The Express.
London, England, 1866-02-12 00:00:00

ThADI AlfD ITIANCEL

hem not been followed by all

quenoes hoped for by ita Mithose,
be sorry to see it discontinua
however, have made portions of
rendered its revision desirable.

only against cattle plague, but against cholera, and
it continue, to be read unchanged in form after
the apprehension of danger from the latter visi-
tation has pissed away. To we it now is to incur
the risk of teaching thoughtless hearers that prayer
is not a reasonable, but a mechanical service.
There should be a power of adaptation somewhere
so as to secure a conformity between public sup-
plications and public, wants, otherwise the true idea
of prayer will be obscured by the very means that
are taken to keep it alive.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIB DA T.)

In its natal weekly article upon trade and finance, the
Doily New this morning ceafirms the esectrence in the
Queen's speech of the satisfactory condition of trade,
speaking in a general sense, but adds that our satisfaction
is qualified by the high rate of money, and by the distrust
which has been caused b► the recent failures among railway
contractors. Are the adverse influence' preventible! The
advance in the rate of diorama has certainly been a failure
se regards the protection of the reserve of bullion
sad the movements of the foreign exchanges, bat
ft has proved effectual in lowering the internal
demand for money, and so la checking trade. An-
other resell of the pressure on the &Wish money market
is that it amiss foreigner" to anticipate the poseibility
of a commercial cads, and as a matter of precaution,
therefore, they withdraw their balancer. Thee there is
region to believe that instead of the high rate of discount
bringing money over here, it has actually cootributed to
send it abroad. The course of events during the pest six
weeks affords another striking eonaneutary upon the in-
efficient working of our monetary system. As the question
at present stands, en increased demand for money, not for
speculation, bat for pound sad legitimate purposes, has been
met by the usual sort of legalised obetractioo. According to
the terms of the charter, the bank is bound down within oar-
' lain narrow limits, and is therefore compelled to abstain
from granting accommodation as much as possible, even
when it is known that the money is sure to be safely em-
ployed sad punctually returned. The state of the reserve
is the only point that the directors ere virtually permitted
to consider, without regard to the actual grounds
for the limitation or expansion of oommeroe.
The opinion that the Bank is bound to check
spetaktion or encourage trade is errooerna, for the
one reason that the Bank ham no control over its own
functions, beyond taking cue that credit is oily given
to responsible parties. The machine is made to work in
a groove, and, practically, no discretion is left to its
governors. The government only Dave the power to
interfere, and that not always to the beet effect. There
is much to be mid against the 'provisions of Sir 8.. Peel's
act on the replacement of the lapsed circulation of
issuing beaks, since it provides for the substitution
of Bank of England notes to only two-thirds of the
amount previously authorised. The present government
have gone farther by narrowing the limitation fixed by the
existing kw, permission having been recently given to issue
only moger. against 739,9651. sciaslly fallen in of the
country note circulation. The only reason for this addi-
time' restriction appears t, be th►t the Bank of England
km will thus be brought to the round sum of 15,000,0001.
However much foreign economists may be impressed by the
soundness of our free-trade views they are little likely to be
edified by this extraordinary decision.

)yal _ steamer Atrato arrived at Scut.
ampton this morning with the Wert India and
Pacific mails. She brings 68 paimengwrs. Her
dates are :-Bt. Thomas, Jan. 9th ; Jamaica, 25th ;
Trinidad, 24th ; Demerara, 23rd ; and Panama,
23rd. _ .

—.—
The delegates from Canada and British North
America, who left Southampton in the Atrato on
Jan. 2, arrived in the mail packet Wye at Deme-
rara on the 22nd ult. They were very courteously
received by hie Excellency the Governor and all
the merchants of the colony.
_ . . .

The following movements of her Majesty's ships
are reported :—At Jamaica, the Duncan, bearing
the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope, G.C.8.,
and Constance, also the Sphinx at anchor off
Kingston ; at Port Royal, the Aboukir, Commo-
dore Sir F. Leopold McClintock, K.T. ; at Barba-
does, the Wolverine, on Jan. 26 ; at Trinidad,
the Gannet, on Jan. 22; off the inland Etustattus,
the Niger, steaming for Barbadoea to relieve the
Wolverine, which is ordered to Jamaica; the
Buzzard left Barbadoes for Demerara on Jan. 25 to
receive on board the delegates from Canada and
Nova Scotia.

JAMAICA.

OPENING OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION•

We have to-day received letters and files of
papers from Kingston, the latest date being Jan.
25.

The following account of the opening of the
Royal Commission appears in the Morning Journal
of the 24th ult. :

