The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-29 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

The West Indian steamer American, Captain
Kidd, arrived in the Mersey yesterday morning,
with advices from Kingston to the 15th, and Port-
au-Prince to the 9th inst. She brings a large cargo
of indigo and cotton and $lO,OOO in specie.
The Jamaica Guardian of the sth inst. says :
" During the debate on the second Constitution
Bill, Mr. Wellesley Bourke very bitterly criticised
the language in which the measure of the Govern-
ment was couched. ' The bill,' he said, showed
such a penury of intellect as a charity-boy of 10
years would be ashamed of.' The honourable gentle-
man also dealt very hard with the Council for what
he termed 'the indecent haste' with which they
passed the first bill. He said it was really just time
to reserve the usual cry, and to say, Thank God,
we have no Legislative Council.' They had acted,
he said, like a pack of cravens.' . . . He was
delighted at the idea of handing the country over to
the British Government to legislate for it as they
should think best, and expressed his desire to see a
bill passed such as would secure that end. He wanted
to have the pure English element, and none of your
confounded colonial stuff;' and, therefore, he de-
sired that the language of the bill should
be unmistakable to that effect. The greatest curse
that had ever befallen the country was the establish-
ment of an Executive Committee, by means of which
the honour of the country had been dragged into
the dust, and its prosperity jeopardised through their
paltry struggles for £3OO a year. The hon. gentle-
man's views in this respect were coincided in by
Messrs. Whitelocke, R.W. Smith, Henderson, S. C.
Burke, and others, and as the general purport of
the Government measure seemed to be to place the
power in the hands of his Excellency the Governor
to recommend to the British Government a form
of Constitution, they were most earnest in their
opposition to it, and by a close contest succeeded
in passing the bill, as they thought, without any
loophole for such a purpose. They all were of
opinion that if it were left to the Governor to re-
commend a form of Constitution, the country would
have foisted upon it a nominee council, such as was
recommended by the first bill of the Government.
. . It is said that when it was first proposed to
change the Constitution, his Excellency's proposal
was to have a Chamber in which the people should
have a right of election of half the members, but the
Executive Committee opposed the bill, and sug-
gested to his Excellency the idea of a nominal coun-
cil, which, according to Mr. Bourke, was to consist
of the elite, the creme de la creme, purified from the
seething surface of Jamaica society. This bill, it is
almost supererogatory to say, met with considerable
disfavour from the house—even from the official
members. . . The bill went to the Council, and
it was suggested to pass it in even hotter haste than
they had done the former one, for it was proposed
to suspend the rule and put it through all its stages
at once, but, as some fault was found with its gram-
matical construction, it was postponed for another
day, for the purpose of having the grammar mended.
Next day the bill itse:f was amended in such a way
that, according to some members, did not show any
particular regard to grammatical perspicuity. Mr.
Whitelocke examined it, and at once discovered the
cloven foot. The bill, as amended, would give
power to the Governor for the time being to
recommend a Constitution, and there would yet
be another chance for the Barnacles and the
corkdrawers.' The house was roused. . . That
his Excellency understood the character of the
measure as the House did seems clear from
the following paragraph in his prorogation
speech :—" The Session which is now about to
terminate has been the most important that has ever
taken place since Jamaica became a dependency of
the British Crown lt is impossible to
help regretting the necessity which has enforced the
abandonment of institutions so deservedly dear to
every British heart, and which, even in this
colony, have remained unchanged for a period of
200 years ; but it is wiser and better, circumstanced
as we are, to give up institutions which are valued
rather for the associations which are connected
with them than for any, advantages which
resulted to the colony from their existence in
Jamaica, and to substitute in their place a perhaps
less showy and less time-honoured form of Govern-
ment, but which is certainly more practicable and
better suited to the altered circumstances of our
position."

The Guardian concludes with the following para.
graph :

" We shrewedly suspect, in spite of struggles on
the one hand and loud profession on the other, we
are in a fair way of having an oligarchical Govern-
ment put upon us, unless, indeed, the British Go-
vernment shall put aside the bill just passed, and
instruct the expected commission to report upon
matters of that kind as well."

