was authorized, on the 12th of August 1846, to call for plans and estimates for the alteration and erection of buildings as proposed in their report, and it was ultimately recommended to the House of Assembly to construct an entirely new jail, in lieu of undertaking extensive and costly reparations and changes in the old building.

The sense of the House was taken at their meeting of the 28th of July, on the question whether "Mr. Innis, one of the members of the parish of St. Michael, had not vacated his seat by accepting the appointment to the situation of district surveyor of roads." After some discussion it was moved that the House "do resolve that John Innis, Esq., a member of this House, having accepted the office of district surveyor of roads, has thereby vacated his seat;" after which the following amendment was proposed, "that the debate be adjourned, and that the House do go into committee on the question at the next meeting;" which amendment was carried. Upon the proposition of the Speaker, the order for going into committee was dis charged at the next meeting, and the former resolution, that the member for St. Michael had vacated his seat, was put. The Attorney-General considered the question one of the utmost importance, as it involved the privileges of the House. Anterior to the revolution under Charles the First, only four classes of persons were disqualified from sitting in Parliament, namely the judges, the clergy, aliens, and persons returned for places in which they did not reside. He observed that the first disqualifying statute after the revolution was passed in the time of Queen Anne, in which it was clearly set forth who were disqualified by virtue of their offices from sitting in Parliament. Disqualification could only be by law, and not by implication; and although the surveyor-general of roads was disqualified under the road-act from sitting in the House, it did not follow that the district-surveyors were equally disqualified. In the case of the member for St. Michael, his office was held not by appointment from the Crown, but from a board of commissioners with the Governor's approval'. It had been stated that Mr. Innis was desirous to vacate his seat; but, unless the law went along with the wish, the House could not declare his

1

1 By the provision of 6 Anne, cap. 7, it is enacted, "that if any member shall accept of any office of profit from the Crown during such a time as he shall continue a member, his election shall be, and is hereby declared to be void, and a new writ shall be issued for a new election, as if such person so accepting was naturally dead; provided nevertheless that such person shall be capable of being again elected.” Erskine May's treatise on the law and privileges of Parliament observes, “that by virtue of this provision whenever a member accepts office under the Crown, a new writ is ordered; but as the Secretaries of the Treasury, the Under Secretaries of State, and the Secretaries to the Admiralty and to the Board of Control, do not hold office by appointment from the Crown their seats are not vacated, nor would the acceptance of any other offices of which the appointment does not vest directly in the Crown vacate a seat." These passages were quoted by the Speaker on the occasion of this debate.

seat vacated; for supposing that Mr. Innis had no desire to vacate his seat, could the House expel him for accepting an office which he was not by law disqualified to hold? It was the opinion of the honourable member (the Attorney-General) that the act under which Mr. Innis was appointed did not disqualify him from retaining his seat in the House. The question having been put, the resolution was negatived, and Mr. Innis was obliged to retain his seat. An amendment to the franchise act renders a voluntary vacation obtainable. It had been enacted on the 18th of June 1845, as an amendment of the forty-first clause, that "if a member of the Assembly shall quit the island without leave of the Assembly, but shall not be absent for a longer period than forty days, he is not to be considered as having vacated his seat by his absence;" hence by an absence of a longer period than forty days the member has forfeited his seat.

For some time past the report had been current that Sir Charles Grey had been appointed to the higher government of Jamaica. The Governor had made no communication to that effect to the Legislature, and it was still doubted, until towards the close of the session he alluded to his approaching departure.

The meeting of the General Assembly on the 20th of October concluded the session. The Governor availed himself of this occasion to address the legislative Council and Assembly, and to inform them of his intention to issue immediately the writs for the election of a new House; as the franchise act rendered it almost impossible that the election could be held in December, it would be losing a great deal of valuable time to defer the writs until January. He confessed also that he was desirous to meet the Legislature once more before departing to assume the government of a new colony. His Excellency then adverted to the various measures which had been passed in the course of the session, which that day's proceedings would close: he spoke in terms of the greatest praise of the numerous benevolent institutions which had risen under the fostering care of the Legislature, namely the General Hospital, the Lunatic Asylum, and the projected retreat for those afflicted with leprosy: he alluded to the new system of repairing the public roads, the purchase of the Burnt District for the object of improving the city, and the completion, as he believed, of the Mole-head.

"I wish," continued the Governor, "that to this list of good works completed during the Session, I could add a statement of the reformation of the prisons; but with every disposition to give credit to the committee of the Assembly which has had this subject under its consideration for the best intentions, and for a willingness to devote much attention and labour on the subject, I am constrained to say that nothing under this head can be regarded as accomplished, and that the hope of any general and effective improvement seems to be deferred until a new jail can be erected.”

The militia-act, a more general comprehensive and efficient system of

education, under which all the children of the island might be so far educated as to be perfect in reading and writing and the common rules of arithmetic, the oft-recommended erection of a lighthouse and harbourlight, were objects which his Excellency recommended to the future deliberation of the Assembly. He alluded next to his own view of some princi ples of revenue and taxation, which in his opinion would make the finances of Barbados secure and easy of management; this he hoped to have an opportunity of placing before the Legislature on another occasion; and he concluded his observations on the public affairs of the island with the remark, that although he had no fear whatever as to the means of raising an ample revenue, it was necessary to bear in mind that no revenue would continue to be ample or sufficient, unless providently and economically distributed. And since it was possible, although not probable, that he addressed the Legislature for the last time, the Governor in the most feeling and grateful terms thanked them for all the assistance and kindness he had received during the period of five years that he had resided as Governor among them. "I assure you," he said, "that, except for the unavoidable absence of my family, I should ever look back upon the time I have passed in this island as one of the happiest periods of a sufficient happy, though a varied life."

