The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The law's delay was, in the opinion of
the Prince of Denmark, one of the thousand natural
ills which might drive a man to shake off the bur-
den of life, unless he were restrained by the fear of
something after death. But this curse, so oppres-
sive to humanity generally, seems to be a blessing
to one particular class—the political evildoers in a
free country, with a fair supply of money and clever
lawyers to back them. The legal advisers of the
Crown in Ireland, and all who are concerned in the
prosecution of the Fenians, must expect to have a
difficult time of it. If the gentlemen who have
" virtually established" the Irish Republic had shown
as much skill in their political and military arrange-
ments as they have in their legal proceedings since
their capture they might have given the Govern-
ment much trouble. The difference probably arises
from the circumstance that their acts were their
own, while their defence has been the work of
their lawyers. At any rate, they are now bent on
proving what endless facilities a traitor has for
defying the law even under the despotic sway of
Queen Victoria. The lesson taught by O'Connell
has not been lost on his more democratic successors.
That agitator used to boast that he could drive a
coach-and-six through an Act of Parliament.
People, with all their respect for his astuteness, and
while giving due credit to the ambiguities of Irish
law, which in glorious uncertainty probably sur-
passes that administered in this island, thought that
he exaggerated, and it was left to the last years of
his life to prove that he had not overrated his
powers. The history of the famous traversers, their
protracted trial, and their final escape are still fresh
in the recollection of their countrymen, who, with
the help of the clever lawyers whom Dublin still
maintains, are determined to fight the Government
at all points. The Fenians are not content with de-
fending themselves; they assume the aggressive, and
advance to the attack with a spirit which might well
disconcert their opponents and puzzle the twelve
judges, who have not seen such a flood of political
litigation since they were on the Bench. There are
proceedings against the Lord-Lieutenant, against
the police, against Sir John Gray. Though the
Fenians have all the authoritative and influential
classes against them, though the Roman Catholic
' priests denounce them more bitterly than Protestant
' rectors would dare to do, though the Freeman's
Journal vituperates them and the Nation describes
the arrest of their chief in contemptuous terms,
though, above the level of their own deluded fol-
lowers, they have not a friend in the country, yet the
law takes them under its protection, and the insti-
tutions they have vilified and sought to destroy
prevent the strongest Government in Europe from
depriving them of a single chance of escape. The
courts are occupied day after day with their proceed-
ings against her Majesty's representative, and it is
even said that the case of " Luby v. the Lord-Lieu-
tenant," in which a certiorari was yesterday refused
in the Queen's Bench, will be brought into the Ex-
chequer by the service of new writs on Lord Wode-
house. As there are plenty of Lubys ready and
willing to worry the authorities, it is not impossible
that the Castle will have to stand on its defence
against a whole series of Fenian actions. It is an
interesting spectacle, which we may recommend to
the notice of our critics in either hemisphere. The
Russian organs which compare Ireland with Poland,
and think that the present action of the Irish Go-
vernment is the counterpart of the Russian pro-
ceedings in 1863, will do well to compare the sim-
plicity of General Berg's martial law with the
technical procedure which has just occupied the
three common Law Courts in Dublin. The Special
Commission opens on Monday next. Great prepa-
rations have been made by the Government ; the
cases against the prisoners, we presume, are com-
plete, and in the natural course of things the trials
might be over before Christmas. But the Fenians
were not all inclined to allow the Government to
get rid of them so easily. A motion was made in
the Queen's Bench yesterday on behalf of Luby,
O'Leary, and Donovan Rossa for a writ of cer-
tiorari to remove any indictment that may be
found against them at the Special Commission on
the ground that a fair and impartial trial cannot
be had in Dublin. If such a motion had been suc-
cessful, it would, of course, have been useless for
the Special Commission to sit at all, as every
Fenian would have the same right to have his trial
postponed. The grounds on which this modest
request was made were that articles have been
published in the newspapers against the Fenian
body, and also that Archbishop Cullen has de-
nounced their proceedings in a Pastoral. But if
prisoners accused of treasonable practices are to
have their trials postponed, and the Commission
for trying them virtually superseded, because the
public reprobates treason, it is difficult to see how
justice is ever to be administered at all. It is not
likely that three months hence any more than to-
day the heads of the Romish Church and the loyal
newspapers will cease to express opinions adverse
to Fenianism, and as the prisoners are the chief
representatives of Fenianism in the country, and
are to be tried for being so, such expressions of
opinion must continue to prejudice loyal jurymen
against them. In the case of any mysterious and
horrible crime, like that of the poisoner Palmer,
it may be well to postpone the case and send it
out of the county for trial, because in the
neighbourhood the matter has been discussed and
argued with violence and obstinacy, and a great
number of people have expressed opinions on the
evidence which they may, perhaps, shrink from re-
tracting. But in such a prosecution as the present
there could be no such reason. Everybody is con-
versant with and takes an interest in the matter,
nor is it likely that one part of the country will be
more or less prejudiced than another. If there be
a difference, it is probably in favour of the greater
fairness and impartiality of the capital, since the
population of a large city is more mixed, and likely
to yield juries of more moderate principles.
