The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-20 00:00:00

morning we met no negro." armed with their terrible
cutlasses, and all whom we did encounter passed
us with a civil bow, and, in many cases, a pleasant
" Good day." Indeed, although I have heard a
geed deal of the sullenness and incivility which
have of late been exhibited by the negroes, I have,
in the short drives which I have hitherto taken
into the country, met with nothing of the
Mod. On the contrary, the majority of the people
whom I have met on the roads outside both
Kingston and Spanish Town have seemed to take
a lively and friendly interest in the appearance of
strangers, and few of them have allowed us to
past without a civil bow or word of salutation.
,This was the ease all along the read on Thursday ;
and although our driver attributed it to the severe
measures adopted by Provost-Marshal Ramsay, I
am not disposed to ascribe it exclusively to the per-
formances of that notorious official.
All the interest of Morant Bay centres in the
jourtehouse • and its immediate neighbourboOd.
Here it was that Baron Ketelholdt, Mr. Herschdll,
lorolLarios, and others were murdered on that der,
to Wednesday; and here it was that after-
wards so terrible a vengeance was taken for that
and other acts of violence which were committed
by the negroes in the course of these disturb-
anais. The court-house, of which the walls aloes are
now standing, was a building two stories in height.
The walls are of stone and brisk, but the roof
Sas of shingle, and over the entrance there was a
wooden tower or spire, some 50 or 60 feet high,
Iwhich eontained a clock. The building stands at
the south or sea end of what is called the parade or
square, about 60 yards by 60 in dimensions, in
which the market is bald, and to which there are
three entrances—one opposite the front of the
court-house, and the others on each side. To
the left of the parade, looking northwards,
stands the church, upon the erection of which Mr.
knee was engaged in October last. The walls
appear to be completed, but the roofing has not
yet been commenced. Also to the left of the
court-house, and within a few feet of its walls,
I are the remains of the school-house, to which fire
was first set by the rioters. This building, I
like the court-house, had a wooden roof, and
nothing is now left of it but the bare walls.
Something was said by one sr two witnesses who
have given evidence before the royal commission of
a thatched house, which they represented as stand-
ing between the school-house and the court ; but
there hardly seems to be room for such an erection,
nor is any trace of it now discoverable, Indeed, 1
was assured by a person who must be well ac-
quainted with the spot, that no such building ever
existed, and that the fire must have been communi-
cated Airway from the school-house to the court-
house, probably to a wooden verandah which ran
along the whole of the back of the latter building.
Behind and at the east or right-hand aide of the
court was the house occupied by Mr. Price,
in which the magistrates and others took refuge
when they had been driven by the flames from both
school and court-house. All the wood work
of this house has been consumed by fire,
and the brick walls alone remain standing. Behind
all these buildings, but not separated from them by
any fence or division, is a small semi-circular fort
capable of mounting three guns, and almost imme-
diately behind the wall of this work the ground falls
abruptly to what is called the Wharf-road, which
on the night of the 11th October was occupied
by a large body of the rioters. Just where
the land drops there is a stiff fence made of pen-
guins, a plant lb form something like an aloe, and
having very stiff and sharply serrated leave!, the
edges of which are armed with small hooks. When
the baron and his friends were driven out of Mr.
Price's house they left by the door towards the fort,
and endeavoured to escape across that building. In
their progress they were intercepted by the
mob, and, though some of them were able to con-
ceal themselves in various ways, one in the penguin
fence which 1 have just mentioned, and another
behind the guns of the fort, several fell victims tol
the savage fury of the multitude by whom they
were surrounded, and after being beaten or hacked
with sticks and cutlasses, fell or were thrown down
into the road below. There it was that several
bodies, including that of the baron, were found on
that night or the following morning, and some of
them are buried in the immediate vicinity. Closely
adjoining the fort, and fenced in with wooden
railings, is a small enclosure, within which lie the
remains of Mr. Alberga, Mr. Price, and Captain
Hitching, who commanded the volunteers, and
as you stand behind the road you can see a
cotton tree which grows a short distance below the
Wharf-road, and at the foot of which the Rev.
Mr. Herschell was interred. The only other ob-
ject at the back or sea side of the court-house
which excites particular attention is a long white
looking mound, in which a number of persons
hanged at Morant Bay are buried, and of which,
as well as of other similar harrows in the neigh-
bourhood, I shall have to speak presently. The
principal entrance to the court-house, which was
on the north, or land aide, was situated on the
upper story ; it was below the tower, and was ap-
proached by two stone staircases, which still re-
tain their positions. It was at the top of the
left of these flights that the baron stood
when ho read or attempted to read the Riot Act,
and it was to one of the iron railings at the top of
the other flight that the rope was attached with
which Marshall was hung by the order of the
provost-marshal. At the foot of each of these
flights of steps are two guns, placed upright on the
ground. They are old iron guns of the time of
George 111., and have for mazy years occupied
their present position. They were found very con-
venient when prisoners were to be punished at
Morant Bay, and many of the unfortunates who
were flogged there were tied to these pieces of ord-
nance to receive their castigation. It was be-
tween these two flights of steps, and im-
mediately opposite the centre of the building,
that most of the executions took place. A small
boom, which had formerly belonged to some coast-
ing vessel, was procured from the wharf, and one
end being rested upon a portion of the Court-
house, the other was turned towards the parade,
and supported by stout bamboos. This furnished
a most serviceable bears, and when • row of barrels
had been ranged underneath it, and a plank placed
upon them for the reception of the prisoners to be
executed, the gallows was complete. The barrels
and the plank have been taken sway, but the boom,
and three or four stout bamboos which badbein
employed as its supports were lying on the ground
immediately under the wall of the Court-hot*
when we there on Thursday last. Mr. Gordon ,
was not executed, upon this scaffold. With the
view, I suppose, of making his execution a more

