The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-16 00:00:00

THE JAMAICA COMMITTEE.

The following case has been submitted, on behalf
of the committee, to Mr. Edward James, Q.C.,
M.P., and Mr. J. Fitz-James Stephen.

CARL
(ET PAM THZ JAMAICA cominTres.)

The committee desires to be advised what steps are open
to them to assist their fellow-subjects in Jamaica to obtain
the protection of the law ; and if the law has been broken,
to bring the guilty parties to justice ; and also what steps
are open to them as Eoglishmeo to vindicate constitutional
law and order, if constitutional law and order have been
illegally set aside by the local government in Jamaica.
With this are seat evils of the despatch from Governor
Eyre to Mr. Secretary Cardwell, of the 20th October, 1865,
and also of the address of the Governor to the Jamaica
House of Legislature at the annual meeting which took
place on the 7th of November. Copies are also sent of such
reports of the military officers as have appeared in the
Men-
Considering for the presentuothingbut these offizial docu-
ment+, and taking for granted that the statements they con-
tain are all true, counsel is requested to advise :-1. Wkat
is the meaning of the term martial law, and what is the
legal effect of • proclamation of martial law? 2. Are
there grounds for concluding that Governer Eyre has acted
illegally and criminally io the mode in which he states that
he has proclaimed and eaforced martial law, and especially
in removing the Hon. G, W. Gordon from Kingston to
Minket Isay, MA there handing him over to Brigadier.
General Nelson to be tried by court-martial! 3. Cold lir.
Gordon be legally convicted and punished by court-martial
for any act done prior to the proclamation of martial
law, or for any act done beyond the boundaries of the
proclaimed district? 4. Are officers acting in enforcing
martial law exempt from all control beyond the iostruc
lions they receive from their superior of ?if not, are
there any principles acknowledged by martial law, or by
the British constitution, which would render it illegal (a)
to continue for several days shooting down men, and
frogging men, women and children, and burning their
habitations, in the absence of any appearance of organised
resistance; ((/) to inflict punishment without or before
trial ; (c) to inflict punishment for the purpose of obtaining
evidence ; (d) to inflict death for or on the evidence of looks
or gestures? 5. In case Governor Eyre or his subordinate
officers have been guilty of illegal acts in the course of the
late proceedings in Jamaica, what are the proper modes of
bringing them to trial for such illegal acts? 6. Are any,
and if any what, proceedings for the above purpose open to
private persons in this country? 7. The last question hes
been accidentally omitted from this version of the case ; but
it has reference to a bill of indemnity if one should be
parsed by the Jamaica legislature.
The opinion of the counsel occupies three columns
of the Daily Nora. We subjoin the substance :
We may sum up our view of martial law in general in
the following propositions :-1. Martial law is the assump-
tion by the officers of the crown of absolute power, exercised
by military form, for the suppression of an insurrection
and the restoration of order and lawful authority. 2. The
officers of the crown are justified in any exertion of physical
force, extending to the destruction of life and property to
any extent, and in any manner that may be required for
this purpose. They are not justified in the use of excessive
or cruel means, but are liable civilly or criminally for sash
excess. They are not justified in inflicting punishment
after resistance is suppressed, and after the ordinary
courts of justice can be re-opened. The principle by
which their responsibility is measured is well expressed
in the case of Wright v. Fitzgerald, 27 St. Ni. p. 65.
M. Wright was a French master, of Clonmel, who, after the
suppression of the Irish rebellion, in 1798, brought an
action against Mr. Fitzgerald, the sheriff of Tipperary, for
having cruelly flogged him without doe inquiry. Martial
law was in full force at that time, and an act of indemnity
had been passed to excuse all bleaches of the law committed
in the suppression of the rebellion. In summing up Justice
Chamberlain, with whom Lord Yelverton agreed, said :
"The jury were not to imagine that the legislature, by en-
abling magistrates to justify under the Indemnity Bill, had
released them from the feelings of humanity, or permitted
them wantonly to exercise power, even though it were to put
down rebellion. They expected that in all cases there should
be • grave and serious examination into the conduct of
the supposed criminal, and every act should show a mind
intent to discover guilt, not to inflict torture. By examina-
tion or trial he did not mean that sort of examination and
trial which they were now engaged in, but such examina-
tion and trial—the beet the nature of the case and existing
circumstances should allow of. That this must have been
the intention of the legislature was manifest from the ex-
pression, ' magistrates and all other persons,' which pro-
vide that as every man, whether magistrate or not, was
authorised to suppress rebellion, and was justified by that
law for his acts, it is required that he should not exceed
the necessity which gave him the power, and that he
should show in'his justification that he had used every
possible means to ascertain the guilt which he had pun.
ished ; and, above all, no deviation from the common prin-
ciples of humanity should appear in his conduct." M. Wright
recovered 500/. damages ; and when Mr. Fitzgerald applied
to the Irish parliament for an indemnity, he could not get
one. 3. The courts-martial, as they am called, by which
martial law in this sense of the word is administered, are
not properly speaking courts martial or courts at all. They
are mere committees, formed for the purpose of carrying
into execution the discretionary power assumed by the
government. On the one hand, they are not obliged to
proceed in the manner pointed out by the Mutiny Act and
Articles of War. On the other hand, if they de so proceed,
they are not protected by them as the members of a real
mart martial might be, except in so far semis proceedings
are evidence of good faith. They an justified in &deg,
with any forms, sod in any --manner, whatever is necessary'
to suppress iosurrection and to restore peace and the autho-
rity of the law. They are personally liable for any acts
which they may commit in excess of that power, eves if
they act in strict accordance with the Mutiny Act and
Articles of War. Such in general we take to be the nature
of martial law.
We now proceed to examine the act of the Jamaica Legis-
lature under which Governor Eyre appears to have acted, ea
we pregame, regularly. The Act is 9 Viet, cap. 30, and is
a oomiolidaiion of the laws relating to militia. The sec-

