The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7, 1865.

.
The Conservatives on Mr. Bright and Reform

MALDON, Dec.:l

The Maldon Conservative Club celebrated its
anniversary last evening, under the presidency of
Mr. J. Oxley Parker, Ncho was supported by six
members of the House of Commons, viz., Mr. G.M.
W. Peacocke, M.P., M. R. A. Earle, M.P., Mr. C.
Du Cane, M.P., Mr. H. J. Selwin, M.P., Lord E.
Cecil, M.P., and Capt. Jervis, M.P. The company
also included the Hon. J. Strutt, the Rev. C. Lee,
Lieut.-Col. Brice, the Rev. W. Bullock, &c. Let-
tors of apology for non-attendance were received
from Mr. T. J. Miller, M.P., Mr. J. Kelk, M.P.,
Mr. C. Lucas, Sir C. de Crespigny, Major Tawke,
Mr. Scratton, &c.

The CHAIRMAN proposed the usual loyal toasts, and
The Hon. J. STRUTS' gave " The Army, Navy,
Militia, and Volunteers." (Cheers.)
Lord E. CECIL, M.P., 'replied for the army, and
said the compliment paid to the service from which
he had retired for ten years came with especial force
at the present time, as the other day a notable public
character—Mr. Bright—was pleased to observe that
the officers stationed in our dependencies in the
West Indies hal not done their duty in the matter of
the negro rebellion, now at an end, in Jamaica. The
hon. member for Birmingham sometimes indulged in
reckless assertions, but he (Lord E. Cecil) was much
astonished to read that he observed to an after-
dinner audience—to an assembly of his own coun-
trymen, not of emancipated negroes—that he hoped
that Governor Eyre and all his accomplices would
shortly be brought before the bar of justice for the
foul murder of Mr. Gordon. He (Lord E. Cecil)
did not wish to enter into the question whether Mr.
Gordon was guilty or not guilty ; he trusted that he
was not ; but he thought that the observations of
Mr. Bright were most unwarrantable on the part of
a public man with regard to one of two such hon-
ourable professions as the army and navy. (Cheers.)
Nobody ought to know better than Mr. Bright that
according to the maxim of our law, the meanest of
her Majesty's subjects was never held to be guilty
unless he was proved to be so. He (Lord E. Cecil)
must say that he thought Mr. Bright had made a
most unwarrantable attack on the character and
reputation of many good and worthy men, who by
their devotion had saved us at a most critical period,
and who, from their decision and judgment, had de-
served a better compliment than that which Mr.
Bright had paid them. Believing, as he did, that
Governor Eyre and the other officers concerned
would come unscathed out of a public inquiry, he
would leave them in the hands of a generous public.
Lieut.-Col. Brice and Capt. Tuffnell responded for
the militia and volunteers respectively.
The CHAIRMAN gave " The healths of the Conser-

vative Members for the borough of Maldon."
Mr. PEAcocKE, M.P., in responding, said when
he had last the pleasure of meeting his friends at
Maldon they were engaged in the general election,
and it could not be disguised that the result of that
election had been generally considered unfavour-
able to the Conservative party. But although the
result of that election might be considered unfa-
vourable to the Conservative party, he did not
think it could be said to have been unfavourable to
Conservative principles, because he believed that the
country at large was Conservative, and that in
giving a majority to the Administration of the late
Premier it had not given a majority to the present
one. The verdict was simply that Lord Palmerston
was a better Conservative than the gentlemen op-
posed to him. Whatever might have been the ver-
dict of the country, South Essex had given her ver-
dict unmistakably in favour of Conservative princi-
ples. It was true that the Conservatives met with
defeats in North Essex and at Colchester ; but if

