The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON I: ON, THURS OA Y EVENING, NOVEMBER 15, 1866.

' thin, in the face of a starving population, an atti-
tude of neutrality. This conviction haunted the
minds of the Northern statesmen. Yet England,
enduring the greatest suffering, did maintain, in
spite of all inducements to the contrary, a neutral
position. America should reverse the position, and
see what her own attitude would be under similar
circumstances. If the great staple of her manufac-
tures was supplied by Ireland, and if Ireland erected
herself into a Sovereign State by the unanimous
decision of the people, and commenced a war of re-
bellion against England, how would the feelings of
the citizens of the Great Republic induce them to
act ? Could England count on anything but the
most determined opposition on the part of the Ame-
ricans to the reconquest of that island ? If Ame-
rican sympathy was enlisted against England in
favour of Russia, when engaged in a war of aggran-
disement, England could hope for little but denun-
ciation and active interference if she were engaged
against the Irish in a war of independence. It is a
lamentable thing to think that these kindred nations
should always be opposed to each other, and in
favour of each other's enemies, however alien to
each these enemies might be, and it is a sad proof
of the perversity of mankind that the two most free
nations on earth and the leaders of freedom should
always be snarling at each other, and ready with or
without provocation to bite.
The newspapers have been followed in this matter
by many of the monthly and quarterly periodicals,
all taking the same tone of conciliation. We feel
persuaded that America will accept the hand
stretched out—and that this irritating question will
receive a solution that will tend greatly to the future
benefit, not only to their own mutual interests, but
to those of all maritime nations. It is the highest
effort of wisdom to extract good out of evil, for it
can only be accomplished by subduing feelings of
irritation, and in the manner so beautifully laid
down in a sermon by the Rev. HENRY WARD
BEECHER, when taking for his text the words of
the Apostle PAUL—" Overcome evil with good."
The opinion which weighs most forcibly in America
is the opinion of New England—because there
religion, education, and civilisation have attained to
their highest development. Had England been
more guided by the sentiments expressed by the
people of those States she would not have gone so
far wrong in her judgment of American questions.
This truth is becoming strongly impressed on the
nation, and the change we believe will not be
without its weight in influencing opinion not
only in the New England States, but throughout
America.—Anglo-American Times.

crush him, knocked him back into his place of power
and command over the nation. Such a result is by
no means improbable.— Anglo-American Times.

Terrific Gale at Liverpool.

LIVERPOOL, Wednesday.
The gales which have passed over Liverpool since
Saturday were exceeded last evening and to-day by one
more furious than any that preceded it. Unlike the gales
of the previous days, which generally blew in heavy
squalls, that of last night was continuous from the N. W.,
and was accompanied by blinding showers of rain and hail
—the latter being of an unprecedented size. In the neigh
bourhood of Bootle, Seaforth, and Waterloo, the hailstones
made sad havoc amongst the windows and glass-houses of
many of the more exposed and detached residences. in the
river fortunately the presence of a largo number of steam-
tugs prevented many of the vessels from dragging their
anchors ; but one ship, more unfortunate than the rest, has
come to grief. The British Lion, Capt. Mann, a splendid
North American built ship, which had only reached the
Mersey on Tuesday from Quebec, went to her anchorage in
the Sloyne. In the height of the gale the ship dragged her
anchors, and before any assistance could be rendered the
storm and the heavy sea carried her on to the Devil's Bank,
near Grassendalo, at the scuth end of the town. The
schooner Mineral, from Greenhithe to Runcorn, is reported
a total wreck in, the Victoria Channel. Nothing has been
heard of the crew. The Alberti, hence for Genoa, has been
compelled to run into Holyhead for shelter, havingsuffered
in the storm. Tho well-known Glasgow trader Gipsy
Queen is reported on shore near Garlock Head. The barque
Ocean Spray, hence to Galveston, has been compelled to
put back to the Mersey in a damaged state. The Christian,
from Shoreham for Swansea, has gone ashore, and remains
in a very critical position near Llanelly. The ship Ellen
Stuart, which sailed a few days since for Melbourne, after
attempting to bear up for Holyhead, has succeeded in
reaching this port rather leaky. A foreign barque, name
unknown, laden with fish, has been reported a wreck in
the neighbourhood of Belfast.
The British Lion, mentioned as having gone on the
Devil's Bank, still remained there up to the despatch of
this parcel, and fears are entertained that she will break
up if the stormy weather continues.

