In tHE Furr Court oF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE COLONY OF 
SIERRA LEONE. 
Rex v. Salle Silla. 
and 
Rex v. M‘fa Nonko and others. 
JUDGMENT. 
Both these cases raise the same question, namely, whether, in 
the Protectorate, the master of a slave who has run away has a 
right to use reasonable force to re-take him. 
The Sierra Leone Protectorate was constituted by an Order of 
the Queen in Council made on the 24th August, 1895. At that 
date it is admitted, on all hands, that the institution of slavery 
flourished throughout the territories comprised in the new Pro. 
tectorate ; and there can be no doubt that native law and custom 
clearly recognised a right, in the owner, to re-capture his run- 
away slave by any means within his power. Indeed, wherever 
throughout the world that odious institution has flourished a right 
of re-capture has always been regarded as a necessary incident 
thereto; and it is difficult to see how it could have been otherwise. 
The first Protectorate Ordinance was passed in the year 1896, 
but was quickly repealed and replaced by an Ordinance of the 
year 1897; and that in its turn was repealed and replaced by the 
present Ordinance No. 83 of 1901, which appears to have been 
altered and amended by mo fewer than twenty-two Ordinances 
between the years 1903 and 1926. From the very beginning the 
institution of slavery was recognised, regulated, and controlled ; 
and it obviously exercised the mind of the loca] legislature in no 
small degree. The provisions of sections 5, 7, and 8 of the present 
Ordinance, with one trifling and immaterial exception, have been 
in force from the very beginning ; but last year the provisions of 
section 6 thereof, which also dated back to the year 1896, were 
replaced by the following much wider section :— 
“ (1) After the commencement of this Ordinance all persons 
born or brought into the Protectorate are hereby declared to 
be free. 
(2) All persons treated as slaves or held in any manner 
of servitude shall be and become free on the death of their 
master and owner. 
“ (8) No claim for or in respect of any slave shall be enter- 
tained by any of the Courts in the Protectorate.’’ 
I do not think that I need go further into the history of the 
matter. It would seem that this last amendment has led to a 
large number of slaves in the Protectorate running away from 
their masters, and to efforts on the part of more than a few 
aggrieved masters to re-capture their run-away slaves. Hence