In Focus
The Dependency Question
Rev.Sykes
Chapter 2 (Part 2)
The defining events of the 19thCentury cont'd.
In August 1835, the Governor addressed thetwo Houses of the Jamaican Legislature proposing to them
...an Act for the Legislative Union of theCaymanas with Jamaica. ... The recent change in the relative positionstowards each other of the two classes of His Majesty's subjectsresident in the Caymanas and the absence of any legally constitutedgovernment, renders it expedient that those Islands hitherto consideredas dependencies of this Colony, should be admitted to a sharein its representative privileges and be governed by its law ...(2.14)
In referring to the "recent changein the relative positions ... of the two classes of His Majesty'ssubjects resident in the Caymanas", Lord Sligo must havebeen on slippery ground with the Jamaicans. The apprentices (formerlyslaves) of the Caymanas had been given full freedom by his ownrecent proclamation there on the 2nd May (2.15).
Lord Sligo no doubt sought by this referenceto add weight to his argument that it was not only necessary,but urgent, to give the Caymanas a legitimate government. Withoutthat, how could the freed former slave be compelled to fulfilhis obligations to the community? (Lord Sligo was to be advisedlater by the Chief Magistrate in Cayman that the former slave-ownerwas in even more need of legitimate constraint, to prevent himfrom denying to the newly freed his land and other rights (2.16).
The reference, however, must surely haveacted as red rag to bull. Members of the Assembly were bitter,and chafed at the British initiatives that were bringing the oldorder of free man and slave to an end. Many felt that the Colonywas being completely ruined by the ending of slavery. And nowthe British Governor had in the Caymanas brought to an abruptend the last vestige of the old order, represented by the apprenticeshipsystem, which they were clinging to in Jamaica.
Even in Jamaica the Governor had embarkedon a similar course with the apprentices of the Maroons (2.17).It is not surprising that they wanted nothing to do with the matter,and were quick to impress upon the Governor that if the Britishauthorities had caused an unsatisfactory state of affairs in Cayman,then it was surely the British who bore the responsibility fordoing something about it, and not them.
We do not perceive the "expediencyof a legislative union of the Caymanas with Jamaica". Itis no fault of ours that "the two classes of His Majesty'ssubjects resident there have been placed in their present relativeposition towards each other." Having always protested againstexternal interference with our own legislation we are not disposedto interfere with that of others and must therefore leave thosewho have occasioned "the absence of a legally constitutedgovernment at the Caymanas" to organize the elements of societyin that dependency of His Majesty ...(2.18).
A few days later, the "Jamaica Despatchand New Courant" newspaper was bringing to its readers unqualifiedsupport for the Assembly's position. Noted the Editor:
"How, when, or where were the Caymanasever united to Jamaica? - Our Legislators may as well unite usto Cuba. - "
On the refusal of the Assembly to countenancethe Governor's proposal the newspaper commented:
"In regard to the former [the billfor the legislative union of the Caymanas with Jamaica], the Houseat once refused to interfere in the internal affairs of anothercolony (2.19)."
The Jamaicans had killed the proposal stonedead. It is instructive to reflect that had the Assembly decidedto adopt it instead, the Caymanas also accepting it, the fatefulday of the 7th August 1835 would have revealed the Caymanas fromtheir date of British settlement to be so far a dependency ofJamaica as to be subject to that Colony's law.
In the event the Assembly's refusal decreedthat they had no competence to legislate for the Caymanas, andthe failure of the proposal confirmed that the task of legislatingfor the Caymanas belonged to the British Parliament. That wasan outcome wholly in accord with what Lord Sligo had for longargued would be necessary. With a note of weariness a ColonialOffice adviser acknowledged the situation.
... The subject of legislation in the Caymanaswill have to be provided for, but there must be an Act of Parliament,I suppose, before that can be done....(2.20)
And there the matter rested for severaldecades.
Lacking any satisfaction of the perceivedneed for an authorised legislative instrument, the Island residentshad taken responsibility upon themselves. It was by no means thefirst time that leading persons in the Islands had done somethingof the sort. Laws had been passed before without any referenceto the Governor, who was the sole channel by which British authorityextended to the Islands. The 1831 initiative, however, differedfrom previous such exercises by the inclusion of an elected chamberof Representatives".
Presumably, these Representatives were eachchosen by a show of hands in meetings of free males in the variousdistricts. Such meetings were also called to decide particularissues, for example, the all-island meeting called in 1836 todecide what stipend the Island would provide to the Clergyman(2.21).
But what really marked the post-1831 legislativeinstrument as a constitutional watershed was that in the 1860'sauthority was given for its actions to be retroactively validated.In 1863 the Act for the Government of the Cayman Islands (TheCayman Islands Act), was passed in the Parliament of Great Britain(just as Lord Sligo had said such an Act would have to be), acknowledgingthe uncertainty over what laws applied in the Cayman islands andwhether the Justices and Vestry (previously called Magistratesand Representatives) had authority to pass them.
The Cayman Islands Act (1) authorised theretroactive validation of the existing post-1831 laws (i.e. makingthem indisputably valid from their date of purported enactment)subject to their now being signed by the Governor, (2) authorisedthe Jamaican legislature to apply its own law to the Cayman Islands(not retroactively, but from the date of the Cayman Islands Actonwards), and (3) gave limited power to the Cayman Justices andVestry to continue to act for the Islands (2.22).
Continued next week
(Notes)
2.14 - The Governor's Address to the Counciland the Assembly. CO 137/201 ff 107-128 Despatch No. 79, 7 August1835.
2.16 - CO 137/210 ff392-393, Drayton to Sligo, Letter of 25 March,1836.
2.17 - CO 137/198 ff393 - 5. Draft of letter from the ColonialSecretary to the Marquess of Sligo, dated 15th July, 1835.
2.18 - CO 137/201 The response of the Assembly to the Governor'sAddress, passed by the Assembly on the 7 Aug, 1835
2.19 - CO 137/201 Issue Number 958 Wednesday Morning August 12,1835, Jamaica Despatch and New Courant.
2.20 - CO 137/201. A comment dated 20th Sept, 1835, made by anadviser, accompanying a draft of a reply from the Colonial Secretaryto the Governor.
2.21 - "Local Laws of Grand Cayman" (included in CO137/367) p.51 ("Clergyman's Salary", 14 Jan 1836)
2.22 - Act for the Government of the Cayman Islands, 1863 (26& 27 Vict., c.31). A copy of the original printing (by Eyre& Spottiswoode, 1863) of this law is included in CO 137/372ff 282-3.