The Slave, Grace

2HAGCK94. THE SLAVE, GRACE 179 [94] the slave, (trace November 6, 1827 -A female attendant, by birth and servitude a domestic slave, accompanied her mistiess to England, resided there for a year, and then voluntarily returned with her mistress to the place of her birth and servitude . though during the residence m England no dominion, authority, or coercion can be exercised over such person, yet, on hei return to her place of birth and servitude, the right to exercise such dominion revives The King, and His Majesty's Procurator-General, and George Wyke, Appellants ; versus John Allan, Esq, Claimant, . . . . Respondent. On Appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court of Ant tuna In 1822, Mrs Allan of Antigua came to England, bringing with hei a female attendant, by birth and servitude a domestic slave, named Grac e She resided with her mistress in this country until 1823, and accompanied her voluntarilv on her return to Antigua. Mr Wyke, collector of the customs at Antigua and the original prosecutor of the present suit, was a passenger on board the same ship On their arrival at Port St John, in the island of Antigua, Grace, with whose character and situation Mr Wyke was well acquainted, landed with her mistress, without any exception made to her condition, and without any formalities at the Custom House observed or required. She continued with Mrs Allan, in the capacity of a domestic slave, till August 8th, 1825, when she was seized by the waiter of the customs at Antigua " as forfeited to the King, on suggestion of having been illegally imported in 1823 " The information was hied in June 1826 Mr Allan then made an affidavit of claim, as sole owner and proprietor of Grace, as his slave , and Mr Wyke, a single witness, was [95] examined on interrogatories On August f , 1826, the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Antigua decreed, after argument, " that the woman Grace be restored to the claimant, with costs and damages for her detention.'1 * From this sentence an appeal was prosecuted on the pait of the Crown, and the principal question made, was-whether, under the circumstances, slavery was so divested by landing in England that it would not revive on a letuin to the place of birth and servitude ? The King's Advocate and Lushington for the Appellants Jenner and Dodson, contra. Judgment-Lord Ktowell This case commences with an information against a woman named Grace, who attended her mistress as a domestic seivant to England, and returned with her to Antigua , and consists, in the first place, of various counts charging omissions of regulations imposed upon the importation and exportation of slaves to and from the West India colonies ; and in consequence theieof, condemnation, or forfeiture to His Majesty, is contended foi I kave to discharge a debt of obligation to the counsel who have aigued this cause on both sides, and have taken gieat pains in elucidating questions that aiise upon it. I have likewise to discharge a [96] duty which 1 owe to the Judge below (LXr Nugent), who has examined the case with very meritorious diligence and acute-ness, and thrown very considerable lights upon the geneial subject [ could have wished thatj in a case, so novel in this Court, it had been furnished with mote both of argument and evidence than I have met with in the process which has been transmitted from the inferior Court. What the arguments were on either side of the question in the Court below, what opposition was given to the doctrines maintained by the Court, and by what evidence that opposition was supported, or by what arguments resisted, these papers do not inform me In a case so important, and unprecedented in this Court, I am left to conjecture what the arguments weie from other public papers supplied by the Advocate-General who argued the cause in the Court below, which papers weie transmitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and by him or his officers, I presume, submitted to the House of Commons f That is not the way in which the superior Court usually collects information of what passes * The damages were, upon the report of the registrar, ultimately fixed at 36, 6s currency, the award being made at the rate of 2s per diem The appraised value of Grace was 125 currency f These papers were, on May 2, 1826, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed. 180 THE SLAVE, GRACE 2 HAQG 97. in the inferior Courts. But these documents come m a form to which I may, I think, without impropriety advert, as containing the probable grounds of opposition in the cause, and on which the Judge decided in a way consistent with his view of the question. The case begins with an information or charge consisting of five counts ; the two first of which may be immediately dismissed, being not at all [97] applicable to the real state of the parties and only urged by the Advocate-General, as he expresses it, tl ex abu-ndantt cauteld," without any expectation of their influencing the judgment. What sort of abundant caution could arise fiom the introduction of matter which, I understand to have been admitted by the Advocate-General, could not have the slighest influence on the cause [ am not informed and find some difficulty in discovering it ; but from the papers transmitted I collect that this cautela abundans is founded upon a supposition of the Advocate-General that a slave, who had been in England and returned again to the colonies upon any pretence whatever, was by such residence only entirely enfranchised and became a free person, and was so to be considered in that colony,-an assertion which brings that great question directly before the Court Having disposed of the two first counts I proceed to the third and fourth. The third count pleads, that "* this woman, Grace, after the 1st of January 1820, was exported as a slave from the island of Antigua, a colony under the dominion of His Majesty r and carried to Great Britain, a territory to His Majesty belonging, without production of certificate of registration and without such certificate having been endorsed by the collector and annexed to the clearance or permit given for the exportation of the said Grace " The fourth count pleads, that " after the 1st of the said month of January 1820, Grace was unlawfully brought into and landed in the island of Antigua, a colony to His Majesty belonging, from Great Britain, a territory to His Majesty belonging, as a domestic slave in attendance upon the person of her mistress, [98] without any extract and certificate of registration being on board the ship in which the said Grace was imported, and together with her on her arrival produced to the collector of the customs, contrary to the form of the statute " : and it has been contended that under the statute, the 59 Geo III, c. 120, s. 12, it was necessary that this person should have had these credentials, as well on the voyage from the colony to the mother-country, as also on the return voyage to Antigua. It appears to me, on a consideration of the Act referred to, that it never was intended to put any restraint on a domestic slave accompanying his master to Great Britain, or on his being taken back from Great Bntain to the colonies. The regulations were made as well for the purpose of preventing slaves being transferred from any one of our colonies to other settlements, as also to prevent the introduction of new slaves into any of our colonies, but they have no reference whatever to the transit of slaves to or from this country and its colonies. Upon reference to the Act of Parliament, I find these words : " With intent that such slave shall be removed to some other colony " (s 11) Nothing whatever is intimated as to Great Britain, nor is there any direction that a certificate of registration or indorsement, on the clearance of vessels coming to this country, is necessary , nor are any such credentials demanded, or considered as demandable, of vessels coming to this country by the Custom House here, as far as upon enquiry there I know and believe I cannot help observing here a little upon the careless manner in which the Custom House officer at Antigua appears to have discharged his duty, if [99] there is any duty of this kind imposed upon him. He had come m the ship all the way tram England with the slave and her mistress, and he surfers her to go on shore with her mistress without any papers, if papers were at all demandable , and it is not till after two years that he finds that he had mistaken his own duty, and omitted to demand what he now contends were the necessary documents I might observe upon the lapse of time between the commission of the offence and the institution of the suit, but I think it unnecessary under the observations already made. The filth count is that which is alone entitled to consideration in this case. It states, that " she being a free subject of His Majesty was unlawfully imported as a slave from Great Britain into Antigua, and there illegally held and detained in slavery contrary to the form of the statute in such ease made and provided." The objection, therefore, which constitutes the foundation of this suit and the ground of unlawful treatment is, that she was a free subject of His Majesty and under that character unlawfully imported as a slave and was so treated. Now this averment must be 2HASO. 100. THE SLAVE, GRACE 181 proved : it must be shewn that she was so, for otherwise she has no right to prefer this complaint to the Court; and if that assertion fails, there is no ground whatever for the insinuation of her being unlawfully treated , for that assertion of her freedom is the foundation of the wrong of which she complains . if she cannot plead with truth that she was a free subject there is no ground of complaint in her being treated as a slave : her nghts are not violated and she has no injured rights to represent. It maybe a misfortune that she was a slave , but...