The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-19

| A DISTINGUISHED COLORED MAN.
 The late Sir Conrad Reeves, chief justice of Barbados, was so distin-i
 guished and striking personality and
 his career was in many respects so re-
 markable, and, indeed, it may be said. unique, that I cannot help thinking the
 readers of the Times would like to
 know something more of him than ap-
 pears in the brief obituary notice which | is printed in your columns this morn- ing. Perhaps, therefore, you will allow | one who for same years enjoyed his l friendship--a friendship not unmixed with rivalry at the bar and in the local | legislature--to bear somewhat fuller | testimony to his signal worth and achievement.
 l It is not correct to describe him as a negro" in the sense in which that word is used in the West Indies. He was a dark man of color-that is to say, of mixed European and African blood. He was born in Barbados some eighty years ago, in very humble circum- stances. He began life, with little of no
 advantages of education as a printers devil. By and by he rose to be a repor- ter His ability and industry in that capacity were so marked that his
 friends made shift to send him to Eng
 land to read for the bar. After he had
 been "called' by the Middle Temple, he
 returned to his native island and soon
 acquired a considerable practice as an
 able and eloquent advocate. For some
 years he abstained from politics, but in
 1873 he was elected to the House of As-
 sembly, where he rapidly came to the
 front. In 1876, at the instance of MT.
 Pope Hennessy, then governor of the
 island he was appointed solicit gene--- ral This office, however, he held but
 for few months, resigning it in order
 to take the leading part in the bitter contest between MT. Hennessy and the local legislature. His conduct in that crisis secured for him in high degree the respect and regard of his country- men. Nor, in the result, did it perma- nently alienate him from her majesty's government, for in 1881 he was appoint- ed to the higher office of attorney -gene- ral of the island. After good service in this post he was advanced in 1886 to the dignity of the chief justiceship, and not long afterwards received the honor of knighthood. In that office he adminis- tered the law so fairly so firmly, SO courteously, and so efficiently as to win in an extraordinary measure the es- teem, the confidence and the affection of all classes of the community. When he died on the Sth inst, the governor with the consent of the members of the local legislature, accorded him the honor of a public funeral, and the sorrow of the people of the island was testified by the immense number of persons who at- tended and witnessed the ceremony. In the history of Barbados his will al- ways be clarum ct venerable nomen.
 But there is even a wider point of view from which his character and ca reer are interesting. So far as my knowledge goes, he is the most distin- guished man of color ever born in the British dominions, and it is not too much to describe him as the fine flower of that liberal and enlightened policy which the mother country practises to- wards the weaker races under her way-Letter in the London Times.