The Sun.
London, England, 1818-10-22 00:00:00

'ME COLONIES.

Directing particular attention to the interes's
of our Colonial Establishments, we regret that
we have been obliged, cootrary to our declared
intention, to interrupt the series of Extracts from
the BAHAMA Papers. We, however, resume them
this day, and our Readers will see ihdt we are not
partial in our Extracts, but admit the arguments
on both sides of a question which has un-
happily produced such differences between the
Governor and the House of Assembly.
less are we disposed to offer our opinions,
but as we know that our Colonial Dependencies,
in general, look with solicitude on the final deci-
sion of the Government at home, we shall not

[)resume to interpose our own sentiments, but
eave the question to the wisdom of our Rulers.

From the Royal Gazette and Bahama Advertiser, July 29.)
(colitinued from THE SUN of October to.)
MESSRS. EDITORS,—To those who lieve in ft
manner identified themselves with the late As•
sembly in all its proce, dings, the Address of the
Members, as published in your Gazette of the 22d
inst. will, no doubt, appear to be a perfect jevi.
fication of their conduct against the reflections of
his Honour the President, cast upon it, with such
singular asperity, as they term it, in his speech at
the prorogation. There are many, however, to
whom it does not appear in this enlightened view ;
but as there may be also many who, knowing
little of the proceedings of the House, may be dis-
posed gooduaturedly to take every thing for right
that bits been set down for them, a short expo-
sition of those proceedings will do no injury.
It must be remembered, that after the dissolu-
tion of the House of Assembly that took place its
consequence of the arrest and commiimeet of Air.
Wylly, a new House was called, which met
on the 2d of September, ISI7. This Assembly,
sore from the affronts which they believed their
predecessors had been subjected to, renewed the
inquiry into Mr. ‘Vylly's cooduct, and would have
proceeded against him, but after deliberate consi.
deration, a Committee of the House, consistiog
of five members, laid before it a large, particular,
and I may told, a very elaborate Report, which
was referred to the House then in Committee on
the state of the Colony, and which concluded with
the following emphatic eords, " the Committee
therefore, on as fell a view of the case submitted
to them as cuctimstances would allow, do not feel
themselves authorised to say that there is any suffi-
cient precedent to justify further pi oceediugs
against William Wylly for the same offence for
which he ss-as commoted to prison by the late
House ; and !ninthly beg leave to submit to the
House the great danger of assuming any audio-
he.vever apparently reconcileable to princi-
ple, which has not some direct sanction from the
ancient hews ; or the estebli,hed usages of Parlia-
ment." There is, I alai aware, no minute on the
Journals of the House of this Report having been
agreed to, but what is equally binding however,
there was nothing deported agaito:', it by the Com-
mittee of the whole House to which it was re-
ferred, and the subsequent proceedings of the
House very clearly slew that it was tacitly ac-
quiesced in ; for there was not only no !ilk:Milt
to carry on any further proceedings against Mr.
Wylly personally for his past offences, but new
charges, which were laid against hitn, were
actually given tip, because the House considered
itself incompetent to investigate them, whilst its
privileges were withheld. The House, in fact, so
far gave up their pretensions to the vindication of
its rights, mid appealed for redress, first by message
to tie Governor, and then by Address to the
Prince Regent, praying his Royal Highness,
among other petitions, " to cause to be restored
to the loyal inhabitan:s of these Islands, in the
persons of us their lawful Representatives the
hill and free enjoyment of our former just rights
and privileges." The House was thereupon pro-
rogued, and was assembled again on the ith inst.
by his Honour Mr. President Mainlines. The
Session having been opened, the President on the
same thy Collll4lUnicated to the House the Answer
of the Prince Regent to the Address and Petition
of the preceding Session, which had been trans-,
witted to Governor Cameron, through the Ilona
channel ot commenication, the Secretary for the
Colonial Department. In this Answer, his Royal
Highness does not, indeed, recognise tee privi-
leges of the House as exercised in the case of Mr.
Wylly, because, under all the circumstances
thereof, the arrest and commitment of Mr. Wylly
Were highly objectionable; nor does his Royal
Highness give them any power to undo what the
Judges of the General Court had dope, because
his Royal Highness entirely approved of their
conduct " upon Mr. Wylly's being brought
btfore them on et' Writ of Habeas Corpus
(hay issued, inasmuch as his recommitment
to prison would have implied that in the opi-
nitro of the Court the arrest anti imprisonment
of Mr. W. had been warranted by Law ;" but his
Royal Highness assures them that he wall " ever
be ready to effort them protection and support
in the duo exercise of their privileges, but that
his Royal Highness considers that it would be in-
consistelit with the due administration of justice,
and with the personal liberties of the inhabitants
of the Bahamas, it the Assembly were allowed to
possess an uneontrouled right of arresting and
committing to prison any of his nijesty's sub-
jects ender the plea of alleged breach of privi-
lege."*—Upon the receipt of this Message, the
House, lot got ing even that comity which was
due to the Chief Magistrate, and which at the
least slimdd have pioduced some notice of the
Speech that had been delivered to tuenrat the.
opening of the Session, passed to the consinera-
tion of the message, and then adjourned to the
unusual period ot a week ; when having again
met, a set of Resolutions were moved wad car-
ried, to say the least of them, as strange as p:r-
haps were ever before stiting together by tic at...-
presentative Body of any Colony. It utight, in-
deed, have been hoped, atter the comnomicatt n
of the foregoing dispatch, transmitted in [tdy to

