JAMAICA.
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any of the gang when called for. The case was dis missed, the charge being too absurd even for a court like this to entertain. The brother of MARY SAUNDERS now stepped forward, and asked why his sister had been sent to the workhouse. He had witnesses to prove that the Special Magistrate, (PHELP,) told her she was free, and might go where she liked, at the time that he received the money. The same magistrate treated him very insolently, and said, that she had written a letter to the Governor full of lies about him, and that she was now committed as a runaway by the Governor's order.* He said he would not be called to account by everybody, and ordered the man out of court. Subsequently, the Gustos entered the court, and spoke to the magistrates about this case. He had been one of the local justices concerned in the original valuation, and felt himself somewhat implicated in the case. From the explanations which followed, it was apparent that the facts were as we have already stated them, and that the conduct of the Special Magistrate had been most grossly arbitrary and illegal. There were several cases of valuation. A sickly colored child, about ten years old, was appraised at ten pounds, M'hich was paid by her father, an overseer. A diminu tive woman, valued as a predial apprentice, for thirty* Having the Governor's general permission to apply for informa tion at the Stipendiary Magistrates' department in Spanish Town, w e availed ourselves of it to obtain a sight of the official correspond ence in this case ; and can, therefore, state that this assertion of the magistrates, was a total misrepresentation of the Governor's in structions in the case, and that the act of committal was entirely his own. T h e poor woman subsequently memorialized the Governor, but obtained no redress, till she made a personal appeal to him, when he visited the workhouse on his tour round the island. H e imme diately ordered her release. T h e magistrate, we beUeve, escaped without censure.