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

Till JAIIIJOA 111021836.

The Time mania that is the Jamaica inquiry. the
question emphatically tarns upon differences of degree.
Thus the doubt is not as to the necessity of martial law or
the inevitabilities. of a certain amonnt of injustice under

it ; but whether it weer proclaimed over too large an area,
whether it was motioned too loog, end whether it
was not exercised with an indiscriminate sad vindic-
tive severity which is utterly indefensible. Many
portloss of the inquiry caned be determined without
holmium against each other a great many coasideratioes of
time, place, and circarmstaaoss, but upon most of the
points submitted to the commissicners we are not without
the means of forming an approximate judgment. The
Times then premeds to examine carefully thalistaterneets
of Mr. Like, at Captaia Ford, and of Mr. Kirkland.
It remarks that the little ineident which is mentioned of
Mr. Ramsey dragging Mr. Kirkland himself by the
throat acrosa the street rumbles us to nubs*
the exoitement sad anarchy which must have
prevailed as well as any that could be selected.
Terror is proverbially the permit of cruelty, and terror is.
tosediled to the pitch of frenzy aprons to have reigned
supreme in Jamaica, for more than a fortnight thee the
massacre. It was far, indeed, from being a groundless
panic, bat unless new revelations have yet to be made, it
WIN out of proportion to the real danger, and it certainly
produced a state of feeling which is fearful to contem-
plate, dieing the voice of reason, quenching the emotions
of pity, sad ooaverting martial law into a ready instrument
for the wild injustice of reveoge.

The Doily ilex* comperes the confident statement of
Governor Eyte as to the alleged disloyalty of the negro
population being justified by mo grievances, with the evi-
dencoe of the attoreeygeneral before the commissioners, in
which he gives various reasons for discontent—such as the
',victims of squatters who were in occupation of the land
for several years, and the mel-administration of justice in
consequesoe of the inferior character of the magis-
trates. Mr. Jackson, a stipendiary magistrate, spoke
of oases where planters had been biassed by
their owe interests ; and Mr. Allan Her stated that
he had mum to believe that wages had been frequently
kept back from the labourer in St. Thomas-in•the-East,
when the proprietors were the judges. The Degrees when
they felt aggrieved did not appeal any further, he said, on
mono% of the expense, the intolerable delays, and the un-
certainty of the result. The unpaid magistracy, he
added, did not obtain the confident* of the people,
while the stipetdi►ry magistrates gave satisfaction. Can
we wonder that in such etrunMetences there existed die.
affectioe, and mast we not rather wonder that it remained,
as all these witnesses describe it, discontent with the laws
and their administrators, and never roes Into disloyalty to
the sovereign ?
The Herald protests against drawing any conclusions
from such information as has been heard before the com-
missioners, which is on a par with what would be said by
the ticketof•leave men, cannel paupers, and street boys of
London against the police. When the 'videos, is sifted,
it is likely enough that I' e case agunst every officer will
break down, though tome of them will not escape blame.
The unfortonate Mr. Ramsay is accused on the statements
of an utterly untrustworthy man—Mr. Lake. It is true
that wire wee introduced into the " eats" with which
men and women were dogged, but ft does not appear that
serious consequences happeeed In any Mermen from these
floggings. The worst ham been heard of the alleged excesses
perpetrated by officers of the army and volunteers, and,
considering the danger to which the white community was
exposed, and the terrible outrages which cdtaracteriaed the
!bin of the blacks, the Herald cannot look upon the sum
total as very remarkable.