The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-30 00:00:00

be administered provisionally, and political parties
may reach a higher standard of feeling, and at the
end of it—both electors and elected—deserve to en-
joy the full privileges of freedom. I have not heard
this course suggested here, and consensus comrnunis,
so far as one can ascertain it, certainly points to the
entire revocation of the Constitution of Jamaica,
and the creation of the island into a Crown colony.
Less attention is bestowed here upon the case of
Mr. Gordon than might be expected from the pro-
minence assigned to it in England. Particular stress
is laid, however, upon the statement made in his
last letter that he knew nothing of Paul Bogle—a
statement which is declared to be notoriously un-
true. The two men were in frequent communica-
tion, and knew each other perfectly. Gordon died
very much in debt ; and one of the documents
fotmd among his papers was a list of signatures,
over 150 in number, headed by Paul Bogle himself.
Several other black men, accused of complicity in
the rebellion and executed as rebel leaders, figure in
the same list. No writing is annexed to it, and the
list may have been a harmless one, in connection
with some legitimate political organisation ; but the
fact is pointed to as a suspicious one. I have been
shown a Bible, which was found in Paul Bogle's
chapel, at Stoney-gut, on its capture by the troops
after the rising ; and the inscription in Gordon's
handwriting, partly rubbed out, but still to be read
is this :—" Presented by George W. Gordon to Mr.
Paul Bogle, with wishes." The date is No-
vember 2, 1862, and there is a reference to Isaiah
chap. xxx. verse 18. The gift was not a costly one.
It was a Bible printed by the British and Foreign
Bible Society, and bears a stamp, "Sold under cost
price—tenpence" upon the cover. The writing, if
genuine, clearly shows that Gordon knew Paul Bogle
perfectly well. It is only fair, however, to give an
explanation which is offered by Gordon's friends
here. They say that the statement in the letter was
an inadvertence excusable in a man who was to die
in an hour or two, and that what Gordon must have
meant to say was not that he knew nothing of Paul
Bogle, but that he knew nothing of Bogle's com-
plicity in any outbreak or rebellion. This is a point
on which Englishmen are as competent to offer an
opinion as any one on the spot. A gentleman who
has seen the original letter assures me that there is
no hiatus, and that, whatever their meaning, the
words are clear. Setting aside the first presumption
that a man just about to die would tell the truth,
it appears unlikely that Gordon should at that mo-
ment invent a clumsy lie which hundreds of wit-
nesses could disprove. But another statement has
reached me which, if accurate, as I believe it to be,
proves conclusively that Gordon could not have
meant what his written words express. During the
court-martial he admitted, I believe, that Bogle was
a political friend of his ; and it is not likely that he
would have denied in his letter what he had admitted
verbally. As yet the evidence upon which Gordon
was hung has been kept back here ; but some notes
taken at the trial by oue of the local reporters have
been sent to England, and may very likely have
been published there. It is necessary, therefore, to
mention that, as a record of the evidence upon
which the conviction was founded by the Court and
approved by Brigadier-General Nelson, such a re-
port must be quite incomplete, because it does not
comprise documents which were chiefly relied on for
the prosecution. This caution is the more neces-
sary, because the publication of the notes taken by
the reporter will be a violation of the pledge given
to the military authorities, and under which alone
they allowed reporters to be present.
With reference both to Gordon's case and the
general measures taken in suppressing the outbreak,
white people here complain loudly that in England
too little allowance has been made for the position of
difficulty in which Mr. Eyre and the military autho-
rities wereplaced, and the danger both the white and
coloured population were hourly exposed to. This is
a point on which, so soon after my arrival in the
colony and pending inquiry, I offer no opinion, and
simply reflect the very strong views of those around
me. lam assured that the blacks in this place did
not conceal their exultation when the news arrived
of the massacre at Morant Bay, and that theirlooks
and words were such as to inspire the greatest dis-
trust of what they would do if the rebellion were
allowed to gain ground. " Hurrah for Gordon ;"
ono negro was hoard to say, ,4 ho .shave off old
Ketelholdt's head !" There is something in the re-
tort which an Englishman hears on all sides :—" It
is very well for people at home to talk of panic I
fears ; but suppose they had been out here—a mere
handful of whites in the midst of a disaffected and
inflammable race, with barbarous murders enacted
close by—how soon to be repeated in our midst no
one could tell." Speeches made by Gordon in the
Legislative Assembly are quoted to show that he fa-
voured revolt. Some of those delivered in 1861 are
now before me in the authorized reports. A few of
the passages relied on will suffice. "Per se," as the
lion. member for St. Catherine said, " the people
would be quite right to break out into open rebellion.
