Great Britain in parliament affembled, the great guardians of the liberties and properties of British fubjects.

"That your petitioners humbly conceive there are certain rights inherent in Englishmen, and confirmed by the most facred acts of the legislature, which no power on earth can legally deprive them of, where the laws of Great Britain are in force.

"That your petitioners obferved, with the deepest concern and affliction, that at the paffing of the act of the 13th George III, intituled, "An act for eftablith

ing certain regulations for the beft management of the affairs " of the East-India Company, as "well in India as in Europe;" and previous to it, very erroneous reports had been propagated, and injurious ideas entertained, of the principles and practices of the Britifh fubjects refiding within thefe provinces; from which it was inferred, that they required more rigorous reftraints and coercions than have been ufually impofed upon Englishmen.

"That your petitioners knowing fuch reports, when applied to the community, to be void of all foundation in truth, did flatter themselves that time, better information, and their own loyal and obedient conduct, would have convinced their enemies, and the whole English nation, of the injuftice and cruelty of thefe fuppofitions, and have excited the known candour of the British Parliament to frame in their wifdom fuch or dinances and regulations as were better adapted to the real circumftances and fituation of your petitioners.

"That your petitioners have for fome years vainly flattered themselves with this expectation, and now find, to their unfpeakable forrow, that their dutiful submiffion appears only to have encouraged the Juftices of the Supreme Court to proceed step by ftep in reducing them to the most grievous diftrels, till your petitioners have in fact been put out of the law by a declaration from the Bench on a folemu occafion, that the act of parliament above recited was not intended for the fecurity and protection of the whole, but for the immediate protection of a part of the inhabitants of thele provinces.

That your petitioners humbly conceive that the trial by Jury, in all cafes where it can be granted, is one of thefe inherent, unalienable, and indefeafible rights, of which neither time nor circumftances can deprive a British fubject living under British laws; yet the Juftices of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal have, by the actual or affumed powers of a charter granted under an act of parliament, refufed to allow your petitioners the be nefit of this facred bulwark of their freedom, except in criminal cafes; thereby, as your petitioners apprehend, acting in direct contradiction to the late act of parliament, to the fundamental law of the land, and the Great Charter of British. liberties. This grievance, fo infupportable, muft come home to the breaft of every Englishman; and none will feel it more fenfibly than the enlightened Members of a British senate.

"With all due fubmiffion to the will of their most gracious Sovereign,

Sovereign, and with the moft loyal and fincere affection for his perfon, family, and government your petitioners humbly apprehend, that neither letters patent, nor any other grant, can be valid if made contrary to the known law of the land: yet the faid Juftices, acting under letters patent, affume a power not only to fine and imprifon your petitioners, but to decide on all actions for damages for perfonal wrongs, both determining the fact, and affeffing the damages to any amount, at their own difcretion, thereby taking to themfelves an uncontrouled dominion over the perfons and property of your petitioners, to the great fear and imminent danger of all Britifh fubjects.

"Your petitioners humbly conceive, that in all fubject ftates, but more especially in one fo remote from the feat of empire, where the difproportion between the governing power and thofe governed is fo great as to make the present safety and future per manency of the dominion itself depend entirely upon the precarious tie of idea! fuperiority, that all poffible tenderness and caution fhould be used to prevent that opinion being weakened or deftroyed, or the authority and reputation of the government leffened, left the multitude should be encouraged to put themselves on a level with their rulers, and lofe that idea of their fuperior power by which alone they are held in fubjection; but, to the great mortification and alarm of your petitioners, they fee the refpect and veneration which the natives have hitherto manifefted for the government daily decreafVOL. XXIV.

1.

ing, owing, as your petitioners. verily believe, to the extenfion of the authority of the court acting independent of the government, to

perfons and cafes where they conceive it never was the inten tion of the legislature to allow them to act: a fpirit of contempt. for its authority, and for Europeans in general, heretofore unknown, diffufing itself among the natives, which, if not restrained in due time, must terminate in difaffection and refiftance, and ultimately occafion the deftruction of the British subjects refiding in thefe provinces, and the lofs of thefe valuable dominions to the crown of Great Britain for ever.

