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Belize
The Public Meeting and the Superintendent, pre-1854
Belize
The Public Meeting and the Superintendent, pre-1854
The ambiguous status of British loggers who settled in Spanish
territory hindered the early development of government institutions
in the area. Informal meetings to address common security concerns,
however, evolved into a rudimentary form of administration, the
Public Meeting. Participation in the Public Meetings depended on
race, wealth, and length of residency. In 1765 Rear Admiral Sir
William Burnaby, commander in chief of Jamaica, compiled the
settlement's common law in the Ancient Usages and Customs of the
Settlement, or, "Burnaby's Code." Burnaby also recommended to the
British government that a superintendent be appointed to oversee
the settlement. Opposition from the settlers prevented the office
of superintendent from being permanently established until 1796.
The changing political, economic, and social climate of Central
America and the Caribbean, including the emancipation of slaves
throughout the British empire in the 1830s, contributed to a desire
to regularize the status of the settlement. As early as 1840,
British law displaced Burnaby's Code as the settlement's basic law,
and in 1854, a Public Meeting and the British Parliament adopted a
new constitution, which created institutions more like those of
other British possessions
(see Constitutional Developments, 1850-62, Ch
, . 6). The Public Meeting thus ceased to operate.
Data as of January 1992
