attorney-general, procurator-syndic, or other law officer, shall cause a prosecution for such penalty or penalties, to be instituted in the proper court of the said island, against such party or parties so offending, and shall prosecute the same to trial, judgment, and execution; and the person or persons making such return, shall be bound, on such trial, to furnish sufficient evidence for the conviction of the defendant or de fendants; or on failure thereof, his said return shall be reject ed, and the asserted slave or slaves in question, as against the party or parties making such return, shall be deemed and taken to be free; and until the event of such prosecution, the Registrar shall not proceed to register such return, notwithstanding any such evidence as aforesaid adduced or offered to him, but shall reserve the same, if need be, for registration, in case the same shall be ultimately allowed, at the next annual period for registering returns after such allowance, when the registration thereof, if duly made, shall be as valid and effectual as if made at the regular time.

"And, for the better enabling all remainder-men, and reversioners, and all mortgagors and mortgagees, not in possession, and all other persons beneficially entitled to, or interested in, any slaves in the said island, in the possession of any tenants for life or years, or other particular tenants, or of any mortgagees, mortgagors, trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, or sequestrators, to discover any default of the party or parties in possession of such slaves, in not duly returning the same to be registered in the said original registration of slaves, and thereupon to have and use the remedies hereby provided; it is hereby further ordered, That it shall and may be lawful to and for every person that is, or shall, or may be, legally or beneficially entitled to, or interested in, any slave or slaves in the said island, in remainder or reversion, or by virtue of any mortgage or equity of redemption, or of any settlement or conveyance, or will, or otherwise howsoever, which slave or slaves are in the immediate possession of any tenant for life or years, or other particular estate, or of any mortgagor, mortgagee, trustee, guardian, receiver, committee, or sequestrator thereof, once within the term of three years, from the

time of the said original registration of slaves, and at any part of that term, by himself or herself, or his or her attorney or agent, to give notice, in writing, to the parties in possession of any such slave or slaves, that he or she, the said person, legally or beneficially entitled or interested, or his or her at torney therein named and described, will attend at the house, plantation, or place, where such slave or slaves is or are usually kept and employed, at some day, and some convenient hour in the day-time, specified in such notice, and not less than ten days after the service thereof, then and there to inspect the said slave or slaves, and compare him, her, or them, in point of numbers and descriptions, with an office copy of the registered returns; at which time and place, the party in possession of such slave or slaves shall, by himself or herself, or his or her attorney, manager, or agent, produce the same accordingly, and submit him, her, or them to the inspec tion and examination of the said party so entitled or interested, or his or her said attorney; or in default thereof, without some necessary and unavoidable impediment, (the proof whereof shall lie upon such defaulter), shall forfeit and pay, for every slave omitted to be so produced, the sum of twenty pounds sterling money.

"And, for the better protection and security of infants, married women, lunatics, and all other persons under any disability or incapacity, who are, or shall, or may be, beneficially entitled to, or interested in, any slave or slaves within the said island, it is hereby further ordered, That within three months from and after the closing and authentication of the original registry of the slaves of the said island, as herein-before directed, the Registrar shall make out, and certify. in writing, and transmit to the court of Oidor, or such other court or judge as shall have the supreme jurisdiction in civil causes within the said island, an abstract or list in writing of all returns which shall have been made by persons in pos- session of slaves, as trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, or sequestrators; and such court shall thereupon, ex officio, issue a commission, directed to three or more trust-worthy and intelligent persons, empowering and requiring them to

