Part 20

The old Mico Institution in Hanover street—now used as a technical school, and for a few years after the earthquake of 1907 used as the supreme court of the colony—was the original home of the Mico College, which is now removed to St. Andrew.

With their destruction by the earthquake in 1907 Kingston lost two important old-time houses in Blundell Hall and Date Tree Hall, at the lower end of East street. Both had been in former days boarding-houses. Latterly the former had served as the home of a part of the Post Office, the latter as that of the Institute of Jamaica, founded in 1879. =Blundell Hall= was for some years under the proprietorship of Mary Seacole, a native of Jamaica, well known in connection with her kindness to the sick and wounded of the British soldiers in the Crimea, where she filled the position of sutler, having failed to obtain that of nurse. Sir William Russell wrote a preface to her “Adventures,” published in 1857. Seacole Cottage in Duke street was named after her.

The reconstructed =Institute of Jamaica= possesses several objects of considerable historic interest. Besides the Arawâk pottery and implements and the slave branding-iron alluded to in the Introduction, there is a cage in which criminals were hung to die of starvation, as late as the early days of the nineteenth century. There is also the Chancellor’s purse for holding the official seal of the colony, recalling the days when the governor sat as chancellor, which lasted up to the passing of the judicature law of 1879.

The following—taken from “The State of Jamaica under Sir Thomas Lynch, 1683,” printed in “The Laws of Jamaica” (London, 1684)—is the earliest reference to the Seal of the Island:

The King has been pleased to honour this Island with a large guilt Mace, as a signal Mark of his Favour, and to make the Government appear more great and formal: It’s carried before the Governour and Chancellour on Solemn Occasions.

The King has likewise honoured this Island with Arms, and with a publick Broad Seal; and on one side of it his Majesty is seated on his Throne, with two _Indians_ on their knees, presenting him _Fruits_, and two Cherubins aloft, supporting a Canopy; underneath his Feet, this _Motto_:

_Duro de Cortice fructus quam Dulces?_[5]

Footnote 5:

How sweet the fruit the hard rind yields.

The Inscription about it is, _Carolus Secundus Dei gratia, &c. Dominus Jamaicæ_; On the other side is an Escutcheon, bearing a Cross charged with five Pines; two _Indians_ for the Supporters and for the _Crest_ an _Alligator_. The Inscription in the Orle, Inclosing all, is

_Ecce alium Ramos porrexit in orbem Nec sterilis crux est_[6]

Footnote 6:

Behold! the Cross hath spread its arms into another world, and beareth fruit.

The _Motto_ underneath the Escutcheon is,

_Indus Uterq: serviet uni_[7]

Footnote 7:

The Indians twain shall serve one Lord.

All this, as I have heard, was designed by the present Lord Archbishop of _Canterbury_, in the year 1661, and the Seal then delivered to Sir _Charles Littleton_, that came hither Chancellour, for the Chancellours always keep it, and with it Seal all Publick Grants, Commissions, Patents &c.

The King by a Clause in the Commission for the Government, appoints the Governour to be Chancellour, as judging it fittest to entrust him with the Equity, who is to see the Laws executed, and not thinking it for the good of his Subjects to have many great Officers in a young Colony; and that if the Seal were in private hands it would be erected into an Office: Now its worth little or nothing. For the Chancellour has no Fee, only for granting Land and that amounts to very little now....

There is no mention of a purse, but one was probably sent out with the Seal and Counter-Seal.

Lawrence-Archer—misled by Bridges, who, ignoring the “present,” simply says, “This seal was designed by the Archbishop of Canterbury”—says, “At that time (1662) the Metropolitan See was filled by William Juxon.” It is true that Lord Windsor came to Jamaica while Juxon was archbishop of Canterbury (1660 to 1663), but Sancroft occupied the see in 1683, when the sentence quoted from the Records of the house of Assembly was written.

The only Jamaica chancellor’s purse that is known to exist to-day is that which is now in the history gallery of the Institute, whither it was transferred from the supreme court office some years ago.

No mention of the purse has hitherto been found in any of the histories: it is not even mentioned by Lady Nugent, who makes frequent references to her husband, Sir George Nugent, sitting as chancellor. Bryan Edwards says, “The Governor or Commander-in-chief is chancellor of his office, and presides solely in that high department, which is administered with great form and solemnity.”

It would seem evident that a new purse was not supplied each year. In fact there is no evidence that any later purse than this dating from the time of George III has ever been in use in the colony.

In form and character and size it is just like the purses used in England. Like them, it measures 1 ft. 6 in. by 1 ft. 4 in., and is made of red velvet. The arms of Jamaica (with the cross gules, be it observed) are in the centre, and are surmounted by the arms of England at the time of George III. At the base are two cornucopias, and on each side is a decorative border of roses and other flowers. It is embroidered with gold and silver thread and coloured silk, ornamented with beads. It has suffered by wear and neglect.

