The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-17 00:00:00

IN JAMAICA.

The West India mail brings another budget of
letters from the representatives of our contempor►-
ries in Jamaica, the communications referred to
occupying in some instances as much as two pages
of the ordinary space.

The Times' correspondent observes that at first
the thought of compensation seems to have
taken hold of the negro mind, and to
have produced no little of the exaggera-
tion which is to be traced in some of the
negro stories. " Some of these stories," he says,
"are bad enough in all conscience, even allowing for
probable exaggeration, and 1 must not be under-
stood as discrediting all that is told by this class of
witnesses." Three shorthand writers from Eng-
land take the evidence for the government, and
their notes are printed in the colony as soon as
transcribed. The Haytian refugee, General La-
moths, has made a claim of 20,3241. 10s. for
damages for his arrest and treatment on board the
Aboukir ! One blow which he received from a
sailor is set down at 10,0001., but the corn-
missionists have informed the unfortunate general
that it is beyond their province to investigate
his claims for compensation. The evidence sum-
marised by the Times' correspondent is one long
tale of floggings, hangings, and revolting torture
in one way or other, of the blacks. He mentions
that from the evidence Of the manager of the
Jamaica Bank it is certain that Gordon was too ill
to go to Morant Bay ; and he quotes incidents in
the early history of the outbreak which show the
animus of the authorities against Gordon be-
fore any proof of his complicity could have
been fortboomiag. All the correspondents dwell on
the acts of atrocity which have been charged
against Provost Ramsay, and all mention the
flogging of women, deposed to by Mr. Kirkland,
the magistrate at Bath. The correspondent of the
Telegraph says :—" I fear it cannot be truthfully
denied that cats more capable of inflicting torture
than the ordinary naval or military cat were
used, and used in some instances on the backs of
women. There was a great difference in thew
implements, which, it must be remembered, were
suddenly called for and supplied by several bands.
Finding that the contradictory evidence given in
court on the question baffled all attempts to get at
the truth in that mode, I have tried to get at it
by another way—the way of inquiry and actual
investigation in all quarters where any trace
of real evidence remains. I have seen many of
these eats, though many more, there is reason to
believe, have been destroyed or lost or put
out of the way. Beyond a doubt, the kind
of oat which was used at Bath, under the direction
of Mr. Robert Kirkland, has wire plaited in the
end, and is terribly severe. That women were
flogged with such instruments he admits." Cap-
tain Ford, in his exceedingly candid evidence,
admitted that he (Ford) flogged women at the
rate of three a day. " The women got from
twelve to thirty lashes, but not higher."
James Stewart, "a small settler" residing at
Thornton, not only saw the Maroons shoot three
old man in their houses and two women, but was
a witness to the flogging of several women with
wire cats " until Mr. Stewart brought a bundle of
English oats there." Not lees shocking and over-
whelming are the proofs of the utter demoralisation
of the soldiery, of the impunity with which
they burnt villages, broke into houses, and
plundered the inmates of their wordly goods.
Robert Sherrington, a labourer, living at Font-hill,
was an eye-witness of the execution of Wellington
and M'Laren, one of whom was placed at the door
of a house, and the other on a hill side, at a dis-
tance of several hundred yards. Two men fired at
a time, and the witness counted thirty-five shots be-
fore any took effect on Wellington. This wretched
man's head was subsequently out off and exhibited
on a pole. This occurred on the 30th October, and
a week later Sherrington saw fifteen other persons shot
amid circumstances equally revolting in their barba-
rity. The Rev Edwin Palmer gave an extraordinary
account of the treatment which he received from
British officers on board the Aboukir. His hands
were tied ; he was put in irons ; and when he had
an attack of fever he was told that "a few inches
of rope would be the best medicine he could have."
On his arrival at Morant Bay he, too, was always
taken out to see the executions and people flogged.
Captain Ford himself tells us that, by direc-
tion of Lieutenant Adcock, he ordered a man
to be shot for no other reason than that he
was found wounded eight miles from his house,
and could give no sufficient reason for being
there ! Captain Astwood tells us that he ordered
men to be flogged because " he was told" they had
been found with property in their possession, and
admits that he has seen soldiers pick up bits of
stick to throw at prisoners after their discharge,
though he denies that he saw them forced to " run
the gauntlet." Dr. Bruce, Mr. Lake, Goldson,
and a crowd of witnesses speak to evidence being
extorted by the whip, and by the bribe of pardon
offered to men condemned to death, of prisoners
daily paraded to witness the floggings and the
hangings, of stones thrust into the mouths to stifle
the cries of the victims, of women hung up and
then cut down to force them to betray the hiding
places of their friends, and of every refinement of
cruelty which has ever disgraced the savage or the
terrorist
The following passages are from the special cor-
respondence of the Daily News :
The first step has been taken to procure the
punishment of the late provost-marshal for the
hanging of Marshall at Morant Bay. On Tuesday
last a warrant for the apprehension of Mr. Gordon
D. Ramsay was issued by Mr. Russell, registrar of
the Court of Chancery, and a magistrate of the
county in which Spanish Town is situated, at the
instance of the friends of the deceased man, and
upon an information sworn by Mr. Lake, lately re-
porterof the CokmitaStandard,who was present when
the execution took place. Mr. Ramsay was arrested
the same afternoon, and was taken, not befoe the
magistrate who bad issued the warrant, but before
another justice, named Dr. Land, who immediately
admitted him to bail, requiring only his own recog-
nisances in 4001., and that of two sureties in 2001.
each, and merely binding him over to appear on
6th March next, without fixing any place at which
he is to appear. The course which was adopted by
Dr. Land has excited a good deal of observation.
It has, I believe, never been the practice in Jamaica
to admit to bail persons charged with murder, and
certainly it is a most unusual, and may be a fatal
proceeding to insert in the recognisance@ no dssig.
sties d the place at whisk thw person charged is