CO885-(10-11) — Page 549

10407.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 430.

(BARBADOS.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Lincoln's Inn, October 30, 1866. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 16th October instant, stating that he was directed by you to request that we would favour your Lordship with our advice under the circumstances disclosed in the annexed correspondence, viz. :—

No. 496. 8 July 1866.

1 Aug. 1866.

Do. No. 602. 19 July 1866. Sept. 1866.

Do. No. 519.

The Act of Parliament 13 Vict. c. 15. s. 2., enabled Her Majesty by Order in Council Despatch from to establish a Court of Appeal for the Windward Islands (including the Colony of St. Governor, Lucia) so soon as the requisite provision should be made by the local legislature, and

That the requisite provision was made with respect to St. Lucia by the Ordinance No. 518. No. 1 of 1858, and the Appeal Court was duly established by an Order in Council of the 3rd of March 1859, and that copies of these laws were annexed, and also of a local Ordinance quoted in the course of the correspondence which was passed on the 3rd of August 1859 (No. 8) giving effect to certain rules passed by the judges, and that the Order in Council and Local Ordinance of 1858 provide that the court shall consist of the chief justices of the Windward Islands, viz., Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, Tobago, and St. Lucia, and that three judges form a quorum, and one is entitled to adjourn the court, that

40

The local Ordinance No. 1 of 1858 provides (s. 6) that the sitting of the court shall commence in St. Lucia on the second Monday in February and the second Monday of August in each year, but that "if on any occasion it may be found necessary or more convenient to commence the sittings of the said Court of Appeal on other days than "those herein-before fixed for that purpose, it shall be lawful for the Governor or Administrator of the Government by proclamation to be published in the official "Gazette of this Island, to appoint and fix some other days in the year on which the

sittings of the said court shall commence," that

66

The Governor of the Windwards Island proclaimed the 14th of April for holding a court at St. Lucia, and three chief justices-Chief Justice Woodcock of Tobago, Chief Justice Gresham of Grenada, and Chief Justice Atthill of St. Lucia, opened the court on that day, and adjourned it to 10 o'clock on the following morning. At half-past 10, Mr. Atthill, who lived at some distance from Castries had not arrived, and Messrs. Gresham and Woodcock thereupon broke up the court. Mr. Atthill alleges that when this was done the Attorney General had already stated to the judges that his (Mr. Atthill's) boat was in sight (P.S. to letter of 18th April 1866), and that he in fact arrived at the court house, and after a remonstrance with one of the judges, took his seat at 20 minutes to 11. The other judges, it was certain, did not resume the trans- action of business, and in the course of the afternoon or evening left the Island, leaving four cases unheard and two heard, but undecided.

That with reference to these proceedings, letters of Mr. Woodcock's contained the following passages: "I felt at the time, and I feel now, that the neglect of Mr. Atthill "in not attending the court at the time appointed evinced a want of respect for Mr. Gresham and myself and for the court, of which he and we were members, to "which I was not disposed to submit.”

any default

61

44

"So impressed, I wish it to be clearly understood for the future that if "shall occur in the attendance of any of the judges of the Appeal Court with whom I may be associated, so that a court cannot be formed at the hour appointed, I shall feel myself under no obligation to wait the leisure or convenience of any one, and I In a later "shall consider myself at liberty to retire if I deem it advisable to do so.' letter he alleges that Mr. Atthill's habite of inebriety (which were some years back the subject of official inquiry) were such as to leave no security that he would appear at all at the court on the 15th April, and referring to these proceedings he used the following language: "Having exercised in this a legitimate judicial discretion, I am not aware of how my learned brother and myself can be made responsible for our acts therein, even should we have been betrayed into any weakness or error in judgment.

66

居家

*C

That in order to repair as far as possible the inconvenience to which these pro- ceedings had subjected the suitors, the Governor in Chief by two successive proclama- tions required the judges to hold another court at St. Lucia, without remuneration and

o 16278-895, 25,-5/86.