After these explanations, the nature of Mr. Huggins's conduct will be better understood.

Not content with gratifying his vengeance by punishment within the bounds of his plantation, where he might have laughed at public justice, by suffering none but slaves to witness his oppressions; he was resolved to shew his contempt of the law, and of the feelings of his more humane fellow colonists, by making the public market-place of Charlestown, which is the seat of the insular courts and government, the theatre of a dreadful execution upon his unfortunate slaves.

Accordingly, on the 23d of January 1810, he went, attended by two of his sons, on horseback, with upwards of twenty of his devoted victims, men and women, in custody of the drivers, through the streets of Charlestown, to the market-place; and there proceeded to indulge his cruelty to the utmost, during more than two hours, in the face of day, and in the sight and hearing, not only of free persons, but magistrates, who offered him no interruption.

To one negro-man he gave, by the hands of expert drivers, no less than three hundred and sixty-five lashes; to another, one hundred and fifteen; to a third, one hundred and sixtyfive; to a fourth, two hundred and fifty-two; to a fifth, two hundred and twelve; to a sixth, one hundred and eightyone; to a seventh, one hundred and eighty-seven. To a woman, one hundred and ten; to another, fifty-eight; to a third woman, ninety-seven; to a fourth, two hundred and twelve; to a fifth, two hundred and ninety-one; to a sixth, eightythree; to another, eighty-nine; and to various other women and men, various other cruel measures of the same punish

ment.

The poor sufferers were, of course, dreadfully cut and mangled, but they were conveyed to the plantation of their savage master, and attended by his surgeon, who at his request had been present at the execution, and who, though a justice of peace, had not interfered as such to prevent or forbid the crime. By his evidence at the trial which after

wards took place, it would appear that none of them died, though he admitted that many of them had suffered severely from fevers, the effects of their punishment. But, by a subsequent account from the island, it appears, that one of the women who was the most severely whipped has died since the trial, or has since been discovered to be dead. -Either this, or some other female sufferer, cried out during the whipping, that she was with child, but was disregarded, and her punishment went on. Among the circumstances of cruelty which have been mentioned, one of the drivers was brother to one of the men whom he was compelled to lacerate in the presence of the unfeeling master.

At the time of this outrage on humanity, public decency, and law, no less than seven magistrates were in Charlestown. Two of them, the Rev. William Green, who holds two livings in the island, and is a justice of the peace, and the Rev. Samuel Lyons who also holds two livings there, and is a member of the council, were within hearing of the lash, and must have known of the cruel and illegal cause, yet did not at all interpose. The same has been already remarked of the surgeon, Dr. Cassin. He admitted, at one of the trials which took place, that he was sent for by Mr. Huggins to attend in his professional character, and that, having counted two hundred and thirty-six lashes given to one of the negroes, he said he thought it was enough; but Mr. Huggins replied, he did not want his advice, unless he thought the man could bear no more, on which] he, the witness, retired. Another justice of the peace, Mr. Edward Huggins, jun. was seen looking on at the execution the greatest part of the time.

But though some of the magistracy of the island were thus negligent of their duty, and appeared to regard the meliorating act, as all such acts, it is to be feared, are regarded in every island which has passed them, viz. as laws never meant to be obeyed, the House of Assembly at Nevis, to its honour, considered this transaction as one that they were bound in humanity, and from regard to the credit of the

I

colony, publicy to reprobate, and to make the subject of legal investigation. On the 31st of January 1810, eight days after the fact, they came to a resolution to that effect, which they ordered to be printed, and to be transmitted to England, and circulated throughout all the islands, together with the evidence laid before them as to the facts of the case.

The council concurred in this resolution, except as to the printing and publishing the minutes; but they had been published, previously to this opinion of the council, in the Gazette of St. Christopher, by order of the House of Assembly.

It should here be observed, that as there is no newspaper at Nevis, the Gazette of St. Christopher is the common organ of all official publications by the government of Nevis.

