But still it was necessary to give them the appearance of being such, to induce the Executive to employ its authority against them. Their parents, when their own country (St. Domingo) was made the seat of a bloody revolution, sought and found an asylum in Jamaica, where they gave birth to these children. They are the subjects of England. However, the fact of their parents being natives of St. Domingo constituted the presumption of their being aliens; and in defiance of the circumstances, notorious to every one, that they possessed property in land, in houses, and in slaves; that they had wives and children; that they claimed the protection of subjects, and performed the duties of citizens, all which ought to have induced inquiry,-yet did the Governor venture to exercise against them the arbitrary authority vested in him under the Alien Law.

"But this is not all of this dia bolical conspiracy. I have said that it was necessary to be circumspect. They wisely and warily mixed the insidiousness of the fox with the poison of the serpent. Four and twenty hours would give their friends time to proclaim before the authorities the infraction of their rights. It was, therefore, arranged, that they should be arrested in the evening, and carried away from the island in the morning by a vessel of war then ready to sail. The honesty of the Deputy Marshal saved them from the destruction which awaited them. He saw all the calamities attending an investigation at home, and prudently delayed the execution of the warrant until the vessel of war had left the island. By this simple act of hoInesty, he has enabled them to claim the protection of the laws of their country; and by a writ of Habeas Corpus, to be moved in court today, they will be restored to their friends, to their family, and to society. The names of the individuals are Lescesne and Escoffery.

"By referring to our resolutions,

you will perceive that our intended petition claims from the Legislature the exercise of those ordinary rights of British subjects-the right of admission on juries, and the right of suffrage of freeholders. They are circumstances of ordinary citizenship of which at present we are divested. In a state where so many of the privileges of British subjects are abridged as in this of Jamaica, where people are daily liable to so much oppression, they are essential to our safety; and I believe no case could with more effect be pointed out to demonstrate that necessity, than the recent villainous attempt against Lescesne and Escoffery."

It is not to be believed that any British Governor, and especially that a man so humane and benevolent as the Duke of Manchester, should have lent himself wittingly to so oppressive and cruel a transaction. The grossest fraud must have been practised upon him before he could have signed the fatal warrant; and he will owe it to his own character for humanity and justice to expose the parties who have thus abused his good faith, as well as the means by which they succeeded in making him the instrument of their design.

In confirmation of the details contained in the above letter, it appears (from the Royal Gazette of Jamaica), that on the very day on which it is dated, namely, the 13th of last October, Mr. Rennalls, a barrister, moved the Grand Court of the island for a writ of Habeas Corpus to discharge from gaol two young Men of Colour, L.C.Lescesne and John Escoffery, who had been committed under the Alien Act. The Attorney-General opposed the motion, on the ground that the affair was undergoing the regular course of investigation, and that it might frustrate the ends of justice to grant it. The Court said, "it should not interfere at present; but when the inquiry was at an end, the case might be brought before it, when it would consider it."

On the 17th of October, Mr. Rennalls renewed his motion, which was again opposed by the AttorneyGeneral on the same ground as before; but "the Court conceived it its duty to ascertain if the parties were really British subjects, and directed that the affidavits should be filed, and the motion considered on a future day."

On the 24th of October the case was solemnly argued at great length; and on the following day the Court pronounced its sentence, which was —that both individuals were British born subjects, and entitled to their discharge.

Not a word appears to have been said in any stage of the proceedings of the inflammatory documents alleged to have been found in their possession, and of the purpose of raising the Slaves en masse, and murdering all the Whites, which were so confidently talked of in the letter of the 12th of October quoted

above.

the

Most fortunate was it for these men, in the then temper of the island, that their fate was to be decided by responsible judges, and not by an irresponsible jury; and yet the Chief Justice, in delivering his decision, seems to have lamented that the Court had not had " the advantage of a jury, who could have seen the manner in which the witnesses delivered their evidence; but had been confined to looking over written testimony before them." It had been argued, he said, that "the Court ought to have the most complete and satisfactory evidence that these men were British subjects; and to convince it that so signal an act of oppression had been committed by the Executive." But eleven persons having sworn to the fact of the birth of Lescesne in Jamaica, and six to that of Escoffery, there could be no doubt on the point.

