The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-04 00:00:00

Feb. 14.

" Sir, —The course of events in conection with the
recent disturbances in Jamaica has been so far run
that I feel I may now without dishonour, and with-
out the possibility of its being suggested that my
present action is dictated by the idea of influencing
those events, address you with reference to the cor-
respondence which passed between us some time ago,
and which you considered yourself justified in pub-
lishing. You are perhaps aware that the publication
of those letters led to my being superseded iu the
command of one of her Majesty's ships. You are
also perhaps aware that the worst that the party
who disapproved the conduct of her Majesty's offi-
cers engaged in the suppression of the Jamaica re-
bellion could do has been carried out against me.
You will thus see that I have nothing to bespeak by
now writing to you in explanation of the letterwhich
I formerly addressed to you. Nothing I now say
can make any difference in the ultimate result of the
action which has been taken ; the matter has been
taken out of the hands of us both by the publica-
tion of the letters which passed between us. I con-
sider myself free, under the circumstances, to make
a few remarks upon the causes which led to my first
addressing you, and to express to you what upon
due consideration I think is right, my regret at
having written to you in a style which I frankly
admit should never have been used by one gentle-
man to another, or indeed to any one.
" Having said this much, let ma tell you the cir-
cumstances under which I wrote. The insurrection
having broken out in Jamaica, and martial law
having been proclaimed, it happened that I was
senior naval officer stationed at ➢lorant Bay, and
bad to take the office of president of the court-mar-
tial appointed to try those charged with participa-
tion in the insurrection. The duty was an extremely
unpleasant one. I had no choice as to accepting it,
and I discharged it to the best of my ability, and
obtained the approval of those officers to whom I
was immediately responsible, of the local authori-
ties in Jamaica, the thanks of the Assembly, the
approval of the Naval Commander-in-Chief of the
station, of the Lords of the Admiralty, who with-
held the expression of their opinion until after the
publication of the report of the Royal Commission,
and which report aiso compliments me upon the
way in which the courts-martial at Morant Bay
were conducted. It was when, conscious of having
done my duty to the best of my ability, and strong
in the approval of all my superiors, to whom alone
I was responsible, that I received the report of your
letter and speeches. I felt that to be accused of
levity as president, of inhumanity, and of being lost
to all generous youthful impulse, and to all sense of
personal honour, and of being the common hang-
man, was hard lines. I felt these accusations very
keenly, the more so that I could have no chance of
answering them. I, therefore, being at the time
unassisted by any friend, and being surrounded by
those who, besides knowing all the state of affairs
in Jamaica, were as conscious as I was of the extent
to which your charges were incorrect, and were in-
dignant for me at the aspersions cast upon me, wrote
the letter which I addressed to you in the month of
August. I have since learned enough to convince
me that you could not have been actuated by any
other than an honest conviction that you were ful-
filling a public duty, and stating what you believed
to be true.

"I, therefore, regret that I should have written
to you as I did, and I feel sure that if you are not
already convinced that the heavy charges against
me we►e not well founded, you will before long be
assured of the fact by the issue of the proceedings
which have been' taken against me, and upon which
I will not now comment.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, " 11. BEAND.

"Charles Buxton, Esq., M.P.,
Grosvenor-crescent."

"7, Grosvenor-croseent, S.W., Feb. IS, 1867.

" Sir,—l have received your letter of Feb. 14, and
I cordially accept the very cordial find handsome
apology which it contains. Let me assure you,
however, that I hardly considered your letters in
their relation to myself, but published them (with
your express permission) solely because I thought
they would advance the cause I had at heart.
" Will you permit Inc to notice that on one point
your memory deceives you. The expressions of
mine, which you quote as having provoked you into
writing your first letter to me, were uttered by me
on the night of July 31, and appeared in the news-
paper reports of August 1, and could not have
reached you until long after Aug :st 8, the day on
which you wrote from Jamaica. In fact that letter
only alludes to a remark addressed by me to the
Jamaica committee in declining to share in the
prosecution of Mr. Eyre.
" The words you now quote were, I admit, ex-
tremely harsh, and my first impulse on reading
your letter of last Thursday was to express my re-
gret at having spoken of you in such terms. But
on reading the statement which wrung from me
those expressions of indignation I Llt it impassible
to withdraw, unless, indeed, you should be able to
show that I had been misled as to the facts of the
case. In your first letter to me you allege that
what had been said against you was false, and iu
your letter of Thursday you speak of the extent to
which my charges were incorrect.' Now, I can
assure you, that it would be an inexpressible relief,
not only to me but to many thousands of English-
men, if it could be proved that the alleged acts had
not been really committed ; cr that they were
necessary in order to put down the alleged insur-
rection, instead of having been done (as Mr. Eyre's
despatches seem to demonstrate), after every shadow
of danger had passed away. I think, therefore,
I had better subjoin the report of what I stated
with regard to :our courts-martial, and if you will
show me that I exaggerated or coloured any part
of the case, or that I omitted any palliation which
it would have been fair to mention, I pledge myself
to offer you an ample and sincere apology.
" I rp, Sir, your obedient servant,
" CHARLES BUXTON.
"The statement was as follows. I said :