The Act is 9 Viet., cap. 39, sect te i or 'palsy wut he we tuitcussiesi,
laws relating to militia. The MC. said wViption.
•

Elie ('LP rpregigi.

TO 0011.11.111PONDPOTTS.
,dventsements intended fee " The Uprose' London Evening
paper,
on the day of yeblicallon. must be at the Moe, 10,, Boaveriewtreet, by Two
o'c

HATIGUILIT.
THIS ETTIUNG, BROTHS& SAIL 1/eaa. Sothern, Bock-
stone, Osaapton Nagy Noon, Snowdon, &o.—
01IP andHISLYS IN TELL HAY WARIEST. Messrs ?amen & D. Tidier
Ulna K 11157, Howard & Wright. —KY HITSBA.ND'S GHOST.

PRINCEBI/8.
THIS Immo, QII/ZT LODOINGS.—Afrar which IT IS
2i/V/JL TOO LATE TO MEND. Maws. Tinto& G. Nairn*
T. Mead, D. Murray b. Calhaam, F. Vuimrs. J. G. non, G. Dar.
ray, and N. Cathcart: Minas L. Moors and Y. Rodger,.

LYCEUM.

Tim Snuffs°. THE ILLUSTBIOUS STRANGER. Mr. 11.
Wlddlcomb.—THE MASTER OF RAVENSWOOD. Messrs.
Pechter. Jordan, Vain. Emery, Vitddlcomb, Fltapatalek. EVIL= ,
Madames Terns; Elsworthy, Urea% C. Leclerat.

BZITANNIA.

Tins Emma, OLD DADDY LONGLEGS AND SIR REGENT
CIRCUS: OR, THE RACE MR THE GOLDEN APPLES.
IL And Wass. Btortsenbach.--81gnor Bevani—Olmor.—Showor
of Golden Rita.—And JOUR, THE MORMON'S DAUGHTER.

HIGH WArn AT LONDON-3111D6s
nes DAY Moran& Ih. Afternoon. 2h. la.
TO-1110AAOW Montag. th. 21tet. ..Atiazaaa, 24 498.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 16.

