The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

afterwards served in the Netherlands and France
from April, 1814 to 18th of January, 1816, andwith
the army of occupation from August, 1816, toNov.,
1818 ; commanded the Rocket Troop, Royal Horse
Artillery, at Waterloo, and was severely wounded
in the left arm (Brevet majority and medal for the
battle). He was appointed to command the Royal
Artillery in the northern district in 1840, and com-
manded the troops in the four northern counties
during the disturbances among the manufacturing
and mining classes; was appointed Director-Gene-
ral of Artillery, March 10, 1852 ; Commandant of
the garrison of Woolwich, August 19, 1852 ; Major-
General, June 20, 1854 ; Colonel-Commandant of
a battalion, April 1, 1855 ; Lieut.-General, Junel,
1856 ; Colonel-Commandant of B Brigade, Royal
Horse Artillery, July 22, 1864, and General on
Dec. 10, 1864 ; was appointed a Knight of the
Royal Guelphic Order for distinguished military
services in 1823 ; a Knight Commander of the
Bath, Sept. 26, 1831; and a Commander of the
Bath, May 18, 1860.

The Corporation of London and the Jamaica
Commission.

Yesterday, at 1 o'clock, a special meeting of the
magistrates of the City of London, convened by the
Lord Mayor, was held at Guildhall to hear and take
into consideration a communication which had been
addressed to his lordship by Sir George Grey, the
Home Secretary. There was a large attendance of
the aldermen on the occasion, some of them having
come from the country to be present, it being under-
stood, though not so stated on the paper of business,
that the cause of their being summoned at a time
so unusual was the appointment of Mr. Russell
Gurney, M.P., Recorder of London, as a member
of the commission about to proceed to Jamaica, at
the instance of the Government, to investigate the
circumstances attending the recent revolt of the
negro population.
The Lord Mayor having assumed the chair, the
Town Clerk (Mr. Woodthorpe), at his request,
read the subjoined communication, which his Lord-
ship had received on Saturday from Her Majesty's
Secretary of State for the home Department :
" Whitehall, Dec. 22.
"My Lord,—l have the honour to transmit to
your Lordshipthe inclosed copy of a letter from the
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, inform-
ing me, by desire of Mr. Secretary Cardwell, that
Her Majesty's Government desire to appoint Mr.
Russell Gurney, Recorder of London, to act as a
Commissioner for inquiring into the recent lament-
able occurrences in Jamaica.
" I trust that your Lordship and the Corporation
of the city of London will feel at liberty to sanc-
tion the arrangement there proposed as to the Re-
corder. In that case, I request that your Lordship
will be so good as to inform me whether any steps
are considered to be necessary to provide for the
performance of the judicial or other duties of the
officer, in his absence, for which the assistance of
Her Majesty's Government is required.
"I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lord.
ship's obedient servant,

" G. GREY.

" The Right lion. the Lord Mayor."
The following is a. copy of the inclosure from Mr.
Elliot to Mr. Waddington in the foregoing letter,

which the Town Clerk also read :

"Downing-street, Dec. 21.
" Sir,—l am directed by Mr. Secretary Cardwell
to inform you that Her Majesty's Government de-
sire to secure the very valuable services of lilr.
Russell Gurney, Recorder of London, to act as a
Commissioner for inquiring into the recent lament-
able occurrences at Jamaica. _ _ _