" Now, let us turn to what took place under the
direct superintenlmce of the authorities. What a
relief must it be to pass from the sickening scenes
at Manchioncal and Moncklauds to the administra-
tion of justice under oil and experienced soldiers
like General O'Connor and Brigadier-Gen. Nelson,
nay, under the very eye of the Governor himself ?
Here again, starting with Friday, Oct. 20, we find
that on that day, at Morant Bay alone, 19 persons
were hanged. The next day, Saturday, 18 were
hanged. Oa Monday 19, including poor Mr. Gor-
don. On Tuesday 14, Wednesday 10, Thursday 13,
Friday 13, and Saturday 11. On the following
Monday, Oct. 30, 18 days after the outbreak, 12 ;
on Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15, and still late. 23
more persons were hanged. I say persons,' because
I grieve to say 7 of those who were hanged were
women. Now, it may be supposed that the 189
persons who day after day were sent to the hang-
man at Morant Bay alone had been guilty of aiding
at least in the slaughter of Europeans. That was
not so. Except 25, they were not so much as accused
of baying been engaged in any murder, but onl,r of
rebellion, and of these rebels three were women
Mary Ann Francis, and Letitia
Jasti na Taylor,
ri-20iiegan. 'Well, now, boar in mind that these
160 more persons, men and tvoinui, consigned to
the gallows at this one plteeand by this one tribun 1,
were simply charged with rebellion, were not even
rebels taken red-handed, in armed resistance to
authority, and their trial was conducted by three
youths, Lieut. Brand, a: listed by Lieut. Errington
or Liut. Taylor, and Ensign Kelly or Ensign Cele,
17110 commenced their proceedings at 11 in the morn-
in.., finished them in the afternoon, and then, says
Brand, in his flippant and shameful evidence, he
went off to his dinner,' while the pox' wretches
whom he had been condemning were put to death,
°Lea under circumstances of shocking torture.
Lieut. Errington, who superintended 130 executions,
describes how occasionally the sailors had to assist
the poor wretches W death, pulling them by the