THE official inquiry into the circumstances at-
tending the death of the pauper FELLowEe, which
the Poor-law Board with commendable prompti-
tude inaugurates this morning, may be possibly
simplified by the facts we published yesterday. The
issue will be certainly narrowed if the Bethnal-
green authorities are shown to have complied with
the forms prescribed by law, and the outside of the
parochial cup and platter is proved to be bright and
clean. It will, of course, be necessary to test the
contradictory statements of the old pauper BRAD-
LEY, to ascertain the real cause of his refusing to
call for assistance when FELLOWES was found, and,
above all, to test the mean, of communication
between Wards 28 and 29 and the rest of the
house It seems as singular that both efficient
knockers and abortive bell-pulls should be found
in a chamber which a few days ago was publicly
announced to be destitute of both, as that in the
sleeping wards near it the bells are also out of
order, and no other mode of calling attention is to
be found there. We confess to an unsatisfied
curiosity about the chamber in which FELLowEs
died. Save on the stage, a street door-knocker is
such an unusual adjunct to the inside of a bed-room
door, that we feel constrained to ask how long it
has been adopted in Wards 28 and 29, how often
it has been used in either, why it was thought
necessary to thus supplement the bells, and why
the power to knock as well as ring was exceptionally
given to these rooms ? These are questions which
would suggest themselves under any circumstances,
but they become of paramount importance when
the charge of improper and cruel isolation has been
formally recorded and generally believed in. For-
tunately there will be no difficulty in obtaining
answers to them. Some fifty paupers sleep in the
two wards, any of whom will be able to corrobo-
rate or confute BRADLEY ; and the gentlemen who
have acted week after week as a visiting committee
will also doubtless recollect the circumstances
which led to knockers being proposed, and the
reasons for and time of their adoption. The pro-
priety or impropriety of the strict Bethnal-green
reading of the Poor-law order as to lights being ex-
tinguished and doors locked at a certain hour—
the justification for thrusting invalids and conva-
lescents who are on sick diet out of the infirmary
to sleep, instead of increasing the number or en-
larging the accommodation of the sick wards—the
official opinion of the workhouse doctor on this
proceeding, and the precise nature of the investi-
gations conducted by the weekly visiting com-
mittee, are all points upon which we shall doubt-
less be enlightened in the coming inquiry, and it
would be premature, therefore, to touch upon
them now.

It will not be inopportune, however, to take
the opinion of the public upon the system under
which not merely Bethnal-green but every other
workhouse is managed and controlled. It is the
recorded opinion of the Poor-law Board that " if
" the visiting committee strictly and punctually
" make the inquiries prescribed by order of the
" Board, and record the results of those inquiries,
" any matter of complaint as regards the manage-
" ment of the workhouse would be wholly pre-
" vented or speedily remedied." Concurring
generally in this opinion, we shall yet endeavour
to explain the cause of the startling cases
of neglect which come to light with such fre-
quency. In a word, the inquiries, if punctual,
are not and cannot be expected to be strict. A
workhouse is • small town of more than a thousand
inhabitants, whose dwellings, labours, infirmities,
conduct, religious duties, discipline, and moral and
physical health are all expected to be looked after
by amateur Inspectors, who have their own busi-
ness to attend to, and who already devote •
great portion of one day a week to their parochial
duties. It is true that it is one of the duties of
the Poor-law Inspectors to visit the work-
houses in their districts, and to report
to the Central Board upon their condition;
but as there is but one of these
officials for the whole metropolitan district, con-
taining upwards of forty workhouses, it will be
readily seen that the chief responsibility must ne-
cessarily rest upon the Local Visiting Committee.
Is it wonderful, therefore, if the improvements they
inaugurate are few, or if "the results of their in-
" quiries " are comprised in • general belief that
paupers are fortunate, and parochial arrangements
Perfect ? It is idle to inveigh against particular
parish boards, or to consider the solitary cases of
neglect and cruelty we hear of to denote excep-
tional ill-treatment. These are but the natural
offshoots of a thoroughly inefficient system, and
the stunted and unhealthy tree only brings forth