If an illegality is permitted in the Governor, an
illegality may be permitted on the part of the people.
. . . I have neverseen an animal more voracious
for cruelty and power than the present Governor of
Jamaica lf we are to be governed

by such a Governor much longer the people
will have to fly to arms and become self-
governing." In England one would not incline
to attach over much importance to such passages
thus separated from their contexts, and Gordon
always based this speaking upon the assumption
that the Governor or his Council were themselves
violating the law. But upon ignorant negroes—it
is urged--this inflammatory language might have a
dangerous effect, and they would care little for the
constitutional principle which Gordon professed to
keep in view as a justification for his harangues.
Gordon spoke for two hours in defending himself
before the court-martial ; and he admitted, I am
told, that the circumstantial evidence against him
was very strong, though he added that he could not
help that. Men of position who have seen the whole
evidence say that it is strong and conclusive. Upon
this point I can only repeat what is told me.
While the colonists complain that sufficient
allowance is not made for their position at the time
of the outbreak, they equally complain of the ex-
aggerated stories upon which they say the public
feeling in Exeter-hall and elsewhere was founded.
So far as I have been able to investigate them,
many of these stories had their origin in the colony
itself, but do not deserve any greater credit on that
account. Even at this interval one has to be most
cautious in believing what one hears ; close inquiry
often discloses but a small residuum of truth in
statements which at first look very formidable and
very authentic. But, leaving all these points to be
dealt with fully by the Royal Commission, it seems
only fair to single out one or two on which, if people
here who ought to know are right, many people at
home are sadly misinformed. In the first place,
every Englishman will be pleased to learn that the
number of negroes who have been put to death has
been grossly exaggerated in England, principally on
the strength—it is only just to repeat—of unrelia-
ble and excited letters written, and often printed,
in Jamaica. 1. am assured that, taking into ac-
count those who were hanged, shot, or slain by
soldiers and Maroons in the bush, the number of
negroes who have lost their lives has not been
more than 400, and that 500 is an outside esti-
mate. Lamentable enough was even this loss of
life, but when mention is made of " miles of dead
bodies," and " the slain are counted by thousands,"
it is right that no time should be lost in declaring
these statements to be due only to a fertile imagina-
tion. Much has been said in England about the
case of " Paul Bogle's valet," and the impression is
that he was a youth of tender age, who denounced
anybody and everybody, while in mortal terror for
his own neck. The fact is, that he was more than
22 years old, is married, and has two children. lle
was called " a boy " as even old men here are when
in service. Bogle gave him a gun, which, according
to his own account, he threw down a gully, and
after being taken by our troops Colonel Hobbs
allowed him to go free. lle then .volunteered to
accompany the detachment, and, as he knew Bogle
and the other ringleaders well, his services were ac-
cepted ; but he was warned—in all probability,
roughly warned—that, if he attempted to mislead
the detachment or to run away or to lie, he would
be shot. All the men whom he pointed out as

The Assistant-Secretary having read the notice
convening the meeting, the report, an abstract of
which has appeared in The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIR3IAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he would first call their attention to the
capital account, which showed an increase of £550,000
in the amount of capital chargeable to revenue for
interest. This would go on gradually increasing as
they opened their new lines for traffic. He was glad
to say that as the works in hand progressed the in-
crease of interest charge would begradual. The first
item of charge would be for their South London line,
which formed a semi-circular route from the Lon-
don-bridge station through a most populous district
to their Victoria station, and there could be no doubt
that the receipts from that line would not only con-
tribute to the revenue of their establishment, but be
a feeder to their whole system. He was also glad to
tell them that the board had obtained loans at mo-
derate rates of interest; they had received during
the half-year £B,OOO on their perpetual 4 per cent.
