of more than one hundred immigrants, the protecting action of this
magistrate towards the weaker folk under his jurisdiction had a
striking exemplification, to which Mr. Froude is hereby made welcome.
Of course there was a general cry of horror throughout the Colony, and
especially in the San Fernando district, at the fatal outcome of the
proclamation, which had mentioned only "fine" and "imprisonment," [103]
but not Death, as the penalty of disregarding its prohibitions. For
nearly forty years, namely from their very first arrival in the Colony,
the East Indian immigrants had, according to specific agreement with
the Government, invariably been allowed the privilege of celebrating
their annual feast of Hosein, by walking in procession with their
Pagodas through the public roads and streets of the island, without
prohibition or hindrance of any kind from the authorities, save and
except in cases where rival estate pagodas were in danger of getting
into collision on the question of precedence. On such occasions the
police, who always attended the processions, usually gave the lead to
the pagodas of the labourers of estates according to their seniority as
immigrants.

In no case up to 1884, after thirty odd years' inauguration in the
Colony, was the Hosein festival ever pretended to be any cause of
danger, actual or prospective, to any town or building. On the
contrary, business grew brisker and solidly improved at the approach of
the commemoration, owing to the very considerable sale of
parti-coloured paper, velvet, calico, and similar articles used in the
construction [104] of the pagodas. Governor Freeling, however, was, it
may be presumed, compelled to see danger in an institution which had
had nearly forty years' trial, without a single accident happening to
warrant any sudden interposition of the Government tending to its
suppression. At all events, the only action taken in 1884, in prospect
of their usual festival, was to notify the immigrants by proclamation,
and, it is said, also through authorized agents, that the details of
their fete were not to be conducted in the usual manner; and that their
appearance with pagodas in any public road or any town, without special
license from some competent local authority, would entail the penalty
of so many pounds fine, or imprisonment for so many months with hard
labour. The immigrants, to whom this unexpected change on the part of
the authorities was utterly incompr