repair to the several plantations in respect of which such re turns have been made, and to the places of abode of such trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, or sequestrators, as have made any returns of personal slaves in their possession, there, by inspection of the slaves, to verify or correct the said registered returns; to which commissioners, all such trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, or sequestrators, shall be bound, on reasonable notice, to be allowed by such court or judge, to produce all the slaves by them respectively returned for the inspection of the said commissioners; and the said commissioners shall thereupon proceed to compare the same, with the descriptions thereof in the said returns; and the said commissioners shall have power to examine the said trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, and sequestrators, upon oath, as to the truth of the said returns, so as to ascertain whether all the slaves are included therein that ought to have been returned, and also to inquire whether any trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, or sequestrators, in possession of any slave or slaves within the said island, have omitted to make any returns; and for that purpose to call before them and examine witnesses, and to examine all public registries and records; and the said commissioners shall, within six months from and after the closing and authentication of the said original registry, make a full and distinct return to the said court or judge, specifying any defaults or defects in the said original and registered returns, or any omissions to make returns, which they shall have discovered, with the names of the defaulters, and all such descriptions of the slaves, the subjects of any such defaults as are herein-before required to be specified in the said original returns; and the said court or judge shall thereupon cause all such defaulters to be summoned to appear and shew cause why such defaults or defects of registration should not be corrected and supplied, and why they, the said defaulters, should not pay the penalties hereby imposed for such defaults, and shall proceed, in a summary manner, to examine the truth of the return that shall have been made by the said

commissioners, and the causes that shall be shewn against the allowance thereof, and shall allow or disallow the said return, in the various particulars therein contained; and if any defaults or defects of returns for original registration shall be established, to the satisfaction of the said court or judge, an order shall be made thereupon, distinctly and fully specifying the same, with all such particulars as shall be necessary for supplying and correcting such defaults and defects, and reforming the said original registry, and commanding the same to be reformed accordingly at the next annual period of registration; and such order shall, by the said court or jadge, be transmitted, at or before the said annual period of registrauon, to the said Registrar, who shall transcribe the same at large in the said books appointed for the registration of Plantation Slaves and Personal Slaves respectively, and the same shall from thenceforth be deemed and taken to be a part of the said original registry of slaves, and shall have the same force and effect as if the corrections or additions, by such order made, had been contained in the said original returns, any thing herein contained to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.

That, every trustee, guardian, receiver, committee, or sequestrator, who shall wilfully refuse or omit to produce any slave in his possession, for the inspection of the said commissioners, being thereto by them required as aforesaid, or who shall be found to have wilfully omitted to return, for original registration, any slave or slaves in his possession, or wilfully to have described the same improperly in such his return, shall forfeit and pay, for every slave, the subject of any such offence, such sum as the said court or judge shall adjudge and order, not exceeding the sum of twenty pounds sterling for every such slave, to be recovered in the same court; the produce of which fines shall be applied towards defraying the expences attending the said commission.

"That the said court or judge shall adjust and award a reasonable allowance and compensation to the said commissioners, and any clerk or clerks to be by them appointed, as well for their time and trouble, as their expences in executing

the said commission, to defray which, or the residue thereof, after the application of the produce of the said fines as aforesaid, the said trustees, guardians, receivers, committees, and sequestrators, shall be respectively assessed, in proportion to the number of slaves by them respectively possessed in their said respective characters; such sums (to be paid by them respectively, and allowed to them in their accounts with the estates, or person, beneficially interested in such slaves) as shall be ordered by the said court or judge, not exceeding the sum of five shillings sterling money for each slave so by them respectively possessed.

Provided, That after any slave shall have been duly registered as such in the said island, either in the said original registration, or by such corrections thereof as are hereinbefore allowed and provided, or in any annual return and registration, either as a new-born slave, the issue of a registered female slave, or as newly imported from some other British colony, with such certificate of lawful importation as is herein-before in that case required, such slave shall not be entitled to his or her freedom by reason of any subsequent default of annual registration, in any case in which such registration is hereby required to be made, except as against the party or parties making such default; and all persons cla ming by, from, or under him or them, by title subsequent to such default, unless such other person or persons as may thereupon be, or become entitled, beneficially, to such slave, being of full age, and under no personal disability, shall omit duly to return such slave for registration, in manner herein-before directed and provided, at or before the annual period of registration next but one after his, her, or their right and title to, and actual possession of, such slave, shall have accrued.

"That whenever, by reason of the wilful default of any tenant for life or years, or other particular estate, or of any mortgagee or mortgagor in possession, or any trustee, guardian, receiver, committee, sequestrator, or other person in possession of any slave or slaves, the same shall become entitled to his, her, or their freedom, by force and virtue of