The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-15 00:00:00

THE FROEICCTION OP MB. axes.

After ',marking that the resolution of the Jamaica
Committee to prosecute Mr. Eyre is a very serious one,
and one which it would be improper either lightly to
approve or lightly to condemn, and that its sole object is
to submit to judicial decision the great legal and consti-
tutional issues involved, the Daily News proceeds to say
that it cannot be pretended that there is only one side to
the question, and that the case is on the first blush per fectly
clear. Besides the question of right, it observes, there is
the question of expediency. The public mind is sure to
become even more seriously inflamed and disturbed than it
now is, and the ultimate decision :11 be committed to
twelve men, who cannot, in the nature of things, avoid
being more or less influenced by the general excitement.
To spend large sums of money to protract an angry and
bitter controversy on which social classes as such are
beginning to take a side in order to go before a tribunal
which cannot but be more or less biassed, is a course open to
many objections ; nor can it have escaped the minds of the
Jamaica Committee that, in addition to the sympathy
always enlisted on behalf of the accused in a political trial,
the sentimental considerations, the regard for personal
qualities, the fervent hero-worship, in short, which influ-
ence Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Ruskin, are far more likely to
tell upon the minds of ordinary Englishmen than the more
general and far-reaching considerations of the maintenance
of legal security for life and liberty natural to such men
as Mr. Mill, Professor Cairnea, and Mr. Herbert Spencer.
But the committee are probably prepared for any of the
probable issues of the trial. The grand jury may throw
out the bill of indictment, but even in that event
the presiding judge can scarcely avoid declaring hi'
view of the law of the case; while, in the
event of a trial and an acquittal, there will
be added to the statement of the law in the judge's charge
the application of the law to the facts. Any way, value-
able light will be cast on the necessity or expediency of
further political action. If it should prove that, under the
law as it stands, such seta aa Mr. Byre's are beyond legal
question, the need of further legislation will be esta-
blished. The question at issue is one which affects the lives
and liberties of Englishmen ; it ought to be settled, and
only a judicial decision can settle it. Mr. Eyre's prosecution
is certain to intensify the zeal of his partisans, and will
create some reaction in his favour among other* ; but this
evil cannot be avoided. As to the apprehension of reaction
against the law in case of conviction, the Daily News ob-
serves that that is not an argument which can be properly
addressed to the prosecutors, who will not have to pass
sentence upon Mr. Byre. The discretion of the judge and
the mercy of the crown may be trusted, and reaction
against the law which prevents Englishmen from holding
their lives and freedom dependent on the cap rice of the
executive, need not, the Daily News hopes, be dreaded.

ERZ LONIDOR, CHATHAM, ART) DOE RR RATLWAY.
Recurring to the subject of the difficulties and prospects
of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company,
and the explanations offered by Sir Morton Peto at the late
meeting, the Tines remarks that the embarrassments of
Qv company reeve themselves into the original sin of