THE REPLY OF THE STATES
With a few slight omissions the following is the official translation of
"The Answer of the States of Guernsey to the Complaint of three of their
Members dated the 10th April, and transmitted by their Lordships's Order
of 19th June, 1829.
"My Lords,
Discarding from their minds allusions and topics of a personal nature
and every sentiment of recrimination, the States of Guernsey are
desirous of vindicating themselves in the manner most becoming the
respect due to your Lordships, and the consciousness of right, by
setting facts against errors, reason against fears, 'honest deeds
against faltering words.'
"To judge of the States by any particular act or period would be to
dismiss all consideration of previous motives and future benefits, of
connecting causes and effects. Comprehensive views of the general policy
of the States can alone enable them to prove, and your Lordships to
judge, of the wisdom and propriety of their measures. Taking, therefore,
a retrospect of the period which immediately preceded the grant of the
duty on Spirituous Liquors first graciously conceded in 1814; they deem
it necessary to lay before your Lordships a summary account of the state
of this Island, at, and from that period.
"The steps taken during the war for the prevention of smuggling had
deprived this Island of the trade which the supply of that traffic
occasioned, and a great portion of the inhabitants of their usual
occupation, consisting not in smuggling themselves, but in importing the
goods and making the small packages in which those goods were sold in
the Island; Privateering, adventurous speculations, and the great
expenditure of fleets and garrisons compensated in some measure for the
loss of this occupation, but when the war ceased also, a general want of
employment and consequent distress ensued.
* * * * *
"In 1813 the sea which had in former times swallowed up large tracts,
threatened from the defective state of its banks to overflow a great
extent of land. The sum required to avert the danger was estimated at
more than L10,000, which the adjoining parishes subject to this charge
were not in a condition to raise. The state of the finance was not more
consolatory, with a debt of L19,137, and an annual charge for interest
and ordinary expenses of L2,390, the revenue of L3,000 left only L600
for unforeseen expenses and improvements.
"Thus at the peace, this Island found itself with little or no trade;
little or no disposable revenue; no attraction for visitors, no
inducement for the affluent to continue their abode, and no prospect of
employment for the poor. No wonder, therefore, if emigration became the
object of the rich in search of those good roads, carriages and other
comforts which they could not find at home, and the only resource of the
other classes, whose distress was likely to be aggravated by the
non-residence of the former. Misery and depopulation appeared
inevitable, from the peace to the year 1819 inclusive, more than five
hundred native and other British subjects embarked for the United
States, and more prepared to follow.
"It is said, the powers of the human mind in society lie at times torpid
for ages; at others, are roused into action by the urgency of great
occasions, and astonish the world by their effects. This has, in some
measure, been verified in this Island, for though nothing done in so
small a community can cause a general sensation, its exertions may yet
produce wonderful results, within its own sphere. It is the duty of the
States to show that, roused by the deplorable situation above described,
they took, and have since pursued the steps best adapted to meet the
exigency of the case, and that those steps have been attended with
complete success.
"To increase the revenue was an indispensable preliminary, but to do
so, no other means lay within the power of the States than a tax on the
several parishes according to the rates at which they were respectively
assessed, and to this tax there were insuperable objections....
"Under these circumstances was the application made for the duty on
spirituous liquors: and notwithstanding the opposition of many of the
inhabitants His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, was graciously pleased
by an Order in Council of 23rd July, 1814 to authorise the States to
raise 1s. per Gallon on all such liquors consumed in this Island for the
term of 5 years. The same duty was renewed for 10 years by virtue of a
second Order in Council of 19th June, 1819 after similar opposition. And
on the declaration at Your Lordships' bar of the advocate deputed by the
opponents that a clause to the following effect would reconcile them to
the measure, and no objection being made to it on the part of the
States, these words were inserted in the gracious Order in question:
viz.:--'That One Thousand Pounds per annum of the produce of the said
duty be applied solely to the liquidation of the present debt, together
with such surplus as shall remain out of the produce of the tax in any
year after defraying the expenses of roads and embankments and
unforeseen contingencies. And that the States of the said Island do not
exceed in any case the amount of their annual income without the consent
previously obtained of His Royal Highness in Council: and the said
States are hereby directed to return annually to the Privy Council an
account of the produce and application of the said tax.'
