Star.
London, England, 1821-06-07 00:00:00

COURTS OF JUSTICE IN TOBAGO.

Lord NUGENT rose to call the attention of the
House to this subject. He should do so as shortly as
possible, and he believed what he should now state
with regard to Tobago, would apply to all the small
West India Islands. The greater part of the infor-
mation he had obtained front a Gentleman, named
Capper, recently returned from Tobago, where he
held the office of Attorney-General. On Mr. Cap-
per's arrival in Tobago, he found the state of the
Courts of Justice in that Island to be such that justice
was impeded by those about the Courts whose duty
it was to forward and promote it. He did not charge
the j rincipals with this conduct, which originated
with the Officers in subordinate situations. Mr. Cap-
per soon discovered that he must either become a
party with these persons, or pass a life of the most
uncomfortable description. lie accordingly gave up
his situation, returned to this country, and reported
the circumstances which he had observed to the Co-
lonial Office. Lord Bathurst, upon these represen-
tations, sent out directions to Tobago that inquiry
should be instituted. The Report received in this
country was such as might be expected from persons
interested in the circumstances they were to report
upon ; and on Mr. Capper again applying at the
Colonial Office, he received this Report as an answer.
He (Lord Nugent) then determined on calling the
attention of the House to the subject. He should
now proceed to detail some of the statements of Mr.
Capper of the abuses practised in the Island in ques-
tion. Mr. Capper particularly detailed the case of
a person named Hoskin, who hc found in prison on
his an ival, on a charge of assault. He was confined
in a dungeon, suffering under its close and noisome
heat in the hottest weather of a vertical climate,
stretched on a table with his left leg in the stocks.—
In these stocks the poor creature's leg had been con-
fined for upwards of a fortnight. His body was
wounded and excoriated, and covered with the col-
lected filth and ordure of three and twenty days—
(Hear, bear).—lle would not disgust the House with
the horrible details of the filth, and stench, and ver-
min which aggravated the misery of this unfortunate
creature, his condition might be easily conceived—
(Hear, hear).—Mr. Caliper applied to Sir F. Robin-
son, the Governor, who went to see Hoskin on the
following morning, and did express (what any man
who had the feelings of an Englishman must have
felt) regret at what he saw. Sir F. Robinson stated,
however, that the man had been reported to him as
insane. Gracious Gou ! was this treatment for in-
sanit•: ? ( Hear, /tear ). —And, if he had been insane,
he had not been visited by any medical man attached
to the prison. The overt act of insanity committed
by this man, on the confession of the Turnkey, was
a declatation, that if ever he came back to this coun-
try, he would apply to the Courts of Justice or to
Parliament /Or redress. Mr. Capper moved for a
writ de lunatico isquirendo, which was opposed by
Mr. Colier, the Deputy Provost-Marshal, and not
granted until Mr. Capper declared that, if the man
died, he would indict all the parties for murder.—
Hoskin was brought up, examined by two Physicians,
and declared not to be insane. The unfortunate suf-
ferer was detained in prison three weeks longer, and
then shipped off the island. The second case was
that of three seamen, who accused the Master of the
brig to which they belonged of an assault with a cut-
lass on them, which was a capital offence. He was
sorry to be obliged to mention the name of Mr. El-
phinstone Pigott, who was the Chief-Justice, the
Speaker of the Assembly, and the Manager of three
estates. The Master of the brig was brought up,
but the seamen were not heard, and the prisoner
was allowed to depart on his own evidence, and the
three men were left behind, where, for fifteen days,
they slept on the open beach—(Hear, hear).—
An attempt was made to make the seamen admit
that they had been guilty of mutiny. This they re-
fused, and on their arrival in England the case came
before the Thames Police for their wages. The wages
were paid, viz. £lO to each, and £2O compensation
for the assault. A Mr. Robly was consignee of the
ship, and the market would have been lost had the
Master been detained. Ile was a man so important,'
that he was called the King of the Island ; and at the
time he had said to Mr. Capper, that if his rum and
sugar were sold, he did not care if the Master should
be hanged as soon as he came to England. Out of
sii cases, he believed he had selected the least glaring.
