APPENDIX.
xix.
" Were you called upon by the Court to give your opinion as to the legality of awarding punish ment by whipping, in the cases of Dongouse and MARY CLARKE ?"
" 1 do not recollect that 1 was called upon to give my opinion, but I did give my opinion, that the punishment of females by whipping, was legal.—I pointed out to the Court, that that mode of punishment was still in their power, and that the cases of the twopartieswarranted its exercise."
" Upon what Law do you ground your opinion that women may bo flogged in this Colony for certain offences ?"
" Upon the Law of England.'
The Provost Marshal w a s asked. " When were the sentences put in execution ? and on what day ?"
" In the market place, on the 7th of February, between twelve and one o'clock."
" Was it on the market day, and was the market full of people, men and women ?"
" It was on a market day, and there were a great many people, men and women, as is ustial on those days.
The Attorney General, w h o thus deliberately avows, that these female apprentices were publicly flogged, on h i s unsolicited recom mendation to the Court, is still, through his o w n talents, and t h e favor of the Government, t h e m o s t influential person in the Colony. From the investigation into the other case of the free m a n of color, it appears that it is not the custom in D o m i n i c a for free criminals to receive any food; and that this prisoner w a s actually dependent on casual charity, and on the pity of the apprentices in the chain gang. One of the t o w n wardens, on being asked, in reference to this case, " W h y do y o u consider the punishment b y the chain gang not a severe punishment ?" replies, " In the first instance, I consider t h e chain is p u t about t h e m a s a badge of shame, to w h i c h , in m y opinion, the generality of them are perfect strangers, & c . " he adds, " I have latterly observed, that the chain is so folded up, or covered, that y o u cannot discern whether it is a chain or n o t ! " T h i s is a striking illustration of the unconscious simplicity w i t h w h i c h a thorough-paced advocate of colonial o p pressions, will sometimes supply facts in refutation of his opinions. It would, indeed, n o t be surprising if the sense of shame were obliterated b y slavery ; b u t it is a fact, that m a n y of the females manifest as deep a feeling of the degradations to w h i c h they arc subjected, as could be s h o w n under the same circumstances, b y the wives and daughters of more happy England.