the Mebsag• in the Itoy4l cvezette of the loth ingt..

their own Petition, " that all •former differences
avntilil'have ceased, and that the House would
'have proceeded to the dis Charge of the public bit-
4iness with temperance anti moderation,, ' but
"when these 'Resolutions were recorded -on the
-.Tolimals as the Resolutions Of the House, an'such
hopes vanished at once : for it never could have
`been fancied for a moment, that after resolving—
That the dispatch from Lord Bathurst, communi-
cated by the President, did not appear to the
House to contain ao.answer to the Address cif the
'Pause that it did .not appear 'hut the Address
'had ever been laid before the 'Prince,Regent=-.
That the House slid not submit to the decision of
his Majesty's Government the legsli'y, or ille•
gality of any measures of thelleneral Court, but
baring :pronounced certain 'proceedings of that
Court to be a flagrant breach of 'the lawful privi-
lieges of the House, only called upon his Majes-
ty's Government to give effect to the se.tled de-
termination of the House—That the moderation
of the House in the last Session appeared to have
• been mistaken for imbecility, and had only drawn
trot' Lord Bathurst unqualifed anti-unjust repre-
hension—That therefore the House considered
the Address as altogether unanswered •; and hold-
ing itself in the same situation in every respect
touching the matters in question, as before the
Address was sent, :hat the House would resume
the vindicating of its just rights by a fair And firm
exercise of its own constitational au purity
say, after resolutions of such a tenor, credulity
alone could suppose that the differences would
cease, and that the public business would be pro-
ceeded in with temperance. These, however, and
others, all touching upon parts of Lord Batlonst's
dispatch, have rot yet met the public eye. When
they do, I will venture to assert that they will
not be considered as undeserving very severe re-
flections. After the House had thus again taken
np the Cudgels in despite of the proceedings of
the preceding Session, which had beet' conducted
upon a virtual acknowledgment that they cool()
not proceed again against Mr. Wylly, humbly
submitting the great danger of assuming any au-
thority, however reconcileable to principle, which
has not some direct sanction from •the ancient
Laws, or the established usages of Parliament,
was it to be expected that the other authorities
were to sleep on their posts, and allow the House
to make out a new case for itself, and smoothing
over all the roughness of the old one, pass quiet-
ly onwards to Victory and Triumph, without
which no public business would be entered upon?
Wylly had committed no new offence against
the House, he had not again resisted its warrant,
'tor had he again abused and slandered it at
the Bar of the General Court—his offences had
been all immersed its the long recapitulation
of charges transmitted to the Sovereign, and they
were not deemed punishable, because the pro-
ceedings against bins had been considered highly
objectionable. The late House had therefore no•
thing to do with his haughtiness or his scurrility
to their predecessors; 'lle Members, indeed,
tell you that they can produce a volume of Par-
liamentary cases to justify the pretension of right
to prosectne for cote enlists ag,Ainst a former [louse,
which has been itself prevented from proceeding
by a premature dissolution ; but how happens it
then that not one solitary instance was produced
before the preceding Session by that Committee,
whose report, I may safely say, employed all the
talents of the House How happens it that not
one solitary case to justify the rejection of that
report appears on the minutes of the late House ;
nothing beyond the brief motion, that the
Hote.e do disagree to it, or some such compre-
hensive words ? How is it that the House be-
comes all 'at once so much better informed than it
was in the preceding Session ? It is indeed pre-
tended . that the late House were proceeding
against Mr. W. upon new offences, and not 'for
the saute for which be had been committed ; bnt
let them draw what distinction they please, they
are the offences which had collectively engaged
the serious deliberations of the preceding Session.
It is but playing with words to say, that Mr. W.
was not committed for a justifiable resistance to
an illegal warrant—you have their own words
that it was illegal. '' A warrant in the nature of
a summons to bring him to the bar!" To such
an instrument ;here could not be resistance, for
if there had been any, there must first have been
illegality in the service to produce it : it was then
the more incumbent on the House to have ordered
Mr. W. before them for a hearing, and, setting
aside the very unjostifiable manner of the arrest,
it was the more illegal to commit him without
It is denied that Mr. W. was discharged immedi-
ately on the dissolution of the House: he was,
it is true, at large on bail at the time that occur-
rence took place ; but whets he appeared before
the Court on the Thursday afterwards, it was in-
timated from the Bench that he was considered as
discharged by that event. The late Members tell
yon, that but for the prorogation of the House,
the difficulties of the country' would have been at
an end at farthest by three o'clock of the day on
which it took place, disclaiming any predetermi-
nation to proceed to any act of oppression or in-
justice towards Mr. Wylly, provided he had con-
ducted himselt as they had reason to expect.—
Why then was the Sheriff of the Colony that day
in attendance near the House in his habiliments
of office ? It was no Court day, and he was no
officer of the House. Under what directions then
was he there ? Was Mr.-W. not to have been
committed by way of making the amoide hortoea,
tie, even if lie were enlarged only . five Minutes
afterwards ? Was it not to have beets tried whe-.
ther the Judges of the General Court would re-
mand him when brought tip by llabeaS Corpus,
and whether the Comtnauder-in-Chief would
quietly overlook the proceeding ?- Yes, all this
would have been .tried, and must have taken place
before the public business would have 'been en-
tered on. But this is not all ; there was some-
thing yet to have been done with regard to the
proceedings of the General Court. F.lse why was
the Clerk of the Crown ordered to tarnish the
House with copies of the records of that Court,
touchitog their bailment of Mr. W. ? But was it to
be expected that a man of Mr. Wylly's temper
would make his guloniisions to the House, and
admit the legality of proceedings against him
which had been by high authority declared to be
illegal ? That the Judges of the General Court
wuuld t clinquish the high ground on which they