'striking example to those whom he was alleged to
have led into ',bellies, he was hanged from the

bpd an arch which alai remains in the centre of
the upper story of the building, and under which
was the principal entrance to the court. A plank
has been Lashed over the crown of this arch, and,
looking upwards from below you see distinctly
marked against the sky a small niche or notch. It
is a groove which was cut to receive the rope by
which Mr. Gordon was hanged. The Bogies and
two or three other prisoners were afterwards est
anted at the same spot. Mr. Gordon's body was
buried in the trench behind the fort which
I. have already mentioned ; and it is said to lie at
the extreme right as you twit towards the sea-
On Thursday afternoon I saw a person who ought
to have known better, and who, I hare no doubt,
would be greatly surprised to bear any one express
a doubt as to his right to call himself a gentleman,
walk Wesel tetras Woes this part of the grayer in
order, as he @ski, that.hs ate* &An the astisiao7
ton of trstapilag Gordan unto* hie loot.
blab the eoutt-basso AU nerds: Thor vaitagain
otalaid 'Ma aurae ty tasi befitii at )ind
the doors of the rower rooms are encumbered with
broken and burned rafters and beams, melted
metal work, and all the' heterogeneous rubbish
which is usually to be found in a building
which has been destroyed by fire. Mixed

with this are to be seen a large num-
ber of stones and brickbats of every variety
of sire and shape, which are pointed out to the
curious visitor as being some of those which were
thrown into the Court-house on the llth October.
One of the rooms seems to have been at the time
pretty well filled with a store of old militia arms,
and some two or three hundred cases of canister
shot. The stocks of the muakats here were of
course consumed by the flames, bus their barrels
are still there, twisted and bent by the beat into
all sorts of fantastic shapes ; and the ground is in
some places thickly covered with the looks and
other fittings, or with the round mouth-like grape
shots which have escaped from the half melted
canisters. Among the &Nis which covers what
was the site of the verandah at the back
of the building are to be found numerous
pieces of broken crockery and the remains of
some dozen or two of forks and spoons. The vestry
dinner was, according to custom, to have been held
in this apartment, and theme are the remains of the
service upon the table when the riot occurred.
One of the lower apartments of the court was for-
merly used as a place of oonfinesneut, and in it are
still to be seen some portions of the bilboee—a stout
iron bar passing across the cell a short distance from
the ground, to which the hands and feet of the
victim was fastened—which was used for the
punishment of refractory megrims in the days of
slavery.
Not more than 100 or 150 yards from the Court-
house stands the police-station, of the attack and
sacking of which we have beard so much in the
course of the inquiry now going on before the
royal commissioners. This, like other police sta-
tions which I have seen in Jamaica, is a plain,
wastrengthened building, very similar to any other
house in the village ; and as the twelve muskets
belonging to the police were placed in a rack in the
verandah, and there were only two officers to defend
them, the rioters cannot have had much difficulty
in securing these half useless arms. The men who
were in charge at the station when we visited it
appeared, however, to regard its assault as by far
the most heinous offence which had been committed
by the negroes, and carried us upstairs that we
might see the holes in the windows though which
stones had been thrown from the opposite side,
and thus judge for ourselves of the ferocity and
determination of their assailants.
Before leaving Morant Bay I must say a word or
two about the graves in which the bodies of those
executed there were buried, and of which there are
no lea than four. All these graves or mounds are of
the same shape and character, and they only differ
in their respective lengths. They are all about six
feet in width, and the earth, the admixture of white
limestone in which gives to them in the moonlight
a somewhat ghastly appearance, is piled over the
bodies to a height of about 16 inches. The largest
of the four graves is that behind the fort. It is about
25 or 26 paces in length, and is said to contain
no less than 75 bodies. Under a cotton tree which
stands from ball to three-quarters of a mile from
the west end of the village, on the road to Kingston,
there is another grave about 12 or 13 yards in
length, but I could obtain no information as to how
many bodies it is supposed to ()outman. At the op.
posits end of the village there are two other mounds;
one of them six paces in length, and containing
13 bodies ; the other is about 15 paces long, but it
was the last grave opened, and before it bad been
filled with bodies the executions ceased. I could
not learn how many are actually buried here.

