The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-28 00:00:00

TO 77ii 3LUIQUIS OT LOAN.

My Lord,—You &seat in a late letter to a public journal
that I have shirked saying one word spinet the position
you took up—viz., that for the mistakes committed by
Mr. Eyre he has suffered enough, and that the opinion
of the country haa already given a verdict that
makes further prosecution utterly unneomeary.
Those, you add, who now desire a trial, do but wish to
strike a fallen man. I had no intention of shirking that
"pcdftt; and I will now give you my opinion ezplizitteler
what it is worth.

To consider this question solely with reference to Mr.
Eyre is to take a very partial and superficial view of its
momentous nature. The personal security of the Queen's
subjects is worth some consideration. The right of the
subject to trial by jury in cases of alleged treason, or
rebellion, is not unworthy of being defended. The
subjection of all under the Sovereign to the law,
whether the governor of a distant colony, or those
more immediately under the eye of authority at
home, is a principle too sacred to the constitution to
be tampered with, or left to the loose tribunal which
you call the opinion of the country, and which, if judged
of by the utterances of several of our most eminent lite.
nary and scientific nen, condones every deed of ruthless
barbarity perpetrated in the island. So far as I know the
feelings of those who call fora prosecution of Mr. Eyre
nothing is further from their thoughts than the wish to
inflict suffering on him, however little scruple he had to
indict needless suffering and cruel wrongs upon others; but
their determination is to vindicate the law which has been
broken in a manner which they regard as moat dangerous
to the liberty of the subject.
I hope the prosecution will embrace General Nelson and
Lieut. Brand, as well as Mr. Eyre. There were instances
of persons put to death where law, justice, and humanity
were even more grossly outraged than in the case of
Gordon, and for which those two officers appear to be more
I directly responsible. Although I wish no harm either to
General Nelson or Lieutenant Brand, I certainly do wish
both the army and navy to be taught that they cannot
kill "like fun" in cold blood with impunity. The tone
' of the officers in both services with whom I came in con-
' tact was much improved before we left the island—in the
navy especially, after Admiral Hope had reprimanded
I Lieutenant Oxley, and told him he had exposed himself
to a prosecution for murder ; but there is still much to be
done to teach these gentlemen that the civil law is their
master, and that the life of the humblest subject of the
crown is sacred in the eye of the law.
The charge against Mr. Eyre as governor, and the other
officers who were the executive military authorities, is
that they caused Mr. Gordon, Mr. Samuel Clarke, Mr.
Hem/ Lawrence, Mr. William Grant, Mr. G. Mackin.
Josh, and numerous other persona, to be tried fur trea-
son, sedition, or rebellion, and put to death, contrary to
the laws of the country, in the following among other
particulars :
1. Trial by jury was refused, and the privileges granted
by the law to accused persons were denied, although the
ordinary civil courts were open, and no martial law pre-
vailed, at the place where Mr. Gordon and Mr. Samuel
Clarks were apprehended.
2. A military court tried and condemned to death these
and ntunerous other prisoners for alleged crimes, which,
on the face of the charges, were committed before the pro-
cl.mation of martial law was issued, and some of them for
alleged offences which were not crimes known to the law.
According to my reading of the constitution, a trial by
a military court for offences which on the face of the
charges were committed, if at all, before the publication of
the proclamation of martial law, was a trial by those who
had no authority to try, and the putting to death of the
Queen's subjects by those who had no authority to inflict
capital punishment. "If he that gives judgment of death
against a person bath no commission at all, if sentence of
death be commanded to be executed by such person, and
be executed accordingly, it is murder in him that com-
mands it to be executed, for it was comm nun judice."—
(Hale's " Pleas of the Crown.")
3. In the case of Gordon, not only were the proceed.
legs in defiance of the law in all these particulars, but
from the recorded opinion of Mr. Eyre, who was the
supreme civil and military authority, he sanctioned the
execution, not because Gordon was guilty of treason or
I complicity in the actual outbreak, but because Mr. Eyre
believed the outbreak would not have taken place had not
' Gordon at some time previous uttered words which were
construed into the convenient plea for tyrants of " guilty
' agitation."

You think Mr. Eyre has suffered enough. My reply is,
the law has not been vindicated. The executive have re.
moved him from office, but the ministers of the crown
cannot determine whether the law has been violated.
The eonstitution of our country has wisely placed the
power of investigating crimes neither in the crown, nor in
the parliament, nor in tLe people, but in the judges to
determine the law, and in juries to ascertain the facts.
If some poor Highlanders were to seize upon any portion
of the Argyll estates, would you consider they had suffered
enough bybeing dismissed from office as labourers and sent
home to their families! If, on the contrary, you would con-
rider it menacing to the best interests of society to
suffer the poor to break the law with impunity, how much
more dargerons to the coromun;ty must it be to permit
higher offenders to escape who have made!sport with human
life! You saw little of the effects of the Eyre policy
in Jamaica. It was your more pleasant occupation to
travel about the country and be hospitably received
everywhere. You were saved the sad necessity of listen-
ing to the harrow:ng accounts of the sufferers. We,
whose task it was, on behalf of the Jamaica Com-
mittee, to investigate the details, have our minds more
fo-cibly impressed with the terrible policy of the late
governor—its merciless and its needless severity. If the
law has nothing to say to deeds like these—if one portion
of society can applaud the hero of the gibbet and the lash,
while another portion exclaims " Poor fellow, leave him
alone ; he did it all for the best "—I see nothing before
the country but au outburst at no distant day of a con-
tempt for law, by which the order to which you belong
must be the first and the worst sufferers.—l am, Ac.,
Jorat Gonna.
Tanfield-court, Temple, Sept. 26.

I n,
THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. —The
gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at South
Kensington, which have been opened to the public
free on the Wednesdays of the month of September,
have been visited by upwards of 21,283 persons on these
days. Many of the visitors, however, were not of the class
whose enjoyment was contemplated by the fellows in
granting the boon, and we are given to undentand that
they will not be thrown open again free
this year. I
seems the experience at Kew afforded no fair criterion by
which to judge of the results of similar measures at Ken-
sington. The distance of the former gardens from London
opposes an obstacle to the visits of large numbers of mis-
chievous boys, which does not exist at Kensington, and it
is thought that the enjoyment of the dower lovers of the
working classes would be better secured by the payment of
• small fee for admission, which would exclude those who
go there to play and do mischief, and require police and
the full attention of the servants of the society to keep
them in order.
On Wednesday a deputation, consisting of the
mayor and the principal aldermen and councillors of the
borough of Sligo, waited on the Right Hon. W.
M.P., to present him an address, as stepson of the to
Lord Palmerston, and owner of several important estates
in the county.
The promoters of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable
banquet in Liverpool have been disappointed in their ap-
plication to obtain the use of the Town-hall Rooms, and
the result is that they are obliged to decline applications
for tickets to • large extent, as the Law Association Rooms
will only hold a small number.