§ On the question that 41,600l. be granted for salaries and allowances for Stipendiary Justices in the Colonies,
MR. WILLIAMSobjected to this vote, on the ground that it involved a waste of the public money. The object for which the justices were appointed had ceased to exist since the emancipation of the slaves in the colonies, and their services were no longer required. At any rate, if the colonies thought it necessary to have these justices, they ought to pay their salaries.
§ MR. HAWESsaid, that the vote proposed last year for this purpose was 1,800l. below the amount voted in the preceding year, and the present vote was 1,800l. less than that of last year. The charge, therefore, was in a course of progressive reduction. He was not disposed to object to the proposition that the colonies ought generally to defray the expense of their own administration of justice; but 125 the present case was an exception to the rule.
§ MR. HUMEwished the hon. Gentleman to state the principle upon which the progressive reduction of this charge proceeded, in order that the Committee might know when the charge would eventually cease. The magistrates to whom the vote referred were appointed to protect the slaves in the colonies; but in the altered circumstances produced by the Emancipation Act, the proprietors were more in need of protection than the labourers.
§ MR. HAWESsaid, that the charge could be reduced by not filling up vacancies when they occurred, or the Imperial Treasury might at once be relieved from it by it being transferred to the colonial treasuries. At present, he could not undertake to say which of those courses would be adopted.
§ Vote agreed to.