The Sun.
London, England, 1821-06-07 00:00:00

been sent out to Tobago as Attorney-Geberal of
the island. When arrived there, he witnessed
strong cases of flagrant and violent denials of jus-
tice, in which he found himself compelled either
to become a participator, or submit to a life of
mortification.and trouble in endeavouring to pre-
vent them.---He could not say that justice was
sold in this island, but it was so thwarted and
impeded as to prevent it, or render it nugatory.
Offices, intended as checks to each other, were
united in the same person, and acts of the foulest
injustice were committed by the chief public
officers. Mr. Capper came home with great ex-
pence ant' difficulty, and represented the case to
the Colonial Secretary, who directed an inquiry
among the officers of the island. They made a
return, disowning the facts stated by Mr. Cap-
Per, and stigmatizing him in the grossest manner.
Upon this return Lord Bathurst acted, and in-
formed Mr. Capper .that no further notice 'could
be taken of his
.complaint. Ire would confine
the statements which he was about to submit to
two, which were supported as to the fact by the
report of the officers, themselves ; besides which,
the most respectable witnesses were read y to depose
before a Committee Of one were to be appointed),
as to the truth of what he would state. Mr. Cap-
per went out 'early in 1819 to the island. In
May, following he was passing the prison of Scar-
borough, and saw a wretched victim looking
through the bars, whose- case he' subsequently
became too well acquainted with. His name
was Edward Hoskins ; he had been confined
twelve weeks for an assault on one of the public
officers, as it was alleged. lie was altogether
neglected by 'his gaoler, and *hopeless of his
liberty, because he had in fact committed no
crime. The Deputy Provost Marshal was Mr.
Robert Mitchell, whose father was the principal,
now living at Hampstead, having that appoint-
ment for twenty.years, and never saw the island.
There was a Spaniard under the Deputy, who

did the duty. Mr. Capper asked if there was
any warrant for the imprisonment, and was an-
swered by the gaoler that he believed there was
one. A month after he found Hoskins confined
in a lower dungeon, where he was sitting on a
wooden table, with his feet in the stocks, in
which condition he had been- left with all the
torture of excoriations and 'the accumulation of
filth around him, in a vertical thine, for one fort,
night. 'Mt% Capper persuaded Sir F. Robinson,
the Governor of the Island, to see the prisoner
next morning, and. the Governor was much
shocked at the spectacle. There was no me-.
dical attendant appointed to the gaol, and so
Hoskins had no relief. The plea for this con-
duct -was, that the prisoner was insane. He
was relieved from this state of confinement,
but detained in custody. Mr. Capper moved
in the Court of Chancery for a writ de lu-
natic.° inquirando, but did not succeed. Three
weeks after Hoskins was forcibly shipped
off for. England.. The second case was one
of equal injustice, thmigh not like it in cru-
elty. Three seamen had charged the master of
a vessel with assault, and having wounded them
with a cutlass ; the case was heard, and the evi-
dence of the seamen set aside, while that of the
master was all that was offered in opposition.—
Here he regretted that he had to name the
Chief Justice, whose lamented brother was once
a distinguished ornament of the House. Mr.
Elphinstone Piggot combined in his own person
the incongruous offices of Chief Justice, Speaker
of the House of Assembly, a committing Magis-
trate, and manager of three estates: The master
was set at liberty on his own evidence illegally,
and the seamen had to sleep 15 nights on the
beach, until Mr. Capper succeeded in procuring
them a passage home, which was denied them
unless they consented to sign a paper accusing
themselVes of mutiny. The best answer to the
latter charge was, in the judgments of the English
Magistrates, Langley, Richfield, and Kinnaird, of
the Thames Police-office. A Warrant was applied
for by the three seamen on the sth November last,
the case was heard, the cutlass was produced, and
the Magistrates determined that the contract had
been broken by the Captain, and that absence
from the .vessel to lodge a complaint agaidst
him was, not -mutiny. He was compelled .to
pay them 101. wages each, with coats, and 201.
were afterwards recovered for anterior costs. There
was a Mr.Robley on the island, who was so great
as to be vulgarly called the King of it. He pre-
sided hi the Commission which acquitted the
Captain, as was afterwards.confessed, because he
was, as the consignee of the brig, which was
laden' with sugars and rum, likely to lose the
market if the master .were. detained. Mr: Rob-
ley said afterwards, that he did not care a d--
if the fellow were hanged when he came to Eng-
land; .provided he got safe home. Thus were
the rights of the islanders rendered insecure, ad ,
their property also pro tanto. There were :si
other cases which he could adduce.. He wont 1
only allude. to, the case of Duff, who was su ,
petted of having broken into the house of Collier,
the Deputy Provost Marshal, and was sentiOff,
after being imprisoned and hanolcuffed for- fonr,-,
months as a felon, to a rock close .by; called,Sito
Lucie—or, as it was termed, on account of its
uses, the Pigeon Island. Having stated thus
much, - he trusted that the House would allow a
Committee, as they must see the dangerous situa-
tion in which- the inhabitants were placed, under
a government of officers holding such discordant
situations—the Chief Justice. having an interest
separate from hiS functions to consult, and hav-
ing to receive his salary from the planters and
managers of the Island. Such was the extent to
which they carried their measures there, that all
those who opposed the corrupt system of Govern-
' ment were called, by way of contempt, emis-
saries of the. African Institution, and some,
times Wilberforceites. Would to God - they
kiiew • with how much wisdom,' how much
benevolence, how much goodness and love of
' human nature, that name is, and ever must be
associated !—(Loud cheers.)[The Noble Lord
then read some extracts' from a statement of Sir
William Young, a-gentleman who had been dis-
tinguished in that House for his opposition to
the removal of the Slave Trade.]—lt was melan-
choly' to state,, that on the Sabbath-day, and at
the very. hour of divine worship, that was the
precise trivalent for their-market: and frequently