Itcyorfrtntfllie !loyal approbatlriin rif
duct, and cast contempt upon drat 'aprrohatiou
tokeep't lie Assembly in temper ? 'hat the Com -
mander=irdChief would conkider theßoyal instruc-
tions in hisilands as so much waste paper, and for•
getting 'his ditty to himself and to his Sovereign,
look with indifference on the measures of this
House? Not the House could not, they did not
expect nll this.; and they looked fora proroga-
tion, although it came upon them rather prema-
turely. 'lt is held out to the people that it is from
them the Aisembly claim their rights and ptivi-
leges. The rights and privileges at the Assembly
are noitottht those of the people; so are the pre-
rogatives fif the Crown, but they are to be exer•
'Cised within those limited boundaries which afford
the. graatest Share of security to the subject and
constituent, and best preserve its dignity without
endangering the general li'ierty. The dispatch of
Lord Bathurst is treated as not containing the
-commands of his Royal Master; but I ain very
apprehensive that cousequetices will prove it to he
auth,ntir, and that the British Parliament will
be applied to, to do that, for the King's service
in the colony, which its Assembly will not. I
cannot find in the Journals of the Assembly any
stance spewing that they have not been commu-
nicated in the usual way, nor, except in regird
to laws, that the Royal Mandate has been ac-
companied by a detailed attestation of time, place,
and citcumstance. Had the prosperity of the Co-
lony, and the true interests of their constituents,
been really the prime object of the late House,
however dissatisfied they may have been with the
Communication which had been made to Ahem,
they would not again have agitated the question
of Privilege on the former otlenees of Mr. Wylly,
but have waited for the nix( fair occasion to as-
sert them. knowing, as they must have known,
that in the position in which they stood, they
would never be allowed to benefit by their own
wrongs in the attainment of their object.
Nassau, July 25, 1818. A. Z.-

[To be continued ]

PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.