Perhaps, to publish the evidence at all in that stage of the proceeding was premature; but the Assembly seems to have thought that the audacious publicity and notoriety of the act demanded from them a public reprobation of it, lest it should redound to their own disgrace, and be a subject of scandal in Europe. Whatever credit, however, the resolution may reflect on the individuals who passed it, the event has too well proved that the society in general does not deserve to share in it.

An indictment was preferred, and found against Mr. Huggins, on the Act of the Leeward islands before referred to; and early in May, 1810, it came on to be tried in the Court of King's Bench and Common Pleas at Nevis, when the facts, as here stated, were fully proved; and indeed not disputed on the part of the defendant. He contented himself with attempting to prove that the slaves had been disorderly; but nothing like forcible resistance to the master's authority, or even mutinous or disrespectful language to him, or to any white person, was proved against them by any of his witnesses. The whole offence brought home to them was, their absenting themselves from the estate at night, to avoid carrying out dung by moonlight; and even in this offence some of the

sufferers were not implicated. One of them had only ne glected his duty as a watchman.

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But it

It may seem strange, after reading the act on which the indictment was founded, that any evidence of this kind should be received, since no offence on the part of the slaves could justify the cruel conduct of the master. will be thought still stranger, perhaps, that the defendant's counsel should argue to the jury against their obligation to respect the act itself, speaking of it in the most contemptuous way, and intimating that it was passed merely to satisfy the clamours of some individuals in England, whom it was necessary to appease. Such, however, appears to have been the nature of the defence; and the defence was effectual. Mr. Huggins, after a short deliberation by the jury, was acquitted!!! It may be thought, that at least the offender will be discountenanced hereafter by the more respectable members of the society. On the contrary, a party was making in his favour, to turn his opponents out of the Assembly at the present year's election, and place in their stead a majority, who may expunge the resolution recorded against him; and by the last accounts, two of his sons were just returned. The president of the council, being his son-in-law, is the less inexcusable for taking an active part on his behalf; and the influence of his own property and possessions in that small island is very considerable. But in the West Indies a master, prosecuted for the abuses of his power over his slave, is always sure to find zealous partizans in abundance, among the many who are conscious that the case may be their own.

Mr. Huggins is so well aware of this, that he has not been content to stand on the defensive. He has prosecuted, in St. Christopher, the printer of the Gazette in that island, for inserting the minutes sent to him by order of the Assembly; and the prosecution has been so popular there, that one jury staid out of court a long time (it is said three days) because they could not agree in finding the defendant not guilty, though satisfied of his innocence in point of intention.

A juror at length was withdrawn, and a second trial afterwards had, when the following verdict was found: "Guilty of publishing a libel, issued by the House of Assembly of Nevis, under a mistaken opinion that it was not a libel, and that the authority of that body justified his publishing their resolutions."

The printer was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, and to find bail to keep the peace for three years.

The case, in consequence of these proceedings, has naturally excited much attention, and produced great party animosities in the islands of St. Christophers and Nevis, especially in the latter.

That it has not been officially represented to the Secretary. of State for the Colonial Department is not strange, considering the state of things in those islands. Some private gentlemen have, however, transmitted the case to their correspondents in England, with a view to a representation to Government, and they seem anxiously to hope from it some official support to the cause of humanity.

The above statement is fully confirmed, in all its parts, by the papers transmitted from the West Indies to the Earl of Liverpool, one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, and since laid on the table of the House of Commons. From these papers, some extracts will now be inserted.

Notes of the Trial, in the Case of the King v. Edward Huggins, sen. Esq., on an Indictment for Cruelty in the Punishment inflicted on several of his Slaves, on the 23d Jan. 1810; furnished by the Defendant's Counsel.

"Evidence adduced in support of the prosecution. "John Burke, being duly sworn, deposed, "That on Tuesday the 23d January 1810, he, the witness, was in the street opposite the Rev. Mr. Green's house, wher