A steamer is reported to be lost, with many lives, on
Blackwater Bank.

The Great Storm at Nassau.

Governor Rawson has addressed a despatch, dated
October 17, to Lord Carnarvon, giving a long account
of the great storm which recently caused so much damage
at Nassau and the neighbouring islands.
The destruction of property on land and at sea (says the
despatch) has been very great throughout all the islands,
and especially in New Providence. Happily, the loss of
life has been comparatively small. On this island only
three deaths have been reported. On some of the out
islands it has been greater. Considering the number of
vessels, colonial and foreign, which have been wrecked
throughout the Archipelago, it is surprising how few of
the crews have been lost. I estimate the number, includ-
ing five crews, two of colonial and three of foreign vessels,
aE between GO and 70 persons.
Of the two steam-tugs, one had foundered in the har-
bour; the other, the General Clinch, respecting which I
have had occasion to write, as the last of the three vessels
which the government of the United States claimed as the
property of the late Confederate Government, had been
dashed into countless pieces against the public wharf, after
having crushed and inflicted a similar fate upon a colonial
schooner. Fortunately, the number of foreign vessels in
the harbour was at the time small. But of colonial vessels
and boats the number was great. Of the craft in the har-
bour 92 have been totally destroyed, 97 have been badly
injured, and 43 have been slightly injured. Upon these
vessels a considerable portion of the population depended
for their income derived from fishing, sponging, and wreck-
ing, and for the daily supplies of fish and of market pro-
duce brought from the out islands.

On shore the city exhibited a scene scarcely less distress-
ing. It would hardly have suffered so much from a bom-
bardment. The streets were chocked with the debris of
fallen and unroofed houses, and with prostrate trees.
I enclose an abstract of the information obtained by the
police as to the extent of injury done to house property
throughout the island. It is necessarily imperfect to seine
extent, and it does not include the injuries done- to out-
houses, fences, orchards, gardens, Sac., which add consider-
ably to the losses of the population. But your lordship will
be able to form from it some idea of the calamity which has
befallen this island, containing perhaps 12,000 to 13,000
inhabitants, of whom the greater portion reside in the city
and its suburbs : 617 houses destroyed, 609 houses in-
jured, 17 warehouses destroyed, 18 warehouses injured, 12
shops destroyed, 17 shops injured, 5 schoolhouses de-
stroyed, 2 schoolhouses injured, 5 churches and chapels de-
stroyed, 3 churches and chapels injured, 1 theatre de-
stroyed-1,031 persons made houseless.
The accounts from the out islands are, as yet, hurried
and incomplete, but we know that every one, without ex-
ception, was visited by the storm, and that on all greater
or less injury has been inflicted. I regret to say that almost
all have been severely injured.
I annex such further information as I have been able to
collect with respect to the ravages of the storm:—" 1. Au
abstract of the injuries done to the public buildings in
New Providence, with the civil engineer's estimate of the
cost of repairs, amounting with the injuries dune to roads
and streets not included in the estimate, to about £9,000.
2. Au abstract of the injuries done at the several light-
house stations. 3. An abstract of the injuries done to the
several public-houses as far as is known. An abstract of
the injuries done to buildings belonging to the Church
of England (exclusive of those belonging to the Colonial
Government) in the several islands, estimated by the
bishop of the diocese at £5,000. An abstract and
detailed return of wrecks and casualties to foreign-
going vessels as far as known. Captain Chat-
field, R.N., commanding her Majesty's ship Nimble,
is preparing a chart of the course of the hurricane, of
which, and of his report thereon, I hope to bo able to for-
ward a copy by the next mail. At present I will only
state that it passed over or near the Turks Islands, fol-
lowed the edge of the Great Bahama Bank, sweeping all
the inhabited islands in that direction; continued its
north-westerly course after crossing New Providence ; was
felt at Key West, and in Chesapeake Bay, on the coast of
the United States; curved to the northward and eastward
with the Gulf Stream, and was felt in its full force half-
way between Cape Hatteras and Bermuda—the usual course
of hurricanes in these seas."