The Queen's Bench, we are glad to see, have
unanimously refused the writ of certiorari, and
the trials will, we suppose, proceed, unless some
new pretext for delay can be devised. In what-
ever way the prosecutions may end, the object
of the Government and of all quiet people will
be practically attained. Fenianism has failed.
President O'Mahony and his Cabinet may collect
their ten-cent notes, and the Senate may sit in
secret or public session from one month's end to
another ; but on thi#side of the water the thing is
dead. The recent movement has demonstrated the
good sense and loyalty of the educated class in Ire-
land, to whatever Church or shade of politics it may.
belong. Those appeals to the passions of the igno-
rant, of the effects of which we have just had such a
terrible example iu another part of the world, are
now, happily, things of the past in Ireland. Every
respectable man, whether he calls himself Orange-
man or Ultramontane, now feels that it is his duty to
impress on all whom he can influence the necessity
of living in peace with his neighbours of the rival
creed, and the most extreme of them are less ex-
treme in their acts than in their hereditary opinions.
The efforts cf the British Government to convince
the people of its own just intentions, and of the good
will of the inhabitants of Great Britain towards
them, have made way after thirty years of incre-
dulity. The Irish know they have no burdens on
their industry, no obstacles to their success in life ;
that any constitutional anomalies . that remain are
mere relics of the past, with little practical signi-
ficance, and that even these there is little indis-
position on the part of England to remove.
" THE FARMER " ON AUTUMNAL ROSES.—Some
little discussion has lately been raised by the ques-
tion, " Is the rose a florist flower ?" Unquestion-
ably it is ; and, moreover, no plant or tribe of
plants has received longer-continued or more uni-
versal and careful attention at the hands of florists,
and in none other has the triumphs of floriculture
been more successfully and gorgeously developed.
Our present object is not, however, to inflict a rose
treatise upon our readers, but merely to throw out
a few plain and simple hints for their guidance in
managing autumnal flowering roses. " The twice
blooming roses of Pasturn" are often referred to in
the writings of Roman authors, but they seem to
have been only single, or at most barely semi-
double varieties, belonging to the Highly flagrant

damask section ; and although noticed by our
earliest British writers little improvement or
increase in their number was effected till after
the beginning of the present century; and even
now they are comprised in that very limited class
denominated damask perpetuals, the so-called per-
petuity of which consists in their producing a
scanty after-crop of flowers, the duration of which
seldom extends beyond the summer-like weather of
early autumn. To the introduction of the china,
tea, and evergreen roses from the flowery lands of
the east, and the mixture of their oriental blood
with that of the old Provenge, Gallic, and other
hardy roses of Europe, we owe our splendid modern!