That your petitioners entertaining the moft perfect conviction. of the truth of these obfervations, fuggefted by the refiftance fhewn to the authority of government in various parts of thefe provinces, and by the late daring tumult, heretofore unprecedented, which happened in open day in the capital, and at the entrance of the feat of judicature itself, offer them with fubmiflion to your most ferious confideration.

"Your petitioners have been informed, and believe, that ex poft facto and retrofpective laws are contrary to natural juftice, incompatible with the laws of England, and irreconcileable to the feelings of a British parliament, and that they are held in abhorrence by the nation. That if thefe principles are admitted in England, and acknowledged to be productive of the moft fatal confequences, they must apply ftill more forcibly to a fubjected country fituated at the diftance of half the globe, where the manners, cuftoms, laws, [V]

and

and prejudices of the people differ fo widely from thofe of the governing nation. Your petitioners appeal to the humanity of the British Parliament to reflect on the innumerable hardships which must ensue, and the uni verfalconfufion which must be occafioned, as well to perfonal rights as to private and public property, by giving to the voluminous and intricate laws of England a bound lefs and retrospective power in the midft of Afia, and by an application of thofe laws, made for the freeft and most enlightened people on earth, the principle of whofe conftitution is founded in virtue and liberty, to transactions with the natives of India, who have from time immemorial lived under a defpotic government, established on fear and restraint. And your petitioners most earneftly call upon you to confider what must be the fears, what must be the terrors of individuals, to find their titles to property, their tranfactions and engagements with natives, previous to the establishment of the court of judicature, tried by the ftandard of English law, and by men educated under its forms, and unavoidably imbibing its prejudices; when no fuch laws could be known to, or practifed by, natives. or Europeans, then reficing in the country, and at a time too, when few or no perfons of a legal knowledge were in the country to affift or advife them.

Your petitioners humbly conceive, that no tyranny can be more dreadful in its operations, or more fatal in its confequences, than that a court established by law, with all the authority of one of the firft courts in England,

fhould alfo poffefs undefined pow ers and jurifdiction, of which the judges of it are the fole interpre ters, and under no controul, but at the immense distance of the mother country; yet fuch is the fituation of your petitioners; they are placed within the reach of this two-edged weapon, furrounded with the toils and pitfalls of the law, in a country where perjury is almost a profeffion, unknowing where they may rest in safety: for the judges of this court can, at pleafure, determine on the denomination of a civil injury, the degree of its criminality, by what ftatutes it fhall be tried, what penalties fhall be inflicted, and who are, and who are not, amenable to the jurifdiction of the court, The Judges have declared that they are, by the charter of justice, empowered to moderate the laws of England by the customs of this country; but their information refpecting thefe cuftoms, can only be obtained from fuch witneffes as appear before them, and it is in the breafts of the Judges to admit or reject what evidence they please. This power has filled your petitioners with the utmost terror and difmay. If it had remained with a body of jurors, acquainted with the language of the natives, informed as to their customs, and bound by oath to decide with truth and juftice, there would have exifted no foundation for either.

"Your petitioners perceived, with heart-felt fatisfaction, that the faid act had provided fame barrier against oppreffion, by au thorifing an appeal from the decrees of the Supreme Court to his Majefty in Council, which his

Majefty

Majefty has also been moft gracioufly pleased to recognize in his charter of juftice; but the hopes of relief raised upon this foundation, vanished from before us, when your petitioners found that the judges of the court had not only taken upon themselves to make and alter the rules of it, but that they could receive or refufe what evidence they thought proper, and that the appeal could only be heard under thefe rules, and upon the evidence recorded during the trial. Removed at fuch a vaft diftance from the tribunal of juftice, before an unjust or illegal fentence could be reverfed, the sufferer might fall a victim to penury, or perith by imprifonment. But, from an appeal under fuch circumftances, what redress can your petitioners ob

tain?

