guilt, and of their passions fermenting by a quick process into misery."

Though biography is not only a beacon to warn, but furnishes a bright example to imitate, it is singular that the lives of vicious characters, and the hated colours in which they are exhibited, should not have more or less an influence on the callous and unprincipled. One would suppose that the bare idea of being handed down to posterity as a monument of depravity, would at times check the vicious machinations, and stay the atrocious deed; but instead of having this benign effect, we frequently see men perched on the giddy heights of power, sink into the abyss of apathy, experiencing no melody but from the sound of torture. It is no less strange that the flagrant flowers strewed on the graves of real worth, should not stimulate mankind to virtuous actions. That the finger of scorn, which has ever been pointed at the tyrants who governed Sicyon, Verres, Prætor of Sicily, or at the three WORTHIES, celebrated by Pope in his Moral Essays, Ward, Waters, and Chartres, does not tend to correct the example that leads to execration.

The ingenuous mind, however, shrinks affrighted at the contemplation of such monsters as the classic page often portrays. The indignant feelings of the soul are solemnly roused to brand and appreciate the sanguinary tyrant, and the worthless minion, such as a Tiberius, a Nero, or a Sejanus, amidst the splendour of usurped power, and the barefaced flattery of grovelling pimps and sycophants. But these as they are characters who have acted their part at a distant theatre, having long ago made their exit, are not so well calculated to make an impression at this period as those who have lately started up in France, and those who are connected with us in the ties of country, religion, and manners. With these prelimi

maries, I beg leave to commence a description of some of the characters now around me. I shall not attempt to conceal the truth, nor invent falsehood, for I have enough of the former, without resorting to the latter. I shall act with them according to Sir Matthew Hales' maxim, "Let me remember when I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, there is likewise a pity due to the country?"

Thomas Picton, as being the leading character, claims our first attention. He was born of obscure parents somewhere on the mountains of South Wales. I am totally unacquainted with his early progress in life, or with his relations, any farther than that he has a sister married in New York, to a peddling broker of the name of Bette, who was originally an itinerant showman or player in the United States of America; at other times a sailor, &c. He came here about two years ago to pay a visit to his brother-in-law, who being elevated in a most extraordinary manner to the appellation of " Excellency,” which none of the family ever enjoyed before or since the days of Caractacus, it was some time before little Bette could be recollected in the pomp and grandeur of the great man's court, and even then it was with that coldness, which manifested a treasonable abuse of friendship, and an inward perplexity, the constant companion of pride, with a sort of secret sense of unworthiness that sunk him amidst his triumph and fancied greatness.

There are some pitiful wretches, who having just emerged, by a perverse partiality of fortune, from the lowest condition, conceive that the only way of shewing themselves qualified to maintain their new character, is to manifest an extreme scorn for their old one; and that, to evince an elevation of mind proportioned to their rise of fortune, they have only to discard the associates and witnesses of their humble beginnings; which puts me

in mind of the poet's account of the metamorphosis of Atlas into a mountain; "his beard and hair shot up into a huge forest; his shoulders and hands became ridges; his head supported the place of a pinnacle; his bones were converted into rocks; and his whole person swelled out to a monstrous size, on which all the stars of heaven reposed." Bette returned (as I an informed) disgusted at the change in his brother-in-law's deportment, as well as his morals, who mistook pride for dignity, giving himself airs of importance, and behaving to all as if haughtiness were his exclusive prerogative, as though civility belonged only to private men; yet instead of being respected, he was the reverse. Sensible that his conduct provoked laughter, and deserved ridicule, he told him one day at table, that, with all his greatness, he was sure his situation was much more enviable when they lived in Wales on twenty pounds a-year, than as he then was governor of Trinidad.

He came here as lieutenant-colonel when the island was conquered under the command of the much lamented Sir Ralph Abercromby, who appointed him governor. He, like many others, entered upon public life too early; was invested with the supreme authority of a commercial colony, before he obtained the knowledge of governing himself, consequently formed systems in haste, upon false premises, on erroneous theories, erected upon the chimerical fabric of a treacherous foundation.

Elated with his elevated situation, he vainly imagined he should find favour in the eyes of his Sovereign (who is literally speaking the father of his people); by pushing authority much farther than had hitherto been attempted by delegated majesty. In this island Sir Ralph found a considerable number of British runaways, or more properly speaking, if I may use the expression, 'scape-hemps,

from the other West India Islands; men who would dis grace, if possible, either the soil of America or Botany Bay. The Spaniards encouraged, and their laws protected them; hence, before it was captured, it was like America, a rookery for fugitive vagabonds of every description. Dreams of avarice, and its proximity to the main, held out delusive prospects at a distance to mercantile men, who came with their articles to realize the golden dreams. To the planters they sold on credit under the idea of probity, little dreading that the laws of the colony were in the hands of those of whom I have, in my preceding letter, attempted to give a faint delineation. Betrayed by these circumstances, it could not be expected, after the unfortunate merchant was precipitated into the snare of villainy, his credit would maintain itself at home without making returns, which could not be made, as the laws of Trinidad prevented the planter being honest, at least they would not oblige him, if he was inclined to avail himself of their protection; the consequence was, as might be anticipated, the merchant became insolvent; some returned home to give an account of their misfortunes, and others remained overwhelmed with ennui. Elated with the dazzling refulgence of his elevation, with the mark of the beast distinctly evident on his forehead, Picton was ready, upon all occasions, to authorise, if not to foment any measure, however scandalous and mischievous, which tended to the augmentation of his fortune; finding himself firmly fixed under the auspices of the Inquisition, he began to look round him, designing to make his reign as profitable as possible. The tools he selected to put his designs into execution, were like himself, corrupt by constitution, and had their origin in filth, whose lives might as well be measured by their crimes as by their days, making a jest of fame, and

laughing at virtue ;-he found them ready to second any iniquity with greediness. With such exhalations, drawn from the rankest fens and foulest ditches, he began his career in this island.

Among the first things that attracted his attention, was the vendue office, which yielded monthly five hundred dollars, if not more. Gambling-houses, of which there are many, afforded considerable gain; every billiardtable paid, and now pays monthly sixteen dollars. The custom-house, I was told, was a profitable concern, but what share he had of its enormous fees, I have not been able to learn, however, it is of no consequence, the following statement will enable you to form some idea of the lucrative situation of the custom-house rats. You have plenty of such vermin at home, who are, like those that are here, preying on commerce. When the evil is accounted legitimate at the fountain-head, we should not complain of its nuisance at this remote distance: to be upon a par with those at home, the fees ought to be doubled. The captain of the British schooner, Eclipse, (Parker), of seventy tons burthen, in the service of the contractor, Mr. Cruden, of Barbadoes, entered 300 barrels of flour, and cleared forty head of cattle, upon which he paid the following fees:

Dollars. Bitts.* The American schooner, Aspasia, of ninety-eight tons, also paid

40

* Nine Bitts make a Dollar in this

island.