The mace was evidently the property of the governor, and was probably used when the council met.

The council is known to have sat on the fatal June 7, 1692; and in the Journals of the house of Assembly is this entry:

June 7, 1692.—This day happened the great earthquake which destroyed Port Royal, and did great injury throughout the island: The Council had previously met in that town, and it is probable were sitting when it commenced, as no adjournment is entered that day in the Journal.

This is not correct, as the president was with the rector.

The next record we find of a mace is on December 1, 1763, when the house of Assembly resolved: “That the Receiver-General do send to his correspondent in England, to purchase a silver mace gilt, of the same size, for the use of the Speaker of the House, as that used by the Speaker of the House of Commons; and that this or any future Assembly will make the same good.”

The older of the two maces at present in the Institute was possibly imported as the result of this resolution. It is silver-gilt, measures 5 ft. 6 in. high and weighs 297 oz. 5 dwt., and is thus both higher and heavier than the mace of the House of Commons. It is surmounted by a royal crown, on the base of which are the British coat-of-arms as used from 1714 to 1801, and the letters G. R. (Georgius Rex). Round the head, in panels divided by caryatides, are the emblems of England and Scotland, Ireland and France, and the arms of Jamaica. It bears the London hall marks and date letter of the year 1753, and the initials M. F. of the maker, Mordecai Fox of London.

The other mace evidently came as the result of the resolution of the Assembly of December 22, 1786: “That the Receiver-General do immediately remit to the agent the sum of £300 to be by him laid out in the purchase of robes for the Speaker, and a mace.” Four years later they voted £200 for a coach to be obtained from England. The mace is similar in appearance, but of a little later date, measures also 5 ft. 6 in. high, and is also surmounted by a royal crown on the base of which is the same form of the British coat-of-arms; and round the head are the same emblems of England and Scotland, France and Ireland, and the arms of Jamaica. It bears the London hall marks and date letter of the year 1787, and the initials H. G. of the maker, Henry Green of London, whose initials are on a piece bearing the mark of the same year in the hall of the Clothworkers Company, London, and who also made the Grenada mace, which dates from 1781, and which is almost as massive as the Jamaica mace of 1753. The Barbados mace, which dates from 1812, is 4 ft. 4 in. high. The head of the Jamaica 1787 mace has at some time been bent by a blow, and should stand up in the same manner as that of the older one. This is not to be wondered at when we read of the stormy meetings held in the last century by the house of assembly.

These two maces were used, the one at the meetings of the house of Assembly, the other at those of the legislative council. One or other of them was used at the meetings of the privy council until some time in Sir John Peter Grant’s administration, when its use was discontinued. They were both deposited in the Institute of Jamaica in 1879, and were shown at the exhibition in 1891.

Of the public monuments in Kingston the principal is the =Statue of Sir Charles Metcalfe=.

High on a list of those governors who have left their mark on Jamaica history stands the name of Metcalfe, the only governor to whom the colony has erected a statue. Without seeking it, Metcalfe gained everywhere where his work lay such popular esteem as finds expression in statues and addresses, while he received the sincere regard of those with whom he came in close contact. Coming in September, 1839, when relations between the planters and the British government on the one hand and the emancipated slaves on the other had become very strained over questions arising out of the recent abolition of slavery, he, by the same tactful manner which he had employed in India with marked success, did much to reconcile the differences; and when he left Jamaica three years later it was amidst the genuine regret of all classes of the community.

Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, the son of a major in the Bengal army, who later became a director of the East India company, was born at Calcutta in 1785. He was one of a family of six; the boys all had, in addition to another, the name Theophilus, the girls Theophila. After spending five years at Eton, where he did much “sapping,” he, to his own regret at having to leave, entered the East India service at the early age of fifteen. By the time he was nineteen he was earning £1000 a year; and after working in several important branches of the service as special commissioner, and as president at Delhi, and at Hyderabad, where he incurred the displeasure of the governor-general by his fearless methods of pressing reforms, he became in 1827 a member of the supreme council, on which he sat for nearly seven years. In 1832 he succeeded his brother in the baronetcy which had been bestowed upon his father, and in 1836 he received the Grand Cross of the Bath in reward for his distinguished services. In 1835–36 he held provisionally the post of governor-general of India, at which he had confidently aimed from almost the commencement of his career, and he only lost the actual position, to which he was nominated by the court of directors, because the ministry did not consider it advisable to appoint one so experienced as Metcalfe in Indian affairs to that high office, which they wished to bestow on their own nominee.

Always a Liberal in politics and wide in his sympathies, he during his tenure of office gave offence to the directors of the company by his action in removing the restrictions on the liberty of the press, and this led ultimately to his resignation from the company’s service.

