He is, I think, an upright man, and although his talents are not of the first order amongst his Haytian brethren, yet he makes up for this by his integrity, and gives great satisfaction by the justice of his decisions; but he is often controlled by the majority of his brother judges, who are as corrupt as they are ignorant.
The idea which some of the judges have of conscience is somewhat singular, and may not be unworthy of notice. They are all very ill paid it is true, and consequently they are open to bribery, as I have before mentioned; and whenever a good bribe is offered, they never consult their consciences about the justice of the case, but give a verdict as a quid pro quo for the douceur.
With regard to that respectable officer, a justice of the peace in Hayti, he is almost indescribable, being a compound of bad qualities. Speaking of them generally, they are what may be not incorrectly denominated retailers of justice, and dispose of it to that person who can give the most. They are persons certainly not very judiciously selected, and in the different districts where they reside, they exercise their power very arbitrarily, unless the parties who may unfortunately be brought before them, for offences committed within their jurisdiction, can afford to pay well for a little lenity. An attempt was made by the justice of peace at Port au Prince, who is the uncle of Boyer’s mistress, to impose on a British sailor, who had been illegally discharged from an American vessel, in which he had sailed, without payment of his wages, acting, it was said, under the influence of the agents of the vessel. But the British consul-general not only remonstrated strongly with this personage, but threatened to make it a subject of representation to the president; the fellow however having afterwards made some submission, and apologized for his conduct, the matter was permitted to drop.
Having touched upon the administration of the laws of Hayti, I shall now offer a few observations on the church establishment and the moral and religious condition of the people.
The established religion of Hayti is the Roman Catholic, the constitution, however, tolerates other forms according to the letter of the law; but although it does tolerate other forms of worship, the municipal authorities take great care that the Protestant sectarians shall encounter every possible obstacle when they wish to meet for the purpose of divine worship. They will not permit their meetings to be held in a public manner, and the inhabitants are cautioned against receiving them into their houses unless they desist from preaching. What is therefore called toleration in Hayti it would be difficult to define. It is not many years since, that a missionary from one of the societies of England (I think he was a Wesleyan) was obliged to leave the country, although that individual bore a most exemplary character, and had very studiously avoided exciting the envy of the Catholic priests, or giving the least umbrage to any person of that persuasion. He set about the duties of his mission with all the ardour of his sect, and gained many followers, but the rancour of the Catholic clergy was roused by his success, and their malice soon became conspicuous. This very worthy man, therefore, was subjected to great insult. His removal was suggested to the president, and the anathemas of the church were threatened unless he complied with their request. He was represented by them to have aimed at subverting the doctrines of the church of Rome, and of introducing heresy among the people, to have preached disobedience to the established authorities, and to have ridiculed the supremacy of the Pope. The weakness and submission of the president forced him to expel this individual from the island. It is said, however, that Boyer secretly enabled him to do so, by presenting him with a sum of money, and expressing the regret he felt that any causes of a religious character should have called upon him to exercise the power with which the constitution had armed him, as he individually was sensible of the unreasonableness of that jealousy which is too predominant in the followers of the Church of Rome, and which he could not but silently deprecate.
The Catholic church in Hayti appears to be in a very disorganized state. The schism in the church which happened a few years ago has not been healed, and Boyer, by expelling the bishop of Port au Prince and Pere Jérémie, (Jeremiah O’Flinns, an Irish priest,) has incurred severe papal censures, which, it is said, he has taken no steps to remove. Formerly the church establishment in Hayti was numerous, there being no less than an archbishop, three bishops, and about sixty priests and monks. But at this time there remain only about thirty or forty of the latter class distributed in the different parts of the country, and it is the determination of the government not to increase their number; the others will in future be excluded, as the poverty of the state requires the revenue of the church in aid of its exigences.
Some of the priests who officiate, are the most abject and miserable wretches I think I ever saw. They are poor, and in some of the interior parts they derive their sole support from the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, but those in the principal towns have a tolerable income, and seem to enjoy the good things of this world in common with their flock. Those who attend at the shrine of Alta Gracia at Higuey are said to be rich, but their emoluments arise principally from the offerings of the poor deluded bigots who go there on their pilgrimage.
The people in general seem to care but little about religion, and the conduct of the leading men of the state sets religion and morality at defiance. The female Haytians who attend divine worship, and go regularly to mass, are not actuated by any religious feeling. Going to church is a mere matter of parade with them, the sabbath being a day of festivities, and not set aside for religious devotion. The female congregations which frequent the churches in Hayti appear better prepared for an opera, or some other public amusement, than for the sacred duties of offering up their prayers in adoration of the Deity.
The men seldom or never go to mass, except on the days particularly set apart by the government as public fêtes. On these occasions the president and all the officers of Hayti go in procession, but the idea of devotion, I believe, never enters their contemplation. Such days are merely set aside for celebrating some particular event, which it is wished should be handed down to posterity. These occasions present only the external symbol of religion, the whole people being either ignorant or careless of its real character. Their manner and appearance during the celebration of mass shew that they have no inward feelings of piety or devotion.
The moral state of the people is at the lowest possible ebb. In the towns there is perhaps the appearance of morality, and persons are apt to conclude that they have made some progress in general, from what they have observed in such places where opportunities are afforded of seeing those of the inhabitants who have had the benefits of education; but in the interior there is an infinite difference, and the people are in the lowest state of moral degradation—every thing shews it, their habits and manner of living. In secluded places they congregate, and follow all the propensities of nature, and indulge in all the vices of lust and sensuality without limits and without control. It is not possible, I think, for any one to visit their habitations, without returning from them with a conviction that their present state is much below any thing that can be imagined to have existed in the worst state of society in any part of the world. In the new republics of South America, in which society is very backward also, the prevailing habits present some appearance of improvement; but in the country districts of Hayti there are no demonstrations of advancement from that deplorable ignorance in which they seem to have existed from the period of the revolution; no change in their loose and dissolute manners and customs, but a fixed and determined perseverance in all the primitive vices of the African race.