Among these was Dr.Palmer, an independent and courageous man.

Repeated complaints were urged against him by the planters, until finally Sir Lionel Smith appointed a commission to inquire into the grounds of the difficulty.
"This commission consisted of two local magistrates, both of them planters or managers of estates, and two stipendiary magistrates, the bias of one of whom, at least, was believed to be against Dr.Palmer.

At the conclusion of their inquiry they summed up their report by saying that Dr.Palmer had administered the abolition law in the spirit of the English abolition act, and in his administration of the law he had adapted it more to the comprehension of freemen than to the understandings of apprenticed laborers.

Not only did Sir Lionel Smith suspend Dr.Palmer on this report, but the colonial office at home have dismissed him from his situation." The following facts respecting the persecution of Special Justice Bourne, illustrate the same thing.
"A book-keeper of the name of Maclean, on the estate of the Rev.M.
Hamilton, an Irish clergyman, committed a brutal assault upon an old African.

The attorney on the property refused to hear the complaint of the negro, who went to Stephen Bourne, a special magistrate.