After stating what measures had been adopted to meet
the emergency, Governor Rawson says :—"I anticipate
being under the necessity of raising a loan of moderate
amount, hilt I hope to avoid recourse to the English mar-
ket. I may perhaps be able to avail myself of the opportu-
nity of obtaining a moderate circulation of Government
notes, which will be a great convenience to the public,
under arrangements which I trust will be found unobjec-
tionable, and will be submitted for approval before adop-
tion."

in the week was 48.4 deg., which is 3.2 deg. above the aver-
age of the same week in 50 years (as determined by Mr.
Glaisher). The highest day temperature was 59.6 cbg. on
Monday ; the lowest night temperature was 30.6 deg. on
Saturday. The entire range of temperature in the week
was therefore 29.0 deg. The mean of the highest temper-
ature of the water of the Thames was 50.4 deg., that of the
lowest was 48.0 deg. The difference between the mean
dew-point temperature and air temperature was 3.9 dog.
The mean degree of humidity of the air was 87, complete
saturation being represented by 100. Rain fell to the
amount of 0.32 in., of which 0.31 in. fell on Thursday. Ac-
cording to a return furnished by the engineer of the Metro-
politan Board of Works the average daily quantity of sew-
age pumped into the River Thames at the southern outfall
works, Crossness, was 192,379 metric tons.

The Fire and Loss of Life in Hampstead-
Road.

Yesterday Dr. Lankester and the jury previously em-
panelled resumed the inquiry respecting:the cheumstances
attending the death of Emanuel Lazarus, aged 10 years ;
Marian Lazarus, aged nine years ; and Sophia Lazarus,
aged eight years— the three children who were suffocated
at a fire that occurred at the residence of their father, a
clothier, at 44, Hampstead-road.
The inquiry excited greater interest than on the former
occasion, as it was stated that had the police on duty at
the time used proper precautions, and not have prevented
those who had previously saved two lives, the other three
might have been rescued without danger.
The evidence of the porter was to the effect that when
he closed the shop he forget to turn off the gas at the main.
A fireman named Radford, in charge of Well-street fire-
station, said that be was first at the fire, when he found it
confined to the shop. In three minutes he got water and
poured it upon the fire, and it was got out in about a
quarter of an hour or 20 minutes. One of the firemen
turned off the gas after he got there. The gas was on
when he arrived at the fire.

By Mr. Solomon—Two escapemen were there when he
arrived, and another came directly afterwards. The street
door was shut when he arrived. The police were employed
in keeping the crowd back, but they were not able to
stand at the street door on account of the heat. If he had
known that the children had been in the first floor he
could have taken them out, but it was 20 minutes before
they were got out.

John Hutchings, a fire-escape conductor, said that he ar-
rived with his escape, and pitched it in front of the build-
ing, when he was told that there were three children in
the second floor. He went up three times, but found no
one therein. He was afterwards told that the children were
in the third floor. He searched that floor, but whilst in
the front-room the smoke extinguished his lamp, and
he had to search the back-room in the dark. After
that he beard that two children had been taken out, but
that others had been left behind. He went on the roof,
and there saw a man who told him there were other two
children at the trap-door. He asked him the way to the
trap, and he showed him, but he was unable to get down
on account of the smoke.

Ann Wardle, recalled, said that when the first escapeman
arrived she said there were children in the first floor.

