The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOMMINT, WEDNESDAY lilVhisiENG, AUGUST 15, 1866.

Farewell Addresses to Governor Eyre, and

his Vindication.

(From the Jamaica Guardian of July 24.)
Yesterday morning a committee of gentlemen
assembled at the Royal Mail Company's wharf, at
Kingston, to form themselves into a committee, re-
presenting over 1,200 subscribers to a farewell
address to his Excellency Governor Eyre, on the
eve of his departure from this colony.
The deputation consisted of the Hon. L. Q.
Bowerbank, Custos ; Hon. J. H. M'Dowell, Captain
Cooper, R.N., J. S. Williams, A. L. Malabre, R.
Nunes, G. Henderson, J. S. Brown, A De Cordova,
and W. Lee, Esqs. At the hour appointed they
drove off to Paradise Penn, the residence of his
excellency, where they were received atthe door by
Colonel Hunt, A.D.C., and conducted in.
The Hon. Dr. Bowerbank then read the address
to his excellency as follows
We, the undersigned inhabitants of Kingston,
and others, cannot refrain from offering to your ex-
cellency and Mrs. Eyre, our most sincere sympathy
with you on your departure from the colony.
" We rejoice that after a searching inquiry, the
Royal commissioners have reported to her Majesty
that praise is due to your excellency for your skill,
promptitude, and vigour, in the recent insurrection;
and that to the exercise of such qualities by you
its speedy termination is to be attributed ; and we
heartily congratulate your excellency that there has
been evinced, both in this country and abroad, a
general approbation of your conduct, in having saved
a colony to the Queen, and homes and lives to the
Queen's subjects in this her island of Jamaica.

" It is our firm conviction that a more intimate
acquaintance on the part of the Imperial Govern-
ment with the local affairs of the colony and its
condition, as well as with the true nature of events
which had endangered, and might continue to
threaten, the peace and welfare of the country,
would have shielded from censure a faithful servant
of the Crown.

" We nevertheless feel assured that when political
passions shall have given place to reason and to
justice, the vast majority of your fellow-subjects,
and others interested in the maintenance of public
safety and order, will consider that an officer who
(unaided by any instructions from superior autho-
rity, in times of extreme and sudden difficulty and
very grave national peril) has, on the whole, done
his duty nobly and well, ought not, for any minor
errors or excess of his subordinates to be otherwise
than most favourably dealt with.

" We earnestly trust that a time will soon arrive
when the momentous services which your excellency
has recently rendered to Jamaica may meet with
that distinguished reward which her most gracious
Majesty the Queen so well knows how to confer on
those whom she cannot doubt to be meritorious

officers.
" That every blessing may be heaped upon your
excellency, Mrs. Eyre, and your children, is, we be-
lieve, the fervent hope of all the loyal and grateful
people of Jamaica."
To which his excellency read his reply in the fol-
lowing words :

"TO THE HON. L. Q. BOWERBANK, J. S. BROWN, J.
M'DOWELL, W. S. COOPER, W. TITLEY, J. S. MI,
LIAMS, R. NUNES, E. EBBEKE, F. LYONS, A. MAL.I-
- A. DE CORDOVA, ESQS., R.C.

4‘ Mr. Custos, Rev. Gentlemen, and Gentlemen,
—I thank you most sincerely for your very gratify-
ing address of sympathy with me on the occasion of
my departure from Jamaica.

" It is only natural that, after serving my Queen
and country zealously, and I hope not uselessly, for
25 years (since Sept., 1841), and after having bad
the honour of representing my Sovereign in both
hemispheres as lieutenant-governor or governor for
nearly 20 years (since 1846), I should feel some pain
and regret that my career should now be abruptly
terminated by removal from the public service under
the disapproval and censure of the Colonial Minister.
" But this pain and regret are greatly lessened by
the reflection, that however able or impartial the
parties may be by whom my conduct has been in-
quired into and adjudicated upon, it is impossible
that persons imperfectly acquainted with the
negro character, with the country, and with the cir-
cumstances that surrounded me at the time, can
judge adequately or justly, after the event, of the
necessity or propriety of the action I found it im-
perative to take under a great emergency.
" The points on which I am condemned are three :
—lst. For permitting the trial and execution of G.
W. Gordon.

" 2d. For continuing martial law and the trials
by courts martial after the proclamation of the
amnesty on the 30th of October.
" 3d. For not being aware of the excesses com-
mitted under martial law, and for not issuing in-
structions which would have prevented those ex-
cesses.

