n the chapels became,
they opposed them openly. Gangs of young fellows would attend, and
sometimes break up the meetings by jeering at the preacher. In 1807 an
ordinance was passed in Jamaica "for preventing the profanation of
religious rites and false worshipping of God, under the pretence of
preaching and teaching, by illiterate, ignorant, and ill-disposed
persons, and of the mischief consequent thereupon." Considering it the
first duty of all magistrates to encourage the solemn exercise of
religion, and whereas nothing tended more to bring it into disrepute
than the pretended preaching and expounding of the Word of God by
ignorant persons and false enthusiasts, to persons of colour and slaves,
it was enacted that, after the 1st of July, no unauthorised person
should presume to teach, preach, offer public prayer, or sing psalms to
any assembly of these people, on pain of a fine of a hundred pounds,
imprisonment for six months, or whipping. Similar punishments were also
to be inflicted on any one preaching in an unlicensed building, as well
as on the owner of a house or yard in which it had been permitted.

Another way of stopping the assembly of slaves was to pass a law against
their meeting at night, and punish them if they left the estate without
a written permission. There were always excuses for this apparent
harshness, as plots had been arranged at nocturnal meetings, some of
which had given a great deal of trouble. Even if a pass were granted to
attend chapel, the estate's authorities could hardly be expected to
follow and see that the slave did not go elsewhere. The missionaries
took it that all this was done to hamper their work, but such was not
the case altogether.

The anti-slavery party became very strong about the year 1820, and every
obnoxious regulation was a text for discourses on the infamy of the
whole system. If a planter were punished, the case was trumpeted over
the country to promote a greater antagonism. How absurd this really was
could only be seen by the West Indians themselves, and if they attempted
to say anything they were put down as liars, becaused they were biassed
in favour of the other side. One writer pertinently remarked that, among
the hundreds of military and naval officers stationed in the West
Indies, not one had borne out the statements of the missionaries, and we
may call attention to the curious fact that Captain Marryat, who was
well acquainted with every colony, speaks alwa