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;

“The conditions of the second Order in Council have thus been more than fulfilled, by the application of L2,328 15d. 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, 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.