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affidavit, we cannot but suspect the existence of some secret intrigues, the object of which was to deprive a brave and experienced officer of the fruits of his honourable and valuable services, and, still worse, to tarnish his reputation!

Mr. Fullarton tells us too, that he "acted on the declared principle of avoiding all retrospect;" certainly, as we have before shown, "the instructions given to the new Commissioners had nothing of a retrospective nature in them;"-not so, Mr. Fullarton's actions; for they, as we demonstrated in the same place, prove directly the reverse. (See page 65 of our Review, Vol. XXIV.)—We shall here just remark, in addition to what we there observed, on those strange transactions, that Mr. Fullarton's motion in council, for a list of all persons confined, or punished, previous to his arrival in Trinidad, was either an illegal assumption of authority in him, not being sanctioned by any part of his instructions, or must have proceeded from some secret instructions. If the former, it richly deserved punishment, as well from its inevitable tendency to sow dissentions in the island, as from its being, what Commodore Hood very justly, in our opinion, termed it, "a libel upon his Majesty's Ministers," who had, very recently, borne honourable testimony to the merits of Governor Picton ;-but if the latter, respect for that public to whom Mr. Fullarton has thought proper to appeal, as well as regard for his own character, should have led him to produce his instructions. At any rate, it is an intolerable insult to the common sense of the public to assert, that he " acted on the declared principle of avoiding all retrospect," and yet to avow the most offensive, as well as the most decisive of all retrospective measures?— But he seems not to be fond of a straight forward path; and to give a decided preference to the dark labyrinths of inconsistency and contradiction, over the plain and even paths of truth and candour. Adverting to the above list of criminals (which supplied him with his budget of charges) he says, page 14, that it “ by no means implied that any person had suffered without some kind of trial;" yet in page 32, referring to these very facts, he specifically enumerates, among them, "exccution without trial." In most of Mr. Fullarton's statements, there is a convenient ambiguity which renders detection difficult, if not imprac ticable; but, fortunately, in some of them, as our readers have already seen, he has been more positive, and less on his guard. As no friend of Governor Picton's escapes the lash of this quixotic assailant, Mr. Gloster comes in for his share of abuse; and not only of abuse, but of law also, for, we understand, he has brought an action against Mr. Gloster, who, like Colonel Draper, has had the temerity to put in a plea of justification. He avers,-" his declared friend and avowed adherent, Mr. Gloster, repeatedly pressed his services upon' me in the capacity of Aid-de-Camp; an employment which I conceived to be by no means compatible with his official situation as Colonial AttorneyGeneral." Is Mr. Fullarton very sure that Mr. Gloster did press his services upon him?-We have heard, that there is not the smallest foundation for such an assertion, Who would suppose, from this paragraph,

f

paragraph, that Mr. Gloster did really for some time act as Mr. Fullarton's Aid-de-Camp? Certainly, no one; yet such was really the case. Mr. Fullarton did appoint him to that office, all incompatible as he himself deemed it with that of Attorney-General !

Possibly the few observations which we have hitherto made, will tend to diminish the surprize which our readers may experience on the perusal of the first passage in Colonel Picton's Preface, to his Letter addressed to Lord Hobart.

"Mr. Fullarton will remember the following passage, in a certain manuscript which was "put into his hands," he perhaps knows how and by whom: "It may be unnecessary to observe, that when a person has been fully and unequivocally detected in maliciously advancing a notorious falsehood, his assertion or information, in a moral or ra tional point of view, is not to be credited upon any future occasion.”

Without meaning to apply this observation to any individual whatever, we will venture to declare that no man will deny the truth of it.

Mr. Fullarton, in his first book, repeatedly disclaims all kind of approbation of the past proceedings of Governor Picton, and suffers no opportunity to escape him of representing that gentleman as the most infamous of men, and himself as differing from him in all his sentiments, opinions, and actions. It was, therefore, not without some little degree of astonishment, that we first read the following declaration of Captain Shelton, dated Port of Spain, 23 February 1803:

"On the evening of the 21st instant, I waited on Colonel Fullarton, by desire of Brigadier General Picton, in order to learn if he had made any arrangement to receive Commodore Hood, the third Commissioner in Council, on the next day. He immediately said, 'I am very glad to see you, and shall embrace this opportunity of speaking to you in private. I accordingly withdrew with him, when he said as follows:

