By his patent the bishop ordains, confirms, and performs all those several functions peculiar to his office, as one of the successors of the apostles. The bishop is made a body corporate; has a common seal granted him, and is considered subordinate to the archbishop of Canterbury. An ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the clergy is also conferred upon him, and on the commissaries by him appointed; but such jurisdiction does not interfere with the provision of any local law which has received the royal confirmation. “In case of the absence of the bishop and his commissaries, the governor of Barbados is authorized to appoint any two clergymen to institute benefices, and to license curates.”
Sir Benj. D’Urban being recalled, Sir Patrick Ross was appointed governor and commander-in-chief. His excellency arrived at Antigua in the year 1826, and during his stay there, ingratiated himself with the heads of the island, by his courteous manners, and his humane desire to spare their feelings upon the all-engrossing topic of approaching emancipation.
The year 1828 will be remembered by many Antiguans, as that in which the “Dandy Fever” prevailed. This most distressing and painful illness took its name from the strange gestures into which its excruciating agonies threw the unfortunate sufferers, and who, in their awkward attempts at walking, were likened by some facetious spirit to that nondescript race of men—the dandies!
The year 1831 was the scene of an insurrection among the negroes. The cause of this disaffection among the black population was, the suppression of the Sunday markets, and the omission, on the part of the authorities of the island, to provide a day instead of the Sabbath, in which the negroes might bring the produce of their gardens and poultry yards into the capital to sell.
The Sunday markets were indeed a nuisance most properly got rid of, for they engendered all kinds of dissipation among the lower classes on the Lord’s day; yet is it to be wondered at that the negroes felt aggrieved in having the only day they could call their own taken from them, as it were, and no other portion of the week allotted to them?
From muttered threats, and sullen looks of discontent, the negroes proceeded to acts of open violence. Incendiarism raged to a great extent; no sooner was one fire extinguished, than another was discovered in an opposite quarter. Martial law was in force; and the officers of the militia had then ample opportunities of shewing forth their valour, and winning laurels in the field of Mars.
Great were the marchings and counter-marchings upon this occasion; mysterious the signs and counter-signs! Then there was such buckling on of spurs, and bracing on of swords—such displays of epaulets and aiguillettes, as would have surprised any one not accustomed to West Indian militia “turn outs.” Generals galloped here, and colonels there; at one moment a party of gallant dragoons, armed to the teeth, and mounted—some on gaunt steeds of sixteen hands high, and others on diminutive ponies, dashed along the streets; at another, the governor and his brilliant staff might be seen hurrying forward as fresh intelligence arrived of other fires breaking out.
At length something like order was restored. Many of the negroes were apprehended; and the supposed ringleader, after being brought to trial, was condemned and executed. He met his fate with resignation, but protested to the very last that he died innocent of the offence (arson) imputed to him; the other culprits were punished by public floggings and imprisonments. Thus was the insurrection of 1831 quelled, and peace once more established. Saturday was appointed for the principal market day; and the planters agreed to allow their people to visit the capital every, or every other week, to vend their little wares.
In 1832, Sir Evan Murray McGregor was appointed to the government of the Leeward Islands, including Dominica. Sir Evan was a member of the McGregor family, so celebrated in Scottish history, and of which the redoubted Rob Roy was a chieftain. His excellency was a man of the strictest political principles, and of a most enlightened mind. He saw and felt the degradations laid upon the coloured people; and as far as lay in his power he mitigated their sufferings. It was not until his administration that coloured persons served as jurors.
His kind feelings towards this portion of his majesty’s subjects were not altogether agreeable to many of the self-constituted “exclusives;” and various were the schemes and projects to turn him from his purpose of rewarding the merits of the coloured class. But Sir Evan possessed an inflexible spirit, and neither frowns nor caresses could prevent him from dispensing justice to all, be their colour what it might.