preliminary inquiry before any other tribunal, save and except such inquiry as any Justice of the Peace may deem it necessary to make before committing such person or persons for trial before the said Court.

VIII. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for persons to serve as jurors on the trial of said issues or persons before mentioned in the said Supreme Court, who are not or shall not at the time of such trial be inhabitants of any of Her Majesty's forts or settlements on the Gold Coast: Provided always, that such persons shall either be the subjects of Her Majesty the Queen or inhabitants of those countries adjacent to Her Majesty's forts and settlements on the Gold Coast, which are under Her Majesty's protection.

IX. And be it further enacted, that the Honourable James Coleman Fitzpatrick, now filling the office of Judicial Assessor, or assistant to the native sovereigns and chiefs of the countries adjacent to Her Majesty's forts and settlements on the Gold Coast, be and hereby is nominated and appointed Chief Justice of the said Supreme Court.

X-XII relate to the revision of Decrees and Judgments; and to Appeals.

ACT of the British Parliament, "to remove Doubts as to the Rights of the Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone.”

[16 and 17 Vict. Cap. 86.]

[August 20, 1853.]

WHEREAS doubts have been entertained whether Africans who have been liberated or taken, and received under the protection of the Crown, under the provisions of the Acts for the Abolition and Suppression of the Slave Trade, and are domiciled in the Colony of Sierra Leone and its dependencies, are British subjects, and doubts have been also entertained as to the authority of the local Legislature of that Colony in legislating in relation to the rights and obligations of such Africans: Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I. All Liberated Africans domiciled or resident, or who hereafer may be domiciled or resident in the Colony of Sierra Leone or its dependencies, shall be deemed to be and to have been for all purposes as from the date of their being brought into or of their arrival in the said Colony natural-born subjects of Her Majesty, and to be and to have been capable of taking, holding, conveying, devising, and transmitting any estate, real or personal, within the said Colony of Sierra Leone and its dependencies: provided always, that it shall

be lawful for the Legislature of Sierra Leone, by any Ordinance to be passed in the manner subject to the conditions which are or may be by law required in respect of such Ordinances, to alter or repeal any of the provisions of this Act, so far as they relate to rights to real property within the Colony of Sierra Leone and its dependencies, and generally to make such provisions in relation to such rights as to such Legislature may seem expedient.

II. And whereas Treaties have been from time to time entered into, by or on the behalf and with the sanction of Her Majesty, with the Kings and Chiefs of certain African territories and tribes in the neighbourhood of the said Colony of Sierra Leone, for the purpose (amongst others) of providing for the security of the persons and property of British subjects, and for the surrender of criminals, being British subjects, guilty of any offence cognizable by the laws of England, for trial in such Colony as Her Majesty may appoint: in all such Treaties as aforesaid made or which may be made between the officer administering the Government of Sierra Leone for the time being and such Kings or Chiefs aforesaid, and sanctioned by Her Majesty Her Heirs and Successors, the terms "British subjects" and "Subjects of the Queen of England" shall be held for the purposes of such Treaty to comprehend all Liberated Africans domiciled or residing in Sierra Leone, and its dependencies.

III. Any magistrate or other officer whom the officer administering the Government of Sierra Leone shall appoint to demand or to take charge of any British subject who shall be surrendered according to the provisions of any such Treaty for trial in Sierra Leone shall be deemed and taken to be an officer of Her Majesty, to whom the cognizance of the crime or offence with which such British subject may be charged appertains, within the meaning of the Act of the 6th and 7th year of the reign of Her present Majesty, cap. 94,* entitled An Act to remove Doubts as to the Exercise of Power and Jurisdiction by Her Majesty within divers Countries and Places out of Her Majesty's Dominions, and to render the same more effectual.

IV. For the purposes of this Act the words "Liberated Africans" shall mean and include all persons dealt with or detained as Slaves who heretofore have been or hereafter may be seized or taken, under any of the Acts for the Abolition or Suppression of the Slave Trade, by Her Majesty's ships of war or otherwise, and liberated or delivered to the officers appointed to protect, receive, or provide for such persons, and all other persons who, as having been dealt with, carried, kept, or detained as Slaves, may have been taken and liberated, or received, protected, or provided for, under any of the said Acts.

V. Provided always, that nothing in this Act shall in anywise prejudice or interfere with any of the provisions in relation to such * See Vol. 6, Page 500.

Liberated Africans as aforesaid of the laws in force for the abolition or suppression of the Slave Trade.

BRITISH ORDER IN COUNCIL, appointing Sierra Leone a Place for the Trial of Offenders, brought there from Countries and Places adjacent.

At the Court at Windsor, the 25th day of November, 1853.
PRESENT,

THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL.

