On Saturday we alluded to...
The Times, 1824-05-10T00:00:00

On Saturday we alluded to accounts which had arrived from Rermuda, representing a scarcely credible degree of discord and consequent confusion to exist between the Go. vernor, Sir WILLIAm LUML EY, on one side, and on the oLher the House of Assembly, backed by the great bodly of thc i islanders. This ill blood has been of long standing ; antl for its continuance, we are compelled to say that the Minis- ters here in England appear to be leeply respousible. Re- peated memorials had been transmitted to Government through the agency of a member of the House of Commons; , one from the House of Assembly in the year 1821, to whichi Lord BATnurST seems to hava given a shiortaawswer, stating, that " he had not thought proper to advise His M.AJESTY to !" remove Sir WILLIAm LuOMLEY from the government of " Bermuda, on the charges conitained in the me;norial." A secontt metnorial was sent off in the year 1822, signed by a very large proportion of the " male adults" of the island, adding "other impo0rtant charges" to those whiclh the Colonial Secretary hiad already dismissed. In the mCean time, the accusedGovernorhad thought fit to make an excursion to this country; and, as we find, was not long aftcrwards sent back again toBermuda, and re-installed in his government. On that occasion Lord BATIrnnsT's Secretary assured the colonial agent, that " Sir VILlMAn LuMLEY's return " had not been permitted in consvquence of any decision o' " Earl BATrnuasT on the merits of the complaints against " his former conduct; and of his Lordship's disposition still " to inquire into the grievances complained of, with a de- " termination to do equal and substantial justice between all parties.- The agent beeore referred to was then in- structed from Bermuda to take steps for bringing the me- morial of the people before the KING; but to this hour, apparently, no sort of redress has been administered. Into the nature of the charges somne insight is aff.rded by the proceedings of the House of Assembly in March of the present year. The House then collected into one body the several accusations against their unpopular Governor: of these there are many wlhich must be considered abundantly serious to have demanded from the KINrG's Ministers a prompt inquiry, and a grave and temperate decision. We do not, from an ex-parte statement, venturc to pro- nounce Sir WILLIAM LUMLEY, or any man, guilty of the of- fences imputed to him ; but we do affirm, that in common justice, as well as in clear and obvious palicy, no Governor ought to have been continued for two years or more, at the head of a community in wlhich he was loadedl with accusations, where the very suspicion attached to him, if nothing worse than suspicion, must have a tendency to de- grade tile authority of the Government, and to shake the attachment of the KIXG's subjects to [is MAisEasY'S per- son, and to the British sway. Sir IVILLIAn LuMLEY ought, before now, to have becen removed from the island, or formally acquitted; anl as it is plain that Lord BA- TISURST woul(I be anxious to put the innocence of his own protege upon record, his failing to do so becomes a pregnant ground of apprehlension that the charges arc not destitute of colour. It is sailI by the House of Assembly, that from the commencement of Sir WILLIAmt's administration, he kept the islanders in constant disquietude by repeated in- vasions of individual liberty, encroachments on the rights of public bodies, and measures of general misrule and op- pression ;-that he closed thc Courts of Justice to the House of Assembly, who wished to try the validity of a legislative act, affecting one of the most considerable funds in the country ;-that he unlawliully attempted to cenforce duties on the Corporation of the touvn of Hamil- ton, affecting their pecuniary means; and towards them, as well as the House of Assembly, behaved witlh disgraceful contumely;-that he illegally took cognizance of a com plaint in whichhe was himself aparty;-that he illegally suspeinded the Chief Justi ce of the colony, without a justifiable cause; that he arrested the progress of a judicial proceeding, or- dered at the instance of the Assembly by the preceding Governor, wit.h a view to screen a responsible individual;- that he illegally imprisoned three churcliwardens, for an act in which they were warranted by law, anad for which imprisonment the injured parties are nowv suin, the Governor in England ;-that he imprisoned one of the above persons, viz. JOHN TILL, mayor of St. George's, with- out a hearing, and on no evidence ;-that he acted as a Judge in various instances, on questions relating to his own conduct, and where it had been clearly proved that his interest and his passions equally disqualified him for exer- eising an unbiassed judgment;-that since his return to the colotly, Sir WILLIAM LUMLEY had re-entered oi his former system of misrule and illegal interference, &c. We have gone to the trouble of extracting in this manner the heads of the principal charges against the above officer, that our readers may. decide whe- therwe *ere.mot>b6rneout in our opinion, as. t the mm. portance of. aprompt ana honestihkuiry into thetttXuth. that an innocent man rmight be duly exonerated from the burden of undeserved imputations, or a guiltY one dis- missed from an office, vherain, as a membeF of His MA- |JTESTS s Government, he at once impaired thedignitj of the Crown, embarrassed the public business, and embroiled the union between the parellt State and her dependencieer