"In 1825 the Lt. Governor Sir John Colborne, and the States, having
extended their views to the erection of a new College and other
important works which could not be undertaken without the assurance of a
renewal of the duty, constituting the chief part of the revenue, a third
Order in Council of the 30th September, 1825, conceded to the States the
right of levying the same for 15 years, beginning on the 1st September,
1829, and this without the smallest opposition from any of the
inhabitants, and without the conditions annexed to the second Order.
"With gratitude for the means placed at their disposal the States feel
an honest pride in the recital of the manner in which those means have
been applied. First, considering the danger arising from the bad state
of the sea embankments, and the hardship of subjecting particular
parishes to a charge for the general safety to which they were unequal,
the States took on themselves the present repairs, and future
maintenance of those embankments. This essential object connected with
the paved slips or avenues to the beach, has been attended with an
expence of L14,681 19s., without including five or six thousand for a
breakwater to defend the line of houses at Glatney, on the North side
of the Town.
"Independently of the sums contributed by Government towards the
military roads, from twenty-nine to thirty thousand pounds have been
expended by the Island on the roads, so that in lieu of those before
described, there are now fifty-one miles of roads of the first class, as
good as those of any country, with excellent footways on all of them,
and 17 miles of the second class.
"Not only the main Harbour, Piers, Quays, Buoys and Sea Marks have been
attended to, and at a great expense, but, in order to facilitate the
exportation of the granite from the North of the Island, the Harbour of
St. Sampson has been rendered secure and convenient by a new Breakwater
and Quay.
"The situation and state of the Town were thought to preclude all hopes
of much amelioration, but the widening of High Street, and other
streets, the reducing the precipitous ascent to the Government and Court
House, the clearing away of the unsightly buildings that obstructed the
view and approach to those public edifices, the new sewers, pavements,
and, above all, the Public Markets and new Fountain Street, attest the
solicitude of the States towards the Town, and surprise those who return
to it after a few years absence. Add to these the enlarging and
improving of the Court House and Record Office, where the public have
daily access, and where are kept the contracts and registry of all the
real property (of) the Island. Add also the New College, which, with
the laying out of its grounds and the roads round its precincts,
contributes to the embellishment of the town, induces families from
other places to settle in the Island, on account of their children, and
affords to the inhabitants the ready means of a good education.
"The advantage resulting from all these improvements has not been
confined to their utility, or to the increased activity given to
industry, and the circulation of money by the public expenditure: they
have excited in all classes a similar spirit of improvement, which
displays itself in the embellishment of the premises already built upon,
and above all in the number of handsome dwellings since erected. In the
Town parish alone 401 houses have been built since the year 1819 at an
expense of upwards of L207,000, and few towns do now present a more
animated scenery around them, or one where ornament and comfort are more
generally united; the same comfort and improvement are witnessed in
every direction, and at the greatest distances from town. And thus it
is, that the public works have not only given life and activity to every
species of industry by the immediate effects of their utility, as for
example to the building of a number of mills in the Island, before
supplied with most of its flour from abroad, and now enabled to
manufacture it for exportation, but and still more by the consequent
impulse communicated on all sides, prompting the wealthy to lay out for
private mansions greater sums than were expended for public works and
creating a permanent source of employment, by the future expenses which
the repairs and occupations of those mansions will require.
"The extent of benefits conferred is sufficiently attested by the
concurrent testimony of inhabitants and strangers. The sole objects of
His Majesty and of His Most Honorable Privy Council are the public good
and general happiness; the States might therefore, confidently look for
indulgence, even if, in promoting those objects, they had fallen into
some little deviation from the strict letter of any particular Order.