the reports which had reached him on this subject
were correct, the means by which the Liberal victo-
ries were achieved would not exactly bear a very
strict investigation. The Conservatives had also
the consolation of knowing that if an election took
place in North Essex or Chichester with the present
register, it must unquestionably terminate in a Li-
beral defeat; while, on the other hand, if an election
took place in South Essex or Mahlon, the Conser-
vatives might as confidently rely upon a Conserva-
tive triumph. But all parties would unite in heart-
felt lamentation with regard to the cattle pestilence
which had stricken so many homesteads in North
and South Essex ; and whether they looked to the
Orders in Council as they had been, or as they
were, they must alike allow that they could extract
very little consolation from them. If he understood
the edicts in Council—for he could call them nothing
else—as they at first stood, upon the report of the
district inspector, who was sometimes a veterinary '
surgeon and sometimes not, every man was subject
to have his cattle destroyed, and that without any
compensation whatever. Now, to a certain extent,
the character of the edicts in Council was modified ;
at present a man was ordered to isolate his cattle,
and it was only in the event of his not complying
with that order that they would be slaughtered. So
far the modification was in the right direction ; but
if we turned to the two reports of the Royal Com-
missioners—for they were divided amongst them-
selves—he must say that he thought they were
equally unsatisfactory. What he complained of
was the spirt of extermination which they
breathed. He could find in them no idea but
that of " Kill, kill, kill." Now, he would rather
have had the principle of " Cure, cure, cure."
It was all very well if we could conceive that this
pestilence would never occur again, that we should
stamp it out at the present moment by adopting the
very energetic measures proposed by the report of
the majority of the commissioners ; but as our popu-
lation was increasing, it was impossible to talk about
putting an absolute check to the importation of
cattle from abroad, and we must look forward to the
possibility of being subject to a return of the malady.
There was no disguising the fact, therefore, that our
great object should be to find out some cure, and it
did appear to him to be a very clumsy method of
curing a disease to slaughter the patient. (Laugh-
ter.) If this principle had been applied to many of
those diseases which formerly ravaged mankind,
those diseases which we now found amenable to
treatment would have remained as they were at first,
absolutely incurable and permanent. What, there-
fore; he wished to see was that the Government, in-
stead of providing slaughter-houses, should provide
hospitals. He did not altogether think that cure
was so absolutely hopeless as some people supposed.
lie believed that under the present system of treat-
ment, or no treatment, one in eight recovered, and
he had seen in the papers that with a different system
of treatment 75 per cent. in Holland recovered. He
also saw with pleasure that our Minister at Munich
(Lord Augustus Loftus) had taken the trouble to
write to the Foreign Office stating that in Bavaria
a specific had been discovered for the disease. One
recommendation of the commissioners he received
with pleasure, viz., that importations of cattle
should only take place within certain ports, and
that in these ports a system of Government inspec-
tion should be adopted, for he confessed that he had
great faith in a quarantine policy. If there was ono
spot more than anotherwhich was exposed to disease,
it was perhaps Sicily, owing to imperfect drainage,
bad diet, and the filthy habits of the people.
But although cholera has been raging in the basin
of the Mediterranean, Sicily had been exempt from
it because she had
adopted a system of quaran-
tine. Ireland had
been exempt from the present
scourge, Simply by putting an end to importa-
tion of cattle; and it was a most fortunate thing
that Ireland should have thus been free from the
visitation. He had been spending a portion of the
summer in Ireland, and he was happy to see the
material progress which she had made. The pig
was no longer the " jintleman that paid the rint."
(Laughter.) But at this moment every stnallfarmer
had his herd, while every cottager had hiacoar;and
ha had no hesitation in saying that if by any chance
' the cattle disease should reach Ireland, it would
prove a more fatal affair for that couutry than the
potato blight. it was not only as regards material
progress that he remarked with pleasure the im-
provement of Ireland, but he might venture to say
that during the last eight years religious animosities
had considerably subsided, while political agitation
was at a discount. He said this boldly, in the face of
that tempest in a teacup called the Fenian insurrec-
tion. We might depend upon it that no insurrection
in Ireland and no conspiracy could be of any
portanee whioh S not countenanced by the Roman

Catholic priesthood, and against this conspiracy
they had set their faces, and even in many cases de-
nounced it from the altar. We might also depend
upon it that when men had nothing to complain of

—when they had merely a sentimental grievance
like that of the Fenians, that the Celt had been sub-

jugated by the Saxon—conspiracies were of no im-

portance whatever. To drive a nation into rebellion

there was required the iron hand of grievous misrule.

This observation applied, however, only to white
races, because we had recently seen a negro insur-
rection in Jamaica, where men who had been placed
in a position of perfect political equality with their
white brethren, and who even possessed that from
which the £9 householder in this country was ex-
cluded—(a laugh)—absolutely organised for next
Christmas-day the massacre of every white inhabi-
tant upon the island, secretly impelled doubtless by
that innate jealousy which the black man felt of the
innte superiority of the white mau. When we thus
found men who were suffering from no grievance at
all, but who were placed in a perfect position of
equality, both politically and socially, with the
whites, rising in insurrection and committing atro-
cities from the very perusal of which most men's
minds revolted, he was surprised to find a party in
this country with minds so peculiarly, and, he trusted,
so exceptionally, constituted that their sympathies
were not with their own white race, but rather with
the black miscreants who had indulged in such
abominable excesses. The principal point which
had been raised against the Government of Jamaica
was that Mr. Gordon was taken from Kingston,
where he had given himself up, into a district where
martial law existed, and that he was there tried and
executed. But it was not fair to condemn the Go-
vernment for the course which they had taken with-
out knowing all the facts. Where did Mr. Gordon
come from ? Did he come from a proclaimed dis-
trict? If he did, the Government had a perfect right
to deliver him up to the proclaimed district from
which he had escaped. He did not wish to say that
an inquiry should not take place, but if it did take
place, he trusted that it would be conducted in a
spirit of sympathy with a Government placed in a
difficult position. Although we must look upon this
insurrection in Jamaica with feelings of regret, there
was one country, at all events, which would derive
a seasonable and salutary lesson from it; he alluded
to the United States, now engaged in the recon-
struction of their Constitution, and who had
always found this question of the negro one of great
difficulty and danger. He did not wish to express
an opinion as to the internal affairs of the United
States, because in this country we were too much
in the habit of giving advice and counsel as to
foreign affairs and foreign countries when they
wished us anywhere else; but he could not refrain from
offering his humble meed of approbation of the con-
duct pursued by the President, Mr. Johnson. Ile
believed Mr. Johnson was pursuing a policy which
would again consolidate the shattered framework of
society in the United States, and that he was using
the best means to reconcile the conflicting elements
with which he had to deal. While the legislature of
the United States was to be engaged in the duty of
reconstructing their constitution, it would appear
that the legislature of this country was to be occu-
pied with the somewhat less felicitous task of pulling
to pieces our own constitution, for we could not dis-
guise from ourselves the fact that we werethreatencd
with some measure of innovation called a reform
bill. The recent appointments of the Government,
although of a subordinate diameter, showed in what
direction they were tending, and he believed that the
reform bill proposed would not be of a very mode-
rate character. The Government had appointed Mr.
Goschen Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and