"You are no doubt, Sir, acquainted with the difference that subsists between General Picton and myself, and I have to assure you it has not proceeded from any intention on my part, as there is not any person who has a higher opinion of his zeal, abilities and energy to his indefatigable perseverance and attention this colony is particularly indebted; and so far from my depreciating, or wishing to lessen him in the public opinion, I have to assure you that I bold the highest opinion, not only of his abilities, but of his administration; nor do I know any person possessing more general information, or a more decided character; and that I should think myself bound, as a man of honour, to give the most ample testimonials; for in reality I think he has the strongest claims; and so far from my disapproving of his administration, I should be happy to follow it; but my misfortune is, that I cannot, at a moment, derive such information as he has acquired in an experience of six years in the colony. It has been said that I have coalesced with persons inimical to him and his government; this I absolutely deny, and I dare any man to In the situation in which I stand, I have declared myself ready to receive all descriptions of people who wait on me, but not to encourage or countenance complaints intended to be made against General Picton; so far from it, that when I perceived any attempt of this nature, I have invariably discouraged

say so.

discouraged it, remarking that the prospective, and not the retrisped, was the system on which, on every occasion, I was determined to act. My receiving persons hostile to General Picton, and whose principles I dare say be justly censures, ought not to be attributed to me as a fault. As members of this community I receive them; but so far from countenancing, that I assure you they have felt my indifference so fully as to have induced them to say, that the joy they felt on my arrival in the colony has been turned into mourning. Respecting my having sanctioned a mulatto woman, Duval, to remain here for a short time, it was not a measure intended in opposition to the General, but merely to allow her to settle her affairs; and if there had not been a misconception or misrepresentation, on the part of Mr. Woodyear, the General would not have attacked me in my own house, and in the presence of my wife and family, in so high and imperious a tone. I have the character of an officer and a gentleman to maintain, and cannot easily reconcile the harshness of such treatment. Notwithstanding, I beg you will inform General Picton of my sincere wish to co-operate with him most cordially; his information will be of the most essential service in the plans which we may adopt or pursue, and his decided character will strengthen our councils. I am perfectly aware that by unanimity alone we shall succeed-nothing shall be wanting on my part. I repeat, as before, that I admire his abiz lities, and his extensive information; and I, of course, so far from censuring or having cause to censure any part of his administration, that I shall ever think it worthy of imitation, and such as we ought to follow.'

"Such was the substance of Colonel Fullarton's conversation, which lasted, I believe, an hour, reiterating his approbation and admiration of General Picton, and his hopes that I would do justice to his sentiment in my communication." ROBERT SHELTON, Captain 57th Regiment.

Attested before the Privy Council.

Mr. Fullarton, in what he is pleased to call his "Refutation," admits that he had this conversation with Captain Shelton, but seems to rely, for credit to his own allegation of its inaccuracy as stated above, on the circumstance of its length, which, in his estimation, would have rendered it impossible for even the retentive memory of the late Mr. Woodfall, to repeat. In this point, however, Mr. Fullarton is mistaken; Mr. Woodfall's memory was much more retentive than he supposes. Still, Mr. Fullarton himself undertakes to state the substance of that conversation; in which he allows to Co lonel Picton "great sagacity, activity, and knowledge of the colony;" acknowledges that the prospective, and not the retrospect, was the object to which my attention was directed," and that it was improper for him to take cognizance of past events: but admits not a word of panegyric or approbation of Governor Picton's government.

It is important here to observe, that little more than thirty-six-hours intervened between the period of the conversation in question, and that time at which Captain Shelton committed the purport of it to writing; it having taken place in the evening of the 21st February, 1803, and the "declaration," being dated on the 23d of that month; whereas Mr. Fullarton's account of its substance was not written till two

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two-years after, the date of his pamphlet being 1805. Now supposing that both parties were equally desirous of stating the truth with the utmost possible accuracy, is it not self-evident that he who commits his statement to paper in less than two days after the conversation, is more likely to be accurate, than he whose recollection is not so called to it till after a lapse of two years? If to this we add, that the latter party must have a bias on his mind which the former could not have, we surely cannot for a moment doubt to which most credit is due. Besides, we suppose that Captain Shelton's declaration must have been attested before the Privy Council upon oath.

The next point on which the parties are at issue, relates to Commodore Hood. Mr. Fullarton had said:

"Commodore Hood is understood to have affirmed, that from the unqualified praise bestowed on General Picton by his Majesty's Ministers, he conceived that Colonel Fullarton and he were sent out to screen or adopt the measures of the former government; and it is supposed to be. under that impression that he considered it so highly improper for Colonel Fullarton, being in the confidence of government, to bring forward any charges against General Picton.

