The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-23 00:00:00

W. E. Ad M.P., OR THE PROSE-
OP MR. EYRIE

boielst evening, Mr. Forster, M.P. for Bradford,
addressed a meeting of his constituents on the present
position of the reform question. He said he should re-
gret if the glory and privilege of puling • reform bill
were reserved for Mr. Disraeli instead of Mr. Gladstone,
bet he thought be ought not to refuse a treakkill to OI
government on the subject. He believed •M possible fir
a conservative government to bring forward an honest rat
form bill, if Mr. Disraeli could do with respect to referral
what Sir B. Peel did with regard to the men laws ; sad, is
his judgment there meld be °dome conservative useesrare
than • comprehensive reform bill. He defied the tory
ministry to retain power unless they brought in as stem
prehendve • reform measure as could be introduced by Lord
Hamel or Mr. Gladstone. He appealed to all ceoecemOves
to consider the futility of the objections made Nedra& 4
large satensiou of the mirage, and especially pan* to
the danger of rendering trades unions more powerful by
uniting them in resistance to political injustice.
Mr. Roemer KILL put • series of questions to Mr-
Forster with (reference to the Jamaica outrages. In re
plying,
Mr. FOIST= said—l and very glad that my friend Mr.
Kell has asked these questions. I should have spoken
upon the Jamaica question but for two reasons--first, that
I like to do one thing at a time, and as I had a good deal
to say about reform, I ventured to confine my first speech
to that, and secondly, because I was perfectly sure I should
be asked a question about this matter. (Hear, hear.) I
em voy glad of the opportunity of saying why, although
merely a subordinate member of the government, and
not chiefly responsible for what was done, yet that I did
agree with the government, and with Mr. Cardwell, the
Chief Secretary of State for the Colonies, in these two
things—first, is the recall with censure of Governor Eyre,'
and secondly, in the refusal to institute a government.
prosecution. Mr. Cardwell's action in both these respects'
has been very strongly impugned. I suppose to you I
need not defend his first action—the resell with censure.
I imagined that it would be more necessary for me to say to
you why I agreed with him that it was not our business
to institute • prosecution. I do not suppose that anyone
more laments—more disapproves—more blames—l can
hardly use a mffiedeatly strong word—more utterly con-
demns—the conduct in Jamaica. I was likely to do so from
my previous feelings with regard to the negro, and I was
also likely to do so from being brought into full knowledge
and information of what had happened. But when there
came the question as to whether Governor Eyre should be
prosecuted, my reason for believing that it was not tpa
business of the government to institute a prosecution woe
this—that I do not think there is any ground for supposing
that he acted from • had motive. (Hear, and cheers.) If
there are those who think that he did, they are perfectly
justified in hastening on the prosecution ; bat that is
not my opinion after having carefully oonaidered the in-
formation which was brought before me. (Cheers.) But
Governor Eyre made s most deplorable mistake--• mistake
which I described in the House of Commons as allowing
• massacre to be committed—a mistake such as I think
very few governors ever did make—the mistake of allow-
ing 200 or 300 of the Queen's subjects to be killed without
necessity, and many of them without justice. And
it is difficult for us to imagine how he oval&
have made the mistake were it not that we see
this other fact—that there was scarcely • white
man in Jamaica who would not have made it.
Therefore we feel that it could not be the personal feeling
of Governor Eyre so much as that miserable feeling of
race, which seems to carry men beyond the possibility of
judging what is right. (Hear, hear.) But now came the
question—Was he to be prosecuted for making this mis-
take? Well, the reason that Ido not think that he ought
to have been was this, that we—l mean her Majesty's
government—had put him in a position in which even, wo
may say, he was forced to use his discretion. (Hear,
hear.) Now, I want you all to take that into amount—
and I never looked into • question with more
pain, with a greater feeling of responsibility, and
at first with greater doubt—that was what convinced
me at last that it was not our business to institute a
prosecution, because the government of England had put
him into a position in which he was, as it were, forced to
nee hie discretion, and therefore, although we might recall
him—censure him—blamo him—eupplant him—f• real
punishment, for such recall is ruin)—for this misuse
of his discretion, we had no right to criminally pro-
*acute him. (Cheers.) Now I shall tell yon how it was
that he was in that position. It was chiefly because
the government and the parliament of England had
allowed laws to remain on the statute books of Jamaica
which do not exist, I am happy to say, in England, nor
scarcely in any other part of the Queen's dominions. If
he had been in the position that the governor of most
other colonies is, or that a man having authority either in
England or Ireland would be, his declaration of martial
law would have been entirely his own act, and it would
have been a question whether he ought not to have been
made personally responsible for the iniquities that were
committed under that martial law, because he need not
have declared it. But with the existence of that law upon
the statute books of Jamaica, and with the past history of
Jamaica, there is not One governor out of a hundred who
would not have felt it 'a duty which he scarcely could
avoid to declare martial law; and martial law once
declared, it is impossible to secure that jostles shall be ob.
served.
A vote of thanks to the chairman brought the proceed-
to a close.