" With regard to the first, I can only repeat my
conviction that however defective it may have been
in a strictly legal point of view, Mr. Gordon was
the proximate occasion of the insurrection, and of
the cruel massacre of particular individuals whom he
regarded as his personal enemies, and that, there-
fore, he suffered justly.

6, No impartial person can, I think, read the re-
port of the Royal commissioners without coming to
the same conclusion.

" The court before which he was tried was not a
court of law, but it was a perfectly legal court.
" To have issued a special commission to try him
was wholly impracticable at the time ; whilst to
have kept him as a prisoner for future trial would
have had a very bad effect, and might have been
dangerous in the extreme, in the excited and pre-
carious state the country was then in.
" I believe that it was only through the firmness
and decision of the Government in dealing with this
case summarily
,that seditious teachings and the
spread of the rebellion were checked.

" Indeed, in my opinion, the prompt trial and
execution of G. W. Gordon had more effect in pre-
venting further risings in other parishes than any of
the steps taken by the Government.
" Mr. Gordon was regarded by the negroes gene-
rally throughout the island as an obeah-man is by
his immediate neighbours, as all-powerfal and be-
yond the reach of ordinary jurisdiction.
"Isis trial and execution removed this delusion,
and showed that the authority of the Queen was
supreme. Nor was he the.only person of better po-
sition and education engaged in stirring up and ex-
citing the negro mind.
" It was absolutely necessary that a stop should
be put to this action, and it could only be done by
the immediate trial of the chief agitator, and that
trial could only take place by court-martial under
the then existing circumstances.
" With regard to the continuance of martial law
and trials by courts-martial after the 30th October,
it must be remembered that during the whole period
for which martial law was in force, and for some
time afterwards, the accounts daily received from
the various parishes in the island led the Govern-
ment to believe the whole country to be still in a
state of great excitement and peril, and that further
risings amongst the negroes might take place at any
moment or in any direction ; and although addi-
tional troops had arrived, the total number in the
colony was still very insufficient to cope with any-
thing like a general insurrection, or even to occupy
and protect many districts at a time, had active
military operations become necessarY
" It was essential to overawe the disaffected,. known
to be numerous in most parishes of the island.
" For this continuance of martial law became
requisite, and it was only by the continuance of the
trials and punishment of those guilty of rebellion
that the existence of martial law would be believed
in.

" But there were also no gaols or prisons in which
any large number of prisoners could be kept for
future trial ; and even had it been practicable, de-
lay in dealing with prisoners charged with the more
serious offences committed during the insurrection
would have had a most injurious effect in other parts
of the colony, ripe as they were for rebellion.
" With regard to the trials which thus took place
before c-o'tirts-martial, after the most searching scru-
tiny which practised lawyers could institute—a
scrutiny to which, I believe, proceedings under
martial law were scarcely ever before subjected,
and from which I venture lo think that few would

have come out with less of censure—the Commis-
sioners report In the great majority of the cases
the evidence seems to have been unobjectionable in
character, and quite sufficient to justify the finding
of the court. It is right also to state, the accounts
given by the more trustworthy witnesses as to the
manner and deportment of the courts were decidedly
favourable.'

4, That the Government earnestly desired to show
as much leniency as considerations affecting the
safety of other parts of the island permitted is evi-
denced by the early date at which an amnesty was
proclaimed, under which large numbers of persons
were absolved from the penalties of all lesser crimes,
though the more serious ones were still, for a limited
time (prescribed by act), to be dealt with by courts
martial.

" I may here state that as soon as it was known
that martial law was to terminate at the end of the
statutory period of 30 days, I was waited upon by
members of the Legislature and custodes to urge
upon me an extension of it, and lam quite certain
that had I attempted to curtail the limited period
which by law it had to run consternation and ap-
prehension would have been universal.

t; Even after martial law had expired, and not-
withstanding the very numerous trials which had
taken place under it, a large number of prisoners
charged with the graver offences committed during
the rebellion still had to be dealt with, of whom very
many were found guilty on trial before a special
commission, and were sentenced by a civil court in
some cases to death, in others to a long term of im-
prisonment.

In reference to my not having been aware of the
excesses committed during martial law I would only
ask, how was it possible that I, necessarily detained
at the seat of government in watching over the
interests, and providing for the safety, of the island
generally, as well as in attending to the laborious
duties of a most important legislative session,
could make myself acquainted with occurrences
which even Brigadier General Nelson, the able offi-
cer commanding in the districts where they were
taking place, heard nothing of ?
" Those who know anything of the nature of the
country in Jamaica, and the few facilities which
exist for intercommunication, will readily under-
stand that at any time, but especially during the
rainy season, which was at its height during the
suppression of the rebellion, it is physically impos-
sible to learn or to control all that is going on
throughout a tract of country so extensive as that
occupied by our troops during martial law.