This was contradicted by the escapeman. He could not
recognise the female who had given evidence.
Mr. Solomon said that he had no fault to find with the
conductor, who had behaved most courageously.
William Puckett, foreman of the London Salvage Coq);
said that he found two of the children on a bed. He could
not say whether they •were alive, but he thought not. He
took one child away in a cab to the hospital, butit wasdead.
Thos. Comber, police-constable, 54 S, said that he was
on duty on the night in question, and saw a large crowd
running along the Hampstead-road. He followed, and found
Mr. Lazarus's house on fire. He was told that there were
some children in the fist floor. lie went up the stairs to
that part of the building, but could get no further. Some
five or six persons then made an attempt to get to that
floor, but they were unable. He called to the escapeman,
and told him that there were children in the second floor,
and to make haste, as they could only be saved by the escape.
Police-constable 218 S said that he found the door of the
house open, and several persons attempt2d to get up stairs,
but were unable, and as others made attempts to go up, he
told them to get clear of the doors to enable others to get
out. His instructions were to keep the doors at fires. He
should not think of keeping the door if he knew there were
any persons in the house. He heard that two childrenhad
been brought down, but he did not hear that there were
other children in the place until the fire escape arrived.
Mr. James Laxton, superintendent of the S division,
said that he was sent for on the night of the fire, and when
he arrived he found the fire out. In every man's instruction
book it is laid down that, on the alarm of fire, he is to
hasten to the spot, arouse the inmates, and send some ono
else for the engines and escapes, and to keep the -doors
closed after the inmates bad escaped until the arrival of the
brigade, and then to hand the premises over to the firemen.
He had examined the circumstances, and he could not at-
tach the least blame to constables 54, 216, and 50.
By Mr. Solomon—The first constable ran off for the en-
gine instead of stopping at the fire.

Mr. Sampson Lowe said that the first intimation ought
in all cases to be given to the fire escape conductors.

Mr. Laxton said that no orders to that effect had ever
been issued by Sir Richard Mayne. The constables were
instructed to use their own discretion on such occasions.
Other witnesses who were examined stated their belief
that there was ample time to save the children. One por-
son said that he saw Ann Wardle, the servant, trying to
got to the door, but that she was pulled back.

The inquiry, after lasting four hours, was adjourned till
Monday next.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

,r/p-

TIMES.—In the night between Tuesday and yes-
terday they who chose to watch, and were not dis-
couraged by the doubts of astronomers, were re-
warded with a spectacle which cannot be imagined
or forgotten. The sky was unusually clear, and,
till about an hour before midnight, it made no sign,
and the eye turned in vain to the east, as men look
at a fortress that will not give the challenge. But
when the irregular circle of stars that had been in-
dicated by former observers had well cleared the
horizon, and moved some points to the south, first
one meteor theu another shot across the sky in
, various regions and with various directions, but
I plainly from that one quarter. The spectator had
soon counted half-a-dozen ; then he felt sure he had
seen thirty ; then six or seven in a minute ; then
they appeared faster than we could count them.
Then there came two or three together; then not
less than a dozen of all kinds. Some shot across the
heavens, leaving long, bright, and lingering trains,
the star itself seeming to explode, and instantly dis-
appear. Some darted as quickly and as bright, but
without trains. Some struck the sight, like sparks
from a forge, everywhere at once. Some seemed to
fall, over trees or houses, bright to the last, but
with the ruddy hues of lower atmosphere. Look
where we would it was the same ; in the far west,
and throughout the entire north, there was either
the bright glancing speck of light, or the long train,
or what seemed an actual ball of light, that illumi-
nated the country, and was slow to die away. 4.s
the night advanced these meteors chased one another
across the sky, following in one another's track, or
running side by side. The heavens seemed alive with
this unwonted host. There were times when it
seemed as if a mighty wind had caught the old stars,
loosed them from their holdings, and swept them
across the firmament. The Olympian himself might
have been supposed on his throne launching his bolts
against an offending or forgetful world. There he
was all but visible, for at that one place there were
meteors that appeared, only as spots to disappear,
or to traverse only just as much space as would
show motion. That, in fact, was the very pathway
of all this artillery, which was thus foreshortened,
like a column of soldiers, as seen by those that have
to bear the brunt. In the course of two or three
hours there must have been many thousands of these
visitors, usually so rare. Even when the sky be-
came partially overcast, they still showed themselves
at every opening, and shone through the veil of
clouds. Few, indeed, who saw it had ever seen the
like, or could expect ever to see it. As to the
sounds commonly heard on these occasions—the
explosions, the hissing,s, and the rumblings—we
cannot speak, for the wind was high, and it must
be remembered that the stillness ascribed by poets
tb the night has utterly left this isle, for hardly is
there a spot where it is not possible any hour of
the night to hear several mail or luggage trains.
As it seems to us, people have been a good deal
taken by surprise. The apparition has been far out
of the common range of ideas. In old chronicles
one reads of such things, exaggerated doubtless, and
told without science oraccuracy ; and travellers bring
home every now, and then tales of heavenly appear-
ances likely to make a great impression upon men
at sea, or in solitudes, or among savages, or where,
,Th
everything else is strange and inconceivable. e
heavens display their glory and unfold their mar-
vellous treasures much more within the tropics or
under the poles than in this temperate zone, where
earth seems to rob even heaven of its brightness.
For aught we know there is no real reason why the
wonders that have been should not be again, why
time should not have other novelties in store, like
those by which cities have been suddenly buried or
continents submerged. A cloudy sky hid the last
visit of these mysterious strangers. They were heard
of from other countries, and from our own provinces,
but an inveterate prejudice localises all such infor-
mation, and what is out of sight is soon out of mind.
Then we are told this is a matter of degree, and that
there are other periodic returns of meteors, besides
occasional appearances, familiar to everybody out
much of a night. Further, it is little more than a
century since the principles of modern astronomical
science were brought to bear on this subject. All
this may naturally account for the little expectation
or little thought given to what really is a most start-
ling and most awful phenomenon. There will, how-
ever, be no more of this ignorance or indifference,

