for that purpose made by the protector and guardian of slaves, shall issue a summons under his hand and seal, requiring the owner or manager of such slave, or the persons or person under whose direction such slave may be, to appear before him, by themselves or their agents, at some convenient time and place to be for that purpose appointed; and notice shall also be published by the said protector and guardian of slaves, in the public gazette of the said island, on three several days, of the time and place appointed for the purpose aforesaid; and in such notice all persons having or claiming to have any title or interest in or to the slave proposed to be manumitted, either in their own right, or as the guardians, attornies, trustees, or executors of any other person, shall be required to attend and prefer such claims.

And it is hereby further ordered, that at the time appointed for any such meeting as aforesaid, the chief judge of the said island, in the presence of the protector and guardian of slaves, and also in the presence of the owner or manager of the slaves or slave proposed to be manumitted, or (upon proof being made to him, upon oath, of the due service and publication of such notice as aforesaid, then, if necessary,) in the absence of such owner or manager, shall proceed to hear in a summary way what may be alleged by the said protector and guardian of slaves, and by the owner or manager, or other persons claiming any interest in the slave proposed to be manumitted; and in case the parties, or any of them, shall refuse to effect any such manumission, or if it shall appear to the said chief judge, that a valid and effectual manumission of any such slave cannot legally be effected by private contract; or if it shall be made to appear to the said chief judge, that the owner or proprietor of any such slave, or that any person having any charge upon, or interest in him or her, is a minor, or a married woman, or idiot, or lunatic, or that the real and true owner of any such slave, or that any person having any charge upon, or interest in him or her, is absent from the said island, or is unknown, or cannot be found, or that any suit or action is depending in any court of justice in the said island, wherein the title to the said slave, or the right to his services, is in controversy; or if it shall appear to the said chief judge, that any difference of opinion exists between the protector and guardian of slaves of, the said island, and the owner or proprietor of any such slave, respecting his or her price or value, then, and in every such case, the said chief judge shall require the protector of slaves, and the owner, manager, or person having the direction of any such slave, each to nominate an appraiser of his or her value: and the said chief judge shall himself nominate an umpire between such appraisers. And the said appraisers being first duly sworn before the said judge, to make a fair and impartial appraisement, shall, within seven days next after sarn their appointment,

make a joint valuation of the slave proposed to be manumitted, and shall certify such their valuation to the chief judge, under their hands and seals. And in case such joint certificate shall not be delivered to the said chief judge within the said term of seven days, then the said umpire, being duly sworn in manner afore. said, shall, within the next seven days, certify his valuation, under his hand and seal, to the said chief judge; and the valuation to be made in manner aforesaid, either by the said joint appraisers, or, in their default, by the said umpire, shall be binding and conclusive, and shall be entered and enrolled in the office of registry in the said island.

And it is hereby further ordered, that upon payment to the treasurer of the said island of the appraised value of any such slave as aforesaid, after deducting therefrom the expense of the appraisement to be allowed by the said chief judge, the said treasurer shall grant to the protector of slaves a receipt for the money so to be received by him. And such receipt shall be duly enrolled in the office of registry in the said island, together with a declaration under the hand and seal of the said chief judge, that the proceedings required by law for the manumission of the slave, by or on behalf of whom such money was paid, had been duly had before him, and thereupon such slave shall be, and be deemed, taken, and reputed to be, free, to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

And it is further ordered, that the money to arise from the manumission of any slave by virtue of the proceedings before mentioned, shall and may be laid out and invested under the authority of the chief judge, on the appli cation of any person or persons interested there in, in the purchase of any other slave or slaves; or if no such application shall be made, then such money shall remain in the hands of the public treasurer of the said island at interest, at and after the rate of five pounds per centum per annum, such interest to be borne by, and defrayed out of, the revenues of the said colony, and the slave or slaves so to be purchased with the said money as aforesaid; or in case of no such purchase being made, then the said money in the hands of the said public treasurer, and the interest from time to time accruing due thereupon, shall be the property of the persors who were the proprietors of such manumitted slave or slaves, and shall be held upon, under and subject to all such and the same uses, trusts, limitations, conditions, mortgages, claims, and demands, of what nature or kind soever, as such slave or slaves was or were held upon, under, or subject unto, at such the time of his, her, or their manumission; and the said treasurer sh:ll hold the said money, and the interest accruing thereupon, subject to such order as the chief judge of the said colony may, upon a summary application of any person interested therein, see fit to make, and such principal money and inte

and disposed of in pursuance of and obedience to any such order.

