§ MR. MAGUIREsaid, he begged to ask whether it was true that, in consequence of fanatical harangues made in the streets of Georgetown, Demerara, by a stranger, named Orr, from another country, riots and disturbances had taken place, and the persons and properties of peaceable inhabitants had been injured; and if so, whether any steps had been taken to prevent a recurrence of such scenes?
§ MR. LABOUCHEREsaid, he was sorry to say that it was quite true that outrages of a serious and disgraceful nature had been perpetrated in that colony, on the part of the lower classes of the coloured population, directed against the persons and property of a very valuable class of the community, the Portuguese, who had lately emigrated in considerable numbers from Madeira. It was also true that those 2032 disturbances originated in harangues made by a person who had rendered himself notorious in other places against the Roman Catholic religion; but it was perfectly well known, that although those harangues were made the pretext for those disturbances they were not the real cause. The real cause, he had no doubt, was the jealousy entertained by the lower classes of the coloured population against the Portuguese emigrants, for their superior good conduct, which had thrown the retail trade of the colony almost entirely into their hands. The Governor, with the assistance of the Council, had taken the most prompt and effectual means to suppress those outrages and to punish the perpetrators, and in considering measures which he trusted would prevent their recurrence. The Government had to acknowledge the assistance rendered by a French and a Dutch vessel of war, which happened to be in those waters at the time and rendered very prompt and useful assistance in repressing those outrages.