" But the truth is, that excesses must always take
place under martial law, and especially when black
troops, who are often wholly beyond the control of
their officers, are employed. No one can regret these
excesses more than I do. It is, however, upon those
whose acts made martial law necessary, or upon the
people who by not coming forward to uphold the
Queen's authority and protect life and property en-
couraged such acts, that these excesses are charge-
able, not upon the authorities who are compelled to
resort to that stern remedy to put down or prevent
the extension of rebellion.

" Did no excesses occur in repressing the Indian
mutiny ? or were the authorities there made respon-
sible for not knowing of or not preventing them ?
" In that case it was not thought necessary, as it
was here, to appoint a commission of inquiry to rake
up and parade before the world every allegation of
injury which an ignorant and excitable population,
in many respects little removed from savages, whose
habit is untruthfulness, and vindictive at having
been foiled in their recent rebellion, could be induced
to bring forward, whether well or ill founded against
those who had the onerous and thankless task of
putting down that rebellion.
"With regard to the non-issuing by me of instruc-
tions for the guidance of the military I have only to
point out her Majesty's instructions to governors lay
down the rule that it is the duty of the governor to
give all necessary orders for the march and distri-
bution of troops, but expressly enjoin him to leave
all details connected with the carrying out those
orders to the military authorities.
" When martial law is proclaimed in a district
the case is even still stronger, for then all civil juris-
diction is absolutely superseded, and the entire and
sole management of the district so circumstanced
becomes vested in the general in command. -
" I have thought it right to make these observa-
tions, not to repudiate any responsibility properly
attaching to me, or to excuse any shortcoming or
errors in my own conduct, but as feeling it due to
myself, to you, and to the British public to state
some few of the considerations which influenced me
in reference to the particulars in which my conduct
has been most strongly condemned.

" And I the more gladly make these statements
to you, gentlemen, because fro.n your having been
in the colony at the time, and from your long and
practical acquaintance with the country, the people,
and the circumstances which existed during the
period referred to, you are in a better position than
other persons can be to judge of the value of them,
and to know how far I did my duty to the colony and
to my Sovereign in the hour of difficulty and danger.
" Even the Royal Commissioners, labouring as
they did under all the disadvantages of unacquaint-
ance with the character of the country, the people,
and the circumstances of the moment, and making
their inquiries after the event from a people na-
turally untruthful, and stimulated by the impres-
sion sedulously instilled into them by designing
persons, that the Queen was on their side, and
desired to obtain evidence against and punish the
authorities engaged in suppressing the rebellion—
even the Royal Commissioners, labouring under all
these disadvantages, have been compelled to admit
that ' though the original design for the overthrow
of constituted authority was confined to a small
portion of St. Thomas in the East, yet that the dis-
order in fact spread with singular rapidity over an
extensive tract of country ; and that such was the
state of excitement prevailing in the island that had
more than a momentary success been obtained by
the insurgents their ultimate overthrow would have
been attended with a still more fearful loss of life
and property.' And they have very justly remarked
that 'sometimes the success of the measures adopted
for the prevention of an evil deprived the authors of
those measures of the evidence they would otherwise
have bad of their necessity.'

"Had I hesitated there would have been evidence
enough of this necessity ; but what would have been
said of me for not having prevented the 6 still more
fearful loss of life and property ?'
" The Royal Commissioners and her Majesty's
Government have been pleased to
' skill, promptitude, and vigour'
al 73, v
teh me eoccurrence
r
of a great emergency, and to state that 'to my exer-
cise of these qualities the speedy terminationofthe
insurrection is due.' lam told that I ' showed my-
self superior to the feelings of alarm expressed and
entertained by those around me ;' and her Majesty's
Government further ' express their sense of the
. promptitude and judgment with which I submitted
to the Legislature the views which I entertained,
and in which they so readily concurred, as to the ex-
pediency off effecting a decided change in the mode
of government of the colony'—views which have
since been confirmed by the sanction of the Crown
and an act of thelmperial Government. Whyshould
they not equally give me credit for having exercised
a sound judgment in the lesser matter of continuing
martial law for a limited time after the proclamation
of the amnesty, although they, acting as my judges
after the event, without the necessary local experi-
ence, and when the very success of my measures had
deprived me of the evidence of their necessity, are
unable to appreciate so clearly the force of the con-
siderations which influenced me in this matter, as
they do in the circumstances which surrounded the
commencement of the rebellion or the change effected
in the constitution ?