And it is hereby further ordered, that before the manumission of any slave, by virtue of any private contract for that purpose between such slave and his owner, notice of such intended manumission shall by the owner of such slave be given in writing to the protector and guardian of slaves, who, on behalf of the said slave, shall be bound to ascertain that such owner has good right and title in the law, and is competent to effect such manumission; and the said protector and guardian of slaves shall also, without fee or reward, prepare the proper deed of manumission, and the same shall in all cases be executed in the presence of the said protector and guardian of slaves, or of some proper witness, to be by him appointed for that purpose; and being so executed, shall by such protector and guardian of slaves be enrolled in the office of registry in the said island, within one calendar month next after the date and execution thereof. And in case any such deed shall not be left for enrolment at the said office of registry, within the said period of one calendar month, the said protector of slaves shall incur and be liable to the payment of a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, nor less than ten pounds sterling English money.

And it is hereby ordered, that in case any such deed of manumission as aforesaid shall be executed voluntarily, and without any valuable consideration passing to the owner or other person effecting such manumission, the slave or slaves so to be manumitted shall, before the actual execution of any such deed, appear before the said protector and guardian of slaves, or before the commandant of the quarter in which such slave may happen to be resident; and if it shall appear to the said protector and guardian of slaves, or to such commandant, as the case may be, that the slave about to be so gratuitously manumitted is under the age of six years, or above the age of fifty years, or is labouring under any habitual disease or infirmity of mind or body, the owner or other person about to effect such manumission, shall, at the time of the execution of the deed of manumission, execute and deliver under his hand and seal a bond to his majesty, in the penal sum of two hundred pounds, with a condition thereunder written, for the defeasance thereof, if the said slave shall he properly fed, clothed, and maintained, until the age of fourteen years, in the case of infants, or during the term of his or her natural life, in the case of adults of the age of fifty years, or labouring under any such sickness, disease, or infirmity as aforesaid; and no such manumission shall be valid and effectual in the law, or shall be received for enrolment at the office of registry, until such bond as aforesaid be duly executed and registered, and deposited in the said office.

And it is hereby further ordered, that every

and every minister of the kirk of Scotland, and every priest or minister professing the Roman Catholic religion in the said island, and every other person being a public teacher of religion within the said island, shall, and is hereby authorised to transmit or deliver under his hand to the commandant of the quarter in which he may be resident, certificates setting forth the names or name and places or place of abode of any slaves or slave, who, in the judgment and belief of the party so certifying, may be sufficiently instructed in the principles of religion to understand the nature and obligation of an oath. And the commandants of the several quarters in the said island shall, and are hereby required to, transmit such certificates as aforesaid to the protector and guardian of slaves, who shall, and is hereby required to, register the same in a book to be kept by him for that purpose, therein stating the date of every such certificate, and the name and place of abode of the person by whom the same may be granted, and of every slave mentioned and included therein; provided nevertheless, that no priest, minister, or public teacher of religion, not being a clergyman of the church of England, or a minister of the kirk of Scotland, shall be competent to grant any such certificate as aforesaid, unless his majesty's principal secretary of state, having the department of the colonies, or the governor or acting governor for the time being of the said island of Trinidad, shall have granted to such priest, minister, or public teacher, a license in writing to grant such certificates; and unless such license shall be in force, and have been first registered at the office of the said protector of slaves.

And it is further ordered, that no person shall henceforth be rejected as a witness, or considered as incompetent to give evidence in any court of civil or criminal justice in the said island, by reason of his or her being in a state of slavery, if the person or persons producing or tendering him or her as a witness shall produce and exhibit to the court a certificate under the hand of the said protector and guardian of slaves, that such proposed witness is registered in the before-mentioned book; and the said protector of slaves shall, and he is hereby required to grant, without fee or reward, to any person making application for the same, a certificate of the fact, whether any such proposed witness is or is not registered in the said book : provided nevertheless, that no person being in a state of slavery shall be admitted to give evidence in any civil suit or action in which his or her owner is directly concerned, or in any case where any white person may be charged with or prosecuted for any offence punishable with death; provided always that nothing herein contained shall extend to take away or diminish any power and authority which any court of criminal jurisdiction in the said colony now hath

same.