We trust that all the necessary documents for elucidating this transaction will also be called for by Parliament.

2. The abortive alarm which has just been mentioned, and which so signally disappointed its authors, is not the only alarm which has reached us from Jamaica. Christmas is there the great period of alarms of plots; and those who know Jamaica might have predicted that the Christmas of 1823 could not pass without similar alarms. And yet Christmas is obviously by far the most unlikely time for a plot, as the authorities are then usually on the alert. Agreeably, however, to what might have been expected, the editor of one of the newspapers tells us, on the 23d of December 1823, "Several rumours of the most alarming nature have been spread in this city (Kingston) respecting the Negroes of St. George's." This editor, who seems to have suspected that the rumours had no foundation, very judiciously determined to elicit the truth and proceeded himself to those parts of the parish which were said to be in a state of insurrection. found guards stationed at Annotto Bay, Buff Bay, and Birnham Wood. "The good folks of Annotto Bay," he says, "were all staring at each other, and labouring under visible anxiety. One told him there was a revolt at Balcarras, another that the whole parish along Buff-Bay river was in a state of insubordination. It was also stated, that the gaol at Buff Bay was crowded with revolters. The editor proceeded to that village, and found in the gaol one Negro, who was taken up with a fowling piece in his hands, about to murder-a wild boar!!"*

He

3. From the parish of Manchester, the parish of the Rev. J. W. Bridges, we have an alarm no less unfounded and ridiculous. They write thence: "Our friendsT and M had a wild-goose chace yesterday, having gone upwards of forty miles, by order of the Custos, with two companies of the militia and an entire

A plot, it seems, has since been discovered in St. George's, and some Slaves have been executed.

troop, to search the Negro houses at Cocoa Walk, where there were said to be arms in possession of the Negroes. The result was, that one musket only was found, given by Dr. Porter many years ago to an old watchman: there were also a few rusty bayonets about fifty years old.

4. St. Mary's parish, however, has furnished an alarm of a more serious description. A letter from that parish, dated Dec. 19, 1823, gives the following statement of it :"This horrible business was accidentally discovered on the evening of the 16th by a servant boy telling his master he would have a bad Christmas, advising him at that time to go on board ship, as the Negroes were to rise; that his own father, who was one of the chiefs, had told him to take care of himself at that time; that he had seen large meetings of Negroes, and heard them speak of killing all the White people. He implicated six Negroes of an estate adjoining Port Maria, and two belonging to Mr. Walker. The Negro named Ned, one of Mr. Walker's, was apprehended and brought before the magistrates, and the boy kept out of the way. He denied the thing until the boy was brought as evidence to his face. He then received a promise of pardon, and his freedom, to discover the whole, and he deposed, that a general rising was to have taken place on Christmas eve, but, in consequence of the guards being mounted at that time, it was suggested that it would be an improper time. A meeting was therefore held, and it was fixed for the night of the 18th, when it was to be general. It was to commence by firing the trash (or fuel) house, and the works of Frontier estate, and as the White people came they were to be destroyed. They were then to fire the town of Port Maria, and a general massacre to take place."

The sequel to this tragedy is thus related in the Jamaica newspapers of the 28th December, 1823 :

"At a Special Slave Court held

in the Court-house at Manning's Town, in the parish of St. Mary, on the 18th inst., the following Slaves were tried, and sentenced to be transported for life, viz. :—

"Jacob, to James Deans, Esq. for running away-Value 10%. "Abraham Davis, to Richmond Estate, for ditto-Value 50l.

"Quaw, to Francis Bowen, for ditto-Value 50%.