On this last day of the session a committee was appointed to prepare the following address to his Excellency the Governor in reply. to his speech.

"The House of Assembly cannot separate on this the last day of the session without expressing their thanks to your Excellency for the lucid address which you have been pleased to make to them, displaying the deep and paternal interest you take in the prosperity of the island, and a thorough and well-matured acquaintance with its resources.

"The short time that is given to the House to perfect the business of the session does not admit of their replying in detail to the valuable suggestions contained in your address—a circumstance they deeply regret—or they would gladly avail themselves of the opportunity afforded them of testifying their sentiments in the views your Excellency has so elaborately and eloquently unfolded.

"The House consider it to have been a most fortunate circumstance for the island that your Excellency was selected by her Majesty to preside over its destinies for the period mentioned in your address: and if during that time the institutions to which you have so feelingly referred have derived efficiency in their purposes by their exertions and those of the legislative bodies which have preceded this House, they cannot but attribute the complete success of them to the kind and fostering hand by which they have been supported by you, and the ready and unwearied assistance your Excellency has so perseveringly given to those institutions, and the boards presiding over them.

"It is indeed, Sir, a source of sincere regret to this House, in which they are assured that the whole community participate, that your connection with this island is so near its close. And although your Excellency has not ex

pressly alluded to the cause which will deprive the inhabitants of this island of your Excellency's judicious and mild administration, sufficient has appeared before the public to conclude that your Excellency has reason to expect to be called to administer the government of a more extensive and important portion of the British possessions than that over which your Excellency at present presides. Such an appointment could surprise no one acquainted with your Excellency's high qualifications and virtues; and should such an event happen, and the House be deprived of the honour of addressing you, they now beg leave to offer to your Excellency their sincere good wishes for the welfare and happiness of your Excellency and your amiable family."

Before the dissolution of the General Assembly took place, the legislative Council informed the House, that, with the exception of three minor amendments, they had unanimously passed "An Act for the more effectual settlement of the debts of insolvent traders, by realising and making distributions of their assets, and for relieving such insolvents upon certain conditions from all future liabilities on account of such debts." The amendments were approved of by the House, and with the arrangement of some other less important affairs the session ended.

A government without an opposition would be an anomaly in the history of politics; that such a one was in existence in Barbados needs scarcely be observed. On the present occasion the Governor's declaration of his intention to issue writs before the ensuing registration of votes had taken place was a fruitful subject of animadversion by the Opposition, who, misinterpreting the franchise act, inferred that the registration was to precede the election, while in fact the act made it follow the election. The issue of writs for an election, which according to the Governor's wish was to take place immediately, did not depend upon the votes which were to be registered in the ensuing November, but upon the registration which had taken place the preceding November, 1845.

The opening of the legislative session took place on the 12th of November 1846. The late Speaker, the Hon. George N. Taylor, who had filled that office for five successive sessions, had withdrawn from the representation, and consequently given in his resignation as Speaker. The senior member of St. Peter's, Dr. Goding, was unanimously elected to replace him'. The Governor, having approved of the choice, opened his speech with congratulating the members on seeing them once more in their legislative capacities, and finding that the general election had taken place without the slightest inconvenience. He explained the reasons why he had issued the writs for a new general election, in opposition to some remarks that had been made of its being an illegal step, as interfering with the annual registration of voters. As it appeared by no means

The Hon. George N. Taylor and the Hon. Dr. Goding have since been called to her Majesty's Board of Council, and the Hon. J. Thomas has been elected as Speaker.

impossible on the dissolution of the last House that he might have had to proceed to another government, it was his aim that his successor should have the assistance of a Legislature for the first two months of his administration. This would not have been the case had his Excellency waited until the registration of the new voters had taken place, as three Sundays must intervene between the issuing of the writs and the election. The first twenty days of December in each year are allowed by the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth clauses of the franchise act, for the purpose of making up the books of the new registration; consequently it would have been necessary, in order to have an election in December, to issue the writs before there was any assurance of the existence of a regular and complete register. His Excellency's conclusion with respect to the propriety of the step he had taken had been fortified by the concurrent opinions of the Attorney- and the Solicitor-General, "that it was morally impossible it should in any way interfere with the annual registration of voters." Several of the measures which the Governor had brought before the House on the last day of the former session were again alluded to; and on the subject of education he said, that he was "desirous now of recording permanently his opinion, that in any plan of national education for the United Kingdom or its colonies, the separation of religious from secular instruction was the only plan compatible with that full toleration of diversities of religion which is now diffused through all our institutions, and incorporated with them." To effect this in Barbados, it would be necessary to make provisions under which the parochial clergy and the ministers of the several congregations to which the parents might belong, should avail themselves of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in each week to impart religious instruction to the children, who were to absent themselves on those days from the parochial schools. The financial measure to which the Governor referred in his former speech was now laid before the Legislature: it consisted of a recommendation to adopt a low land-rate or assessment as one basis of the general revenue, similar to the parochial assessment under which all the land in each parish is assessed alike, without reference to the different fertility or value of certain portions of it; with this should be connected a very moderate and equable tariff of import duties on every description of commodity brought to the island. He recommended all other taxes and parochial assessments to be abolished.

"Far be it from me," were the Governor's concluding words on this last occasion of his addressing the two branches of the Legislature of Barbados, "to suppose that in these recommendations there may not be a large admixture of error, which I trust however is sure of being corrected by your united abilities and free discussion. I can only answer for their being the result of unprejudiced and deliberate reflection, and of their being proposed with an earnestness and entire honesty of purpose. If I were quitting this life, instead of this govern