A man of the name of Duff was accused of breaking
into the house of Mr. Collier, and at the end of four
months he was sent to a rock off St. Lucia, called Pi-'
geon's Nand, where the man was now. Mr. Collier
• at the time had been Magistrate, Prosecutor, and
Jailor—(Hear, hear).—None of the facts stated by
hir. Capper had been denied, though many charges
had been made against Hoskin. Ile (Lord Nugent)
had a letter from Mr. Foss, in whose c‘nploy themau
DOw was, speaking highly Of his character. In that
Island of Slaves, an-attempt had been made to intro-
duce the forms of a free Government ; but the Chief
Justice received his salary from the votes of persons
Who must be concerned in every cause that came be-
fore hint. He would not say that the Chief Justice
was corrupt, but that was a state in which a Chief
I .

Justice was not to be placed. The greatest evil was,
that in no case where a white nian was implicated,
could the evidence of a black be received; and any
man tvho stood up for the slaves was stigmatized as a
Wilberforcian—(flear, hc4r).—Would the House be-
lieve, that these people applied such a name as a term
of obloquy amongst them—a name never mentioned
in any other part of the civilized world, but with that
affection and reverence which attached to superior
wisdom and humanity—(Loud tries of Near).—Ano•
ther great evil upon the Island was the rejection of a
slave t•testimony in the case of a white freeman; the
consequence of such a rejection was most unfavour- •
able to the cause of justice, and to the moral amelio-
ration of the slave's condition. The Noble*Lord then
quoted the opinion of Sir William YOnge, who had
been Governor in the West Indies, and who knew
well the state of society in the Island, to she* that
those who had looked with the best information to
the state of things there,. had long complained of the
impolicy and injustice of not allowing a qualified ad-
mission of the evidence of slaves, in their judicial in-
quiries. This proscription was ill calculated to create
that feeling in the slaves towards their masters, which
it was so desirable to see cultivated upon the Islands.
Would the House believe, that not only were the
slaves thus treated; but that they were a'•solutely de-
nied the opportunity of being present at any place of
Christian worship ; for on the day and hour set apart
for adoring the GOD of Mercy and Truth, the time
was actually fixed on, not only for carrying on the
slave-market, but for flogging these poor wretches!—
(Near, hear).—This was a dreadful example to set
before the eyes of the unhappy slaves on the Chris-
tian Sabbath, and well calculated to alienate flom
them all regard for those who had to measure their
destinies. In every respect, therefore, their condition
was miserable, and they were the victims of every
species of injustice, instead of being made practically
sensible, as they ought to he, of the value of that de-
claration made by the old dispensers of British jus-
tice—" Nulli rendemus, nulli nromaldinus, multi Ape-
masjuslitiam"—(Hear).—The Noble Lord concluded
by moving for the appointment of a Select Commit-
tee, to inquire into certain abuses in the Island of
Tobago—( Hear, hear).
Mr.W. SMITH seconded the Motion, and lamented
that the name of Mr. Pigott was necessarily intro-
duced into the present subject. He would take up a
case as stated by Mr. Pigott himself, who had said,
that Peter Singleton,, who had complained to him,
was a Black not born in the island. That nun was
resting himself on the high road, and was told in
harsh language, by a Mr. Sinclair, to remove out of
the way. file man did so, and again returned, when
he was taken into custody, and kept in the stocks all
night, and then sent away, without having committed
any offence.-The Chief Justice had said, when Blacks
came from another island, they were looked at with
considerable suspicion ; and that Mr. Sinclair had
said, he had no knowledge of, and could have no
prejudice against Peter Singleton, and that he would
not have put him in the stocks had he known him to
be a free man ; at the same time, he would make
him a present of a hat, by way of compensation!—
That had seemed sufficient to the Chief Justice ; but
what must be the administration of justice in the
island when such was the case? The Members of the
Assembly, 21 or 22 in number, must form a select
Society among themselves, against which no stranger
could hope to obtain justice. All that could be done
now would be fur Parliament to pledge itself to in-
quiry in the next Session.