"Your petitioners entertain all the becoming refpect for the authority of the charter of justice, and the utmoft reverence for their Sovereign, whofe fanction it has received; yet they cannot but obferve, that by the powers delegated in this charter, men are conftituted the judges of their own afts, which appear to your petitioners highly improper and inconfiftent. For the Judges of the Supreme Court in Calcutta are empowered to fit alfo as a Court of Chancery, and in this capacity to revife, correct, refcind, or confirm decifions paffed bythemselves, whilft acting as judges in a court of law and by another part of their inftitution, they poffefs the power, and they alone, of ftaying execution in criminal cafes till his majefty's pleafure be known.

:

"There is a principle in hu

man nature which inevitably impreffes a bias upon the mind in favour of its own decifions; and experience has decided, that reafon and philofophy are too weak to restrain it but in all well-regulated communities, when the confequence of any principle is forefeen, or found to be fatal, the wifdom of the legiflatúre interpofes to check its operation. Your petitioners have the most perfect conviction, that the poffible evils of this power did not occur to their most merciful Sovereign, when his approbation was conferred on the charter of justice, and that they require only to be pointed out to enfure redrefs.

"Your petitioners with all deference, conceive that there must be fome fundamental error in that inftitution, which requires a more than ordinary degree of temper, ability, and integrity, to carry its, purposes into execution; and they do not hesitate to declare, that to adminifter the power appertaining to the inftitution of the Supreme Court without extenfive public detriment, and partial acts of private feverity and injuftice (if it be poffible at all), requires more equity and moderation, difcernment and enlightened abilities, than they can hope to find in any men. To what extent the judges of his majesty's court may poffefs thofe qualities, your petitioners do not pretend to decide, and ftill lefs to affert that they do not poffefs them at all; but they complain of the jurifdiction, of the uncontrouled, unlimited powers, with which the court is vefted, and with the execution of which no men are to be trufted. "Your petitioners can bear [U] 2 diftrefs

distress like men, but they muft also feel like men, and speak these feelings like Englishmen. If the language of complaint is warm, let it be attributed to the dread of future injuries, from a keen sensibility of what is paft. Your petitioners claim a trial by jury as their birth-right; and they folicit to be rel eved from the other great grievances they labour under. To a Britif Houfe of Commons they appeal, with the firmest reliance on its wifdom, juftice, and humanity; and in appealing to fuch a tribunal, they perceive their apprehenfions yield to the most flattering hopes of afpeedy redrefs.

"Your petitioners therefore humbly pray, that you will be pleafed to take into confideration the following requests:

"To grant a trial by jury in all cafes where it is by law eftablished in England.

"To limit the retrospective powers of the court to the time of its establishment in Bengal.

"To define, beyond the power of discretional diftinction, the perfons who are and who are not amenable to the jurifdiction of the court.

"To declare what ftatutes fhall, and what ftatutes fhall not be in force in Bengal.

"To direct and circumfcribe the power of the court in the admiffion and rejection of evidence, fo as that all rejected evidence may accompany the appeal by way of affidavit or otherwife.

To appoint diftinct and feparate judges for the law and equity fides of the court.

To reftore the ancient and conftitutional power of hearing appeals in the first inftance, to the

fupreme authority in this government formerly vested in the prefident and council, and now vefted in the governor-general and council.

"To lodge a power of ftaying executions in criminal cafes, till his majesty's pleasure be known, in the governor-general and council.

And your petitioners fhall ever pray."

Calcutta in Bengal, Feb. 26, 1779.

Signed by fix hundred and fortySeven perfons.

Petition of the Jews at St. Euftatius to Admiral Rodney and General Vaughan.

To their Excellencies, the Commanding Officers in Chief of his Britannic Majefty's Army and Navy in the West Indies.

May it please your Excellencies,

To

permit us in the name and on the behalf of ourselves and others of the people of the Hebrew nation, refidents in the ifland of Saint Euftatius, humbly to approach your excellencies, and with heartfelt anguish, to lay our grievances before you, and say: that it was with the utmoft concern and aftonishment, we have already, not only received your excellencies afflicting order and fentence, to give up the keys of our stores with an inventory thereof, and of our household plate and furniture, and to hold ourselves in readiness to depart this island, ignorant of our deftination, and leaving our be loved wives and helplefs children behind us, and our property and

effects