debenture stock, £13,000 on debentures at 4 per
cent., £BO,OOO at 41 per cent., and £60,000 at 4f
per cent., which was the highest rate, and if the pro-
prietors considered the state of the money market he
believed they would admit that those rates were low
and would compare favourably with those of any
other company in the country. He thought there
need be no apin chczmitni that as the additivnai capi-
tal became chargeable against revenue it would be
provided for by the additional revenue. The revenue
account for the year 1865 showed an increase in the
gross receipts of £67,269 in excess of those for the
year 1861; and it was satisfactory that their trallic
receipts still continued to increase at the same rate
as compared with the high traffic receipts of 1865.
The state of the weather had been very unfavour-
able this month, and he did not recollect so stormy
and wet a season as they had recently experienced.
The receipts for the past four weeks on their system
showed an increase of £7,439 against the corres-
ponding four weeks in January, 1865 ; and when it
was considered that the increase in the latter men-
tioned four weeks over those in January, 1864, was
£7,412, the result must be considered very satisfac-
tory. They had been favoured last year by the
prevalence of very fine weather, and, as he had an-
ticipated, the traffic at every one of their 117 sta-
tions showed a proportionate increase ; and if that
state of things continued, every additional outlay on
capital account would be provided for out of in-
creased revenue as the new lines came into operation.
They had only promoted lines that were necessary
for the public accommodation, and likely to be ad-
vantageous to the shareholders. Many of their
branches had been constructed at small cost. The
Horsham and Guildford line, 17} miles in length,
was constructed at moderate cost, and would be
useful in accommodating traffic from the west of
England in connexion with the Sout-Western Rail-
way. He would not go into the question of delays
complained of in the public papers, which seemed
to be eagerly caught up ; but as he resided at
Brighton six months of the year, and often travelled
over the line to and from London, he could state
that the working of the traffic on it would bear com-
parison with that of any railway in the country or
in the whole world. The fact was that their trains
had been delayed by trains before them on the road
belonging to the South-Eastern Company. They
had kept an account of these delays, and could show
that the cause of them was not their fault, but that
of another company. He believed that in the course
of the next two years the portion of the line where
delays took place would be relieved of its traffic by
the new line of the South-Eastern from Lewisham
to Tunbridge, which would cut off the angle and
13 miles of that company's present route to Tun-
bridge and Dover. The whole of the South-
Eastern traffic, except that to Reigate, would thus
be taken off the Brighton line. The Brighton
Company's Hastings traffic would also be taken off
the Brighton lines by means of the Surrey and Sus-
sex line from near Croydon to near Tunbridge
when completed. Besides this there would be
finished in three months a second line to Brighton ;
but for this delay the contractors were to blame.
They would shortly have the old direct line pro-
jected by Stephenson, from Sutton to Epsom, Lea-
therhead, Dorking, llorsham, and Shoreham to
Brighton. The company had now 18 trains daily
between Brighton and London, and from London to
Brighton. He did not know of any town that had
the same accommodation. They must also give the
best accommodation to the other watering-places on
their South Coast line. They would have 26 daily
trains from London to Brighton, and vice versa,
and he hoped thct they would be remunerative to
the company. The blue line on the map would give
them a third line to Eastbourne and Hastings. They
had 90 miles of coast line from Portsmouth to Hast-
ings, 6,nd in case of war they could take down any
number of troops over their lines. Last Easter
Monday they carried 130,000 persons over the ex-
isting line to Brighton without' any difficulty, and
the volunteers were perfectly satisfied with the ac-
commodation afforded. There could, therefore, be
no necessity whatever for another line to Brighton
as proposed, via Beckenham and Lewes, by the
South-Eastern and Chatham Companies. The esti-
mated cost of line was £3,000,000, but they knew it
would cost at least £4,500,000 before it was done.

The whole of the traffic between London and
Brighton was only £228,800 a year ; there were five
or six express trains each way daily, running the
distance in 62 minutes. They had 18 trains daily to