After a period of rest in England from official labours, he was in 1839 made governor of Jamaica, two former governors of which colony—Sir Alured Clarke and Sir George Nugent—he had incidentally met in India. He was made a privy councillor “as a mark of consideration for his past services and a tribute to the importance of the office he was about to assume.”

The sending of an East Indian official as governor to the West Indies was then an unusual occurrence, but the undoubted success achieved by Metcalfe led to greater frequency in the custom. Somewhat tired of administrative work, a lover of a quiet life and with some parliamentary ambition, he only accepted the office because he knew that the affairs of the colony were in disorder, and he looked upon it as a duty to his country to be at the call of the Colonial Office.

The few years that had elapsed since Emancipation had not proved sufficient in Jamaica to efface differences of opinion and produce harmony where conflicting interests were rife. The apprenticeship system had broken down the year before, and total abolition had come into effect. Trouble had arisen between the Assembly and the Home Government. The Assembly considered the passing of the West India Prisons bill an aggression on their rights, and declined to perform any legislative functions not absolutely necessary, until those rights were restored. The British Government retorted by threatening to suspend the constitution of Jamaica, and a measure was ultimately passed which increased the powers possessed by the governor. Metcalfe was selected as a possibly popular governor to tide over a critical period of great anxiety.

On his arrival he saw that the existence of the stipendiary magistrates, which body had been formed with a view to counteracting the alleged lack of justice on the part of the local magistracy composed chiefly of the planters and their attorneys, was a means of keeping alive the ill-will between the planters and the emancipated slaves and their well-wishers; and he therefore decided to let the scheme gradually die out, by abstaining from filling up vacancies as they arose.

In his work of conciliation Metcalfe did not hesitate to controvert the opinions of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to point out to him the error of his views in certain cases.

He achieved the at that time difficult task of gaining the esteem alike of the white and the black population, and he did much to remove the mutual mistrust existing between them. The only sect in sympathy with whom he found it difficult to work was the Baptist community, who wished him to be hostile to the planters and were displeased by his absolute impartiality.

In November 1841 he considered that the purpose of his visit had been achieved, and he resigned his office. By his honesty of purpose and the conciliatory nature of his methods of work he had endeared himself to almost all.

As his mission had been one of smoothing over difficulties arising from a recent legal and social upheaval, it obviously was not a time for great administrative changes; but while he was in Jamaica the judicial system and the criminal code were amended, the military cantonment at Newcastle was established, and the salary of the governor was put on a more satisfactory and permanent basis.

Metcalfe had his portrait painted twice in Jamaica—once by a Danish artist, a full-size, half-length, which he sent home to his aunt, Mrs. Manson: the other, a full-length, by another artist, “was intended for the town hall of our principal city Kingston.” Where is that portrait now? There is a portrait of him, by a very mediocre painter, in the court house at Old Harbour, and a full-length standing painting, dated 1846, and signed by A. Bradish, in the Town Hall at Falmouth. The portrait of him by F. R. Say in the Oriental Club, a copy of the engraving after which by F. E. Lewis is in the Jamaica history gallery in the Institute, was painted between his return to England from Jamaica and his going to Canada. Another portrait in the same gallery is a mezzotint engraving by William Warner of Philadelphia, after a painting by A. Bradish, executed in 1844, representing him half-length seated. This print, published at Montreal, was dedicated to Sir Robert Peel. It shows the left side of the face, the right having by that time been disfigured by the sad malady which caused his death.

Metcalfe on leaving Jamaica received addresses.

“On May 21, 1842,” says Sir John William Kaye, in his life of Metcalfe, “Sir Charles Metcalfe once again embarked for England. The scene will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. From even the most distant places crowds of people of all classes had come to see for the last time, and to say God-speed to, the Governor whose public and private virtues they so loved and revered. The old island militiamen, who had not been called out for years, volunteered to form his escort. The ‘coloured population knelt to bless him.’ Many present on that occasion, at once so gratifying and so painful to the departing statesman, felt that they had lost a friend who could never be replaced. All classes of society and all sects of Christians sorrowed for his departure; and the Jews set an example of Christian love by praying for him in their synagogues.

“He went—but the statue voted by the Island, and erected in the public square of Spanish Town, is not a more enduring record of his residence in Jamaica than the monument which he has made for himself in the hearts of a grateful people.”

In 1843–45 he was governor-general of Canada, a post of extreme difficulty at that time, and held by him with considerable tact and firmness while he himself was practically dying. He displayed much patience under the greatest provocation. He had there the support of that empire-builder Wakefield, who said of him that God had made him greater than the Colonial Office. In 1845 he was created Baron Metcalfe. In the securing of this honour the valuable services which he rendered in connection with Jamaica played an important part. In fact it may fairly be said that had the Whigs and not the Tories been in power when he left that island the peerage would have been conferred on him then. He never took his seat in the House of Lords, and the title died with him the following year, the baronetcy going to his younger brother. During the latter part of his life he had borne great suffering with heroic patience.

