being naturally fubject to all cafualties; we therefore fee in all places where it is freeft there is greatest, and thofe that take away the merchants hopes, cramp all their defigns, for hope is as neceifary for the barter of this world as for that which is to come; but need fay no more, we agree in the end, which is to have negroes, and differ in the way to it; for, as you will chearfully humble to what the king orders, fo fhall I readily affent to whatever you fhall advife or propofe to me in it. Your declaratory law, gentlemen, is fuppreffed, as you may fee, by the orders that fpeak the thing, but do not give the reafon of it; for my part, I cannot comprehend why fome have fo violently affected it, fince we are all English, and nobody has denied us any native right, and that the king's dominion is pertonal as well as local; fo we may, without offending his majetty, claim fuitable laws and protections, which all the world muft confefs we now have. I fuppofe none of I fuppofe none of you ever heard that any of the other colonies pretend to garble, and cull the laws of English war. Can you imagine the minifters would permit it, and pray would you take all the laws of England together? Would they not, like the Romans, (poil, deprefs, and ftifle, that filly criminal that coveted them? What if in diforderly times, and under a weak miniftry, any thing has been wreited from the king that impedes the exercife of his juft authority; you are too prudent, too dutiful, to expect he fhould transfer the margin of it to another world; and, confider, does not reafon tell us now what Ariftotle long fince told the world, and he was born a Greck, bred a philofopher, that is, he was a wife man in the country of liberty, yet faid, bonus rex prete endus optimus legibus, that a good king is preferable to the beft laws, there being much more in the execution than in the precept. The Roman story seems to confirm this, for we read in it, the world was eafy under Auguftus, Titus, Trajan, and thofe other juft and wife princes, yet their wills were edicts. In facred ftory we read, the Ifraelites were miferable, and all utterly and eternally extinguifhed, under their ill kings, and yet they were or fhould have been under a divine law. I do not lay this to recommend what is arbitrary, but it is to advife that we efteem and bless God for our good prince, that, like a wife and tender parent in this matter, only denied us what would hurt us. Let us therefore defire ratherapt than many laws, and remember England had good laws under Henry VII.; yet fome too many then, much more now; for this is one hundred and feventy years ago, and then Empfon Dudley, with other rapinous officers, putting fupernumerary penal laws into execution, fo ext the people that, as my lord Bacon fays, they turned law and justice

into wormwood and rapine. 'Some confideration like this, made a difcreet Frenchman fay, je plus vault le code de que le pais conquefte, that is, France was obliged to the king more for contracting their laws than for enlarging his dominions, which makes me fancy laws to young colonies are like phyfic to the body, wherein not only the quantity but the nature and due preparation of the medicine is confidered, for that only which makes it fit makes it operate well; but because the best of kings muft die, and good laws do remain, and fuch, if they are not strong barriers to bad governors, yet they are certain rules to good ones; you have therefore good reafon to defire them, and I do comply with you in it, my fenfe as well as intercft being bound up with yours in this and every thing that may be for your fervice and the common good, I therefore here tender you the draft of another law that has fatisfied all I have thewn it to, as I fuppofe it will you, for its the fame in fubftance though not in terms: If you like it, I doubt not but the king will graciously pafs it as your, amendments, and as he has done all the reft. I must not end, gentlemen, before I tell you we have great obligations to our friends in England, who have ingeniously acted their parts, particularly fir Charles Lyttleton and colonel Beefton. By their letter and accounts, which I here put into your hands, you will fee how kind and folicitous they have been, I muft therefore fay, it you are defirous to exprefs your gratitude for his majetty's grace and his minifter's favour to us, (you must do it actually): I fhall leave the method and confideration thereof wholly to you, for I would not by my advice or directions leffen your merits, or anticipate any act of your duty, but would have all arife from your own fenfe, that your honour may be the greater, and my fatisfaction will not be the lefs, for I have no ambition, not the leaft vanity. God has been pleafed to put me under fuch fanal circumstances: pains and diseases have taken away my health and limbs, and the unhappy voyage of my fons and their mother; what is there then under heaven that I have to defire, but to fee you happy, the Laws fettled, and the island profperous, which God Almighty grant!

Spoke at St. Jago de la Vega, in Jamaica, the 5th September, 1683.

THE

THE KING'S INSTRUCTIONS TO

SIR PHILLIP HOWARD, KNIGHT.

JAMES R.

(Duplicate)

Infructions for our trufty and well-beloved fir Phillip Howard, knigh', ›our captain-general and governor-in-chief in and over our island of Jamaica, and other the territories depending thereon in Amoria: Given at our court at Whitehall, the 25th of November, 1685, in the fifi year of our reign.