they bad made Mr. Forster an under secretary.
From the first named gentleman he believed they
would receive no inconsiderable accession of strength,
while from the latter they would receive a consider-
able accession of weakness. (Laughter.) Although
he (Mr. Peacocke) had no doubt that Mr. Forster
would follow in the footsteps of many who had gone
before him, and that from being one of the most
boisterous of demagogues, he would subside into the
most placid of placemen. (Laughter.) It would be a
mere matter of speculation to discuss the details of
the reform bill, but come that bill when it might he
would venture to express a hope that the great Con-
servative party would use their united efforts to re-
move its obnoxious features, to soften down its ob-
jectionable outlines, and to shape them in accordance
with our existing institutions. If he reollectedrightly,
the Emperor Nerva was deified by the Roman people
for conferring upon them imperial)? et libertas. lie
did not ask the British to deify their constitution,
but he asked them to respect and perpetuate those
priceless blessings which, under its mild and benig-
nant sway, this country had enjoyed—liberty un-
equalled, prosperity unrivalled, empire unsurpassed.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. EARLE, M.P., also responded, and observed

that Mr. Peacocke, in his eloquent speech, had
alluded to many of those subjects of great interest
which at present occupied the public mind. If
amongst those subjects there was one at this time
more prominent than another, it was the question
of Parliamentary reform. When he and his consti-
tuents parted on the hustings reform was hardly a
question which came within the sphere of practical
politics, but since then great events had occurred,
and reform had become the great question of the
day. There were some, he knew, who looked for-
ward to a measure of Parliamentary reform as
though we might expect from it a nicer balance and
adjustment of the conflicting tendencies of the public
mind. He believed those persons would be very
much disappointed ; and equally vain, he believed,
was the hope of those who expected from a further
extension or modification of the act of 1832 a more
ample representation of the refinements and curiosi-
ties of opinion. Those who sought Parliamentary
reform, and who, he supposed, would one day carry
it, had much ruder objects in view ; their views
were of a levelling and democratic character. Ad-
mitting that Parliamentary reform was necessary,
or even desired by the country, he must say that he
thought the evils of change were greatly aggravated
when that change was of so limited and partial a
character as to have not even the semblance of fina-
lity. He thought no disturbance was so much to be
deprecated as one which did not offer even for one
generation the prospect of an enduring settlement.
We had lately read in the—not to use a stronger ex-
pression—forcible speech of Mr. Bright, what was the
programme of the Liberal party ; but he (Mr. Earle)
was struck with a greatomission in that programme.
Mr. Bright advocated, as a matter of necessity, a
considerable extension of the franchise ; but if we
looked into the speech which he delivered
the other day, we searched in vain for any ob-
jects which he expected to attain by that extension
of the franchise. He spoke, indeed, of two mea-
sures which he thought ought to be passed at once,
but they were measures for which he (Mr. Earle)
believed there was already a majority; and it could
not, therefore, be to carry those measures that Mr.
Bright wanted an extension.of the franchise. Again,
Mr. Bright could not want an extension of the
franchise in order to diminish the influence of the
Tory party, for he said the Tory party was a " de-
caying faction." (Laughter.) What he (Mr. Earle)
inferred from this reserve of Mr. Bright, which was
so unlike him, was that the objects -which Mr. Bright
had in view were objects which he dare not even
mention to the present constituencies of the empire.
In the speech to which be (Mr. Earle) had been re-
ferring, Mr. Bright :made a very elaborate attack
upon the whole history and antecedents of the Tory
party. He said that during the last 40 years they
had been the opponents of every measure which had
contributed to the welfare of the country ; and in
nerving himself for his great attack be began by
throwing out those insinuations and repeating those
remarks which he had so often made upon the con-
duct of the Tory party during the great revolution-
ary war at the end of the last century and beginning
of this. Well, he (Mr. Earle) believed that it was
genetroalelsytaabdlmishitted that at the time Mr. Pitt and his
L when Mr. Brighta
i the Tory
• revolution, he (Mr. Earle)
1 vernment of the country had
universale e u ter:
the period to which he
followers engaged the country
in those great wars
was an attempt on the part of the first Empe-
rorpire in Europe ; and
told us that the course adopted by
party was one which might have led to a
which Mr. Bright d
answered that if the Go-
been conducted during
had referred upon the prin-
ciplesa vocated, we should have