"Though the Commodore supported General Picton in every outrage. against the First Commissioner, it is perfectly well known that during his (Mr. Fullarton's) absence, very high tones and words of an accusatory nature passed between the two colleagues. The General urged the Commodore to join in a few more imprisonments, to which the Commodore is stated to have replied, that for his part he meant to be able to show his face in London, and would leave the government to him and be damned

to it.

"On another occasion the Commodore expressed a wish to know the specific objects, as the Brigadier would only mention general ones, to which the sums drawn from the three and a half per cent. duties had been applied. Upon receiving no satisfactory reply the Commodore was heard to exclaim, That it was a damned clandestine manner of spending the public money; and again declared his determination to leave the govern ment of the Brigadier. Colonel Fullarton, not being in the island, can have no personal knowledge of these facts: but very respectable persons there have declared, that these conversations were carried on in so loud a key, as to be overheard from the Commodore's gallery, whose family likewise spread them currently through the Port of Spain.

"It was likewise well known to Commodore Hood, that General Picton expressed himself in the most improper terms, upon Colonel Fullarton's going on board the flag ship to welcome the Commodore, as soon as he cast anchor in the bay.

"It has been affirmed, that Commodore Hood's mind had been poi. soned by mi representations sent him at Barbadoes, as laying a foundation for effecting the grand object of the Brigadier, which was to separate the First and Third Commissioner, and intercept the cordiality which subsisted between them, as the best means of overthrowing the commission, and again vesting the power in the hands of the former governor.

"It was known at the Public Secretary's office that secret meetings were held at Ceneral Picton's house, where the Commodore went to con.

sult

sult with him previous to Colonel Fullarton's joining them in commis.

sion.'"'

To this Colonel Picton answers:

"I declare upon my honour, as an Officer and a Gentleman, that there is not a syllable of truth in the whole or any part of them:

"That Commodore Hood never had any communication or correspondence either with me, or with those whom Mr. Fullarton is pleased to call my friends, during his residence at Barbadoes :

“That he had not any conversation with me or my friends respecting my disagreement with the First Commissioner, for nearly a month after his arrival at Trinidad:

"That the Cominodore studiously avoided all communications on the subject, even with the Public Secretary Mr. Woodyear, until he had been perfectly instructed by Mr. Fullarton in every thing that had taken place, and had expressed to Mr. Fullarton his entire disapprobation of his con. duct, founded wholly upon his own ex parte representations:

"That Commodore Hood's public reprobation of Mr. Fullarton's dis honourable conduct, in the presence of all the Members of his Majesty's Council of that Island, was prior to any communication between us on the subject, as will appear from the following conversation and observations, addressed by the Commodore to Mr. Fullarton, presiding in Council :

"March 24.-All the Commissioners and Members of his Majesty's Council being assembled, Brigadier-General Picton begged leave to ask Commodore Hood the following questions:

"Did Mr. Fullarton make any communication to you at Barbadoes respecting a Proclamation of the Commission, dated the 6th of January? "Answer.-Never. I received no communication on the subject, nor heard any thing about it, until my arrival at Trinidad.

"Mr. Fullarton then observed, that the indelicacy of a publication of that nature, without the participation of his colleague, had not occurred to him until too late; but that he had then ordered it to be taken down for the purpose of consulting him by the first opportunity.

"To which the Commodore replied: But I was never consulted respecting the Proclamation, and I am sorry, Sir, that you have so bad a me. mory. Do you already forget having assured me, that the Proclamation was torn down by Gen. Picton's partisans? I am ashamed of you; ashamed to be seen in the same company. Not with you, Gen. Picton-I shall be proud to act with you on all occasions-you have never attempted to impose upon me-you have allowed me to see my own way. I have never had any conversation with General Picton respecting the disagreements; but as for you, Sir, (turning to Mr. Fullarton), your behaviour has been such, that nothing but the paramount obligation of his Majesty's Commission could seat us at the same board. I shall however request to be relieved as soon as possible from so disagreeable a situation, with a colleague with whom I can have no further confidence. I was in hopes you had been occupied in carrying his Majesty's orders into effect, by forwarding the objects of the Commission; but I find, on the contrary, that every step you have taken has tended to protract them: you have in

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the