(From The Sheffield Mercury.)
There is a set of political grumblers amongst us
who take much pleasure in torturing themselves
and pestering their neighbours with the most
gloomy presages, and the most ttistful anticipa-
tions of the future. They can see nothinv, in the
splendid successes of their country, but the germ
of coming et-Amity ; every pleasing scene of ►na-
tional prosperity withers at the sight of these
jaundiced spectators, the eternal theme of ►host:
declamation and croaking is the destruction of our
liberties—the ruin of our commercethe failure
of our credit—and the insupportable weight of

our burdens. In vain do we assert that our
prosperity has increased in a gradual and pro-
gressive manner,—that, at present, it bids fair
to continue the same course,—that our power
and consequence as' a nation stands higher
at the present moment than it ever did at
any former, period,—that our rights and li-
berties stand more secure than ever, from the
increased knowledge and preponderance of the
people,—and that in'no period of our annals, and
in no other nation in the world, was public credit

_ .
so well established as it is amongst its at the prese

day. These are facts notorious to all, and highly
-Nattering to the national character ; yet the folly
of some, the spleen of others, and the malignity
of a third party, object to all this, and would per-
suade us into the belief of our lost and undone
state as a nation, which has nothing in store but
ruin, disgrace, and bankruptcy !
Amongst the many topics of misery which these
gentlemen love to discant on, is the necessary de-
cay of our trade and manufactures, from the grow-
ing rivalship of the neighbouring countries. IVith
the decay of these great resources of our eatness,
away goes all the boasted superiority of our coun-
try, leaving this unhappy island an isolated spot
of wretchedness, weighed down by the extent of
her burdens, and unable to support the over-
grown magnitude of her foreign possessions
There are, however, certain considerations that
militate against the sentiments, fears;and prog-
nostications of these disciples Of Stnelfungus,
which, in our mind, ought to have more weight
than all their ill-boding clamour. We shall pay
no attention to the stories of the great manufac-
turing establishments that have been formed in
different parts of the Continent, and which are
said to threaten ruin to ours. If it is really true
that such attempts have been made, and bid fair
to be successful, it will only be the better for us,
for the more industrious and opulent our neigh-
bours are, the better customers they will be to
us. It is wretched policy, indeed, that would
keep our neighbours poor, that we might be rich ;
good sense points out the very opposite course in
the relations of private trade, and the sante rule
will hold in the more important intercourse of one
nation with another.
The con,iderations to which we allude are of

a more general and abstract nature, the truth of
which is confirmed by history, and is perfectly in
unison with the nature of things. Thus it may
he affirmed, that no nation ever continued long
to cultivate trade and commerce with success, un-
less tl►at nation enjoyed the advantages of politi-
cal liberty. .Till the nations on the Continent,
therefore, are on a par with us in this respect,
we need be under no apprehension of their sur-
passing us in respect to trade. They may ex-
hibit a more splendid Throne, greater territory,
larger armies, and more military skill ; but cons-
' merce never thrives where property is not se-
, cure, al►tl where tier Inovements may be con-
trolled by the folly or caprice of a despot. The
most fertile country, if the Government is not free,
will have no attractions for merchants ; security
of property and certainty of enjoyment being
their .first rescinds, these bees often plane their
honey on the barren rock. The arts and manu-
factures, trade n d commerce, are in separably con-
, netted with tre‘edom ; they arise frost► it, and can-
not exist in any state of vigorous vitality without
it. Let a country lose its liberties, and these gra-
dually wither away ; let it regain its freedom,
and they return as its natural concot»itants.—
In a despotic Government property is pre-
carious, and wealth dangerous. It is not the In-
terest of such a Government to encourage trade,
nor is it the interest- of tnet•cbt:uts to trust

then 'l;c, tlitse
itrelairnerS argue, who on tlie one liana a-siert
dent we have-contributed to it rte chains Of•iles-
potkin for the continental states,, and on the other

