When more than one Year's Sti pend is due, payment to be a Commission. 4th ANNE. No. 33. A. D. 1705. Neglect or Deficiency whatsoever, the Incumbent of any Parish within this Government of the Leeward Islands, have now, or hereafter shall have more than one Year's Stipend due to him from his Parishioners, compelled by it shall and may be lawful for the Commander in Chief of these Islands for the time being, upon Application made to him, to commissionate under his Hand and Seal seven Persons (being Principal Freeholders of the Island) of which four to be a Quorum; who shall, by virtue of such Commission, be fully authorised and impowered to act and do every Thing that a Vestry chosen by the Parishioners might or could have done, and to compel the Payments of all or any Arrears due from any Person or Persons whatsoever, whereby the Complainant's Accounts may be adjusted, and all that shall appear to be justly due to him from his Parish paid; which when done the Commission to be void, and the Overplus (if any levied) returned to the Churchwardens of the Parishes; and that the Accounts may be more Commission- fairly stated and adjusted, the Commissioners are hereby authorized ers empower- and impowered to demand a Sight of the Parish Books, to send for Parish Books, Persons and Papers, and to administer Oaths to all Parties concerned. ed to inspect &c. Commissioner's Oath. Commissioners to fulfil the ends of the Commission in 28 Days. tend Commissioners, &c. III. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That every Commissioner appointed by Virtue of this Act, shall take the following Oath: I A. B. do swear, That I will faithfully and conscientiously discharge the Trust reposed in Me by the Commission, under which I am now about to act, according to the true Intent and Meaning thereof. SO HELP ME GOD. IV. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioners appointed or to be appointed by Virtue of this Act, are hereby obliged fully to execute the said Commission, so that the Complainant may receive full Payment and Satisfaction of his just Dues and Demands, within twenty-eight Days at furthest after due Notice given of the said ComMarshal to at- mission; and that the same may be effectually executed, the Provost Marshal or his lawful Deputy is hereby required to attend the said Commissioners; and is further impowered and authorized to execute such Orders and Precepts as shall be directed to him under the Hands and Seals of the said Commissioners, or any four of them, by virtue of and in Execution of their Commission; and for his Trouble and Marshal to re- Pains shall receive such reasonable Fees as the Commissioners shall able Fees, &c. appoint, to be paid out of the Levy raised out of the Parish com ceive reason plained of by Virtue of this Act. 4th ANNE. Nis. 33, 34. A. D. 1705. Neglect of V. And be it provided, That if the Marshal shall refuse or neglect Marshal on effectually to execute such Precepts as shall be directed to him in Duty to for pursuance of this Act, he shall forfeit two hundred Pounds current feit 2001. &c. Money of these Islands, suffer two Months Imprisonment, and be rendered incapable of his Employ for ever; of which Forfeiture or Forfeitures to be applied, Forfeitures one Moiety shall be to the Informer, and the other to the half to InforUse of the Poor of the Parish complained of. And for the more ef- mer, half to fectual Encouragement of Virtue, and Suppression of Immorality and Vice amongst the Clergy in these Islands: the Poor. VI. Be it enacted and ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That Clergymen if any beneficed Clergyman in these Islands shall, by the Oaths of two may be suspended for or more lawful or credible Witnesses, be convict before the Comman- Immorality of der in Chief, or Lieutenant Governor, or President of the Island, Irreligion; where such Clergyman has his Cure, of any habitual Immorality or Irreligion, and scandalous Practices, that it shall and may be lawful for the said Commander in Chief for the time being, Lieutenant Governor or President, by or with the Advice and Consent of the Council, before whom the Party accused is so convict, to suspend the Party so convict from his Benefice; the Profits thereof to be applied to the and Profits of Public Uses of the Parish, whereof the Person so suspended was In- ing Suspencumbent; and the said Commander in Chief shall give notice of said sinapplied to Suspension with the Reasons thereof to the Lord Bishop of London for Notice to be the time being, by the first convenient Opportunity that offers for its sent to the so being done, that his Lordship may give such Directions therein as don to him shall seein meet. Dated this twenty-second Day of June one thousand seven hundred and five, and in the fourth Year of Her Majesty's Reign. Benefice dur. Parish Uses. Bishop of Lon THOMAS BELLMAN, Speaker: JOHN JOHNSON. EXPIRED, BEING COM PLIED WITH. An Act for obliging Joseph Crisp of the Island of St. No. 34. Christopher's, Esq; to account for and satisfy the Islands of Nevis, Antigua, and Montserrat, for sundry Goods of the said Islands intrusted with him some Years past. Dated 22d June, 1705. An 4th ANNE. OBSOLETE. No. 35. An Act for establishing Courts, and settling due Methods for the Administration of Justice throughout all Her Majesty's Leeward Caribbee Islands in America. Dated 22d June, 1705. CONFIRMED, March 6,1799. SAINT CHRISTOPHER. No. 36. An Act more effectually to provide for the Support, and to extend certain Regulations for the Protection of Slaves, to promote and encourage their Increase, and generally to meliorate their Condition. For Laws in on the Go- AND TREAT- SLAVES, SC with this, Acts in connection of Antigua of 28th June, 130) 9th De (No. 212); 28th December, 1797, (No. 522) and 28th Feb. 1798, No. 527). YOUR Majesty's loyal and obedient Subjects the Commander in Chief of Your Majesty's Leeward Caribbee Islands in America, and the General Council and General Assembly of the said Islands, duly convened and assembled at the Town of Basseterre in the Island of 1702 Saint Christopher, having taken into their most serious Consideration, ember, 1723, the Resolution of the Honorable the House of Commons of Great No. 176) 25th Nov.1757 Britain, of the sixth Day