THE CARIBBS OF ST. VINCENTS.
Before the Christmas holidays, Alderman Trecothick mentioned in the house that the island of St. Vincent had been made a scene of iniquity and cruelty: our troops having committed against the Caribbs, a defenceless and innocent people, the most shocking barbarities. Other members spoke on the same subject, and said that the troops had been barbarously made to suffer even more evils than those they inflicted on the Indians. Papers were produced which seemed to prove that proper care had been taken of the troops, but on the re-assembling of parliament, a further inquiry was set on foot upon the subject. It appears that the Caribbs, who were in possession of the most fertile parts of the island, had not been mentioned when it was ceded to Great Britain; and that the British settlers wished them to exchange their districts for tracts which were said to be more appropriate to their occupations of hunting and fishing. This proposal was received by the Caribbs with indignation. They replied that they had held their lands independent of the King of France, and would still hold them independent of the King of England. The planters then submitted a plan to government for transporting this brave people to Africa, which plan met with approbation. The Caribbs, however, were passionately attached to their native plains, and hence determined on resistance. Two regiments were then dispatched from North America, to join others in the island, for the purpose of reducing them to subjection. Several skirmishes took place, but the rainy season and sickness, added to the difficulties of the country, prevented our troops from completing their subjugation. Such was the state of the island when Parliament met, and the account of these hostilities, in which detestable cruelties had been committed on both sides, was made the subject of animadversion. Motions concerning the cause of the war and the state of our troops were made by the opposition, but ministers negatived them with their usual majorities; and before the discussions were over, intelligence arrived, that the Caribbs had acknowledged themselves subject to the British crown, retaining their ancient customs in their intercourse with each other, and ceding certain districts to the British settlers. This put an end to all further debates on the question.
PETITION OF NAVAL OFFICERS.
On the 9th of February, a petition was presented by Lord Howe, from the captains of the navy, praying for a trifling increase of their half-pay. This was opposed by Lord North, who stated that the present state of the public finances put it out of his power to be liberal, and that by granting this petition a door would be open to similar claims. It was, however, so warmly defended by Lord Howe, and other members—some of whom ridiculed the idea that the finances of this great and opulent country were in so wretched a state as not to be able to afford the pittance of £6000 a year, for the relief of men to whom her power and glory were so much indebted—that the prayer of the petition was granted. A motion was carried by which the half-pay of naval officers was increased by the addition of two shillings a day.
SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.
This subject again occupied the attention of parliament in this session. A bill, more generally conceived than the last, was brought into the commons for the relief of Protestant Dissenters. Upon this occasion the Wesleyan methodists, now a numerous and powerful body, made common cause with the church, and denounced any change or innovation in the Act of Toleration, as dangerous. Petitions were sent up to parliament by them against the relief prayed for by the dissenting body, although they were, in point of fact, themselves dissenters. Burke supported the bill, and his eloquence and powerful reasoning had a great effect upon the house. But his exertions this time were scarcely needed, for Lord North himself, and other ministers gave the bill their warmest support, and it passed the commons by large majorities. In the house of lords, it was strongly opposed, and rejected by a majority of 102 against 29. In the debate upon it, the bill was defended by the Earl of Chatham, who in his speech did not even spare the right reverend bench. In the debate, Dr. Drummond, Archbishop of York, had called the dissenting ministers “men of close ambition.” In reply to this, Chatham observed:—“Whoever brought such a charge against them defamed them. The dissenting ministers are represented as men of close ambition. They are so in some respects. Their ambition is to keep close to the college of fishermen, not of cardinals; and to the doctrine of the inspired apostles, not to the decrees of interested and aspiring bishops. They contend for a spiritual creed and a spiritual worship: we have a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy.” At a later period of the session a motion was made in the commons by Sir William Meredith, for abolishing the subscription to the thirty-nine articles at the time of matriculation, but this was rejected.