Ift.- WITH these our instructions, you will receive our commiffion under our great feal of England, conftituting you our captain-general and governor-in-chief in and over our ifland of Jamaica, and other the territories depending thereon.

2d.-And you are thereupon to fit yourself with all convenient speed, and repair to our faid ifland.

3d.-And, being arrived there, you are to take upon you the execution of the place and truft repofed in you, and forthwith to call together fuch members of our council in that island as are not under fufpenfion, viz. Hender Molefworth, efq. lieutenant-governor, fir Francis Watfon, Thomas Freeman, John Cope, Thomas Ballard, Thomas Fuller, John White, efqrs. fir Thomas Modyford, bart. Theodore Cary, John Burdin, and Sa muel Barry, efqrs.

4th. And forafmuch as the late governor, fir Thomas Lynch, has, with the advice of the council, fufpended fir Henry Morgan and colonel Byndlofs from attending our council, and removed them from all other offices and commands, as alfo difplaced Charles Morgan from being captain of the chief fort, for their mifbehaviour in the government; and that upon their application to his late majefty, our most dearly beloved in council, there did not then appear any caufe to alter any thing the governor and

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council had done therein; and colonel William Guy ftanding likewife fufpended by our prefent lieutenant-governor from our council there, you are not to restore any of them to their trust and employments until a further examination of thefe proceedings, and a report thereof unto us, which you are to make with all convenient fpeed; you fhall receive our pleasure therein. •

5th. And you are, with a due folemnity, to cause our faid commif fion under our great feal of England, conftituting you our captain-general and governor-in-chief as aforefaid, to be published at the faid meeting.

6th. Which, being done, you are to adminifter unto each of the faid members as well the oaths of allegiance as an oath for the due execution of their place and trust.

7th. And to communicate fuch and so many of our inftructions to the faid council, wherein their advice and confent are mentioned to be requifite, as likewife all fuch others as at any time you fhall find convenient for our fervice to be imparted unto them.

8th. And also, as foon conveniently as may be after your arrival, you are to caufe proclamation to be made in the other parts of our said ifland of your being conftituted by us our captain-general and governorin-chief as aforefaid.

9th.-And, that we may be always informed of the names of persons fit to fupply the vacancies which fhall happen in our council of Jamaica, you are to tranfmit to us and our committee of trade and foreign plantations the names and characters of twelve perfons, inhabitants of our faid ifland, whom you shall efteem the best qualified for that truft; and so from time to time, when any of them fhall die or depart out of our faid island, or become otherwife incapable, you are to fupply the first number of twelve perfons, by nominating others in their fiead.

10th. And in the choice of members of our faid council, as alfo of the great officers, judges affiftants, and juftices, you are always to take care that they be men of a good life and well affected to the government, of good estates and abilities, and not neceffitous people or much in debt.

11th

11th.—And you are neither to augment nor diminish the number of our aid council as it is hereby eftablifhed, nor to fufpend any of the prefent members thereot without good and fufficient caufe; and, in cafe of fufpenfion of any of them, vou are forthwith to tranfmit unto us, and to the Jords of our privy council appointed a committee for trade and plantations the reafon of your fo doing, together with the charges and proofs again the faid perfons,' and their anfwers thereunto.

12th. And you are to fignify our pleafure unto our council of Jamaica, that if any of them fhall hereafter abfent themfelves without leave from Our governor for the time being firft obtained, or remain abfent for the fpace of two years, or the greater part of them, without leave given under our royal fignature, their place or places in our faid council thall immediately become void, and that we will forthwith take care others be appointed in their stead.

13th.--And you are from time to time to send to us, and our faid com'mittee of trade and plantations, the names and qualities of any members by you put into the faid council by the first convenience after your fo doing; you are to obferve, in paffing laws, that the ftile of enacting the fame by the governor, council, and affembly, be henceforward ufed,

and no other.

And our exprefs will and pleasure is, that you tranfmit authentic copies, under the public feal, of our laws, ftatutes, and ordinances, that are now made and in force, or which fhall be made and enacted within the faid ifland, unto us and the lords of our privy council appointed a committee for trade and foreign plantations, within three months or fooner after their being enacted, together with duplicates thereof, by the next conveyance, upon pain of our higheft difpleafure, and of the forfeiture of that year's falary wherein you thall at any time, or upon any pretence whatfoever, omit to fend over the laws and ordinances aforefaid within the time limited. And, forafmuch as that we have taken notice, in feveral laws heretofore paffed within our faid-ifland of Jamaica, tor levying money and impofing fines and penalties, the faid laws, fines, and penalties, have been raifed and appropriated to feveral ufes, without any mention made of us in the grant or application of the fame; our will and pleafure is, that no act or order be paffed within that our itland, in any cafe for levying money or impoting fines and penalties, whereby the fame.

thall.