for nobody who saw well what was to be seen the
other night will forget his impressions should he live
to the next return. It is the spectacle we are speak-
ing of, and its suggestive character. The most mar-
venous fact in the history and inquiry is the actual
harmlessness of these portentous appearances, and
the extremely little palpable result of any kind. A
few collections in a few small rooms contain all the
harvest of the heavens. Aerolites are so few that
temples were formerly built for their reception, and
religions founded on them. Industry has collected
the authenticated instances, and in no case does it
appear that the least damage has been done to life
or property. In the old saying, the throes of the
mountain end in one of the smallest of living things ;
but here Heaven shows itself in its sublimest
mood, armed with the most terrible weapons, and
the only results ever known have been here and
there a stone or lump of metal buried in the ground.
But science, which dispels so many terrors, and
proves so many appearances illusions and nothing
more, does not do so in this instance. Once in a
human generation, and thrice in a century—for
in this matter man and the material universe
seem strangely in accord—this earth has to en-
counter an immense cloud of stones revolving round
the sun, in an orbit of the same size as its own, but
in a contrary direction. This cloud of stones is be-
lieved to constitute a sort of ring, diffused over the
whole orbit, like a greathighway of rolling or flying
stones, though not in uniform density. However,
there is no escaping them, whatever they are, for
the breadth of this highway or stream is compared
to the moon's orbit, and it takes two or three suc-
cessive years, or, we should say, successive Novem-
bers, for the earth to enter and clear it. These
stones enter our atmosphere with a velocity of forty
miles a second, and destroy themselves, as it were,
by their own violence, for, when once arrested by
our grosser air, they are instantly melted and dissi-
pated in the air. That process, however, is only
possible with very small stones, estimated by grains,
for an aerolite of only a few pounds could only have
its surface affected by such a momentary operation.
Is it quite impossible that some day the earth may
have to encounter more bulky metal, more compar-
able to our mundane artillery ? Showers of stones
there have been ; and there evidently is no limit to
their size either in history or in science, for the laws
which govern the movement of every body in our
solar system apply equally to all sizes and all sub-
stances, from this earth to a grain of dust, from a
mass of metal to a vapour. Here is a shower of
missiles of unknown weight, and inconceivable velo-
city, always in motion from some unknown battery,
and every human generation has to run the gauntlet.
Will this atmosphere of ours always prove an abso-
lute protection, and turn off these bolts, as merit is
said to do the shafts of envy and detraction? That
is a question at least to be thought of.
HERALD.—True to their vindictive purpose, the
Jamaica Committee, as at present resolved, will
indict ex-Governor Eyre at the next Old Bailey
Sessions, about the middle of the current month.
Should the grand jury find a true bill, which we
think impossible, the indictment, it is said, will be
removed into the Court of Queen's Bench, and the
trial thus further delayed. Delay in legal prOCeed-
ings is generally pernicious ; in this instance, how-
ever, it is salutary, as tending to allay passions and
soften prejudices. But we agree with our able con-
temporary, the Law Times, in thinking that the ex-
hibition about to be made is disgraceful to our juris-
prudence. Here is a public servant prosecuted by
private individuals upon a charge of the highest
felony for official misdeeds. Where is the Govern-
ment that should arraign him if he be guilty ?
Where is the Government that should undertake
his defence if it deems him innocent? No fault,
however, can be found with the executive, which
must be ruled by the acts of Parliament as they.
stand. Still, we would call attention to a circum-
stance, illustrating the same principle, which oc-
curred some years ago. A deputation, professedly
interested in a question of diplomacy, waited upon
a foreign Sovereign as representative of English
political views. Immediately a bill was laid before
the House of. Commons, declaring such meddlings
with the ordinary and proper functions of the state
illegal. And why not in a matter of justice ? If,
says the Law Times, there were a public proseeutor,
the humiliating scene of rival advertisements and
partisan appeals on a question of life and death
would have been spared us. But this is not a full
statement of the case. We leave these processes to
be conducted by the caprice and intrigue of per-
sonal hate. Ought any man to be put upon his
deliverance to answer a capital impeachment at the
instance of a cabal calling itself a committee, with-
out being previously examined before a magis-
trate ? The commonest scoundrel in a rural dis-
trict, accused of murder, is never committed for
trial until a prima facie case of guilt has been
made out .against him in presence of the local
justices. Yet, where the persons are wealthy,
or can extort subscriptions from the credu-
