ng consultation the jurors
were allowed refreshment; but on the Friday evening several resolved to
elope: at a late hour they broke past the astonished constables, and
returned to their homes. They were, however, recalled by the sheriff,
and kept under stricter watch until the trial ended.

Amusements of the turf, officially patronised in other countries, were
discouraged in this. From an early date, occasional matches were made
for large stakes; but in 1827, races were regularly established at Ross.
The course was lined off, a stand erected, in which about fifty well
dressed persons were spectators. The riders were equipped in different
colored clothing, and as they darted along, obscured at intervals by
foliage, the scene was picturesque and animated. A race was contested by
Messrs. Gregson and Hardwicke, which the latter lost. A public dinner
followed; but the waiter was blindfolded, and his pudding stolen as he
entered the tent. The hats and coats disappeared; and one cavalier was
robbed of his boots. "These things," said the reporter, "are fraught
with discomfort, and disgraceful in themselves:" an opinion which time
has not shaken.

Arthur probably had no great taste for such pleasures; but he ascribed
his unwillingness to support them, to their tendency to excite the
prisoner population, and seduce them into disobedience and crime. No
regulations or punishments could hinder their haunting the tents, or
deter them from intemperance and consequent miseries.

Happily dissention disappeared in the presence of distress. Arthur's
name is on the list of subscription for the family of Captain Laughton,
who having lost his property by shipwreck and fraud, was drowned on the
coast. Governor Arthur gave twenty guineas, and thus fixed the high
scale of colonial benevolence, which no vicissitude of public affairs
has abated.

The largest private subscriber was Captain Carne, of the _Cumberland_;
not less unfortunate than Laughton. When no tidings were heard of the
vessel, it was supposed she had foundered; but in the year 1828, Captain
Duthie, of the _Bengal Merchant_, threw light on her fate. He had found
the _Clarinda_, Captain Crew, at Rio, who had been boarded in lat.
8 deg. S. The pirates chained him to the deck while they robbed the
vessel: he saw a bucket, on which he could trace the word _Cumberland_.
Some of the pirates proposed that Crew should walk the plank, but were
resisted by the Captain. A little black boy