Mr. GOULBUILN would forbear to go into a dis-
cussion of the whole of our %Vest India policy, how-
ever he might be prepared to do so on a future occa-
sion. Many difficulties arose from each of the Colonies
having an independent Legislature. Most of the cases
that had come before the• House were to be ascribed
to that circumstance. The House must also recollect
that the state of the Planter was very different from
that of an individual in this country. It was to be
kept in mind that the state of society in these islands
had been sanctioned by the Legislature of Great Bri-
tain. if the evidence of slaves should be admitted, it
would be easy for a Master to command the evidence
of his slaves, in order to exculpate him from any
crime, howcver atrocious, which he might have com-
mitted. If he opposed the Motion, it was because in
the present stage of the Session it would be impos-
sible to come to any conclusion amidst conflicting
evidence; and it would be impossible to summon
from the West Indies the persons whose conduct had
been censured. If the House was to inquire into the
general administration of justice in Tobago, he ap-
prehended the result would be most satisfactory, as
from a few cases it would be unfair to infer that the
source of justice was impure. He must complain that
the Noble Lord had not attended to the statement
made to the Secretary of State; though he also ad-
mitted that there were many things in the case of
Hoskin, that the House could not look at with ap-
probation—(lkar, hear).—Of the Chief Justice he
knew nothing, except in Isis official capacity ; and the
only estate he managed was one that belonged to his
brother, the late Sir A. Pigott. It was to him that
the country was indebted fer removing the obstacles
to the manumission of slaves. In any inquiry the,
evidence must be all confined to one side; and there-1
fore he must oppose the Motion.
Mr. BARHANI was always favoprable to inquiry
into the state of the West India Islands, in order that,
accurate information might be obtained. He was'
sorry that the Noble Lord had diverged into so wide
a field, from which no practical good could result.
To found accusations on such evidence as the Noble
Lord had grounded his arguments on, was worse than
" Spargere wee
" Ia vulipent antbiguas I"
It was too much to make one or two cases of indivi-
dual injustice the subject of general abuse against the
colonies. Great pains had been taken by the planters
in general to teach Christianity to the negroes, though
little had been done by the Established Church. In
many instances represented in this country as acts of
cruelty, it was owing to the negroes themselves that',
no alteration had taken place. The negroes were in
a state of progres,ion, and nothing was more to be
deprecated than a premature change. The utmost
that could be effected' would be a pledge for the next'
Session, and he thought the inquiry should be as ge-
neral as the imputations that had been thrown out.
He should move, as an Amendment, that the House
should, early next Session, appoint a Select Coin-
miner to inquird into the administration of justice in
the West'lndia Islands.

Sir JAMES VACTINTOSH thought the inquiry
proposed by the last speaker much too large for the
grasp of a Committee. He conceived the motion of
his Noble Friend to be remedial, and 'not critnina-
tory. He (Sir James Mackintosh) would lay indivi-
duals out of the question; but the errors into which
they had fallen shewed the state of the laws in the
colony. The three cases stated plainly proved the
necessity of inquiry, as they had been approved of by
all the Authorities of the island. If these cases did
not demand inquiry, then the colonial system must
be left to itself. The colonists of Tobago ought to
have, in the present debates, sufficient warning that
the House meant early in the next Session to go into
the inquiry.
Mr. NIARRYATT denied that in the West India
Colonies a man could not go into a Court of Justice,
and expect relief in that quarter of the world against
a person of influence. He must vote both against
the Motion and the Amendment. He would very
willingly agree to an open and, public inquiry.
Mr. WILBERFORCE confessed that he thought
it would be right to make this matter a subject of
inquiry—a measure which the general interests of
justice, and what was due to the judicial audio' ities
concerned, equally required. He was much sur-
prised to hear Honourable Gentlemen defending
some of the abuses which notoriously existed in many
of the West India Islands. Thus the predilection of
the Negroes for their Sunday market had been as-
signed as the reason of its continuance. He would
put it to the House, however, whether this preposses-
sion of the Negroes for a custom which had existed
too long, was any ground for retaining it? (The other
features of the Hon. Gentleman's speech could not be
collected in consequence of loud coughing, and re-
iterated cries of " Question, question I' )
Lord NUGENT said, that observing the signs of
impatience which had been manifested during the
speech of his Honourable Friend, the Member for
liramber, who was accustomed. to demand universal
attention by his eloquence, he (Lord Nugent) could
have little hope of occupying much of their time. If
the House would allow him, he. was ready to with-
draw his motign, and to substitute in its plate the
following Resolution:
" That, early In the next Session, this House will appoint a
Select Committee, to inquire into the Adminiatration of Justice
in the Island of Tobago."
On the question being put from the Chair,
Mr. GOULBURN said he was very unwilling to
pledge the House to ally inquiry by Parliament into
a subject of this kind.—The House then divided:
For the Resolution - 66
Against it - 105
Majority —39