"With regard to the case of Mr. Gordon the Royal Com-
missioners, labouring under the disadvantages already
ad-
verted to, and looking at. the proceedings as lawyers
natu-
rally would do, that is in connection with the strict rules
and Practice of courts of law (though I have already shown
the court before which Mr. Gordon was tried was not a
court of law, though a perfectly legal court), whilst express-
ing their opinion that they cannot see in the evidence
which has been adduced any sufficient proof (that is, I pre-
sume, according to the strict rules and practice of courts of
law) either of his complicity in the outbreak at Morant
Bay, or of his having been a party to a general conspiracy
distinctly record, We have
against the Government,' yet
formed the opinion that the true explanation of Mr. Gor-
.

don's conduct was to be found in the account he has given
of himself—" I have just gone as far as I can go, but no
further. If I wanted a rebellion I could have had one long
ago. I havo been asked several times to head a rebellion,
but there is no fear of that : I will try first a demonstration
of it ; but I crust first upset that fellow Herschel], and
kip l; him out of the vestry, and the baron also, or bad will
come of it !" '

"Mr. Ilerschell was not kicked out of the vestry, nor the
baron upset ; and they were two of the first victims of the
insurrection.

" Again, the Commissioners distinctly record their opi-
nion Mr. Gordon might know well the distinction between
a rebellion and a demonstration of it ; he might be able to
trust himself to go as far as ho could with safety and no
further ; but that would not be so easy to his ignorant and
fanatical followers. They would find it difficult to restrain
themselves from rebellion when making a demonstration
of it.

" 'lf a man like Paul Bogle was in the habit of hearing
such expressions as those contained in Gordon's letters, as
that the reign of the oppressors would be short, and that the
Lord was about to destroy them, it would not take much to
convince him that he might be the appointed instrument in
the Lord's hand for effecting that end; and it is clear that
this was Bogle's belief, as we find that after the part he had
taken in the massacre at Morant Bay, he, in his chapel at
Stony Gut, returned thanks to God that he had gone to do
that work, and that God had prospered him in his work.
"'lt is clear, too, that the conduct of Gordon had been
such as to convince both friends and enemies of his being a
party to the rising.

" ' We learn from Mr. Gordon himself that in Kingston,
where ho carried on his business, this was the general belief
as soon as the news of the outbreak was received.

" ' But it was fully believed also by these engaged in the
outbreak. Bogle did not hesitate to speak of himself as
acting in concert-with him.

" When Dr. Major was dragged out of his hiding-place
on the night of the 11th October, he saved himself by ex-
plaining that Mr. Gordon would not wish to have him
injured; and when Mr. Jackson made a similar appeal for
his own life to the murderers of Mr. Hire, it appears to have
been equally successful.
" The effect which was likely to follow the meetings which
took place during the spring and summer of 1865, in some
of which Mr. Gordon took a part, was foreseen by one of his
most ardent supporters, who, writing to a common friend on
the subject of an article he had inserted in a newspaper re-
specting the Vere meeting, used these words :—" All I
desire is to shield you and them from the charge of anarchy
and tumult, which, in a short time, must follow these
powerful demonstrations."'

"Again the Commissioners report:—' It appears exceed-
ingly probable that Mr. Gordon, by his words and writings,
produced a material effect on the minds of Bogle and his
followers, and did much to produce that state of excitement
and discontent in different parts of the island, which ren-
dered the spread of the insurrection exceedingly probable.'
" The British public may judge from these extracts from
the report of the Royal commissioners how far Gordon was
morally guilty of causing the rebellion, and therefore justly
punished, whatever may be the doubts entertained as to
the proof of his complicity having been sufficient, in a
strictly legal point of view, to satisfy a court of law ; but
they can never know the full weight and pressure of the
circumstances which made it necessary, in order to save
the colony from the general massacre and pillage which
further risings would have occasioned, to act promptly and
decisively upon proof only of his moral guilt (and this, be
it remembered, is all that is required before a court-martial
under martial law).
"I am not a lawyer, but I understand there are legal
gentlemen of high ability who dissent entirely from the
opinion expressed by the Royal commissioners, that there
was not sufficient proof (that is, such as would be received
in a court of law) of Gordon's complicity in the outbreak
at Morant Bay, and who consider that the evidence ad-
duced before the court-martial, taken in connection with
concurrent circumstances, would have been both legally ad-
missible in a civil court, and sufficient to satisfy a civil
jury of his guilt.
"Be this as it may, I had myself no doubt whatever as
to Gordon's having occasioned the rebellion, or of the
danger to the colony if his ca se was not promptly and
summarily dealth with. Under such circumstances, it was
impossible to hesitate as to the ,:ourse which I considered
my duty to the Crown and to the colony made it impera-
tive on me to take.

