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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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SIB,

No. 261.

(BERMUDA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Lincoln's Inn, August 8, 1864.

We are honoured with your commands signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 22nd of July ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us a copy of a Despatch, and of its several enclosures, which had been received from the Governor of Bermuda and two volumes of Acts passed by the Legislative Council of that Colony, and to request that we would favour you with our opinion on the following points.

"

An Act passed by the Legislature of Bermuda on the 7th May 1790 recited that although certain Royal instructions "for the ease and convenience of the inhabitants had graciously permitted vessels to "unload under the inspection of an officer residing "at the west end," yet "the trade remained in so diffused a state as to "render "those instructions ineffectual and" in order to remedy such inconveniences "it I proceeded to enact that certain lands should be bought by Government and converted into" a township "for the collection of trade" in manner to be provided by the Legis. lature.

That this was done. That the land bought was declared to constitute the township of Hamilton, and by an Act passed on the 23rd January 1790 provision was made for the sale of the town lands to private purchasers. And it was enacted that after the 1st January 1798 "no goods, wares, or merchandize whatever, to be exported from or imported to these islands, shall be laden or unladen in any part of the same except "at the keys and wharves within the limits of the said township of Hamilton upon "the penalty of the forfeiture of all such goods, wares, and merchandize so to be "laden or unladen. And also except in particular cases when special sufferance and "leave shall be had from Her Majesty's Custom House with approbation of the Governor.

"

It was also declared that the town of St. George's (the then seat of Government) should retain its privileges as a port of entry.

That on the 29th June 1793, an Act was passed creating the corporation of Hamilton, and on the 22nd July 1797, all the land in the township was by another Act vested in the corporation.

Sir Frederic Rogers was pleased to state that the Acts are printed in the accompany- ing volumes of Acts.

That in 1819 a proclamation was issued by the then Governor Sir James Cockburn, declaring the limits of the port of Hamilton "as a place of entry and export" and including within those limits places not within the township of Hamilton.

Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to state that a copy of this proclamation was annexed to the Governor's Despatch, and

That the principal piece of shore thus included, called Allbuoy's point was first used, it is said, as a place of landing and storing lumber and other articles, which it was inconvenient or dangerous to keep near the town. But the wharves have been im- proved. Goods have been landed in larger quantities, and a recent Act (No. 14 of 1861, 8. 19) has authorised the establishment of bonding warehouses," on the mainland within the port" of Hamilton as fixed and defined by a proclamation of his Excellency Sir J. Cockburn dated the 14th April 1819; thus giving an indirect legislative sanction to that proclamation.

That under these circumstances the corporation, alarmed for their monopoly of wharfago, question the legality of Sir J. Cockburn's proclamation, and represent that the establishment of the landing place at Allbuoy's is a violation of rights which they allege to have been guaranteed to them by the Act of 1790.

That, on the other hand, it is stated, not only that the wharves at Allbuoy's (with their bonded warehouses) are a convenience to the public, but that ports of landing are wanted in other parts of the islands, which according to the view taken by the Corpo- ration, the Crown and Legislature are disabled from establishing- the Crown by law, the Legislature by consideration of equity.

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16978.-78. 25,-2/86.