The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-08 00:00:00

The Brute Element.

In close juxtaposition to an account of the high civili-
sation which distinguished Tom Sayers' funeral, we
published a few days ago a singularly cool comment from
the London Times on the negro outbreak in Jamaica. The
Times is an advocate of speedy justice in disturbances lika
this. It argues that between a very hot climate and the
natural excitement of the moment, the officers of her
Majesty the Queen,who hung and shot some two thousand
negroes in a matter of forty-eight hours, were quite excus-
able for the rapidity of their action. It regrets "that the
tone of the despatches had not been more guarded," but is
willing to forgive the too lively description of shootings
and hangings, in view of the fact that shootings and
hangings were the right thing in the right place. In
another article of the same date the London Times piously
sets up the King of Dahomey as the type and " very
moral" of the sudden outburst of the brute element in
human (or negro) nature in Jamaica. After some decades
of political liberty, it reasons, these unlucky sons of Ham
all at once develope the Dahomey type of barbarism, and
run-a-muck of murder and rapine. Occasional fits of blood-
thirstiness, it assert; are inseparable from the negro
organism; and, civilise them as we may, once in a while
they are sure to sharpen their knives and go in for a general
throat-cutting. In some manner the doctrine of immersion
seems to be peculiarly connected with this idiosyncrasy,
inasmuch as Gordon, the leader of the recent revolt, and
one Rev. Wm. Knibb, who was seriously implicated in the
rebellion of 1831-2, were both preachers of the Baptist per-
suasion. The Times is not very explicit on this mysterious
relationship between Baptists and bloodthirstiness, and we
leave the further discussion of the matter to Sir Morton
Peto, in his capacity as Treasurer of the Baptist Missionary
Society. Now, if the London Times is correct in saying
of the negroes that " the remote descendants of the King of
Dahomey's subjects show themselves in a moment ' the
very moral' of their African fcrefathers," that "they are
as treacherous and as ready for deeds of blood, hideous and
ridiculous, as when they could slay their thousands to fill a
trench with human gore"—then we, of the free and glorious
United States of America, are in a piteous pickle. We have
no less than four millions of this s►me race upon our hands,
and who knows when the Dahomey fever may attack
them? But, as it happens, we have already tested that
question pretty well. We have gone through four years
of a war which was not without its instances of insane
ferocity. There was a stormy outbreak of the brute ele-
ment at Fort Pillow in 1864 ; Anlersonville only lacked
dramatic effect, while in intensity of plot it was quite up
to the Dahomey school. With examples like this before
them, with just that kind of power in their hands that
would tempt weak natures to crime, these Southern slaves
went through it all with a Christ-like gentleness and for-
giveness that has no parallel in the history of oppressed
peoples.—New York Times.

There is a great drought in the Rhine district,
and in the river itself there is so little water that several
vessels have been stranded near Dusseldorff.