neck or pushing the knot down closer to the neck,
and we are told elsewhere, though not officially,
that sometimes large stones were put upon their
necks to put au eud to their fearful struggles.
But now here is another frightful fact. On the
30th of October Governor Eyre officially pro--
claimed that ' the wicked rebellion lately existing in
certain parts of the county of Surrey had been sub-
dued.' He adds— The chief instigators thereof
and actors therein have been visited with the
punishment due to their heinous offences, and I am
certified that the inhabitants of the districts lately
in rebellion are desirous of returning to their
allegiance.' Now will it be believed that on and
after the day of the publication of these words
more than a hundred negroes were executed, of
whom 61 were executed at Morant Bay with the
express sanction and approval of Brigadier Nelson?
It will be said, no doubt, these men who were put
to death after this solemn proclamation of the
Governor must, of course, have been murderers.
That was not so. Of the 64 men hanged at Mo-
rant Bay after the publication of this amnesty, 46
were charged with rebellion only, not of any com-
plicity in any murder. But beside all these, 202
persons were flogged at Morant Bay alone, and
great numbers were also condemned to long terms
of imprisonment. Now in a very few cases it has
been possible to discover that three persons were
hanged merely for having taken a part in the petty
local riot some time before the outbreak at Morant
Bay ; three others were convicted on affidavits made
behind their backs by persons who might perfectly
well have given their evidence in open court. Five
persons were convicted at Port Antonio on the un-
confirmed testimony of a man who had himself just
been sentenced to death as a spy ; and actually one
of the persons thus convicted on the evidence of the
condemned man had been oue of the witnesses
against him. In another case one of the grave
charges brought against the prisoner was that he
had latterly been much opposed to the respectability
of the parish. This charge was made by a petty
local officer. What a shocking crime ! Opposed
to the respectability of the parish ! Possibly to
Bumbledoin itself. And this man was hanged on
the very day when Governor Eyre was writing
that the rebellion had been got under long
before. But now let me give a single
specimen of Lieutenant Brand's administration
of justice. On the 3d of November, some days after
the proclamation of amnesty, Lieut. Brand's court-
martial tried seven men and hanged them. Not a
single one of the seven was so much as accused of
any complicity in any murder, but only of rebellion,
and one of them of treason. Let us select the case
of this traitor. We have an official minute of his
trial. The leading witness against him was Mr.
Georges, and Mr. Georges himself mentioned as part
of his accusation that the prisoner had used some
insolent words of himself. Now, Mr. Georges had
been convicted on several occasions of assaults and
other offences against the negroes about him. How-
ever, his main charge against Samuel Clarke was,
that in July, three months before this outbreak, at
one of the so-called Underhill meetings, Clarke used
some words of a seditious character. The reporter
who was at the meeting also came forward to give
evidence against Clarke, and gave an account of his
speech, which also might have been regarded as
indicating disaffection, but then the reporter and
Mr. Georges gave a perfectly different account of
what he had said. But then, in addition to this,
Mr. Georges declared that when Mr. Cardwell's
reply to the Underhill meetings was posted up this
man Clark() actually said of it, It's a lie ;
neither the Queen nor Mr. Cardwell have ever seen
the petition from the poor people of St. Anne's.'
Lieut. Brand was forced by the commissioners to
admit that this proclamation was not signed by the
Queen, but only by Edward Cardwell ; so that in '
fact this poor fellow was hanged for treason because
he had accused my right hon. friend the late Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies of telling a lie.'
Why, what a mockery of justice is this ! The poor
fellow appealed to Mr. Georges whether he was not
an industrious man, a carpenter who often brought
the canes from his little freehold to be ground at
Mr. Georges' mill, and he further pleaded that
at the time of the outbreak he was not living in
the disturbed districts at all, or anywhere near
them, and that on hearing he was looked for by
the police he gave himself up, and had now been
in prison for 17 days. When I read the minutes
of the proceedings in this case I could hardly be-
lieve my eyes when I found that nothing else was
charged against the prisoner; that there was not so
! much as the faintest hint of his having been in any
way connected with the recent riots ; and yet that
he was sentenced to be hanged for words used
mouths before. What can add to the blackness of
this black story? I blush to say there is more. I
I am also ashamed to tell what follows. It was proved
before the commission by four several witnesses that
Samuel Clarke, this poor, industrious carpenter, was
one of a batch of prisoners who were flogged the day
before his execution by Provost-Marshal Ramsay,
simply, as it was seen, as a kind of little gratifica-
-1 tion for that worthy after the labours of the day.
After the flogging It unsay thus addrssed them
brutes !
brutes ! lie down,' and then they were marched, as
usual, to the hanging ground to see the dying
agonies of their fellow prisoners. The Attorney-
' General's clerk also swore before the commission
that he was present when General O'Connor said to
him Oh, Clarke, is that you? Your brother was
hung three days ago, and you will be hung on one
of those trees.' the witness adds that the poor
fellow, on hearing it, trembled fearfully. Could
anything else be added to the blackness of this
story ? Yes ; in tracing it through the Blue-book
I found, to my amazement, a despatch of Governor
Eyre's., which shows that actually this man Clarke
was one of a batch of prisoners whom he sent him-
self, on October 31, the day after his own proclama-
tion from Kingston, an unproclaimed district, to be
tried, or rather to be executed, at Morant Bay.
Such is a single specimen of the treatment of the
189 persons who were put to death by this one
court-martial.' "

" Junior United Service Club, London, S.W.,
Feb. 23.

" Sir,—My reply to your letter of the 18th inst.
is simply thjs. I sat as president of a court-martial
consisting of three officers ; my vote as president
counted no more than that of my colleagues, and if
I differed with them their opinions would have pre-
vailed.

" I sat as such president by the direct orders a
my superior officers.

"'The sentences of the Court were carried out by
the orders of my superior officers.

" With them, and not with nae, rested the ques-
tion of mitigation of sentence. It was their duty to
decide whether their acts were necessary to insure
the suppression of the rebellion. My duty was to
obey their orders.— I have the honour to be, Sir,
your obedient servant, " 11. BRAND.
" C. Buxton, Esq., 7, Grosvenor-crescent,
London."

Recent visitors to Fortress Monroe say that Jef-
ferson Davis's health is better than it has been for
six months past. lie is allowed free intercourse
with visitors, and the unrestricted range of the
fortress.

The New Yorker who won $-10,000 hy
the Henrietta, the successful y---
W. Jerome, the rich b:
correspondent says
touches seems to turn to gold ..;vv years ago he
was the proprietor of the Rochester American, and
so poor that he could hardly pay for his telegraphic
despatches. He now measures his wealth with the
richest men of the city. Ile is the most daring
speculator in Wall-street. He drives
,the most
fashionable, team on Central Park. Ho has the
finest stable in the laud, and will have a house to
surpass Stewart's.

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