races of autumnal roses, of which even that now
most important tribe " the hybrid perpetuals " had ;
no existence till the second quarter of the present
century. The first of these eastern beauties, the
original "bluish China," or, as it used to be fami-
liarly called, " the monthly rose," was introduced
to England in 1789, exactly ten years after the
birth of Tom Moore, the famous lyric poet of
Erin ; and as its growth was long restricted
to the greenhouse, without any place being
allotted for it in the rosebeds of the garden, it may
be presumed that when he wrote his charmingly
pathetic song, " 'Tis the last rose of summer, left
blooming alone ; all her lovely companions" were
" faded and gone" at what a modern rose grower
would consider an early period of the season, and
one at which he would expect to see his rosery
stocked with a profusion of gaiety, richness, and
depth of colouring which the roses of former days
never possessed. Little wonder, then, that au-
tumnal roses should have become such universal fa-
vourites, even notwithstanding some drawbacks or
deficiencies which they undoubtedly possess, the
chief among which is their want of hardiness ; and
to such an extent does this defect exist, that in the
case of many of the Chinas and teas they cannot be
trusted out, even in ordinary winters ; while most
of the others, either when well-trained or grown in
the open ground, are liable to be cut dote by our
occasionally rigorous winters, in which the mini-
mum temperatures fall to, or nearly to, zero
of Fahrenheit. And, certainly, to the enthu-
siastic rosarian who has prided himself on the
possession of his unique gable covering, yellow
China, his long, high, and fully clothed wall of Isle
Bourbons and hybrid perpetuals, his clumps or beds
of well-grown dwarfs, large spreading-headed stan-
dards, and handsome pillar roses, nothing can be
more vexatious or disheartening than having them
all disfigured or destroyed ; while, as if taunting
him for their unmerited neglect, the hardy moss,
cabbage, French, Scotch, Ayrshire, and other old
loves, seem, by their varied and exuberant summer
grandeur to say—" Compare us now with the
objects of your recent admiration, for which we
were despised and forgotten." No florist would
think of leaving a favourite dahlia throughout the
winter in the ground, where it had been admired
when adorned with summer and autumn bloom ;
and yet many would peril the existence of a still
more highly prized rose, rather than be troubled
by expending for its safety less manage-
ment and care than is required to preserve
the dahlia root safely through the dangers of
'winter. In the case of tree or standard, as well as
dwarf border roses, nothing further is required than
to take them up carefully in November. A top
covering should be temporarily applied to exclude
heavy rains, which might injure the small roots by
over-saturating the soil. The mere act of lifting
the plants tends, by lessening their internal sap, to
fit them better for withstanding frost; and by
placing them in a cool northerly exposure, their
spring growth is much retarded, an object of con-
siderable Chiportance in the alternating frosty and
warm weather at that season. Pot-culture is spe-
cially adapted for the growth and easy winter pre-
servation of the tender dwarf roses, such as teas,
Chinas, &c. The pots should be plunged in a cool
northerly exposure during that season, and pro-
tected as before described. In thus advocating the
cultivation of autumnal roses, it is by no means in-
tended to detract from the peculiar and unsurpassed
merits of the hardy summer flowering sorts, many
of which stand far in advance of the autumnals for
form, colour, and fragrance, to say nothing of the
early flowering, mossy, and other peculiarities of
some—qualities which should always secure for
them a large share of space in the rosarium, as
well as in the shrubbery, and even in woodlands,
rocky banks, and waste grounds.

THE " ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES" ON THE NEGRO
RIOTS IN JAMAICA.—The late outbreak in Jamaica,
and the stern measures adopted by the local Govern-
ment to suppress N% hat was generally regarded as a
rebellion havingfor its object the extermination of all
the whites on the Island, has been the principal
theme of comment by the English Press during the
last week. The action of Governor Eyre and his
subordinates has been characterised by a portion of
the Press as judicious and praiseworthy, while
another party denounce his acts as those of a
monster of tyranny, like the Duke of Alva, or
Colonel Kirke, or Marshal Haynau. We propose
to review, as briefly as the circumstances will per-
mit, the facts before us regarding the outbreak
itself and the extraordinary measures taken to
repress it, and then to form an opinion as to the
moral responsibility of the authorities of Jamaica
for the scenes of bloodshed and horror which have
so disgraced that island, and so stirred the deepest
feelings of the whole British people. We
think it is not now a pertinent question whether
the negroes of Jamaica had or had not reason-
able grounds of discontent. It is claimed, on the
one hand, that they were the victims of severe and
unjust taxation, and that they were ground down
and oppressed by the dominant race. On the other
hand, it is stated that they have been unable to
make out even a shadow of a provocation, much
less a justification or reason, for rebellion. It is
probable that the mean between these two extremes
will best describe their actual condition. That they
had grievances cannot be denied ; that the remedy
for those grievances was in their own hands is
equally clear. But it is a question—and a very
serious question—whether the late outbreak in
Jamaica was simply an unpremeditated riot, or
whether it was a deliberate attempt on the part of
the black majority to destroy their white rulers and
to gain possession of the Island. On this point
rests the whole controversy. If Governor Eyre
adopted those stern and retaliatory measures simply
to repress an insignificant riot, he ought to be
held rigidly accountable for excess of duty ; if he
had good reason to believe that an organised rebel-
lion threatened the peace of the Island and the
security of the white inhabitants, he did no more
than his duty in adopting the ernest and most
uncompromising measures to put down that
rebellion at its very inception. We all know
the peculiarities of the negro race. Under
proper subjection and control they are sub-
missive and harmless. Amiable and affectionate
in disposition, highly imaginative and religious,
they are strongly susceptible to good influences ;
they possess strong attachments, and can be
educated into habits of industry and usefulness.