He was short in stature and somewhat homely in appearance; but he had an intelligent countenance and an habitually sweet smile. He was of a most lovable disposition. Though intensely hospitable he really disliked society and preferred the companionship of a few friends, but he lived continually in harness either social or official. He was at all times of his life a poor horseman; he had tried in vain to learn in India, and travelling in the hilly parts of Jamaica must have been a painful task for him. He writes: “I have got some steady horses and ponies which suit me pretty well. Any but steady ones would soon tumble me over a precipice.”

Of his country residence, Highgate, to which he retreated from Spanish Town whenever the calls of office permitted, he wrote, “If climate were everything I should prefer living on this spot to any other that I know in the world.”

Liberal and generous by disposition, he yet succeeded in saving from his official salaries and the interest of his investments a sufficient fortune to have maintained with credit the peerage which had been bestowed upon him.

On his quitting Jamaica the Assembly voted £3000 for the statue, which for many years looked down King street, Kingston, to which spot it had been removed from Spanish Town, where it was originally erected on the site of the present court house, opposite Rodney’s statue. It was originally intended to have a temple and colonnade like Rodney’s, but the funds did not prove sufficient and the scheme was abandoned. In 1898 the statue was removed to make way for a statue of Queen Victoria, when it was placed at the foot of King street, on the pedestal which had for some years supported Bacon’s statue of Rodney during its temporary absence from Spanish Town.

Metcalfe’s statue has proved more enduring than the parish which, formed from parts of St. George and St. Mary and named after him in 1841, was merged into St. Mary in 1867 by Grant’s reduction of the parishes from twenty-two to fourteen. The statue is by Edward Hodges Baily, R.A., a pupil of Flaxman, and a sculptor of high aims and pure ideals, by whom there is also a bust of Metcalfe in the Metcalfe Hall, Calcutta.

He is represented bare-headed, and wearing the insignia of the Bath. The statue on its double pedestal stands too high to be well seen. On the front of the original pedestal is the following inscription, now almost illegible from the ground, partly because of its great height and partly because the painting has worn off the letters:

THIS STATUE IS ERECTED IN HONOR OF THE RT. HON. SIR CHARLES THEOPHILUS METCALFE, BART, K.C.B. NOW BARON METCALFE BY THE GRATEFUL INHABITANTS OF JAMAICA IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BENEFITS DERIVED FROM HIS WISE, JUST AND BENEFICIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND A.D. 1845.

On the west face are the arms of Jamaica (on which the cross is tricked _or_ instead of _gules_, and the crest is placed on an esquire’s helmet); on the east those of Metcalfe. On the back is an emblematic design with figures of Justice and Mercy on either side of an altar on which rests an anchor.

On the lower pedestal, erected originally to receive Rodney’s statue, is placed an earthenware tablet (similar to those erected by the Royal Society of Arts in London) which was put up by the Institute of Jamaica in 1892 to record the fact that:

12 FEET WEST OF THE CENTRE OF THE PEDESTAL, COMMANDER GREEN, U.S.N. IN 1875 ERECTED THE LONGITUDE STATION OF KINGSTON AND FOUND IT TO BE 5h. 7m. 10·65 s. (76° 47′ 39·8″) WEST OF GREENWICH. I.J.

The great weight of this lower pedestal enabled the statue to stand the earthquake of 1907 unmoved; while every other statue in Kingston was either thrown down or slued round on its base.

“Selections from the Papers of Lord Metcalfe” contain papers from Jamaica, dealing with such divers subjects as the Conditions of the Island; the Social Condition of the People; the Labour Question; the Stipendiary Magistrate; the Governor’s Salary; Reforms of the Judicial System; Advantages of Conciliation; Prison Discipline; the Health of the Troops, and Answers to Addresses from the parishes of St. Catherine, St. Ann and St. Thomas; the Missionary Presbytery and the St. George’s Agricultural Society. The “Addresses” themselves, to the number of thirty-nine from all sections of the community, were published in Jamaica in 1842.

From this volume we learn that the first proposal to erect a statue to Metcalfe in St. Jago de la Vega was made and adopted at a meeting of the inhabitants of St. Catherine held on March 17, 1842, and this was supported by meetings held in many of the parishes. There was, however, a counter proposal to have a statue in Kingston. St. Jago de la Vega won then, but time has brought revenge to Kingston. In 1847 £200 was paid by the Assembly for a temple for the statue of Metcalfe, and they voted “£1500 for its removal and erection” in front of the Assembly Room and Library.