that these statts are about to deptive us of our
trade and manufactures, by their superior indus-
try, skill, chetapness,•&c. &c. If the Holy Alliance
has, as it is said by such reasoners, imposed sla-
very on continental Europe, we need be under no
fears of our commerce, till they can contrive to
do the same good tarn for us. We may test as-
tuned, that WI 'long as our freedom as it nation
lasts, our .commerce will continue Co'flourish, in
spite of the croaking deipair, 'Or the effoits
of malignity. To strengthen 'this 'conviction it •
may be useful to make a brief hisstorical survey
of wh.:t happened at other times and in other
places, when we will he sure to observe trade the
inseparable companion of liberty and security.
The ancient Tyrians by commerce acquired
such wealth and strength as enabled them for a
considerable period to tesist the whole power of
the Assyrian monarchy, and, rather than submit
to it at last, they quitted a fertile country and re-
tired to a little island, where they founded their
city on a rock, and there maintained their freedom
Fold preserved their commerce. The fret states of
Greece enjoyed a large share of trade, which
quickly abandoned them when they lost their
liberty. Their colonies in Asia, in particular,
continued to flourish in commerce and opu-
lence till they ware snbiogated, and formed a
striking contrast 'with the States around -then),
which were equally destitute of freedom as of
trade. ' Wireti liberty began to dawn in the West
of EnrOpe, trade found an asylum amouest those
countries that first established their freedom, and
Venice, Genoa, and Florence became the marts
of the world. When Holland formed a Province
of the Spanish Empire, it, was undistinguished by
any thing butt the poverty and wretchedness 44
its inhabitants ; but no snout r had it tilt own otf
the yoke, and acquired the blessiugs of political
freedom, than commerce was seen in its trail),
giving scope to the active exertions of unfettered
industry and mercantile enterprise.
Let us, however, view the matter in an oppo-
site light, and we shall, be led to the same
Let us, inquire what has become of Tyre, At bens,
Rhodes, Syracuse. ann Colchis, each of w hich in
its day had been the metropolis of the commercial
world. They are now no morf, and their places
are hardly to be found. They lost their liberty,
and with their liberty the arts, manufactures, and
commerce, have taken their everlasting flight. An
examination of the state of commercial Europe
will confirm the same doctrine. Every where min
we find liberty and commerce go hand in hand—
supported by the same agency, amid impaired or
destroyed by the same causes. And the reason is
obvious enough. The merchant above air timings
requires security for his property, and liberty to
conduct it as he pleases. In a despotic country
he can expect neither the one nor the other. And
even if the Government has reached that degree
of improvement as to make private property se-
cure (which is time case with ail the nations on the
Continent of Europe), yet are they sufficiently
absolute to have the power of interfering in com-
mercial concerns, which they often do in a partial
and harassing manner, to the gm eat injury of the
trading interests of the country. In countries
not free, the people are divided into two great
classes, the one of which is too proud and rich to
engage in business ; the other is ton dependent and
poor. Time is something in the very nature of
an absolute government that represses the growth
of that middle class of society which is so pecu-
liarly fitted for trade. The empty bauble of a
title confers more distinction in such a country
than the greatest character for mercantile inte-
grity; and a star or a ribbon, which may be con-
ferred on the most worthless minion of a Court,
gives more consideration to the wearer than time
possession of a fortune acquired by the arts of
humble industry. The case is. different, however,
in a free country, where merit finds its proper
level, and where men are estimated by the for-
tunes they have honestly acquired, more than by
any other more questionable lest. CoNINIERCR
THIIREFoRE IS A PLANT WHICH WILL ONLY TliktlVE;
IN TIIS SOIL OP LIBERTY. It withers and droops
in any other, however foisted up by adventitious
circumstances, or stimulated by the unnatural
warmth of an absolute and arbitrary government.

Tuesday night, at a late hour, an Excise of-
ficer, named Foster, was alarmed by the cry of
" Help!" on that part of the Thames near the
West India Docks ; on proceeding to the spot, he
found it proceeded from two men who were
drowning. He instantly went for assistance,
which, with winch difficulty, was procured. Se-
veral boats put out, and one of the men, named
Grossley, was taken out of the water ; he proved
to he one of the sentries who were on guard. that
night at the docks ; lie was.iu a senselesscondi-
tion, but the means recommended by the Royal
Humane Society being immediately resorted to,
he was soon recovered. It appeared they were
assisting each other in putting a puncheon in a
barge, and they both fell in the water. Soon after
the body of John Davis was taken out, but all
efforts to save him proved useless, he being quite
dead. The body was taken to the Black Horse,
' High-street, Poplar.
DREADFUL ACClDENT.—Yesterday, about one
o'clock, one of the men at work on the repairs cat
the Church, at the corner of Gracechurch-street ,
was precipitated from the top, if act literally dashed
to pieces. The feelings of tile passengers passing
at the moment may be better conceived Ciao de-
' scribed. He was removed for the Coroner's
Inquest,
On Monday. the 12th inst. an Inquisition
taken at the Bull lon, Beuedeo, on view of the
body of Thomas Westley, a child about 6 years
old, who met his death by the following sing filar
and distressing accident :—lt appeared that the
deceased, with some other children, had accompa-
: fl led a lad of the name of Couchman iu procuring
acorns front some frees upon his father's grounds,
and that Couchman being in one of the trees
with a hope-pole, beating down the aeon's, the
pole unfortunately fell from his haads, with the
sharpened point upon the head of the child, -and
fractured the skid' so severely as to occa,ion
hi
death to about an hour afterwards. The Jury
a returned a verdict of " Accidental Death."