ction; and as the case is typical of others, as illustrative
of "justice-made law" applied to "subject races" in a British colony,
Mr. Froude is free to accept it, or not, in corroboration of his
unqualified panegyrics.

[107]

MR. GROVE HUMPHREY CHAPMAN, S.J.P.

As Stipendary Magistrate of this self-same San Fernando district, Grove
Humphrey Chapman, Esquire (another English barrister), was the
immediate predecessor of Mr. Child. More humane than Mr. Mayne, his
colleague and contemporary in Port of Spain, this young magistrate
began his career fairly well. But he speedily fell a victim to the
influences immediately surrounding him in his new position. His head,
which later events proved never to have been naturally strong, began to
be turned by the unaccustomed deference which he met with on all hands,
from high and low, official and non-official, and he himself soon
consummated the addling of his brain by persistent practical revolts
against every maxim of the ancient Nazarenes in the matter of
potations. His decisions at the court, therefore, became perfect
emulations of those of Mr. Mayne, as well in perversity as in
harshness, and many in his case also were the appeals for relief made
to the head of the executive by the inhabitants of the district--but of
course in vain. Governor Irving was at this time in office, and the
unfortunate [108] victims of perverse judgments--occasionally
pronounced by this magistrate in his cups--were only poor Negroes,
coolies, or other persons whose worldly circumstances placed them in
the category of the "weaker" in the community. To these classes of
people that excellent ruler unhappily denied--we dare not say his
personal sympathy, but--the official protection which, even through
self-respect, he might have perfunctorily accorded. Bent, however, on
running through the whole gamut of extravagance, Mr. Chapman--by
interpreting official impunity into implying a direct license for the
wildest of his caprices--plunged headlong with ever accelerating speed,
till the deliverance of the Naparimas became the welcome consequence of
his own personal action. On one occasion it was credibly reported in
the Colony that this infatuated dispenser of British justice actually
stretched his official complaisance so far as to permit a lady not only
to be seated near him on the judicial bench, but also to take a
part--loud, boisterous and abusive--in the legal proceedings of the
day.