But implicit obedience to the Royal Authority in Council being their
paramount duty, they cannot rest satisfied under the imputation of
having, even unintentionally, derogated from that duty.
"The words of the second Order in Council have already been cited. The
right of levying the duty on spirituous liquors is granted for ten
years: a condition is annexed purporting that the States shall not
exceed their annual income, and on the contrary that out of the produce
of the duty, one thousand pounds shall be applied annually to the
extinction of the debt; that condition is naturally in force for the
same period, and for the same period only, as the grant to which it is
annexed; it is necessarily so limited, because the means by which it is
to be fulfilled, the produce of the duty, ceases at the end of the ten
years for which the duty is granted.
"The States are bound to prove that they have complied with the
conditions of that Order; they did so comply, when wishing to erect a
new Market, they applied for and obtained the order of 10th October,
1820, which imposed on them, at their own request, the further
obligation of an annual payment of L450 for 10 years;
This sum began to be paid in 1822, and has been paid
for 8 years, during which the obligation amount to L3,600 0 0
The former obligation amounts, for the 10 years
now elapsed to L10,000 0 0
-------------
Total amount of the two obligations imposed L13,600 0 0
The debt at the commencement of the 10 years
elapsed amounted in rents and money, including
the cost of the Market, to L43,668 15 2
The Debt, Rents and Market included, has been
reduced to L27,740 0 0
-------------
Total amount of the sums actually applied to the
payment of the Debt L15,928 15 2
"The conditions of the second Order in Council have thus been more than
fulfilled, by the application of L2,328 15s. 2d. to the payment of the
debt over and above the obligations imposed. Those conditions,
incidentally introduced in the second Order, do not in any way form a
part of the third Order now in force.
"Though released from the positive conditions of the former Order, the
States have shown no intention, and do by no means desire to depart from
its general spirit; graciously offered by the third Order in Council to
continue their improvements, they came to the following resolution on
22nd November, 1826: 'That far from entertaining any wish of augmenting
the Debt the States recognise the principle that it should not exceed,
at the end of the 15 years for which the duty is further granted, the
sum to which the Debt shall amount at the end of the 10 years present
duty: they impose on themselves that obligation anew, and bind
themselves by the most solemn engagement not to increase the debt.'
* * * * *
"What cause of alarm can there then possibly exist? What prospect, on
the contrary, the States humbly ask, can be more gratifying than that of
remaining with our New College, new Harbours built and to be built, new
Markets of every description, new Roads in every direction, new streets,
one of thirty feet instead of seven in the greatest thoroughfare between
town and country, in short, with nearly all the greatest improvements
that can be desired, paid for to the last shilling; and all this
according to the statement of the plaintiffs themselves, with the debt
reduced to L15,000, and the revenue augmented L1,700 per annum, by those
very improvements.
* * * * *
"In the Markets and Fountain Street, the States have undertaken works
essentially necessary. The cost might be supposed to exceed the means of
the States, if credit did not in the first instance furnish the chief
expense without the charge of interest, and if the works themselves did
not provide for the extinction of the engagements incurred.
"The views of the States are to render these public improvements a
source of future revenue, which shall again afford the means of further
and greater improvements.
"The same plan has been acted upon with success in several places, and
particularly at Bath and Liverpool,[4] to the permanent increase of
their revenues, and to the general benefit of those places, and of the
country at large. It is difficult indeed to conceive whence can arise
the objections to measures, which without laying the least burthen on
anyone, surely and quietly operate to the general good, except it be
from the disinclinations of most persons to enter into that close
examination of figures necessary to a right understanding, and the
distrust consequent on the need of that examination and comprehension.
