CO885-(13-15) — Page 125

14,130.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

.885

13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 155.

(ST. LUCIA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

WE were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's

Royal Courts of Justice, July 13, 1889. letter of the 8th ultimo, stating that he was directed to request that we would favour your Lordship with our opinion upon certain questions as to the rights of the Crown in the belt of land consisting of 50 paces from the shore along the coast of the island

of St. Lucia, known as the Cinquante Pas du Roi or the Queen's Chain. That Mr. Wingfield was to enclose the following documents, viz.:-

Despatch from Mr. Laborde, Administrator-in-Chief of the Windward Islands, No. 90 of 19th July 1888, enclosing a report by the Attorney-General of St. Lucia and other papers.

letter from Mr. Samuel Barnard, dated 8th August 1888, with 12 enclosures. Letter from Mr. Joseph Langellier, dated 8th August 1828, with 10 enclosures. Copy of a letter from Messrs. Gillespie Brothers & Co., enclosing a further document relating to Mr. Langellier's title.

Despatch from Mr. Sendall, Governor-in-Chief of the Windward Islands, No. 76 of 26th April 1889, enclosing a despatch from the Administrator of St. Lucia, and a report by the Attorney-General of St. Lucia with six appendices.

That Mr. Wingfield was also to enclose the volume of the laws of St. Lucia, published in 1853, referred to in Mr. Fergusson's reports, and a copy of the Civil Code of St. Lucia.

That it would be seen from the enclosed papers that the Administrator of St. Lucia in 1888 issued a proclamation resuming for the Crown the possession of part of the Queen's Chain adjoining the harbour of Castries, which was required for the purpose of fortifications, and that ho intimated his intention to resume possession of the whole of the Queen's Chain adjoining the harbour, including those portions of it which were in the possession of Mr. Barnard and Mr. Langellier, and that Mr. Barnard and Mr. Langellier disputed the right of the Crown, and claimed to be the absolute owners of so much of the Queen's Chain as adjoined their respective estates of Sans Souci and Bonne Fortune.

That the case in support of the claim of the Crown was very fully stated in the two reports of the Attorney-General of St. Lucia, and that the contentions of Messrs. Barnard and Langellier were set forth in, their respective letters, and in the opinions of their counsel, Mr. Bennett, enclosed in their letters.

That the questions upon which your Lordship desired to be advised were :—

1. Whether the Queen's Chain in St. Lucia, except such parts of it (if any) as nad been granted either by the Crown of France before. or by the Crown of England since, the conquest of the island by England; was part of the domain of the Crown?

2. Whether the title of the Crown to the Queen's Chain was imprescriptible?

3. Whether the Crown was entitled to resume possession of such parts of the Queen's Chain as were in the possession of the owners of the adjoining lands, but could not be proved to have been granted by the Crown to any person, and whether such right could be exercised generally or only for specific purposes, and if so, for what purposes?

4. Whether the contents of the documents submitted by Mr. Barnard founded a presumption of a grant from the Crown having been made to his predecessors in title to the Sans Souci estate of that part of the Queen's Chain of which he was now in possession, and which the previous owners of that estate possessed, and if so. whether such presumption was rebutted by the admission of Mr. Muter, one of his predecessors in title, in the report of the committee signed by him in February 18462

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