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

for their tortures and-punishments. The Noble
Lord concluded by moving, " That a Select
Committee be appointed to inquire into certain
Abuses in the administration of Justice in the
Island of Tobago."
Mr. W. SMITH said, that in rising to second
the motion of his Noble Friend, he should merely
advert to those abuses which had been already
proved to exist in the island, and from thence he
should draw a few general inferences, upon
which -he should ground his support. In the
first place, he should feel much regret in
mentioning the name of the Chief Jus-
tice Piggott, brother to Sir Arthur Piggott,
one of his most early acquaintances, and a man
front whom certainly no evil communication could
have been received. He remembered whe❑ Mr.
Hastings entered that House to answer to the
articles of impeachment, he mentioned in his me-
morable speech, that the situations in which men
were placed, and the circumstances by which
they were surrounded, frequently tended to bias
their judgments; and without meaning to cast
any imputation on the individual in question,
he must say, that having lived so many years in
the Colonies, he was surrounded with tempta-
tions, which it was almost impossible to avoid.
The first case in the paper on the table was
that of a man of the name of Peter Singleton,
and without at all referring to his statement, but
confining himself simply to the defence made
by Mr. Piggott himself, he should make a short
statement of facts, upon which it would be
for the House-to decide. Mr. Piggott stated in
his defence, that. Peter Singletotn, was a black
man, not a native of the island, and whether
free or not he did not know. lie (Mr. Smith)
thought that whether a black man or a white
one, whether a native or not, whether a freeman
or a slave, was a matter of little importance.
The facts were these :—Peter Singleton hap-
pened to be walking towards the bay, where
the Nelson lay, and being in an ill state of
health, sat down to rest. While he was so
doing, Mr. Sinclair, a Magistrate, came up,
and, in a rough tone of voice, cried, "Move
out of my way !" Singleton replied, that
he might have addressed him in a more
complaisant tone. Sinclair on his return, said,
‘1 Oh ! you are there still ; I don't know you."
He then gave directions to the cooper to take
him into custody, which he accordingly did, and.
Singleton was put into the stocks. The charge
then was this, 'Peter Singleton was taken into
custody without having committed a crime, put
in the stocks without any ceremony, and dis-
missed with just as little reason. The Chief
Justice said, in justification of this conduct, that
Peter' Singleton was not a native of the island,
that he came from another country, and the
Court was always disposed to look with suspicion
upon persons under such circumstances. Now
this was not the statement of a Counsel employed
to make the most of his case, it was the state-
ment of the Chief Justice in defence of the Ma-
gistrate. The question then was, whether the
administration of justice should not be intrusted
into the hands of men over whose minds preju-
dices should have little weight, circumstances.
none. They had heard a great deal of the ho-
nour of the Counsel and the character of the
Assembly ; but when they considered that As-
sembly was not cc.mposed of G6S members, but
13 or 14, and at the most el or 22, it was hn-
possible they should not form a close compact
society among themselves, so that hardly any
man could receive justice. For his own part he
should be most happy if something could be done
this Session, but he feared the most the House
could do would be to pledge itself to the inquiry.
He hoped, however, the effort of hi-s Noble Friend
would not evaporate without producing some
effect ; it should have his most perfect concur-

rence.
Mr. Gourawas said, that in any observations he
felt it his duty to make, he should abstain from'
entering into the latter part of the Noble Lord's
statement, although he could assure him it did
not proceed either from the slightest disrespect
to him„ or inattention to the subject. He always
felt considerable difficulty in addressing himself
to questions of this nature. One of the great
evils to which the abuses that prevailed in the
Colonies were principally attributed, was allow-
ing them an independent Legislature, claiming
all the privileges and exercising all the author►ty
the Parliament did here, and until the Parlia-
ment of this country should decide that this sys-
tem should be abolished the conduct of the
Government should be viewed in relation to the
system which has been established. With respect
to admitting a slave as evidence against his mas-
ter, he could easily conceive the evils that might
result from allowing an irritated slave the power
of swearing against his master ; but on the other
side, let them look to the consequences of a mas-
ter having the power to compel a nuMber of his
adherents to swear to facts in order to vindicate
his character ; for so closely were. they connected
and linked to WM, that it would be too much 'to
expect from an illiterate -slave that he would
make resistance. Having said so much, he should
now come to the immediate qeestion before the
House,namely whether Parliament should go into
the proposed inquiry. He always felt extreme pain
and reluctance in opposing an inquiry that could
in any degree serve the Colonies, and if he did
it in this instance, it was from the dread that it
would conclude, not in a Committee of inquiry
but of condemnation. The object of the motion
must be, either to inquire into the conduct of
particular individuals or the entire system ; in
either case it was most likely that House could
not come to a just conclusion. If you inquire
into the general 'system, you are not, from a few
individual cases, to draw the inference that the
whole system was improper ; and with respect to
the particular case to which the Noble Lord had
alluded, he must say that it was not for him to
enter into a general vindication of the conduct tine
Noble Lord had described. It was foreign to
his nature to justify, that at which the feelings of
mankind must revolt ; but he could not help com-
plaining, that, when the Noble Lord brought for=
ward that case, he did not mention the statement
under the consideration of the Secretary of State.
lie was aware there were many circumstances
which the House could not approve, but the ver.y