" And now, gentlemen, I come to the hardest part of my
task, that of saying farewell to those who have been kind
to me; who supported me in the difficulties and dangers
through which the colony has so recently passed, and who
now sympathise with me under the obloquy and misrepre-
sentations to which I am subjected.
" I have lived amongst you for nearly four years and a
half, during which you well know I have had more than
the usual share of hard work and political strife.
"Yu;t will, I am sure, do me the justice to believe that in
these, as in all other matters, I have been actuated by the
single desire to do what I conscientiously ly_dieved to be my
duty.'

"I have necessarily sometimes had to say or to do hard
things, but you will, I know, at least acquit me of mixing
up any personal feeling with my public action.
"And in taking leave of you I would only add that, as 1
bear no to any individual, I trust that none is borne
towards myself, but that when I am gone from amongst
you all will unite in believing that I wished well to the
colony and to yourselves, and that I did my best to serve
you.

" 1 now retire into private life, dismissed from the public
service, after nearly a lifetime spent in it ; but I have at
least the consolation of feeling that there has been nothing
in my conduct to merit it, nothing to occasion self-reproach,
nothing to regret.

" On the contrary, I carry with me in my retirement the
proud consciousness that at all times, and under all cir-
cumstances, I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to
do my duty as a servant of the Crown, faithfully, fearlessly,
and irrespective of personal considerations.

" With such convictions, deeply as my removal from the
public service must necessarily affect my future and the
interests of those most dear to me, I can submit to the
forfeiture of position, to the sacrifice of 25 years' career in
the public service, or to any personal indignity entailed,
counting my individual losses as utterly insignificant when
so largely counterbalanced by the undeniable fact that the
very acts which have led to my dismissal have saved a
noble colony from anarchy and ruin.
"Your generous and valued testimony to the integrity of
my conduct in this my last and most important govern-
ment will ever be most highly cherished by me, and will be
handed down, to my children, and their children, as an
encouragement and a stimulus to them to do their duty also,
under whatever circumstances of trial they may at any
time be placed.

"Again, gentlemen, I thank you, in Mrs. Eyre's name,
and in my own, for your warm-hearted sympathy, and for
your good wishes towards ourselves and our children.

" We shall always remember most gratefully your great
kindness and good feeling.
" Our best wishes and our ferventprayers for your indivi
dual and collective interests and welfare will still be with
you, and we earnestly trust that the change recently made
in the government of the country (and which I shall ever
regard as a proud monument of my administration amongst
you) will, when time has permitted its development, and
matured that reorganisation which is essential, lead to a
renewed confidence in Jamaica at home, and to progress and
prosperity within the colony itself, that must eventually
largely promote its material interests, and add to the comfort
and happiness of all within it. "E. EYRE.

" Kingston, July 23, 1866."
We may state hero that the address has 1,230 signatures,
613 of which are those of persons residing in this city, and
the rest are of individuals from other parts.
The following address was also presented to Mr. Eyre, on
behalf of the bishop and clergy of Kingston, and the neigh-
bourhood:—

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY EDWARD JOHN EYRE, ESQ., LATE
GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA, ON HIS DEPARTURE FROM THE

ISLAND.

"Sir,—We, the undersigned clergy of the neighbourhood
of Kingston, desire respectfully to convey to your excellency
on the eve of your departure from this colony the imperfect
expression of our feelings on this painful termination of the
period of your government. In conjunction with a large
number of our brethren in other parts of the island, who
would, we doubt not, most cordially join with us on the
present. occasion if time allowed us to invite their concur-
rence, we not long ago tendered to you the heartfelt ex-
pression of our gratitude, our esteem, and our confidence.
We desire to reiterate those sentiments now.
No former governor has ever rendered to us greater ser-
vices than your excellency has done. You have not only
rescued the island from most imminent peril of general in-
surrection, by your courage, promptitude, judgment, and
administratib skill, but by the exercise of the same high
qualities prepared the way for such a reconstruction of the
form of our constitution as, while we are not forgetful of
our debt of gratitude to the House of Assembly for its
liberal support of our anciently established Church, the
present emergency seemed to demand—a reconstruction to
which, if any human moans can avail t:keeeffwelcetagite, the
e
futuro prosperity of this colony will primarily be due.
"For ourselves we would gratefully e
uniform kindness and courtesy which the clergy have ever
experienced at your excellency's hands, and the lively and
discriminating interest which you have ever manifested and
exercised for the welfare of the Church.