The Special Commission to try the political pri-
soners lately confined in Morant Bay is appointed
by his Excellency the Governor, and will hold its
sittings on 22d January next. It has not transpired
whether it will sit in Kingston or Morant Bay.
The magistrates, clergy, and other inhabitants of
the parish of Trelawny have presented an address to
Governor Eyre, sympathising with him in regard to
his heavyresponsibilities, and expressing the greatest
pleasure in stating that his Excellency " discharged
them with so much wisdom, energy, promptitude,
and decision of purpose—from no selfish considera-
tion, but under a deep sense, we feel assured, of
your Excellency's duty to our beloved Sovereign, to
the loyal inhabitants of this island, and all its best
interests."

To which his Excellency made the followhig re-
ply :—" Mr. Custos, Rev. Gentlemen, and Gentle-
men—lt would at all times afford me sincere plea-
sure to receive such a gratifying assurance of the
good opinion and approval of. the numerous and
highly respectable and influential gentlemen of Tre-
lawny who have signed the address presented to
me by your respected Custos ; but it comes doubly
welcome to me at a time when the acts to which
you refer, undertaken from a deep sense of my
duty to my Sovereign and to the colonists of
this island, and with a full and anxious
appreciation of the painful responsibility of my
position, have been so maliciously misrepresented
and so unjustly maligned by a section of the Eng-
lish press, and by parties at home who have no sym-
pathies with their fellow-countrymen suffering under
the atrocious barbarities inflicted by savages, be-
cause those savages have a black skin ; that they do
not hesitate to call the just retribution which over-
took the ruthless rebels of St. Thomas's-in-the-East
by the names of murder' and " massacre.' It was
trying enough, gentlemen, to have to encounter the
harassing and anxious duty of putting down the
rebellion and taking steps to preserve peace and
tranquillity in the other districts of the colony, but
it is very hard and most unexpected to have to rebut
accusations founded upon exaggeration, misrepre-
sentation, and untruth. I shall have much pleasure
in transmitting your address to her Majesty's Go-
vernment as a proof that in the island, where the
actual circumstances ought to be best known, and

where the magnitude and imminency of the danger
to the entire colony can best be appreciated, the
foul aspersions disseminated by a portion of the
English press are unjust and undeserved. I thank
you, gentlemen, most gratefully for your loyal ad-
dress, and for the hearty expression of your willing-

ness to co-operate with me in any measure necessary
for the protection of life and property and the peace
and welfare of the island at large. On my part, I
would assure you that I shall ever be ready to do

my duty faithfully, and will never shrink from

assuming any amount of responsibility which the

public safety requires me to undertake.

" E. EYRE."

•
Patti appeared at Paris on Monday night
week, for the first time this season, in "Linda." The
house was crowded to excess, all the ladies were in full
ball costume, and some were literally blazing with
diamonds. The first act passed without any great mark of
excitment, but at the close of the second " La Diva" ran
considerable risk of being annihilated by the storm of
bouquets., which were thrown from all parts of the house.
At the close of the opera she was re-called ten times to
receive the enthusiastic ovations of the house, which she
acknowledged with her accustomed modest grace.

Madame Rudersdoff has gone to Leipsic, where
she is engaged to sing at two of the famous Clowandhaus

concerto.

era ,c„ Chub:
. .

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Saturday.
Her Majesty and her Royal Highness Princess
Helena went out yesterday morning, attended by
the Hon. Fla Macdonald ; and in the afternoon
her Majesty drove out in a carriage and four with
Princess Helena, Princess Louise, and Prince
Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, attended by Col.
the Hon. A. Hardinge.
Their Serene Highnesses Prince and Princess
Hermann of Hohenlohe and Prince Leiningen
joined her Majesty's dinner party in the evening.
Admiral Sir. Michael Seymour, Commander-in-
Chief at Portsmouth, had the honour of dining with
her Majesty and the royal family.

SUNDAY.

Her Majesty, their Royal Highnesses Princess
Helena, Princess Louise, and his Senne Highness
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, attended
Divine service at Whippingham Church this morning.
The Rev. G. Prothero officiated.

We understand that, some time during the month
of March, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales will
visit Belvoir Castle, the residence of the Duke of Rutland,
where great preparations are to be made for his reception.