{"value"=>"<p>Holograph copy of letter dated October 11, 1831, written in response to information received by colonial legislators informing them that the government of Viscount Goderich was in the process of preparing an Order of Council regarding the improvement of conditions for the enslaved population in Trinidad, St. Lucia, Demerara, Berbice, Cape of Good Hope, and Mauritius. The letter signed by William Burge, I. Mayers, A. Browne, and I. Colquhoun, is a bitter complaint resisting the intrusion by the Crown into the affairs of the colonies, stating that the colonial governments have the sole authority to make laws governing the colonies, and protesting the necessity for the regulations in the proposed Order. The letter makes mention that these new regulations would establish an office of a Protector of Slaves which, from the perspective of the colonists, would diminish the rights of the masters, result in the devaluation of the colonialists' enslaved property, and deny them their rights as British citizens.</p>"}