1834 is celebrated throughout the British West Indies as the year of the abolition of slavery, and more particularly by the Antiguans, who, laying aside all claims to apprenticeship, gave their negroes _immediate freedom_. For this consummation had many worthy men toiled and sighed—for this had Sharpe, Clayton, Wilberforce, Buxton, Lushington, and many others, written and spoken, until wearied nature had often sunk, almost exhausted—and now the bright day of liberty had arrived, and the great and glorious triumph, which for so many years had been as a beacon before the minds of philanthropic men, had been achieved; but alas! of those who would have sung jubilee on the fulfilment of their wishes, many had yielded up their noble spirits, and passed to the silent tomb. The year following emancipation (1835) was the scene of a violent hurricane, which raging with extreme fury throughout the greater part of the night, caused great loss to many of the inhabitants. Soon after the hurricane, the yellow fever broke out with great malignancy, and hurried many a young and gifted one from the family circle. During the period Sir Evan McGregor administered the government, he endeavoured to restore the custom of holding a general council and assembly, to convene at certain times, at one of the several islands within his jurisdiction; and also to make the island of Dominica head-quarters. His excellency’s view and wishes upon this subject were, however, overruled by the home government; although it was permitted him to make Dominica his place of residence should such be his desire. Soon after his removal to the latter colony, he received the higher appointment of Governor of Barbados, to which seat of government he repaired, leaving Antigua to a kind of interregnum, which was filled up by the president of the island. During his excellency’s administration, he also recommended the legislature to enact a law to govern elections—a deficiency in the laws of Antigua complained of by a large portion of the inhabitants; the qualifications of voters being entirely governed by resolutions of the house, as best suited the purposes of its members. In contested elections, freeholders, it is said, were frequently left to unconstitutional resolutions of the assembly, who, paying no attention to former precedents, adopted such measures as would best secure the interests of their own party.[57] There are, however, laws for the protective privileges of freeholders for other distinctive purposes, such as exemptions from arrest, &c.