The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-30 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

The Daily News describes it as a simple mockery
of common sense that men of the calibre and knowledge
of the unlearned and prejudiced squires of Shropshire
should be empowered to entertain such questions of law
as are invol►ed in the ease of Mr. Eyre. Sir Baldwin
Leighton deems himself equal to the discharge of func-
tions from which Sir Thomas Henry shrank. A body of
English country gentlemen have not been 'Aimed to
imitate the conduct of the grand juries of Jamaica, who
threw out bills against Ramsay and Woodrow in defiance
of facts and law, and in contempt of the charge of the
judge. Their conduct has been since condemned by the
Governor of Jamaica and by the Colonial-office. A similar
censure must fall upon the Shropshire justices. They
have placed the institution of the unpaid magistracy
of England upon its trial. Their verdict simply means
that if they bad been in Mr. Eyre's cam they would
have done just as he did, of which, we suppose, nobody
has any doubt. Mr. Eyre was well advised, it appears,
in taking cover in Shropshire. But in consulting his
safety he has sacrificed what remained to him of his re-
putation. The man who dragged Gordon from Kingston
to Morant Bay—from a region in which his victim would
have the protection at least of the forms of justice to a
district under martial law—hides himself in Market Dray.
too, not daring to come to London to share the fortunes of
his subordinates, and to submit his case to the adjudication
.of the highest tribunals of the land. Market Drayton and
Morant Bay will henceforth be pendants. Mr. Eyre sent
. Gordon to a place where he knew he was doomed ; and
has remained himself in a nook where he knows he is safe
—in both cases dreading equal justice and a competent
tribunal. The Jamaica committee have the best legal ad-
, vice, and will doubtless be guided by it. Mr. Eyre can
still be indicted under the Colonial Governors Act, not
indeed for murder, but for the misdemeanour of instigat-
ing to the commission of murder, and tried in London on
that charge.

Mr. Eyre's sole fault, according to the Times, was the
Brat
and grievous one in a governor, that he shared in
a general panic and yielded to a public clamour. How
anyone could believe in Cordon's guilt on the evidence
taken at his trial it is difficult for us at home to under.
stand ; but in Jamaica every eye viewed the conduct of the
unhappy agitator through a lens which distorted and dis-
coloured all the acts. The Times approves, in short, of the
decision of the Market Drayton magistrates, and gods it
difficult to imagine how any tribunal can hold a deed to be
criminal which is performed in bond fide obedience to an
set of the legislature.

The Telegnspit, while ►pproving the result, adds that
the acquittal at Market Drayton does not of caves bar
other proceedings elsewhere, and the Star makes a similar
remark, observing further, that the proceedings will strike
a blow at the whole system of administering jollities by
unpaid, unprefemionsl, and necessarily prejudiced persons.
The Timm does not dims the penitence which hes been
expressed ►y some of the leading authors of the Boded•
adios' Titles sin. The ease use one of the usurpation
by a former prism of some of the highest attributes of
so►ereignty in a foreign and friendly country, and what
was dose, wee to vindicate the dignity of the nation,