44 But even for these eminent services we could not thus
warmly thank you did we not know your excellency to
have been actuated by the purest motive; to be a devout
worshipper of Him whose ministers we aro ; and to be in-
fluenced by feelings of true humanity towards the people
to whom we minister.

"But, knowing these things, we assure your Excellency
of our sincere sympathy with you, and our earnest hope
that you may ere long be called by our gracious Sovereign
to another sphere of honourable and important public
service.

"It is our eincere desire and prayer that wherever four
lot may be cast the divine blessing may rest on you and on
all the members of your family ; and we would beg you to
accept, and to convey also to Mrs. Eyre, who has concili-
ated to herself the esteem and regard of so many amongst
us, our respecfful and most cordial farewell.

" We have the honour to be, sir, your excellency's most
obedient servants,

"REGINALD KINGSTON, Bishop of Kingston.
THOMAS STEWART, D.D., Archdeacon of Surrey.
WILLIAM MAYHEW, Rector of St. Andrew, &c."
To the forging address Mr. Eyre returned a reply in
these terms :

"TO TILE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF KINGSTON,
THE VENERABLE ARCHDEACON STEWART, THE REV. T.

MAYHEW, &C.

"My Lord Bishop and Rev. Gentlemen,—l thank you
very gratefully for your generous and warm-hearted ad-
dress of regard and sympathy on my removal from the
Government of Jamaica.

" I assure you that it is both gratifying to me and greatly
consolatory to know that after a long residence amongst
you, and after having had to guide the colony through
scenes of great difficulty and trial, I retain the confidence
and esteem of the clergy of the country, whose good opi-
nion (living as they have done of the spot, and knowing
intimately all the circumstances connected with the late re-
bellion) is in itself the strongest testimony I can offer that
I have not merited the imputations which have been
alleged against mo by persons not in the colony at the
time, and perfectly acquainted with the true nature of the
events, of having acted either with injustice or with undue
severity in repressing an insurrection which imperilled the
lives and property of the inhabitants, and jeopardised the
safety of the colony.

" I heartily concur with you in regarding the change
recently effected in the form of Government of the island
as likely to confer great and lasting benefits upon the com-
mtmity, and I shall over feel proud that it was accom-
plished during my administration of the Government, and
in a great degree through my own personal exertions.
" It is most gratifying to me to think that when I am
gone from amongst you there will still remain this per-
manent proof of my anxiety to benefit the colony, and that
my efforts were not unsuccessful.

" For the good feeling and friendly intercourse which
have ever characterised my connection with the clergy of
Jamaica I am most deeply indebted to you.
" It has been a great pleasure to me to co-operate cor-
dially with you in all matters affecting the interests of the
Church, and I pray that God's blessing may rest upon
your continued labours to promote his Honour, and ad-
vance the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people en-
trusted to your charge.
"firs. Eyre unites with me in sincere and affectionate
thanks for your good wishes towards ourselves and chil-
dren. " E. EIRE.
"Kingston, July 24."

has yet to be learnt in respect to the general sub-
ject of that phenomenon, and only the most careful
experiments and comparisons could give scientific
value to any such comments. We may briefly
state, however, that some instrumental estimates of
the recoil of Mr. Dixon's gun-cloth have been pub-
lished, giving an average of 781 b. for that material
as against 1081 b. for gunpowder and an equally
high amount for Schultz's gun-sawdust.

Mr. Dixon claims for his charges superiority of
propellent force over gunpowder, and from practice
we have ourselves seen made with his sporting cart-
ridges we are bound to say the shots were thrown
unusually close, and spattered the target well. Upon
all such points, however, the practical test of long-
continued use alone can fit a critic to give decisive
opinions ; but every one who has any scientific
knowledge of the main requirements of a proper
ammunition will know at once that an efficient
means of regulating the rate of explosion or com-
bustion is one of the most material considerations,
and this the simple expedient of interfolding paper,
or other more or less non-combustible material, with
the gun-cloth, is well calculated to effect.—Morning
Herald.