The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-01 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

THE JAMAICA BARBARITIES.
The Times would not palliate the excesses of
which many of those employed spinet the negroes were
guilty, but it believes that the authorities acted on the
supposition that their measures of severity were necessary.
The present, it contends, is not the time for the House of
Commons to pledge itself to any particular course by the
passing of resolutions. The questions of compensation, of
further inquiry into the camas of the convicted rebels now
undergoing punishment, and, in short, everything that
relates to the management of the island affairs and the
wiping out the traces of this calamity, had better be left to
the new government. As the conduct of Mr. Eyre, General
Nelson, and the officers of the courts-martial will become
the subject of judicial investigation, it is certainly not the
duty of the House of Commons to pronounce any censure
beforehand.
A more painful speech than Mr. Adderley's, viewing the
maxims of government which it announces, and the ex-
asperation of temper which it displayed, the Daily New
has never had to bring before the public. Throwing their
shield over the perpetrators of the most wicked acts, the
government, through Mr. Adderley, declare "that in
their opinion the execution of Mr. Gordon was ' practi-
cally just,' and it is by no means certain that it is not
' legal " and that whatever was done was protected as to
its supposed illegality by the proclamation of martial law.
This is the doctrine of the twins in 1866. Martial
law protects all the acts done under it ; nothing
can be illegal under martial law. There can be now no
doubt as to the course which the Jamaica Committee is
bound to pursue. We must meet these dangerous en-
croachments—this importation of West India maxims into
England—in the old English way, or we may see the
atrocities of an Eyre, a Nelson, and a Hobbes repeated in
Dublin, in Hyde-park, or in Lincoln's-inn-fields. In the
meantime, it becomes a serious question whether it is
necessary in the interests of public tranquillity to address
the Crown fur the dismissal of advisers who cannot let a
week pass without some demonstration of their preference
for the principles of arbitrary government, which have
always been so abhorrent to the English people.
The Post approves of Mr. Adderley's speech. Whatever
errors, it argues, may have been committed by those who
administered justice iu Jamaica, it was not shown that they
sprang from mere wantonness or cruelty ; and this being
so, it would be unreasonable to demand the punishment of
persons who were called upon, under the most trying air-
cmustances, to discharge a most difficult duty.
On the whole, the result of last night's debate, the Star
thinks, sill probably be to vindicate to some extent the
reputation of this country abroad, where, on this as on
other accounts, it has lately suffered so lamentably
But the debate has strengthened its conviction that the
Jamaica committee have resolved upon the only course
adequate to this most melancholy occasion. The perfunc-
tory manner in which even the soundest of those who are
opposed to the prosecution of Mr. Eyre deal with the vast
issues involved proves that any other line of action would
be a caricature of justice and a wanton abasement of the
constitutional liberties which are the birthright of twee/
subject of the British crown.