THILLTILICAL LICZN6I23 AND RBODLATIONS.—Tbe
following parliamentary committee appointed by the
government to inquire into the present theatrical Booming
system, preparatory to Improved legislation on the subject,
rat yesterday is room No. 17 of the House of Commons :
Mr. Oeeshen (chairman), Lord Breed Bruee,Sir A. Beller
Lind Sustain Cecil. Me. Clirel kooky Ms. Dit
Cum Mr. T. J. Mater, Mr, Luak, Mr. 0 Boerne, ldr.;Powell,
Mr. Selwyn, Colonel Start. and Mr. Walpole. 'The Hon.
S. C. B. Ponsonby, Cemptroller of the Lord Cliembertain's
deportee's* was exambied at some length ; and his evidence
stated that Sir Edward Baller's committee was appointed in
oossequenee of complaints made by the proprietors
of the smaller theatres. He (Sir E. Buller) is•
trodocied a bill in parliament is March, 1103, after
which thins, remained in abeyance for some time, but the
managers of the minor theatres again quarrelled with the
proprietors of the esuaie-balis as to the privileges of those
leer. After the eth and 7th Vic. passed magistrates bad
the power, as well as the Lord Chamberlaie, to grant
licenses. At the present time there wore twenty-five
theatres in Loudon, but be wee not aware of the number of
eosin-bane, INN bad the Lord Chamberlain any knowledge
of the somber of them. Mr. Leeks asked the witness
whether he was aware of the feet that a gin barrel, beer
pump, and spirits, were kept in nearly all the Shoetree, and
tel en round to persncs in the pit by wanes.. Mr. Poesonby
replied in the KB:motive. He did not think any of
Shakespeire's plays, or any billets or drew, if Performed
is mese-hal* would elevate the ideas of those present.
He thought the drama should be kept apart from mini°.
halls. He bad liege to the Alhambra, and oertaiely
the audience was not over respectable, but he sawn othing
improper there. The Lord Chamberlain lied the power of
withdrawing licieneas for daocieg, meek, he., U be forted
anything improper• reply to Mr. Geembee Mr.
Possosby said he thoughtln the power of granting or minas,
licenses to theatres acid music bells should be vested is one
penes. Replying to Mr. Powell, the mitoses mid the
palm always reported abytbieg wrong, end the aewspapers
were sissely washed for anything requiring ievestigetioe.
The pressmen al abandoned women at music halls depended
very musk upon looelity. This class of prawns frequented
**Alhambra and Strand in numbers, while the Cambridge
Maio Hell, at the Esurt.eed, coutramed bat very few el
them. The is, airy was thee eilieersed.
A deputation from the Yorkshire meet:ars of
blithe sad deaths, seesposed of Mr. Beekwith, Leeds, Mr.
=
Bradfced, Mr. Elam. Hensley, 'ad Mr. Brabreak,
heel byonMrb:"Baiaf ami,thMe.Paw4r."h., amid aceowiPailiedlat rairWirambyliNet"-.
Dam" 11. P., Lieffieseat.Ooiewil Alweld, ILP., Colossi
laigards, H.P.. Hr. tensed. and Woe Water-
hut se leterview yesterday with the
rider
!EFL A. Y.P.are" Pure-Preeldeet of the Privron.
tea.rooei the Houle of Ocenteem, at the ,abject
of the Ymeisotioe Oil seer before the How d COMMONe•