"London, to Robert Alexander, Esq. for ditto-Value 50%. "George Bryan, to Agualte Vale Pen, for ditto-Value 50%.

"Trial of the Rebels.

"The Court adjourned till the next day for the trial of the following Slaves, charged with being concerned in rebellious conspiracies and committing other crimes, to the ruin and destruction of the White people and others of this island, and for causing, exciting, and promoting others thereto; and also for being concerned in rebellion, and designing to commit murder, felony, burglary, and to set fire to certain houses, out-houses, and compassing and imagining the death of the White people in the said parish. They were all found guilty on the clearest evidence, and sentenced to be hanged.

"Henry Nibbs, to J.Walker, Esq. -Value 50%.

"Charles Brown, to Frontier estate-Value 100%.

"James Sterling, to ditto-Value

651.

was put in him, and he was as well off as if he was free.

"Execution of the Rebels. "The above culprits were executed at Port Maria, in the most solemn and impressive manner, on Wednesday, in pursuance of his Grace's warrant. Richard Cosley acknowledged his guilt to the Rev. Girod and the Rev. Cooke. They were unremitting in their attendance on the wretched and deluded beings.

"From the evidence, it appeared beyond the shadow of a doubt, that they designed to set fire to Frontier works, adjoining Port Maria, and to butcher the Whites and free Persons of Colour, as they came to extinguish the fire, then to come down to the town, and take possession of it, while a detachment seized the fort."

Such are the particulars of this « horrible" insurrection, and of the summary executions which avenged it. It is no where stated that there was any overt act of violence on the part of the Slaves who were executed. It is not asserted that they had any arms or ammunition in their possession, or any access to such indispensable instruments of insurrection, and yet part of their plan was to seize the fort. The particulars of the evidence have not yet been given to us: we trust they will be given. But who were the witnesses? A waiting-boy, who was strangely admitted to the counsels of the conspirators, and who accuses his own father; and a man to whom an offer is said to have been first made of a pardon for himself, and of his freedom, if he would discover the whole. His freedom! If we were to believe all the statements of West-Indians at home and abroad, this offer of freedom could have been no temptation to one of their thrice happy slaves -happier far than the English pea sant. And yet mark how differently men reason, when thrown off their guard, from what they do when they are writing pamphlets. We find no question among the alarmed Whites of St. Mary as to the estimation in CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 268.

which freedom is held by the Slave. It is the infallible bait, by which he is tempted to betray his associates in conspiracy; and whichy, if there had been no conspiracy, might possibly have been a bait sufficiently powerful to induce him to create

one.

And then consider the precipitation with which these poor wretches are hurried out of the world. The waiting-boy informs his master of the plot only on the evening of the 16th. The magistrates assemble, probably on the following day, for the purpose of inquiry; and on that day, we presume, the accused are apprehended. On the 18th the Slave Court is formed; on the 19th the prisoners are condemned to death; and as soon as it was possible to receive the Governor's warrant from Spanish-town they are executed. Is there not something very opposite to our ideas of the solemnity of pros ceedings in trials for treason, in this rapid proceeding? A brief interval of time surely might have been interposed between the apprehension of these men and their trial; such an interval as would have admitted of calm and deliberate inquiry, and would have allowed the effervescence of men's passions to subside before the trial should take place. Let the minutes then be produced of this trial, by which eight of his Majesty's subjects have been thrust out of existence with such unusual haste, and on evidence, as far as yet appears, of not the most satisfying description the evidence of a waiting-boy, who hangs his own father; and of a man who is stated to have had a pardon and the promise of freedom given him to induce him to discover the whole. These eight men too have been executed on evidence which would not have been admitted in any court of Jamaica to decide the value of a hobnail belonging to a White man. And by whom are they tried? By the very men who are made to believe that they themselves were to be the victims of this atrocious conspiracy. From among the very men against whom the alleged

2 H