fallen under the still worse evil of foreign domina-

tion. Mr. Bright said that Mr. Pitt and his fol-
lowers left us nothingbutthelegacy of an enormous

debt ; but he (Mr. Earle) believed that this was not
the case, but that they left us the British empire
with all the blessings of domestic liberty and secu-
rity abroad. (Hear) This was a noble estate, which
was well equal to the burthens which 20 years of
military glory had entailed upon it. (Cheers.)
Mr. TUFFNELL proposed " The Conservative
Members for the County of Essex." (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Du CANE, M.P., replied, and after discussing
local politics at some length, said we had recently
had a great demonstration from that great authority
on public affairs, Mr. John Bright, who had treated
us apparently to prophecy. Mr. Bright told us that
the Conservative party was numerically weaker in
the present Parliament than it ever was before, and
he prophesied at the same time that the days of the
Conservative party were numbered. If hard words
could break any bones—although we know very
well that they could not—he wondered that a single
Conservative was at the present moment alive in the
land ; for he thought that ever since those legendary
days when a good old archbishop cursed a little
jackdaw which had stolen his ring—(laughter)—
never had there fallen from the lips of mortal man
such a thundering anathema as that which Mr.
Bright pronounced upon all those who had the mis-
fortune to differ from him in opinion. In the words
of the " Ingoldsby Legends "

"He cursed them living, he cursed them dying,
Never was heard such a terrible curse ;
But what gave rise to no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse."

(Laughter.) There was an old adage which said that
when you had got a bad case you should abuse the
plaintiff's attorney—(laughter)—and he (Mr. Du
Cane) supposed that Mr. Bright's vituperation of
the Conservative party and its leaders might be taken
as a sign that he had in reality got a very bad case,
and that he found that the country was more
opposed, if possible, than ever to those sweeping and
organic charges which he recommended. He (Mr. Du
Cane) confessed that he differed from Mr. Bright's
views as to the numerical strength of the Conservative
party at the present moment. When he had the
honour of being first returned for North Essex, the
Liberal party in Essex alone possessed four scats out
of the ten, and he took his scat in a Parliament
which gave Lord Palmerston a clear majority of from
80 to 100 members. If ever there was a period
when a lengthened tenure of office might have been
predicted for the Liberal party, he thought that was
the time. But we knew very well what had hap-
pened—how in six months from that time mutiny
and dissatisfaction arose in the Liberal ranks, how
they turned round upon Lord Palmerston, and how
Lord Derby succeeded Lord Palmerston with the
approbation of the country. If such a thing as that
happened to Lord Palmerston's Government during
the life of Lord Patmerston, what chance of cohesion
was there for the present Government ? What we
had now to deal with was Lord Palmerston's Go-
vernment without Lord Palmerston. (Hear, hear.)
Lord Palmerston's Government without Lord Pal-
merston had now to face a new Parliament with a
disunited following, many of whom had hitherto
owned no Liberal tie and professed no Liberal
theory but allegiance to Lord Palmerston alone.
He (Mr. Du Cane) must confess that he did not
consider Lord Russell's position at the present mo-
ment to be exactly a bed of roses, and he was rather
inclined to say—" Pity the sorrows of a poor old
man." (Laughter.) An eminent French political
writer said—" There is no worse position for a
Government than to have to deal with hopes which
are at once ardent and vague, for there are no
people who, perhaps, are so difficult to govern as
those who have immense desires without exactly
knowing what they desire." He (Mr. Du Cane)
believed that these words not inaptly represented
the position of Lord Russell and his Government,
and lie was not surprised to see signals of
distress being paid out from the ship of
State. He was not surprised to be told
one day that a great effort was being made to
woo the smiles of a rising Conservative statesman ;
he was not surprised to find another day that the
Government had finally resolved to lend itself to
the fascinations of its Radical supporters ; and he
