3.  The girl did not wash a cloth clean which the complainant gave her, and the complainant was obliged to wash it herself.

4.  Several times when the complainant and her daughter have been conversing together, this girl had burst into laughter—­whether at them or their conversation, complainant did not know.

5.  When the complainant has reproved the defendant for not doing her work well, she has replied, “Can’t you let me alone to my work, and not worry my life out.”

A black man, a constable on the same property, was brought up to confirm the charges.  He knew nothing about the case, only that he often heard the parties quarrelling, and sometimes had told the girl not to say any thing, as she knew what her mistress was.

It appeared in the course of the evidence, that the complainant and her husband had both been in the habit of speaking disrespectfully of the special magistrate, stationed in their district, and that many of the contentions arose out of that, as the girl sometimes defended him.

While the accused was making her defence, which she did in a modest way, her mistress was highly enraged, and interrupted her several times, by calling her a liar and a jade.  The magistrate was two or three times obliged to reprove her, and command her to be silent, and, so passionate did she become, that her husband, ashamed of her, put his hand on her shoulder, and entreated her to be calm.

Mr. Hill dismissed the complaint by giving some good advice to both parties, much to the annoyance of the mistress.

The second complaint was brought by a man against a servant girl, for disobedience of orders, and insolence.  It appears that she was ordered, at ten o’clock at night, to do some work.  She was just leaving the house to call on some friends, as she said, and refused.  On being told by her mistress that she only wanted to go out for bad purposes, she replied, that “It was no matter—­the allowance they gave her was not sufficient to support her, and if they would not give her more, she must get a living any way she could, so she did not steal.”  She was sentenced to the house of correction for one week.

The third case was a complaint against a boy for taking every alternate Friday and Saturday, instead of every Saturday, for allowance.  He was ordered to take every Saturday, or to receive in lieu of it half a dollar.

Mr. Hill said these were a fair specimen of the character of the complaints that came before him.  We were much pleased with the manner in which he presided in his court, the ease, dignity, and impartiality which he exhibited, and the respect which was shown him by all parties.

In company with Mr. Hill, we called on Rev. Mr. Phillips, the Baptist missionary, stationed at Spanishtown.  Mr. P. has been in the island thirteen years.  He regards the apprenticeship as a great amelioration of the old system of slavery, but as coming far short of the full privileges and rights of freedom, and of what it was expected to be.  It is beneficial to the missionaries, as it gives them access to the plantations, while before, in many instances, they were entirely excluded from them, and in all cases were much shackled in their operations.