eristics of his distinguished Mentor. Arrived in England to
study law, he had there the privilege of the personal acquaintance of
Lord Brougham, then one of the Nestors of the great Emancipation
conflict. On returning to his native island, which he did immediately
after his call to the bar, Mr. Reeves sprung at once into the foremost
place, and retained his precedence till his labours and aspirations
were crowned by his obtaining the highest judicial post in that Colony.
For long years before becoming Chief Justice, Mr. Reeves had conquered
for himself the respect and confidence [141] of all Barbadians--even
including the ultra exclusive "Anglo-West-Indians" of Mr. Froude--by
the manful constitutional stand which, sacrificing official place, he
had successfully made against the threatened abrogation of the Charter
of the Colony, which every class and colour of natives cherish and
revere as a most precious, almost sacred, inheritance. The successful
champion of their menaced liberties found clustering around him the
grateful hearts of all his countrymen, who, in their hour of dread at
the danger of their time-honoured constitution, had clung in despair to
him as the only leader capable of heading the struggle and leading the
people, by wise and constitutional guidance, to the victory which they
desired but could not achieve for themselves.

Sir William Robinson, who was sent out as pacificator, saw and took in
at a glance the whole significance of the condition of affairs,
especially in their relation to Mr. Reeves, and vice versa. With the
unrivalled pre-eminence and predominant personal influence of the
latter, the Colonial Office had possessed more than ample means of
being perfectly familiar. What, then, could be more natural and
consonant with [142] sound policy than that the then acknowledged, but
officially unattached, head of the people (being an eminent lawyer),
should, on the occurrence of a vacancy in the highest juridical post,
be appointed to co-operate with the supreme head of the Executive? Mr.
Reeves was already the chief of the legal body of the Colony; his
appointment, therefore, as Chief Justice amounted to nothing more than
an official ratification of an accomplished and unalterable fact. Of
course, it was no fault of England's that the eminent culture,
political influence, and unapproached legal status of Mr. Reeves should
have coincided exactly with her political requirements at that crisis,
n