was not surprised to read the imploring language
in which Lord Russell prayed his Mansion-
house audience for a fair trial, and for forbearance
at their hands. He would be a bold man who at-
tempted to prophesy what the future might bring
forth, but he believed that forbearance and a
fair trial would be readily accorded by the Conser-
vative party, and that Lord Russell had not so much
to dread the factious opposition of his open and
honest enemies as the disaffection and disunion of
his so-called friends. He (Mr. Du Cane) believed
that the days of political inaction were passt and
gone, and that stirring times and great questions
were in store for us. He should be found as hitherto
serving in the ranks of that party which he believed,
in spite of Mr. Bright's maledictions, was destined
yet to a lengthened and brilliant career—a party
which ho believed to be not the less a lever to the
cause of sound progress because it had shown in
times past that it had the strength and power to re-
sist successfully all sweeping changes and organic
innovations, and to arrest sometimes the car of
progress in the fatal descent down the slope of de-
mocratic revolution. (Cheers.)
Mr. SELWYN, M.P., also responded. The hon.
gentleman referred in some detail to the circumstances
of his election, and proceeded to show that if ever
there was a time when those who held Conservative
opinions ought to be prepared for action, it was the
present. Death had removed that great statesman
wbom men of all political opinions respected, whose
Conservative tendencies were a guarantee to Con-
servatives for the moderate policy of the Whig-Ra-
dical party, but whose death had left the vessel of
the State to drift on to the rocks of democracy. For
his own part, he (Mr. Selwyn) contended that we
ought to raise the man to the franchise, and not to
debase the franchise to .the man. There were also
various lateral ways of extending the franchise, but
really to lower the franchise as the Radicals advised
would be certain to destroy that constitutional form
of government which had done so much for this
country. it was not only with the question of Par-
liamentary Reform that Conservative would have to
deal, but rumours were afloat that attacks were to
be made on the Church. He thought with regard
to church rates that a great deal of irritation and
discord might be avoided by an alteration in the
law as it now stood ; but if a change were to be
made, let there be some guarantee for the stability of
those institutions which he had been brought up to
venerate. Referring to the cattle plague the hon.
gentleman argued that some compensation ought
to be made to those agriculturists whose beasts
were ordered to be slaughtered. There was a
precedent for this, he contended, in the compensation
made by the Government in 1745. At the same time
he thought farmers ought also to endeavour to help
themselves by adopting the principles of mutual in-
surance. The sufferings endured by the farmers in
consequence of the cattle plague were also, he argued,
so many additional reasons for the repeal of the malt
tax, and he trusted that malt tax repealers would be
up and doing, and show by their perseverance that
they were determined to bring public opinion to bear
upon the subject. (Hear, hear.)
Lord E. CECIL, M.P., " followed on the same
side." The noble lord said we had had some stirring
events during the last five months. We had had a
rather thanak
in d i
Irelandm i n i sh i ng w
plague such as England had not seen for the last 100
years, and which he was sorry to say was rapidly
increasing t
outbreak
clVoenhadwhaandtaedn
attempted
*hihonly Mr. Smith O'Brien a and
cabbage garden to make it
supremely ridiculous. (Laughter.) We had had areal
outbreak in Jamaica, attended with all the horrors
of an Indian mutiny, which if it proved
one thing
more than another, proved that negroes were unfit
for self-government; and lastly we had to deplore
the death of Lord Palmerston. The cattle plague
was a great national calamity, and it might have
been expected that at all events the Government
would have called Parliament together. The Vete-
rinary College had nothing
' better to recommend
than the pole-axe, and the Government, after shilly
shallying for a couple of months, shifted the question
from their own backsto an irresponsible commission.
That was not the way to treat an important class
like the landowners and tenant farmers, more espe-