It having been announced th►t the Royal Commission
appointed to inquire into the causes of the late outbreak
in the parish of St. Thomas.in-the-East, and into the means
employed for its suppression, would be opened yesterday, a
large number of persona were attracted to Spanish Town
from this city. The ceremony was appointed to take place
in the chamber of the Legislative Coascil, and long
before the specified time a number of officials and
other gentlemen assembled there and wore seated
according to previous arrangement. We noticed
among those present his Reverence the Bishop
of Kingston, the Rev. Mr. East, Principal of Calabar
Institution, the Rev. Mr. Phi Hippo, the Re►. Mr. Milne,
and the Rev. Mr. Radcliffe; the Hon. 0. H. Jackson,
Speaker of the Assembly; the Hon. E. Jordon, 0.8. ;
Governor's Secretary and Island Secretary ; the Hon. A.
Healop, Attorney-General ; the Hon. Mr. Westmorland,
of the Executive Committee ; Messrs. Lewis, Osborn,
Alberga, Lynch, De Cordova, S. C. Burke, and Georges,
members of the hon. House of Assembly ; Messrs. Goren,
Payne, Phillippo, Williams, and Walcott, members of
the bar; the Hon. S. Remain, Castes of St. Thomas-
in-the-Vale, and Clerk to the Legislative Council ;
Robert Russell. Esq.. Registrar in Chancery; W. R.
Myrs, Fan, Secretary of the Executive Committee;_
H. Kemble, Esq., clerk to the Assembly. The press
of England was represented by Mr. Clifford, of the
Times; Mr. Holdeworth, Daily News ; and Mr. Turner, of
the Telegraph; the official reporters were Men. Dunning
and Barnet. The local press was also represented. Among
the other gentlemen present we noticed Dr. Phillippo, T.
Hendrick, Esq., and several officers of the royal navy. At
3 o'clock his Excellency the Captain-General Sir H. K.
Storks, K. C.B. and 0.0. M.G., and the other Commissioners,
R. Gurney, Eq., and J. B. Menlo., Esq., attended by his ex-
cellency's aide-de-oanip, entered the chamber and took their
mate, the whole assemblage rising as they entered. The
secretary, 0. S. Roundel], Esq., then read the several com-
missions, after which his excellency mid :
" I declare the commission now open. The royal commis-
sioners, in obedience to her Majesty's commands, are anxious
to obtain the fullest information touching the origin.
nature, and circumstances of the late disturbances, and the
means adopted in the course heir suppression. With
this view they will summon such witnesses as appear to
them likely to afford information on these points, sad they
will be glad to receive information from others as to any
person who will be able to throw light upon these traneac-
Moos. In answer to letters which have been ad.
dressed to the commissioners as to the course to
be pursued it may be well to state that the inquiry
will be an open are, and that if any evidence should be
given which tends to incriminate any individual that per-
son will be allowed to test the accuracy of such evidence,
and to tender counter-evidence, in reply. The better course
for any one to adopt who thinks that he can assist the com-
mission in the obtaining information, will be to address the
secretary, stating in full the name and address of the
witness who can give such information. With respect to
the applications which have been made by gentlemen con-
nected with the public press, the commissioners are not
able to give them any specific directions. The publica-
tion or non-publication of details must be left
to the discretion of the gentlemen engaged. The
commissioners would, however, suggest that supposing
evidence to be given affecting ndividnals, it may be that
justice may require that the publication of such evidence
should be suspended, until the individual has himself bad
the opportunity of being heard. As it appears from the
commission which has been read that the commissioners are
directed to conform to such instructions as may be given
by the Secretary of State, it is only necessary to add that
the one instruction that they have received is, that the in-
quiry should be `full, searching, and impartial.'"
Mr. Corrie stepped forward and addressed the Royal
Commissioners as follows :

" May it please your excellency,—l attend, your excel-
lency and the Royal Commissioners, on behalf of Mrs.
George William Gordon and numerous other parties who
allege themselves to be sufferers by the measures used
for the suppression of the disturintooes. With me Lmy
learned brother, Mr. John Hire Payne, of the Inner
Temple."
Mr. Phillippo—" I attend this royal commission on be-
half of Dr. Underhill sad other Baptist ministers of
Jamaica, who are said, in Governor Eyre's despatch to the
Colonial Secretary, to be implicated in the recent dig-
turbasoen”

His Excellency the Presidaai, after consultation with the
other commissioners, said if °victims was offered tending
to implicate those for whom they appeared, they would
have an opportunity of attending to their inWreste.
His Excellency Sir Henry Starks declared the commis-
sion adjourned till Thursday morning at 10 o'clock, and his
excellency and the other commissioners then withdrew.

The latest editions of the Kingston papers of the
24th contain an address of sympathy presented to
Mr. Eyre, signed by three Wesleyan missionaries ;
a Presbyterian minister ; two Baptist minis-
ters ; one of the London Missionary Society's
ministers, two methodist ministers, and two of the
church of Scotland. They state that they do not
know of any evidence of an organised conspiracy,
and they fear that " the great loss of life"
which has occurred has invol►ed to some extent
the innocent with the guilty, but they cordially ex-
press their conviction that " the general policy
pursued by your excellency was absolutely neces-
sary to meet the exigencies of the case, and was dic-
tated simply by a sense of duty and of the respon-
sibility which rested on you at a period of such
alarm and extreme danger."
Mr. Eyre's reply is as follows :

Reverend Gentlemen,—Accept my heartfelt gratitude for
the sympathy you extend to me under the difficult and try-
ing circumstances in which I have been placed, and for the
valuable testimony you hear to the necessity for the most
prompt end decisive measures being taken to put down
• rebellion, which having in three dare sad a half
extended from Moraut Bay forty miles 4 one direr.
Lion and twenty in another, required but a few days
longer to overrun • great portion of the colony,
spreading destruction and desolation in its mune.
In crushing out so formidable an outbreak it became
my painful duty to exercise a 'ty which whilst justly
punishing the guilty might terrify the seditious, and
evil disposed of other districts and restrain them from
making any similar attempts ; and it in the steps taken
to effect this object NOM isolated sate of wrong or in-

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The Royal Mail steamer Atrato arrived at Son PIN%