RITUALISTS AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
—" S. G. 0." writes to the Times:—" The day may not
be just yet, but, in my opinion, it cannot be far distant,
when, by some rash overt act, some of the leaders of this
movement will betray its real aim. I strongly suspect, if
the truth were known, that aim is no secret to certain
members of the bench. There will then, I trust, be a de-
parture out of our pale of the greater part of a body of
men who must, in all honesty, feel that they
are unfitted to remain in it. We shall probably
have an anglo-catholic church independent of the state.
It will, doubtless, have many adherents, for novelty
is attractive ; to it, I have no doubt, certain colonial
churches will affiliate themselves. It will have no real
difficulty as to a head ; there are those who say with con-
fidence—one or more bishops will join. Ambitious of
great spiritual power, utterly opposed to earthly &nth*.
rity, aiming at the sort of union which would make the
priest of all lands powerful over all people ; starting on
its new independent life, with the prestige of a kind
of; persecution ; such a church, independent of Tope
and King, has a fair field for trying the question—
whether, in a day in which men think more for
themselves than they ever did, are as jealous of
ecclesiastical as of political dogmas—in a day when
even Romanism is shaken to its centre, and Bomish die*
cipline has had to yield to royal mandate, England will
view with anything but compentionate contempt the at-
tempt to build up a permanent ecclesiastical system out
of material which disfigured the church from which it was
taken, and has no one bond of union than that of a coin-
:* mon, all-pervading belief in its own self-sufficiency." The
-° Rev. James Skinner, vicar of Newland, Great Malvern,
writing to the Times in defence of St. Alban's, concludes
his letter with saying that " if the day should ever come
in which ' the authorities' shall interfere to ' stop' our
full liberty to teach the above-named statements as vital
truth, there are more than three-fourths of us who would
be compelled to give up the church of England as no por-
tion of the church of Christ at all."
There is much talk in Paris society of a pam-
phlet by the Duo d'Aumale on the state of Europe since
the battle of Sadowa.
Mr. GLADSTONE, M.P.—Mr. Gladstone, son of
the distinguished statesman, and member for Chester,
arrived in Belfast on Friday last, and spent that and the
greater part of the following day in making a tour of the
town, and seeing as much of it as possible during his short
visit. He left on Saturday evening for Derry.—Northers
Whig.
THE IMMIGRANT HOP-PIC/MRS.—We are glad to
find that the project originating with the Rev. J. Y.
Stratton, the respected incumbent of Ditton, for ame-
liorating the condition of the myriads of poor creatures who
make their way into the large hop-growing districts for em-
ployment in the picking, has been very warmly taken up.
The memorial on the subject has been most readily signed by
owners and occupiers of hop lands and others interested in
the social and moral welfare of the county. We hope to
see a large attendance at the meeting on Thursday next,
especially of the hop-growers, es it is their hearty co-
operation which is particularly desired, and which indeed,
is absolutely essential to suedes. Doubtless there are
difficulties in the way of carrying out the proposal, but
we believe that these difficulties have been well considered
and that earnest and united fiction is alone needed to sur-
mount thus. We trust the result of this movement will
show that the charge of apathy and neglect brought against
West Kent, in regard to the condition of its immigrant
hop-pickers, is not well-founded.—South Eastern Gazette.