of April, in the thirty-seventh Year of Your Majesty's Reign, recommended to their Attention by Your Majesty's said Commander in Chief of Your Leeward Caribbee Islands, in obedience to Your Majesty's Order communicated by his Grace the Duke of Portland, one of Your Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; and having maturely deliberated upon the Measures which appear to them best calculated to obviate the Causes which hitherto may have impeded the natural Increase of Negroes already in these Islands gradually; as they hope to diminish the Necessity of the Slave Trade, and ultimately to lead to its final Termination; and desiring to grant unto the Slaves in these Your Majesty's Leeward Caribbec Islands, every Indulgence and Encouragement which may tend to their moral and religious Improvement, and to secure to them the certain, immediate and active Protection of the Law, as far as the same can possibly be extended to them, consistently with that good Order, Discipline and Obedience which it is absolutely necessary to preserve and maintain in all Places where, from inevitable local Circumstances, Slavery must, with some Restrictions be tolerated; and desiring No. 36. A. D. 1798. 38th GEO. III. and ordained: Slaves to fur weekly ty of ten Shil. Head. distribute at pend the I. And be it, and it is hereby enacted and ordained by the Authority Masters of aforesaid, That every Owner or Director of any Slave or Slaves within nish the prethe Leeward Islands, shall, weekly and every Week, under the Penalty scribed weekly of ten Shillings per Head for each and every Slave under his or her Provisions unDirection for every Omission, purchase or provide at the Rate of the der the Penal. following Quantities of Provision, that is to say, for every Slave at the lings per Rate of nine Pints of Corn or Beans, or eight Pints of Pease or Wheat or Rye Flour or Indian Corn Meal, or nine Pints of Oatmeal, or seven Pints of Rice, or eight Pints of Cassava Flour or Farine, or eight Pounds of Biscuit, or twenty Pounds of Yams or Potatoes, or sixteen Pounds of Eddoes, Tanias, or Tyres, or thirty Pounds of Plantains or Bananas, and also one Pound and one Quarter of Herrings, Shads, Mackarel, or other salted Provisions, or double the Quantity of fresh Fish or other fresh Provisions, all which said Provisions to be of good and wholesome Quality: Provided nevertheless, that every such Owner Masters may or Director shall have the absolute and uncontroulable Right of distri- Discretion, buting and dividing all and every such Quantities of Provision so to be but must exdivided as aforesaid, unto and among all and every his Slave or Slaves, whole Quantiin such Proportions, Shares and Allowances as he shall think proper, ty. according to the different Labour, Size, Age, and Strength or otherwise,. of all and every such Slave and Slaves, and as the same shall appear to him in his Discretion eligible or right; but notwithstanding such discretionary Power, such Owner or Director shall actually distribute, weekly and every Week, among all his Slaves, the whole Quantity of Provisions herein before directed to be purchased or provided, under the Penalty aforesaid for every Omission: Provided also, that every And must alaged, infirm, or sickly Slave, and every Slave afflicted with any loathsome or contagious Disorder, or every Slave being incapable of La- or sickly, a full bour, shall receive, weekly and every Week, at least one full Rate or Ratio of Allowance aforesaid, notwithstanding the general and discretionary Power of dividing the same herein before permitted to the Owner, and notwithstanding any other Power which he may have. And if any Owner or Director of any Slave or Slaves within the Lecward Islands, shall omit or neglect, under any Pretext whatever, especially under Pretext of Absence from the said Plantation, or that the said Slave is wandering about the Towns or other Parts of low Slaves aged, infirm, Ratio. the Allowance may be diminished one Time. No. 36. 38th GEO. III. II. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful for every Owner or Director of any Slaves fifth in Crop employed on any Plantation in the Leeward Islands, to reduce and diminish, when he shall be actually making Sugar or cutting Canes on such Plantation for the whole Week in which he makes such Reduction, the Quantity of Provisions herein before directed to be distributed among his Slaves, in the Proportion which one fifth Part of the said Provisions bears to the whole thereof, but on no Account in Particular Re- a larger Proportion. Provided nevertheless, that in as much as it is gulations for the Virgin necessary for ensuring the Subsistence which is the principal Object of Islands. this Act, that in some of the Leeward Caribbee Islands the Provisions given to the Slaves in Crop Time should be increased, and may without derogating from such Subsistence be out of Crop diminished ; That no Owner or Director of any Slave within the Virgin Islands shall be permitted to make the aforesaid Reduction in any Week in which he shall be, or have been actually employed in the manufacturing Sugar or grinding Canes; but every Owner or Director of every Slave worked on any Plantation within the said Virgin Islands, shall be permitted, out of Crop, to make a Reduction of one fifth Part of the dry Provisions herein before directed to be given to his or her Slaves, whenever he or she shall give and allow to each and every of his or her Slaves as much Land and Time as shall with his or her Labour on such Land for such Time, be likely to produce the Value of such dry Provisions. And provided also, that if the Value of such dry Provisions shall not be produced by such Land, every such Owner or Director shall make good to every Slave whose Land shall be less productive, the Difference between its Produce and the Value of the dry Provisions to which such Slave under this Act would otherwise be intitled. Money not to be substituted III. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That for Provisions Money shall on no Account be given to Slaves in lieu of the Provisions but in case of herein before directed to be purchased or distributed, unless in case Necessity. of absolute and unequivocal Necessity; and that if any Owner or Director |