lous, and the individual persecuted seems of im-
portance, the formalities of preliminary examina-
tions can be dispensed with, and an indictment laid
before the supreme courts upon mere affidavits.
Nov, the principal argument for the abolition of
grand juries has always been that the committing
magistrate is a grand jury in himself, as being
legally and personally qualified to determine whether
the charge against a subject of the Crown has been
so far sustained that he should be exposed to the
ignominy of a trial in the felon's dock. Suppose
the grand jury abolished. Any one might be forced
into the Central Criminal Court, and put to all the
costs of an elaborate defence, whether his witnesses
had to come from Abyssinia or the Himalayas, and
a verdict of acquittal would simply imply that he
had escaped at the expense of a few hundreds or
thousands in money, and an incalculable amount of
mental suffering. We hold all this to be wrong.
When a state wrong is done the state is insulted,
and the state should vindicate its own honour.
Here, however, after the Government have instituted
a. solemn, elaborate, and exhausting investigation,
Mr. Eyre is exonerated from all blame beyond that
of a partial error of judgment—one of those errors,
perhaps, by which nations and empires have occa-
sionally been saved ; but a little coterie, of one
opinion in politics, interferes, pushes the state aside,
takes possession of the law, and insists upon putting
a man, lately the responsible administrator of
affairs in an important British colony, in peril of his
life. It is monstrous and shameful. Virtually, in
this case the Jamaica committee prosecutes, nomi-
nally the Crown does so. Is there no discretion
vested in the Crown, as represented by its law
officers, to refuse ? If not, it may be hoped that so
serious a defect in the law will not long be permitted
to deface and scandalise the statute book of the
realm. That this is a gross partisan prosecution we
have from the beginning affirmed. It is opposed to
every maxim of English justice. The law of Eng-
land, the equity of Englishmen, have usually as-
sumed a man to be innocent until he is proved guilty.
But what are the persecutors of Mr. Eyre doing ?
They have condemned him a hundred times already;
they have hanged and burned him in effigy, and
declared their eagerness to hang and burn him in
the flesh ; they have denied him the fair play which
is not refused to the most vulgar malefactor ; they
have endeavoured to pack, out of public opinion, a
jury for his conviction beforehand. But when such
malicious artifice is employed, the process defeats
its own object. The case is taken out of the ordinary
category. We feel no compunction, for example,
in expressing our hope that a body of English gen-
tlemen composing an English grand jury will in-
dignantly dismiss the indictment, and prevent the
Jamaica Committee from displaying its factious
rancour, and blackening the witness-box of a solemn
court of justice with a flood of negro perjury specially
imported from Jamaica. The petty jury, should
the trial ever take place, will, of course, be locked
up while it drags its slow length along ; but who
doubts that the Jamaica Committee would influence
it if they could ?—for what else are they attempting
to do now—what but to prejudge the charge against
this man, whose blood they despair of taking, yet
whose life they expect to ruin ? The latest mani-
festation, anticipatory of the great sensation scene
they fondly yearn for at the Old Bailey, is a docu-
ment issued by the Committee of the British and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society--a body which has
no legitimate claim to a voice in the matter at all.
There are no slaves in Jamaica, and there is no
" anti-slavery," however much there may be of
" pro-negro" as against " anti-English" principle
in the prosecution of Mr. Eyre. But the society
assumes that besides emancipating slaves its duty
is to protect those who have been emancipated al-
ready. Was G. W. Gordon ever " emancipated" ?
The committee say so, but the commission never
ascertained the fact. Of course, they reject the
evidence concerning him as false and calumniatory.
Because, however, a particular association, animated
by one idea, moved by one interest, discarding
national sympathy, despising all ideas of govern-
ment, believing in no human good out of Africa, and
pledged to execute vengeance upon a public servant
for having rescued an European community from a
negro terror, devotes itself to the endeavour, ori-
ginated by a self-elected body, styling itself a
Jamaica Committee, ought the machinery of the
law to be placed at its disposal, to be worked at its
pleasure? It will have been observed that the
people of the anti-slavery clique altogether suppress
the undoubted testimony which, produced too late
for the Royal commissioners to consider, demon-
strated the existence of a deeply-laid conspiracy of
which Gordon was the head, contriver, and centre.
These have been the tactics of the ultra-negrophi-
lists from the commencement. How did they treat
the unchallengeable statement made on behalf of
the Eyre Defence and Aid Fund ? Mr. Bright's
organ did not notice it for a week. It then garbled
two quotations from speeches on colonial policy by