But these very traits of character which, pro-
perly regulated and controlled, make the negro
a good citizen, are elements of danger. His natu-
ral instincts are licentious and cruel. His passions
once aroused, he becomes a fiend in human shape.
With him, at such a time, no appeal to reason and
to moderation would be effectual. It is no wonder,
then, that upon the breaking out of the riot in
Jamaica, a panic should have seized upon the white
inhabitants, and that those in authority should have
been tempted into measures which seem unne-
cessarily cruel and vindictive to those removed
from the scene of disturbance. We cannot
believe, however, that the execution of Mr.
Gordon was justified by the circumstances. He
was a man of property, a prosperous citizen, and
a member of the Legislature. It is not claimed by
Governor Eyre that he actually identified himself
in person with the "rebels." He is simply accused
of having been an instigator of rebellion, and of
having made seditious speeches in and out of the
Legislative Assembly. He was in Kingston when
the riot broke out, and on leaping that he was
suspected of complicity with the so-called rebel-
lion he instantly gave himself up to the autho-
li rities. He was taken from Kingston to the dis-
turbed district, there tried .by a drum-head court-
martial, and with shocking and shameless pre-
cipitancy dragged to the gallows. We much
mistake the temper of the English people
and the justice of the British Government, if this
act of high-handed tyranny on the part of the
Jamaica authorities is not speedily made the
subject of a strict investigation. It is a new
doctrine that a man should be put to death for
the utterance of his opinions, however erroneous
they may be. From all the evidence yet before
us, we can see no reason for hanging Mr. G.
W. Gordon, which would not apply equally to Mr.
John Bright. Mr. Gordon, it appears, told the ne-
groes of Jamaica, who form the great bulk of the popu-
lation, that they were denied their just rights. Mr.
John Bright speaks the same language to the
working-men of England. Mr. G. W. Gordon
claimed that it was infamous to inflict corporeal
punishment for petty offences, and that the tread-
mill, as introduced and kept up in Jamaica, was a
diabolical institution. Mr. John Bright has no
occasion to declaim against corporeal punishment
and treadmills in England, but he has always advo-
cated the elevation of the working-man in the social
scale, and the levelling of the false distinctions of
aristocracy. If G. W. Gordon was an agitator in
Jamaica, John Bright is an agitator in England ;
and, so far as yet appears from the evidence, the
former deserved hanging as little as the latter.
tiV e make these remarks simply on the evidence
before us. It is possible that further details from
Jamaica may lend_ consistency and colour to the

accusations brought against the late Mr. Gordon,
and furnish some excuse for the shocking and high-
handed procedure which consigned him to a felon's
death ; but in the absence of all evidence, except
the unsupported assertions of Governor Eyre, we
cannot but feel that the execution of Mr. Gordon
was an act which, if not immediately disowned,
will cover the British Government and the Bri-
tish nation with ignominy and disgrace. We dis-
miss with a single remark the coarse fling of
the Times and other journals at the Baptists of
Jamaica. That they, as a body, had any thing to
do with the late outbreak is simply absurd. It is
quite possible that individual members of the
Baptist persuasion may have been implicated in
the riot, but there is no more reason for holding
the Baptists, as a body, responsible for these dis-
turbances than for holding the Presbyterian
Church of Scotland responsible for the death of the
late Mrs. Pritchard because Doctor Pritchard
happened to be a Presbyterian.