" In order that Mr. Russell Gurney should pro-
ceed to Jamaica on this mission, the concurrence of
the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London will
be necessary. It will also be requisite that arrange-
ments should be made for supplying his place as
Recorder, and Her Majesty's Government would,
of course, bear such expense as would be imposed on
the Corporation of London by this necessity.
" I am to request that you would move Secretary
Sir George Grey to apply for the consent of the
Lord Mayor and Corporation of London to the
acceptance of this mission by the Recorder, and to
request that the Lord Mayor would have the good-
ness to communicate either with Sir George Grey
or Mr. Cardwell as to the consequent pecuniary
arrangements.—l am, &c.,
" T. FnEDK. ELLIOT."
The LORD MAY on, addressing the Court, said he
thought it his duty to tell them that the first letter
he received on the subject was from Mr. Cardwell,

dated the 20th of December, and although it was

marked " private," the substance of it was neither
more nor less than what they had already heard

read by the Town Clerk. The reply he sent to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies was to the effect
that if lie would request Sir George Grey to write
him (the Lord Mayor) an official communication on
the subject, he should take the first opportunity of
placing it before his brethren of the Court of Alder-
men. On Saturday he received the letter from Sir
George Grey which had just been read to the Court,
and availing himself of the opportunity afforded by
a Committee of the Court of Aldermen sitting on
that day at Guildhall, he saw and discussed the sub-
ject with them, and, acting on their advice, he had
convened this Special Court—to the inconvenience,

he feared, of some of its members at this festive

season. He then wrote a letter to Sir G. Grey,
stating that he had convened a Special Court on the
subject, and in that letter he took the liberty to
state that he felt great disappointment that he (the
Lord Mayor) was without any communication from
the learned Recorder himself on the matter. He
would take that opportunity of saying that he knew
no man in that great city or out of it for whom he
had so sincere a regard as for the Recorder and for
his distinguished qualities, and ho was satisfied
that whatever public duty the learned gentleman
might deem it his duty to undertake the result
would be for the benefit of his fellow-citizens in

some way or other. (Hear.) lie could not, how-
ever, refrain from expressing his disappointment—
and he did so with the most unfeigned regret—that
any negotiation by a public officer of the corpora-
tion should have been carried on with the Govern-
ment or with any otherbody, in reference to an ap-
pointment, without some communication being first
made to the City of London. He (the Lord Mayor)
had had a conversation on the matter that day with
the learned gentleman, who would have an oppor-
tunity of entering into any explanation ho pleased
to make ; but, notwithstanding that conversation,
he was bound to say his sentiments on the subject
were unchanged. He hoped the Court would con-
cur with him (the Lord Mayor) in what he had
done, and having said that much he would leave
the learned Recorder to answer for himself.
The RECORDER said he was very sorry that any-
thing which had taken place in relation to this matter
should have given umbrage to the Lord Mayor;
but the course that he (the Recorder) had taken on
the occasion had been perfectly plain. Not many
daoyvse agor
ni en
t, n ehet , received a communication from the
G
expressing a wish to appoint him a
member of the Commission, but he at once refused,
stating as a reason for declining that his duties in
connection with the Corporation of London were
so onerous that he could not devote the necessary
time to the proposed inquiry. Having said so much
he thought the matter was at an end. The Govern-
ment,
however, seemed to attachsormert o
himself importance
to the matter—he hardly liked to refer
personally in connection with it—and they stated
that they would apply to the corporation to absolve
him for a time from the discharge of his ordinary
duties. His reply was that that was a course to
which he could not give any assent —(cheers)—but
if they could make any arrangement with the
corporation which should be satisfactory to all par-
ties, he would accept the appointment. Upon that
understanding he had accepted it, but most unwil-
lingly, seeing that it implied the discharge of a most
anxious and painful duty. (Hear, hear.) He had
done it, however, from no wish of his own, but
simply from its having been placed before him as
part of a public duty. (Hear, hear.) The Re-
corder added, in reply to Mr. Alderman Sidney
as to how long he might absent from the
country, that the voyage there and back would oc-
cupy about five weeks, and that his impression was
that the inquiry would last about six weeks more,
though that would depend upon the time they got
to work, for there were some preliminary steps to be
taken in the colony before they could begin. He
thought, perhaps, he might be absent until about
the middle of April, butthe Court was quite as com-
petent as he was to form an opinion on that point.
1 Dlr. Alderman COPELAND (the senior member of