cially when the Parliament elected in July might
have been called together in the course of the autumn.
He did not say that the great council of the nation
would have thrown fresh light upon the cure and
treatment of this disease, but he thought the mere
summoning of Parliament together would have in-
spired confidence at all events. It would have armed
Government with fresh powers if it had been found
necessary, it might have initiated a really good sys-
tem of national insurance, and it would have been
a fit and proper compliment to the great agricul-
tural interests of the country. Instead of this the
public had to wait two months before the Govern-
ment took any action whatever in the matter ; but
he supposed that we must not be too hard upon the
Government, as they had lately lost their mainstay,
Lord Palmerston. It was not for him (Lord E.
Cecil) to eulogise that great departed statesman,
whose only fault was that, being a Conservative, he
called himself a Liberal ; his (Lord E. Cecil's) pro-
vince was rather with the present. Of Lord Russell,
the present Premier, it might be said that at all
events he was no novice. We knew him very well,
perhaps too well—(laughter)--and it was not likely
that at the age of 73 he would alter either his con-
victions or his political career. He was the same
Lord John who upset the Derby Reform Bill in
1859, who three years ago was anxious to "rest and
be thankful," but who now, not content to let well
alone, had published a second edition of his work
on the English Constitution, and hinted at a Re-
form Bill. Did Lord Russell's antecedents justify
us in supposing that he would long continue to hold
the reins of office ? (A. Voice—Not at all likely.)
(Laughter.) Who, then, was the coming man?
Not Mr. Gladstone ; for much as he (Lord R. Cecil)
admired the right hon. gentleman's oratorical abili-
ties, he contended that his principles were not in
accordance with those of the Conservative party,
while his legislation had caused abitter feeling of dis-
content among the agricultural interest. Referring
to the prospects of Reform, the noble lord said the new
Parliament was elected as a Parliament of moderate
men, and it was not very likely that it would prove
more tolerant of a £6 franchise than its predecessors.
The time of Christmas pantomimes was coming, and
it was quite possible that we might have a political
pantomime quite as amusing as anything ever put
upon the stage. Probably there were actors at the
Westminster Theatre to whom the parts of Pantaloon
and Harlequin were not altogether strange. Whe-
ther the new Reform Bill with which we were menaced
were a classic extravaganza founded upon some
ancient Greek legend, or whether it were a screaming
farce founded upon some modern matter—whether
the prologue were spoken by Mr. Bright in some of
those dulcet tones in which he was fond of address-
ing the Conservative party—(laughter)—the path
of that party was very plain, and he believed that
they would show themselves superior to the love of
office, and simply aim at promoting the best inte-
rests of the country. (Cheers.)
Captain JERVIS, M.P., also very briefly addressed
the meeting, expressing his belief in the probability
of an early dissolution of Parliament.
Several other toasts followed, and the meeting
separated.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.-It is due to Governor Eyre, no less than
to public opinion in this country, that a full and •
searching inquiry should be made into the history
of the Jamaica rebellion, and we learn with the
utmost satisfaction that such an inquiry is to be
instituted forthwith. The announcement of this
intention by the Government should go far to
allay the excitement which still prevails on this
subject. Now that all the circumstances upon
which so many hypothetical verdicts have been
passed are about to be investigated impartially
for the first time, we may hope that our national
habit of not prejudging a case will resume its
sway once more. It cannot be too often repeated
that we are not yet in possession of sufficient infor-
mation to justify us either in acquitting or in con-
demning the civil and military authorities of the
colony. Almost the only official evidence that has
reached us is contained in the Governor's despatch
with its enclosures, in the report of his speech to
the Jamaica Legislature, and in the addresses of the
Legislaturlin reply to that speech. Private letters
and extrarts from colonial newspapers have, in-
deed, been published which undoubtedly betray a
degree of panic and of ferocity which does little
credit to their authors, but which is far from be-
ing reflected in the Governor's letter, composed
though it was on board ship, at broken inter-
vals, during a period of the greatest confusion and
anxiety. Similar passages might easily have been
culled from the Indian press and the military re-
ports of British officers during the Indian mutiny,
and we fear that language is often used by very
humane gentlemen at such a crisis which would
shock their best friends, not to say themselves, if it
were afterwards repeated in cool blood. The ques-
tion, however, is not one of expressions, but of facts,
and of these we know far less than the public has
been ledto believe. The number of executions, at first
stated at 200, then at 400, has been swelled to above
1,000, and at last to no less than 2,000. Even the
highest of these estimates may be correct, for the
simple truth is that we have no means yet of testing
its accuracy. By. putting together the results of
courts-martial reported from various quarters we
may form a very rough guess as to the probable
total, but that is all. Of the charges preferred
against the prisoners, and of the proofs, if any, by
which these charges wer© sustained, we are as yet
entirely ignorant, and ought, therefore, to suspend
our judgment. Even upon the material particulars
of Gordon's case, such as the place and time at which
his crime was alleged to have been committed, the
very nature of that crime, the names of the witnesses
against him, and the mode of proceeding adopted
by the Court that tried him, we remain utterly in
the dark. Again, for aught that we can tell, Bri-
gadier-General Nelson and Colonel Hobbs, though
complimented for their vigour in following up the
rebels, may subsequently have been censured or
punished for their too summary administration of
justice. It may be so, or it may not be so, and in
affirming or denying it we have as yet no better
guide than probability. While so much is uncertain,
it is safer, as well as fairer, not only to express no
opinion, but to entertain no opinion upon the two
questions which must be the main object of the
pending inquiry—first, whether anything could
warrant, and, secondly, whether the occasion did
warrant, the repressive measures actually employed
by the Jamaica Government. In the meantime, we
are not forbidden by any rule of fair play of dictate
of policy to compare those presumptions and facts
on either side which are really within our cognizance.
Foremost among the former is the previous character
of the persons accused of atrocities worse even than
those of the insurgents. Now, of the military officers
implicated we know little beyond their professional
qualifications, and it must be confessed that good
soldiers have often exhibited very loose notions of
equity and a merciless contempt for human life in
crushing native insurrections. But of Governor
Eyre himself, who expressly assumes the whole
responsibility for all that was done up to October 20,
it so happens that we do know something, and that
which we know directly rebuts the suspicion of
heartless cruelty. The man who has been denounced
as " a wholesale murderer and a Robespierre " is the
same man who was the protector of the aborigines
in South Australia, and who distinguished himself
by the defence of the very principles which he is now
charged with outraging. He is also a man who, by
the admission of his detractors, has given as high
proofs of courage as any other man alive, and who
therefore was eminently unlikely to lose his nerve
for a fortnight or three weeks together under the
pressure of an emergency, however terrible. It is
certainly not impossible that he may have done so ;
but we are dealing now only with probabilities, and
are driven to choose between the horns of an obvi-
ous dilemma. Either a public servant of tried cou-
rage and exemplary humanity was hurried, whether
by fear or the influence of evil connsellors, into
wanton barbarities, or he acted under the stress of
an overwhelming necessity which his critics have
failed to appreciate. We do not hesitate, until un-
deceived, to embrace the latter alternative, which is
strongly' confirmed, in our opinion, by the tone of
his own dispatch. There are some passages in this
document which require explanation ; there are
others which are open to fair exception ; but there
are none which give colour to the imputation of
unscrupulous cruelty. How can we reconcile the