In our case, it may be added, that accustomed, on the subject of
improvement, to a long apathy confirmed by the state of a revenue
inadequate to the least undertaking, works of magnitude when first
proposed created the greatest alarm. The new roads were opposed by the
far greater number of those who were to derive the most benefit from
their use, and who from experience are now clamorous for more. The
Market was only voted the third time it was offered to the consideration
of the States, although it was represented that independently of its
various advantages, it would in a short time permanently add to the
revenue. Experience has proved the correctness of that view of the
question, and opening the eyes of the public, has turned their
sentiments of fear and distrust to one of perfect confidence. Hence it
was that the public voice called on the States to realise the benefits
likely to result from the substitution of a street thirty feet wide, in
lieu of one of seven feet, in the heart, and connecting the two
extremities of the Town, and forming the principal avenue from the
Country to the Harbour; twenty to thirty carts frequently waited at one
end until those from the other had passed. Such a thoroughfare in the
most populous quarter could not but be fraught with danger, and the
accidents that occurred were numerous, while the closeness of the
street, height of the houses, and filth collected at the back of them
were a constant source of nuisance and disease. Never was a measure
voted with so much unanimity and general satisfaction as the removal of
this public nuisance, and rebuilding Fountain Street, notwithstanding it
to be now the ground of the complaint before your Lordships.
* * * * *
"Relatively to so small a section of the Empire, great things have been
done with slender means; that so much has been done may with truth be
ascribed to the fairness and disinterestedness which have marked every
resolution of the States, and its execution; to the vigilant and
gratuitous superintendence of their Committees, and to the public spirit
of the inhabitants.
"Devoted to the good of His Majesty's service, and not resting on
isolated facts, the States have laid open the whole of their conduct and
views, and beg leave to refer to their worthy and highly respected
Lieutenant-Governor Major General Ross for the correctness of their
statement, and for the situation of the Island. They have the approval
of their fellow-subjects and of their conscience, but they would feel
deeply humiliated if they did not merit and obtain the commendation of
your Lordships."
The Reply is accompanied by five appendices giving detailed figures to
substantiate the argument and point out errors in the figures of the
complainants. It is not necessary to weary the reader with these.
Appendix I., however, is interesting, as it shows that more than half
the Debt of the States consisted of these Notes on which no Interest was
paid.
"APPENDIX I.
Debt of the States:--
To the Savings Bank at 3 per cent. first vote L10,000
To individuals 557
-------
At 3 per cent. interest L10,557
In Notes of 20s. each 14,443
135 Quarters 2 Bushels 8 Denerels, and 18
sous 8 Deniers Rents equal to 2,740
-------
L27,740
Deduct from this the balance still due by the
Market, and carried to the joint account of
the Market and Fountain Street 6,100
-------
L21,640[5]"
The scope of the remaining Appendices is shown by their titles:--
Appendix II.: Plan of Finance adopted by the States and to be pursued
during the fifteen years from this date, ending in 1844 inclusive.
Appendix III.: Remarks on the Statement of account making part of the
complaint presented against the States.
Appendix IV.: Joint account of Fountain Street and the Market.
Appendix V.: Amount of the Produce on the Duty of 1s. per Gal. on all
spirits consumed in the Island of Guernsey, and the manner in which it
has been expended during the Ten years for which the said Duty was
granted, beginning September 1st, 1819. In obedience to Order of H.M. in
Council of June, 1819.
This reply was very favourably received by the States at their Meeting
23rd December 1829 and adopted almost unanimously. One of the Rectors
spoke of it as "most judicious and consolatory, especially considering
that room had been given for the exercise of opposite feelings."
The leader writer in the _Gazette_ recommended the reply to "the
particular attention of every true Guernseyman." Improvements in the
Island were due to M. le Bailiff, against whom and whom alone the
complaint is directed. "As a wise administrator he has known how to
contrive the means of effecting this great good without imposing the
least tax or inconveniencing his fellow citizens."
FOOTNOTES:
[4] See Appendix.
[5] Market.
The cost was L12,748
Paid off since 1822 6,648
-------
Balance due on Market 6,100