The Wigan Murder.

EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONER.

Yesterday, at the Moot-hall, Wigan, the prisoner
Thomas Walton, in custody charged on his own
confession with being concerned in the Button-pit
murder at Haigh, near Wigan, in January, 1863,
was brought up for examination. His appearance
was far from prepossessing, his sunken eyes and
overhanging forehead giving him the look of a per-
son of very low mental capacity, but the numerous
remarks which he made from the dock proved that
he was by no means destitute of education.
The first witness called was Alex. Shepherd,
keeper of a beerhouse at the Top Lock, Aspull. He
said that on Nov. 13 the prisoner came to him and
stated that he had taken part in the murder of Bar-
ton at the Button-pit, Haigh, in 1863, and a police-
man entering the house shortly afterwards the pri-
soner was given into custody.
Elias Worthington, police officer, stationed at
Aspull, said—On the 13th of the present month I
went to the beerhouse kept by Alexander Shepherd,
and called Thomas Walton out of the kitchen into
the bar parlour. I asked him what he had been
saying about Barton's murder, and he said,
" John Healey knows nothing about it, and I
can prove it at his trial. Who shot the dog of
Barry on the 18th Dec., 1860 ?" I said, "I do not
know." He said, " I do. Who committed the
robbery and assault at the Standish Paper-mills in
1862?" I said, " I know nothing about it." He
said. " I do. The watchman was sleeping in one
corner of the room. I opened the door and found
no money. The watchman wakened up, and I
struck him with the stave of a barrel. The night
Barton was murdered a party of us was drinking at
a beerhouse called Dychers, in Wigan-lane. We
were drinking there up to shutting-up time, and we
brought some beer away with us and sat down in a
lane to drink it. While we were there a man came
in the direction of Chorley, and I asked him where
he was going. He said he did not know—anywhere.
We asked him to drink, and he sat down drinking
for some time. We afterwards went to the Bawk-
house-pit, where we found Barton with two 'lumps
of coal in his hands. Barton said to one of the party
(name mentioned), ' You will not see me put on,'
and he replied, I will, for you have been telling
tales.' Barton said, 'I have not.' He was knocked
down and then thrown down the slack-hole, and I
opened the door of the furnace while the others put
him in. Barton was not murdered for the sake of his
watch and money, but more for the sake of revenge,
and because we suspected him of telling tales to the
keepers and to an assistant-keeper named Draper."
I (witness) asked him who the men were who were
there, and he said, " I dare not tell you ; if I do I
shall be shot. I saw one of the men two years ago
in Runcorn, in Cheshire. He said to me, ' What
news ?' and I told him, and he said, If you tell
anything you will be shot." Prisoner mentioned
the name of the man who, he said, struck Barton
down with a lump of iron, and then continued,
" When we came away we brought the watch with
us, and one of the men remarked that now we had
done for Barton we must make away with his watch.
The watch was ' chucked' into the canal near Pen-
dlebury-bridge." Subsequently the prisoner said
that the woman who stated she saw four men on the
night of the murder was wrong. There were only
three of them together.
Police-sergeant Gardiner stated that when he re-
ceived the prisoner into custody he said that the man
in Kirkdale charged with the crime was innocent.
If he was there, he was invisible. If he had been
there, he (prisoner) must have seen him. Witness
told him he should have to lock him up on the charge,
when he said " You are taking me my last journey.
I shall have to be hung for this."
It appeared that the prisoner was not quite sober
when he made the bulk of the statements, and he
now informed the court that he did not know whe-
ther he had said the words or not. If he had said
them, they were lies. It was, however, stated
that next morning when quite sober be refused
to deny the truth of his story. Since the apprehen-
sion of the prisoner the police have been hard at
work collecting evidence which will either corrobo-
rate or refute the confession, principally with re-
gard to the persons Walton has implicated, whose
names for obvious reasons have net been made
public. Superintendent Ellison stated that he was
in hopes they might learn something more in a few
days, and he asked for a remand for a week. This
was granted, and the prisoner has been removed to
Kirkdale.

We may state that the story is received in Wigan
with far more credence than was attached to the
confession of Healey, who now lies in Kirkdale
awaiting the assizes.