imputation with such an appeal as the following :
—" I trust, sir, that you will fully bear these cir-
cumstances in mind, and that, in doing so, you will
not regard the just severity which has been exer-
cised otherwise than as a merciful substitute for the
much larger measure of punishment which would
have had to be executed had the rebellion been
allowed to gather head and extend itself." Far
be it from us to deny that a person may exhibit this
sense of responsibility and yet err greatly on the side
of rigour, but it is not easy to believe that so brave
a man as Governor Eyre, with these sentiments
present to his mind, would act and write, on purely
hearsay testimony, as though he stood on the brink
of a volcano. If conjecture is admissible, it is surely
a far more reasonable conjecture that a deep-laid
and wide-spread conspiracy really existed, and that,
with all the horrors of St. Domingo in their memo-
ries, the Governor and his advisers may have in-
ferred a plan for the massacre of whites from the

discovery of a plan for a gencralrising of the negroes,
coupled with the murderous scenes at Morant-bay.
Be this as it may, let us at least abstain from con-
founding several issues essentially distinct. Whether
the outbreak in St. Thomas's-in-the-East was an
isolated event, or, as Governor Eyre believes, the
first symptom of a preconcerted revolt ; whether it
was right or expedient to proclaim martial law
throughout the district ; whether the state of things
which ensued upon the proclamation deserves the
name of a Reign of Terror ; whether Col. Hobbs or
any other military officer hanged and flogged
" stragglers" without due trial ; whether Gordon
had really matured a plot like that of the sth of
November ; and whether, in any case, he could be
legally tried by a Court-martial,—all these and
many other points, though connected with each
other, must be discussed and settled independently.
For instance, it would not follow that because Go-
vernor Eyre overrated the extent and danger of the
prevailing disaffection he was wrong in approving
the execution of Gordon, or that if Col. Hobbs and
his troops took a brutal pleasure in the sufferings of
their victims it was shared and approved by the Go-
vernor. When the inquiry is concluded we shall
be prepared to hear that deeper motives than a
mere love of bloodshed actuated the savage mob at
Morant-bay. On the other hand, we decline to
attribute the misery and desperation of the blacks
solely to oppressive taxes and unjust legislation.
We have testimony from the most disinterested
sources to the contrary. The " Jamaica Baptist
Union," in reply to a circular from Governor Eyre,
in the course of last summer transmitted to him,
for the information of the Colonial-office, an able
and temperate Report on the condition of the
coloured population. This Report has recently been
republished by Dr. Underhill, and, while it endorses
generally his statements, it also furnishes his oppo-
nents with a remarkable confirmation of their argu-
ments. It does not disguise, but emphatically
asserts, the disputed fact, on which Mr. Cardwell
had strongly insisted in the despatch censured by
Gordon, " that a large measure of the poverty and
distress is attributable to indolence." Not only does
this remark recur again and again in the text of the
Report, but it is supported in an appendix by detailed
memoranda from Baptist ministers in various parts
of the island. Among the prominent causes of
poverty and crime, they all, with very few excep-
tions, specify the besetting vice of idleness. " Idle-
ness," " downright laziness," " negligence," " want
of energy," " want of industry," " want of thrifti-
ness," inveterate vagabondism, and a habit of prey-
ing on the provision-grounds of the more industrious,
are the almost universal complaint. Other and
artificial reasons are assigned for the prevalence of
distress, and it is to be hoped that such of them as
are real may be mitigated by the constitutional
change which has already been submitted to the
Colonial Legislature, and may be hastened by this
very inquiry. But no constitutional change will
enable a labouring population to subsist without
labour, and no enormities which may be brought
home to the planters by the inquiry can equal those
which the blacks, if left in possession of Jamaica,
would inflict on each other.
POST.—The intelligence brought by the Bombay
mail, published in our columns yesterday, is of an
earlier date than the telegram received about a fort-
night since announcing the termination of the war
in Bhootan. We are not surprised, therefore, at
reading of preparations for a campaign which has
now fortunately been rendered unnecessary. The
Dhurm and Deb Rajahs evidently felt convinced
that the Indian Government had resolved no longer

