The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-30 00:00:00

‘•
4.

THE JAMAICA INQUIRY.
(Prom PrastesMaperini.)
In moot cease of colonial complication, the hest
way is to leave the ClDiOniata to rattle their sffain in their
own way, and repel Dative auras:on is thew own rough
and reedy nienaer.• Bat we crooot abandon our Nortlt
American colonies without a blow struck fee them, if they
call for aid ; and having seaurned the fall responsibility of
abolishing slavery, we cameo{ look us calmly whilst the
eolouredmen aneeiterrolnating the whites, or the rebates
ere flyszem and banging the coloured men by the hundred
sa the strength of a (perhaps) imaginary mbelhoo. e
have no doubt at all that there was abundance of the in.
eurroetionary apiiit an the one aids, and an abundance of
escitea epprebeneice en the other. The coloured popula-
bon, hire roast other demote:arid communitiee, may have
warded tidy arms, oombinatioo, and leaders to attempt
simultaneous rising; and, know mg or fearii.g this, thea
privileged minority took it for granted that they had risen,
and proceeded to deal with them accordingly.
The rapidity with which the °adagios of false alarm
spreads I. a familiar phenomenon. The popish plot aras
the utterly baselees invention of a known scoundrel yet,
so long as the belief in it lasted, no reasonable nien's life
was mfr. "To deny the reality of the plot," says Hume,
"was to be an accomplice; to Leonetti was criminal:
royalist. republican, Anti:braes', sectary, courtier,
pritrk parties concurred in the illusion. The city
pret axed for defence as if the enemy was at its gates ; the
ehatat and pasts were put up ; and it was a noted eating at
that Limo of Sir Thomas Player, the chamteriair, that,
we, • nit for these precautions, the whole citinna might
rise the neat morning with their throat. cu.." Both
boo ice, altar hearing Oates' evideuce. voted—" That the
lords and commons are of opinion that there b..th bees,
and still in, a damnable and hellish plot, contrived and
serried on by the popish recusants, for mutdering the King,
for .::beetling the government, and for rooting out and
destroying the protestant !chalet." Matanlay, speaking of
the lame period, says—" The caeital and the whole nation
wee mail with tatted and fear."
A Jamaica assembly is at lesat es likely to be carried
so ty by A popular frenzy as an English parliament.
TWA. therefore, are of small account in the argument, and
may prove neither wore nor leas than the iitreogiti ems
erten; of the panic. All possible allowance should be
mile for the governor, who has the character of a humane
mare. and doubtless acted for the best ; but public conbdecce
in his judgroeot was rudely shaken by his first report, in
lie attributed the outbreak to the publication of a
tenirereto letter not intended for publication. which he
himself had published. No one can doubt that if Dr.
Underhill had been in Jamaica during the outbreak he
would have been Large!, like Gordon. In alater report the
governor relies for his justification on written and oral
information. "the whole tending to show that sedition and
re'aelito.ar retention were widespread throughout the
land which is equally true of coins district.
in Ireland. What we want are overt acts; shove
all, let us have the proofs of that overruling
neire,rity which compelled the rammary trial of Cordon.
It la not enough to prove that he was guilty of trauma It
must be further shown that the supreme law, the salus
popy‘i, removed his case from the jurisdiction of the regti-
lar trtbunals.
Martial law, independently of the Mutiny Acts, is aintol,
the law of necessity, which proverbially has so law. The
Dual of Wellington put this plainly enough ebea.he stated
that it visa the commandiog odict r's own will and discretion
under the circumstances. It is the same kind of law which
just/ ties uou private citizen in killing another to preveut a
felony, not to punish one ; and here is the point to which
&Meatiest should be recalled. There would have been
no need of the Bloody Assize of Jtila ry if the
reacired work could have been legally despatched
by Kirke. It may turn out that, although there
wag no rising or resistance after the 13th of October, the
a. ...torte of suppresaion remained incomplete, and that the
reheilton would have broken out anew if Core.. had not
been hinged on the 23rd. But decisive proof to this effect
slyraid be forthcoming, or the irregularity of the proceediog
wf:'. be mewled as something more than a technical error.
From all that has yet reached us, we can hardly con-
ceive a ease, or a criminal, less adapted to a drum-head
coact martial. When the Attorney General (Scott) had
been speaking nearly nine hours on the prosecution of
Hardy f r to awn io 1791, a sagacious juryman remarked
that if it took so long to prove, there was probably no
treaaoo in the can. This remark recurred to us on leaning
that Uolosiel Nelson, most conscientiously no doubt,
occepied six hours in making up his mind on the prelimi.
nary charges against Gordon, and that the trial hutted from
2 p.m. till long after dark. The evideooe on which lieu•
tes-urts and etudes are to adjudicate should he short, clear,
direct. and positive. Constructive treason is obviously
beyond their provisos.
A greet orator protested that be did not know bow to
draw up an indictment aitainst an entire nation. There
w, ad he a similar difficulty in drawing up as indictment
against the entire white population of Jamaica. So far as
is knows, they shared the delusion of the governor, if it
use one. The two assemblies, the council, the magistrates,
the law officers, the civil and military authorities, were all
of one mind ; and he was placed hy actslamatieu, as well as
by the local law, in the position of • dictator cheiged to see
that the republic came to no ham. A. tremendous weight of
reapouaibility pressed neon him if he differed from all about
him ; and he could have bad smell reason to doubt of
the legality of hi. proceedings, when his attoroey.geoeral,
mondier of the English bar, who accompanied him in the
ship that carried the ill-starred Gordou to !kraut Bay,
thinking that the courts-martial were not getting en fast
enough, felt it his duty to lend a hand in the capacity of a
captain of volunteers. Whatever tee result )(the inquiry,
therefor, provided the public safety was the sole object,
we pietuwe that her Majesty will not be advised to revoke
the molt coutpreheosive Act of Indemnity that may be
passed Lk' the local legislature.
The course taken lay the government is the beat they
could have taken. To resist inquiry, had they been so
inclined, would have been out of their power ; and no
iuqulry could have been instituted without an
Oeertuilug authority on the spot, to prevent intlmida.
boo rad reassure the timid. We shall now sea whether
entire unauitnity does iudeol prevail among the
whites to the necessity of the wholesale 'bootleg,
banging, and lloggiug that have startled us. " Tnis negro
couspit.stv,- say* the Ti mez of December 1.1, "may not
have hid the organisation of the Fenian republic ; there
may hone bees no duly-appointed chief, no lass, or rules,
or pessaords ; the plan of a campaign may not twee Leen
settivd. but that there was a vague but general purpose to
rise LlO.lll the platters, to revenge supposed injeries, and to
pluoder the estates at the first suitable opportunity, we see
no 1011 Kn to doubt, having regard to the belief of the
parses on the spot, who have full means of kinking an
opinion. The Jamaica negroes have dose this before, why
should they out do it again I.'"
Why out, indeed, considering the footing en Lich they
now steed with their former masters. But dues i.e
this " vague hut general putt...tee," eheeever it rue, to panic
point, justify a meal to martial law—to martial i.vr exe-
cuted by Wade of lieutenants ill the racy and etnegus of
voluiitean li there was to chief, no rule on pasawced,
no plait, there ass nothing but whet will proltaley he dis-
coverable in Jamaica at any time, at, long as the rnmed cl.a•
rector of its population shall remain ; so that the future
goretameut of the cavity is one of the most slffieult pro-
blems that can be submitted to a statesman. Fresh and
nnfotrseeu causes of embarrassment are constantly •rising.
The promised inquiry cannot take place withLtA an Act of
Assitably authot iteog the esantinatiou of witnesses on oath.
Tito local legislature may refuse to pass such an act, mid
a col:di:et with the imperial legtslature must ensue. We
hope it is not of evil augury that a division ou the Jamaica
Bill caused the resignation of Lord Ilelbouree's government
in 1,1:19