And it is further ordered, that if any person shall be twice convicted before any tribunal in the said island, of inflicting upon any slave any cruel or unlawful punishment, the person so convicted shall, in addition to the penalties hereinbefore mentioned, be declared by the court before which such second conviction may take place, absolutely incapable in the law to be the owner or proprietor, or to act as the manager, overseer, or superintendent of any slaves or slave within the said island; and all and every the slaves or slave of which, at the time of such second conviction, any such person may be the owner or proprietor shall thenceforth become and be absolutely forfeited to and vested in his majesty, his heirs and successors.

And it is further ordered, that the governor or acting governor of the said island shall, within one month next after this present order shall be received by him, make known the same by proclamation throughout the said island; and that the said order shall be in force in one calendar month next after the date of such proclamation, and not before.

And the right honourable earl Bathurst, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, having the department of the colonies, is to give the necessary directions herein accordingly.

C. C. GREVIlle.

Another despatch from earl Bathurst to sir Ralph Woodford, of the same date as the last, communicates instructions with regard to the individuals to whom the execution of the order more immediately belonged; and adds, that in the event of his meeting any serious opposition from any of them, he was to dismiss them, and appoint others who were more likely to fulfil the expectations of his majesty's government. Sir R. Woodford was distinctly to understand that it was to his exertions that his majesty looked with confidence for overcoming that spirit of opposition which seemed to have been industriously infused into the minds of many individuals, from whose general character a better disposition was to have been expected.

A despatch from sir Ralph Woodford to earl Bathurst, dated "Trinidad, 7th May, 1824," acknowledges the receipt of the order in council, and states that the first impressions created by it were certainly those of great alarm among all proprietors of slaves. They objected to many of the clauses; but the 42d, or penultimate lause, had really created great consternation, as it confiscated to the crown all the slaves of any person twice convicted of inflicting upon any slave any cruel or unlawful punishment, under the order, to the prejudice of his family, and without reservation in favour of his creditors; and when his lordship considered that persons were now for the first time forbidden to strike any female slave; that that class was al

and that it would become even more difficult than at present to restrain them, from their knowledge that their master could not punish them as he was accustomed to do; his lordship would, sir Ralph thought, be disposed to make some allowance for the infirmities of human nature, and at least save the family of the offender from that ruin which might fall upon them, in consequence of an intemperate action of his own. He had, therefore, to entreat his lordship's reconsideration of that clause, as well as to recommend that those before alluded to should be more perfectly explained, all of which would relieve the planters from great uneasiness. Sir Ralph begged his lordship to be assured that he was both ready and willing to promote his majesty's service to the utmost of his power, and that his humble abilities would receive all the impulse that the desire of a servant, zealous to give effect to his majesty's commands, could inspire; but he ventured to hope that as the colony was made the subject of an experiment, and the planters and proprietors of slaves were exposed to all the risk attendant upon the trial of an uncertain measure, his majesty might be advised to afford some boon in the shape of special bounty to the produce of the colony, that might act as an encouragement to the planters to cheerfully co-operate in a measure which they now felt exposed to danger and to risk the property of themselves and their children.

A despatch from sir Ralph Woodford to earl Bathurst, dated "Trinidad, 26th May, 1824," states, that notwithstanding the many urgent applications that had been made to him to postpone the publication and suspend the enforcement of the order, he had issued a proclamation, declaring the order to be in force in one calendar month from the 24th May. He deemed it, however, to be his duty to transmit copies of a petition of the inhabitants (at a meeting held in Port of Spain), from which he had in vain attempted to discourage them, an address from the cabildo, and a remonstrance from the colonial council. Sir Ralph adds observations on several clauses of the order, and remarks that the whole population were unanimous in their complaint against the severity of the 42d clause. The petition of the inhabitants states, that they have read with grief and dismay the draft of an order in council laid by his majesty's ministers before both houses of parliament on the 15th day of March last, and declared to be intended for the improvement of the condition of the slaves in the colony of Trinidad; that they recognised to the fullest extent the power of the crown, founded upon those principles of British justice which had secured to the meanest subject of the realm the undisturbed enjoyment and use of his property until he had received full and fair compensation; that they were sincerely impressed with a grateful sense of their gracious sovereign's beneficent intentions, and dutifully sympathised