to be trifled with, and they had the good sense not
to provoke a war which might have cost them their
dominions. It was apprehended at the time the
mail left that one chief, the Tongsoo Penlow, might
prove troublesome, but there is no reason to doubt
that he gave his adhesion to the treaty concluded
about a fortnight later by Sir Bartle Frere. As to
the cause of quarrel between us and the Bhooteas,
perhaps not half a dozen persons out of the India-
office could accurately explain it. Under these circum-
stances, then, it is especially satisfactory to learn
that a war which, in any event, must have proved
troublesome and expensive, has come to an end.
Petty wars have at all times this inconvenience an-
nexed to them, that they neither bring profit nor
credit. And this was particularly the case in re-
spect to the war with Bhootan. The territory of
the enemy, though comparatively small in extent,
was almost inaccessible to an invading force, whilst
the physical difficulties which beset the path of our
troops were enhanced by the pestilential character
of the climate in the lowlands in which they were
compelled to operate. The actual occupation of
Bhootan was, in fact, never contemplated, and
nothing beyond the seizure of the passes communi-
cating with the plains appears to have been intended
by the Indian Government. But although our
operations were confined to the outskirts of the
territory of Bhootan, they were by no means so
successful as, considering our immense superiority,
we might have had reason to expect. On one of
the occasions on which our troops came in collision
with the Bhooteas the former were shamefully
worsted; and although we managed to secure and
hold some of the passes, the occupation of which
was the main object of the war, we did so at a
large cost of human life. Pestilence proved a
powerful ally to the hardy mountaineers, and the
latest accounts from the seat of war told us that
upwards of half our troops were prostrated by sick-
ness. Matters looked gloomy, when, without word
of preparation, the clouds were suddenly dispelled
by the cheering intelligence that hostilities had been
terminated, and a treaty signed between the belli-
gerents which, in its main provisions, recognises and
satisfies the demands of the Indian Government.
Our differences with Bhootan are of long standing,
and it cannot be suggested that the recent hostilities
were undertaken by us with any other object than
that of simply insuring from our neighbours that
respect for the persons and property of our fellow-
subjects who live on the confines of Bhootan which
we were fairly entitled to demand. Bhootan is
part of that extensive region which lies between
Bengal and Thibet, and forms a portion of the
declivity of that great alpine chain of which the
latter constitutes the table land. On the south the
country opens by a number of defiles and passes
into the plains of Bengal, and through these passes
alone the communications between the Bhooteas
and Bengalese are necessarily maintained. It is no
matter for surprise that the contiguity of these
plains should have furnished a temptation to
plunder too strong to be resisted, and from time
immemorial the Bhooteas were in the habit of
ravaging the low lands and carrying off. cattle,
crops, and prisoners into their mountain fast-
nesses. As British rule extendad in India, it
happened that our territory was carried to the
boundaries of Bhootan. But the Bhooteas had as
little respect for us as for our predecessors, and
before long we found ourselves under the necessity
of addressing reclamations to the Government of
Bhootan. A number of persons living under our
protection had been consigned to captivity, and
property to a considerable amount had been car-
ried off. Negotiations even more protracted and
more unsatisfactory than those with which the re-
cords of European diplomacy have made us familiar
followed. At length the Indian Government de-
cided on sending a special mission to Bhootan.
Mr. Ashley Eden was the envoy selected,. and he,
together with his suite, succeeded, after a toilsome
journey, in reaching the capital of Bhootan. His
mission was, however, worse than fruitless; for not
only did the authorities refuse to accede to his de-
mands, but they compelled him, under threats of
imprisonment, to sign a treaty purporting to convey
to the Sovereign of Bhootan a large portion of the
territory which had been the scene of the outrages
for which redress was demanded. This treaty was,
of course,"„repudiated by the Indian Government,
and the insult offered to their envoy, as well as the
persistent refusal of the Bhooteas to liberate their
captives, were made the grounds for an aggressive
war. As the only object of the Indian Government
was to afford protection to those who have become
English subjects, they proposed to annex so much
of the territory of Bhootan as would enable them
to guard against any future inroads. In the late
campaign this object was in part realised, but the
inconvenience of keeping a numerous force stationed
ia an unhealthy region exposed to harassing attacks
from the enemy had begun to be seriously felt. It
was therefore decided that the war should be car-
ried into the heart of the country, and such a blow
struck as would satisfy the Bhooteas of the folly of
protracting the war. The threat has proved effi-
cacious without being carried into effect. The peo-
ple of Bhootan know by hearsay, if not by personal
experience, that no native Power has been able to
withstand the prowess of the English arms, and they
have wisely resolved on concluding peace, while the
terms' offered are such as impose no serious penalty
for their former. misdeeds. Sir Bartle Frere and
the representatives of the Government of Bhootan
have accordingly concluded a treaty which it is rea-
sonable to hope will be faithfully observed by the
contracting parties, and which finally disposes of all
pre-existing grievances. The captives will be libe-
rated, a cession of territory will render further out-
rages improbable, if not impossible, and commercial
intercourse between Bhootan and British India will
be established on a satisfactory foundation. The
last-mentioned_provision of the treaty we regard as
the most important, since nothing tends so much to
preserve peaceful relations between States as the
sense of mutual advantage which is inspired by com-
mercial ties.