Co:it:llEßi lAL TRAVELLER,' l/ISNER,.—A. pro-
spectus hsa been issued of the "Commercial Travellers'
Union. which, the committee of management state, has
beta estaliiiabed" in conseopieore of the recstit sliseussioa on
the ijui,t ion of the us ige at the commercial table, which at
prompt compels those dining to pay for • pint of wine,
whether they drink it or not. The union has for its ot;set
the abolition of this custem, on the greuods— I at. That the
principle involved is of itself mdieally unsound, vas., the
payment of one article 'applied at • loss, or at any rate
without profit, by giving an undue price for another. 2nd.
liecasee it is undoubtedly • growing opinion that
the habitual drinking of wine to that extent, at that
hoar of the day, is neither necessary nor agreeable to the
individual, nor doe it conduce to his comfort er sneers in
doing business immediately afterwards." Atter sonic re-
mark,. on the origin of the custom, the committee pro-
ceeded to nay, ths: for front «Littoral's,/ all that has bon
written on the subject. they differ from much, and at pre-
sent has, not adopted nay plan to °doss tart. ad of the
custom to imestiue. "They feel that it is to the commer-
cial :art, theibselers, an a great body, that they must look
for its volution, and for the present merely seek to draw
their attention to the uogoundueas of the principle and the
evils resulting from the practice, mail in doh% so to mac .r•
tain to what extort a change is desired by those who are
the iuterested parties—commercial men theruselvea.
They do cot wish that this landlord should, lose any of
his profit. ; they would be sorry that the com-
forts .'r conveniences of any members of the body
they tepresent should be in the least iuretfered with ; they
would not Le pvUta to any arrangement erbkh would
involve an ea.ra stpetio to those who ere in the habit of
taking e ise, and wish to continue to do so ; the r one and
only vriph is that the commercial man should be permitted
to enjoy the comforts of the table—at the most convenient
hour or the day-•aud the society of his fellows. without
being compelled, io order to do so, either to drink that
which he feels be ii en nit need, or to pay f what he do a
not have. Let the principle be agreed to and supported by
the body, and the comanttse feel that the remainder of
their task will be stay. A few carefully considered toola-
tion* posed at meetings of commercial meo, and a cont.
municstion tromp landlords on them trout this committee,
will accomplish all that is desired. to the meantime, it
becomes the duty of thine who agree with the board in
their views to aid by discussing and ventilating the sub-
ject, and seeki- g to remove, by fair argument, the preju-
dices of nisay of those who now oppose it."
Dr BLRUY'S DELICIOUS HEALTH HECTORING RF.,
TVLI:NTL AI4BICA FOOD cures, without medicine or Inconve-
nience. dypeisda Ondinettion;, cough, iuthma, consuloption de-
bility, roustipation, €ll4.lThrto, dysentery, nervous, bilious, liver,
scud stomach complaints, and raves Ertl times its owe la
etheiremedies. 60.000 cures annuelly. - Du Barry and Co., No. 77.
11400Nit.*trtml, LOO4OO, W. In two. at la lid. 11b., Es. ad..
plea .2.2, 241;4..601.; also at 61, Grecechurchatreet a, Alteap.
gide ...eV 150, and 996, Osifordetrest and at Girucers.—jgdver-
tbedisedel