342
JAMAICA.
by admitting the facts. The Grand Jury ignored the other five, and made tlie following presentment. " With feelings of the deepest regret, we have to observe, that in the examinations of the several wit nesses from Molynes estate, we have found great dis crepancy and contradiction, particularly as relates to five of the seven indictments, preferred against J A M E S D U N O A S S , overseer of the said estate, the evidence not at all hearing out the charges set forth.* " W e also humbly conceive, that charges of so light and frivolous a nature, as appeared from the evidence adduced, should have been referred to the Special Ma gistrates, who are the judges appointed by law to take cognizance of them, or to the Petty Courts of the country. " We feel the greatest pride on all occasions, fear lessly to perform our duty to our country, hut we view with alarm these appearances of persecution, and we * A n intelligent individual, intimately acquainted with the cir cumstances, writes as follows. " Mr. D U N D A S S , immediately on the investigation closing, was so satisfied, that he must stand condemned before a jury of his country, that he got his brother to write a letter to Mr. D A L Y , the county Inspector, requesting him to use his influ ence with the Attorney General, to instruct that the prosecutions should be tried in the Court of Quarter Sessions ; alleging that some personal dislike which the Chief Justice had towards him, gave him no expectation but that of a severe sentence at his hands. A t this time, there was no imputation of perjury against the apprentices, on whose evidence he and tho magistrates were judged guilty, nothing on which he could raise the cry of persecution, no features iu the proceedings to be deprecated, as calculated to destroy all confidence between the extreme classes of society ; yet how strikingly does the scheme of persuading the Attorney General to turn over the cases to the Quarter Sessions, tally with the presentment of the Grand Jury, that they were of a nature for reference to the Petty Courts of the country. This looks like artifice and contrivance, not on the part o f the apprentices, but on that of the overseer and the Grand Inquest of the country.