“Only answerable to God and conscience”: justice unbounded by law

James Epstein

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511760204.005

3 - “Only answerable to God and conscience”: justice unbounded by law

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

James Epstein

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James Epstein: Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

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Having in the preceding chapter mapped the world forces within which William Fullarton set his career, we tighten our focus to reveal how empire was defined on the ground in Trinidad, particularly through the ruling practices of its first British governor. In 1797 Britain conquered Trinidad; in 1801 the island was ceded to Britain by the terms of the Peace of Amiens. This chapter starts at the point when control of Trinidad passed from Spain to Britain. As military governor, Colonel Thomas Picton was handed command at Trinidad with instructions vesting extraordinary power in his personal capacity to govern in both military and civilian matters. At best his command could be regarded as a temporary concentration of power before the island's cession to Britain; at worst Picton's mandate allowed for an authoritarianism defying legal definition or restraint. The violence of his rule, which he defended as a necessity of the times, appeared to operate outside the boundaries of the law; it also operated under a code of colonial permissibility. The inherent violence of colonialism was exacerbated by the instability of local rule; Trinidad was seen as vulnerable to external attack as well as to internal disorder. However, once the island became officially British, a group of British subjects pressed for the introduction of British law and constitutional guarantees; Picton's suppression of the campaign for British rights broke the silence of the colonial frontier as reports of his tyranny reached government ministers. This chapter details the prelude to the commission appointed to supersede Trinidad's governorship, and the sensational revelations that eventually brought the island's former governor to answer before Privy Council and the court of King's Bench.

In considering the case of Trinidad, local conditions and contending parties were of crucial importance to negotiations of power on the ground. Personal rivalries that developed also played their part. But events at Trinidad must also be situated within the context of broader forces of change, manifesting themselves at the national, imperial, and global levels. The opening of the age of total war combined with the Haitian and French revolutions to destabilize the political order of Europe and empire in the Caribbean. The 1790s marked a turning point as traditional regimes struggled to reconstitute and legitimate the basis of their authority.

Type: Chapter
Information: Scandal of Colonial Rule
Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution
, pp. 90 - 129

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760204.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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3 - “Only answerable to God and conscience”: justice unbounded by law

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