WHEREAS by a certain Act of Parliament, made and passed in the Session of Parliament holden in the 6th and 7th years of Her Majesty's reign, intituled, "An Act to enable Her Majesty to provide for the Government of her Settlements on the Coast of Africa and in the Falkland Islands,"* it was amongst other things enacted, that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by any Order or Orders to be by her made, with the advice of her Privy Council, to establish all such laws, institutions, and ordinances, and to constitute such courts and officers, and to make such provisions and regulations for the proceedings in such courts, and for the administration of justice, as may be necessary for the peace, order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects, and others within the said present or future settlements respectively, or any of them, any law, statute, or usage to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding:

And whereas by another Act of Parliament, made and passed in the same Session of Parliament, intituled, "An Act, to remove doubts as to the exercise of Power and Jurisdiction by Her Majesty within divers Countries and Places out of Her Majesty's Dominions, and to render the same more effectual," it is amongst other things enacted, that it is and shall be lawful for Her Majesty to hold, exercise, and enjoy any power or jurisdiction which Her Majesty now hath or may at any time hereafter have within any country or place out of Her Majesty's dominions, in the same and as ample a manner as if Her Majesty hath acquired such power or jurisdiction. by the cession or conquest of territory:

And whereas Her Majesty hath power and jurisdiction within divers countries and places adjacent to Her Majesty's Colony of Sierra Leone in Africa; Her Majesty is pleased, by and with the advice of her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, that all judges, magistrates, assessors, and other officers duly appointed to exercise the said power and jurisdiction in the name and on the behalf of Her Majesty within the countries and places aforesaid, shall in the exercise thereof observe, until further orders, such of the usages and rules of procedure of the said countries and places as may be compatible with the law of England; and in

* See Vol. 6, Page 489.

+ See Vol. 6, Page 500.

default of any such usages or rules of procedure shall proceed in all things, as nearly as may be, according to the said law of England.

And in further pursuance of the powers by the said Acts of Parliament vested in Her Majesty, Her Majesty is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to appoint the Colony of Sierra Leone as the British colony to which it shall be lawful for the officer administering the Government of the said Colony, or for any person having authority derived from Her Majesty in that behalf, by warrant under his hand and seal, to cause any person charged with the commission of any crime or offence, the cognizance whereof may at any time appertain to any judge, magistrate, or other officer of Her Majesty within the countries and places aforesaid, to be sent for trial, or in order that sentences passed within such countries and places as aforesaid may be carried into effect within such colony.

And the most Noble the Duke of Newcastle, one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, is to give the necessary directions herein accordingly. C. C. GREVILLE.

TREATIES, &c., between Great Britain and Native Chiefs on the Southern Coast of Africa, relating to Friendship, Commerce, &c.

1836-1853.

(1.)-TREATY with certain Kafir Chiefs of the Tribe of Gaika. Signed at King William's Town, December 5, 1836;* and Treaties of the same Period with the Chiefs of other Tribes.†

TREATY entered into between Andries Stockenström, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern Division of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, on the part of His Britannic Majesty, and the Kafir Chiefs of the Tribe of Gaika, viz., Sandili (represented by his Mother Sutu), Macomo, Tyali, Botma and Enno, for themselves and the said Tribe.

ART. I. There shall be peace and amity for ever between His said Britannic Majesty, his subjects (particularly those of the said Colony) and the Kafir Nation; and both parties shall honestly and faithfully use their utmost endeavours to prevent a rupture of the same; to remove every cause for disagreement which may occur, and scrupulously to abide by the engagements contained in this Treaty.

Renewed by Supplementary Treaty, June 19, 1838, Page 73: Amended by Proclamation, December 7, 1840, Page 76: and Annulled by Treaty, November 22, 1845, Page 100.

↑ See Note, Page 73.

II. The boundary between the said colony and the territory restored to the Kafirs by proclamation of this day, is and shall be understood to be that which was agreed upon between the then Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, and the Kafir Chief Gaika, in the year 1819; viz.-The Keiskamą River, from its mouth up to its junction with the Chumie River, thence the latter river up to where it touches a ridge of high land which is connected with the Kat Berg, and which separates the waters which fall into the Chumie from those which fall into the Kat River; thence the said ridge to its junction with the Kat Berg; thence the Kat Berg itself, and the high ground and ridges which connect it with the Luheri, or Gaika's Peak, and the great chain of the Winterberg up to the Winterberg's highest point; thus including within the colony all the branches of the Kat and Gonappe rivers up to their extreme sources, and including in Kaffraria all the branches of the Chumie. And in order to prevent all doubt or dispute for the future as to the said ridge from the Kat Berg to the Chumie, the said Contracting Parties have, on the 28th and 29th ultimo, gone over the ground together; and in the presence of Lieutenant Williams, of the Royal Engineers, who will carefully mark the said Boundary on the map, as also in the presence of the resident Agent, Stretch, and several Kafir Chiefs, who will cause conspicuous beacons to be erected on the spot where the said ridge touches the Chumie, as also where the Western Boundary of the ceded territory referred to in Article VIII of this Treaty joins the said ridge; and in more minutely defining the said line, the highest part of the said ridge shall be taken, from which the waters take their natural course, either into the Chumie above said first-mentioned beacon, or into the Kat River.

III. The said Contracting Chiefs do for themselves, their tribe, and their heirs and successors, acknowledge the right of full sovereignty of His Britannic Majesty, over the territory to the west of the said line, renouncing for ever all claim, which they, the said Chiefs or Tribe, may ever have had, or supposed to have had, to the same or any part thereof.

IV. The said Contracting Chiefs, therefore, accept as a special mark of His said Majesty's grace and favour any part of the territory between the Keiskama and the Kat River, as a loan, to be by them, or their tribe, or any part thereof held upon such terms, and to such extent as shall be laid down by or on the part of His said Majesty, which terms shall be incorporated in this Treaty; they, the said chiefs, promising at no period ever to lay claim to the possession or occupation of any other part of the territory known by the name of the Ceded Territory, except such part as shall be alloted to them in the manner herein-above stated.

V. The said Lieutenant-Governor doth hereby, in the name of His said Majesty, grant unto the said Chiefs and their tribe, that part of the said territory called the Ceded Territory, to be speci