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" was tried by a court-martial , and sentenced to receive two hundred lashes ; ^ fifty were inflicted and the remainder relihkted . He was refused a copy " of rhe minuies of the court martial , for whi h ¦ t he "worthy Baronet , after some very ^ udicloos remark s on this mode o punishment , moved that they be lad before the House * On the expression of a Hvlsh from the Chancellor of the
Excheqtiet , that the motion should be postponed for a few days , that enquiry might be made into the circumstances of the case , it was put off . Ma . 1 YI arn ^ att made a motion for introducing the British laws , into the island of Trinidad , stating that jgi eat discontent prevailed there on account of the oppression of the
Spanish laws , particularly under the administration of Judge Smith . No liberty ' of the press was allowed , and arbitrary 'lines might be imposed by the iudg £ . Any offence to the personal dignity of Judge Smith was severely punished , but the most atrocious criminals escaped , From the perplexity of the Spanish faws ,
with , impunity . It was denied , that the Spanish laws are more favourable to men or colour , and Judge Smith acquitted a surgeon indicted for the murder of his slave , by giving him two hundred lashes , because the accused had only done what ivas authorised in the Spanish laws , and the officers who had assaulted some
negroes were acquitted , because the latter were absent in the night from their master ' s estate ; The Spanish colonies were now reforming their laws , and it lit le became us to give refuge to bigotry and tyranny in one of our islands . Mr . Brougham endeavoured to shew , that there was little foundation for the
clamour raised in favour of the British law ' s . He defended the apparent absurdity of an appeal made from the original judge , to a judge Of appeal , when both ofjices were united in the same person , by the same practice prevailing frequently 5 n this country , in the case of a new trial : but he forgot that we kad a jury , and a Spanish judge is a very different character from an English one . Mr . Smith
had called the Spanish laws , almost divine , for they restrained the power of the master over the slave in a far greater degree than our laws did in the colonies . By the former laws ,, no blood is to be lied , no contusion rai&ed , not " more than twenty-five lashes to be given ; and you propose to alter this , and give a power tj » a slave tt execute the puniihioent on
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his brother slave * ' atti $ to give fcim tTly number of lashes not exetedino- two hundred Jt was a mockery to ta \ of transplanting" the Fnghsh laws to the West'Indies , to jrivc a jury , like that of the slave holders , who acquitted FWgir > s accused of scourging his slave to death "VI f » St ^ ph ? n objected to the time and the manner in which thi 3 question was brought forward , when the
se sions were nearly at an end , and tic obje t of the bill by no rneans defined , f-iedid not say , whether the British constitution was to be int . oduced as in Jamaica St . Kitfs , or in Barbadocs , or under any regulation-, such , as a colony must necessarily require . He solicit ? the- House to accede to the wishes of
about 506 whites , in opposition to the rest of the p opulation , consisting of ar . ooo . The people of colour fiad not , indeed , presented a petition , for they stood in awe at the formidable oligarchy in the island , anil dared not to vent their
complaints . He considered the present attempt to be merely a plan for taking the management of the island out of the observation of this country , that the planters might be enabled to carry cm the slave trade with impunity . Mr .
Baring thought the great desideratum to be a settled system of laws for the island , whether they- were English or Spanish , or mixed from both , and thar the mover of the question was entiled t * the thanks of the House . Mr . C '
axning wished to see one colony , at least , dependant on the legislation of the empire ; and he did not see any difficulty in the appointment of a committee to revise the Spanish latvs , and to expunge such particulars as ard irreconcileable witn
the British constitution . Mr . Wiliii rforci : 'dwelt strongly on the advantages of religious instruction on the minds of thV ' slave population in the West India islands , and complained of the
Assembly pf Jamaica , which had interdicted and punished the Methodist nnssionaries . Mr . Marrvait rep liedtr the observations made against his nation , and vindicated the West Id < w juries ; but the question being P » II was negatitred without a division . wc are clearly of opinion , that the ^ JP ^ between the governor and the judge 0 tlie island , will compel the executive government , to take some steps lot » better regulation , and what shouJd JL vent 11 s from adopting the c * . , part of tf * Spaniih law , w& QUi m
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Sg ^ ate Public Affairs *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 382, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/62/
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