and he
trusted no opposition would be made to this arrangement
in the island. The executor, if be was in this country,
might meet Mr. White, and give up the whole management
to him, which would facilitate the execution of the arrange-
ment now made.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JAN. 31.