Lord Russell and Earl Grey. It next repeated bag
of the facts to which Lieut. Edenborough is ready
to swear, leaving out all mention of the main point,
which was that Gordon, after buying the guns,
ammunition, and military stores, was, while Pre:
tending to embark them for Hayti, to hang obeli"
the coast, and ultimately land them in Jamaica at
point near St. Thomas itself. It then entirely omitted
any reference to the letters, memoranda, and speechesin which Gordon distinctly planned, prophesied, and
summoned the rebellion. The Committee of the
.Anti-Slavery Society, which we regret to see lend-
ing itself to these discreditable manoeuvres, do like:
w
wise. They ignore, in the first place, the fact that
it is disproved that Mr. Gordon, when arrested;
was not resident within the district proclainied
under martial law. His house was in the declared
territory, and he was only arrested beyond it be-
cause he had fled to escape the penalties of treason.
This was not made sufficiently clear to the
commissioners. Indeed while rendering full jtAtie°
to their impartiality and desire to elicit the trail,
we are bound to remark upon a point which seed
hitherto to have escaped observation. Of the thou-
sand witnesses examined nine-tenths had been
prompted by the Jamaica Committee. There was
a corresponding body agitating, organising, col
letting and disbursing money, keeping an ofd
ee
open, advertising for evidence, paying the expenseg
for every black man, woman, or child willing W
sworn. On the other hand, there were generan/
the educated and independent residents, the clergy'
the magistrates, the merchants, and planters, of the
island, with a few negroes who stood in fear of their
seditious compatriots. But all this the two gym"
mittees—one in aim and spirit—leave out of vieW.
[hey call upon the Government to assume the in-
itiative in the criminal prosecution of ex-Governor
Eyre. The Government, of course, declines to be.
come an accomplice of their prejudice and slate'
Nevertheless, it appears that the dignity of a Crown
prosecution, with or without executive sanction, Can
be stamped upon the indictment. Whether this be
true or not—and the state of the law upon the sub-.
ject is confessedly dubious—we once more repeal
that the spectacle of this trial, if it takes place, an;
whatever the issue, will be scandalous, and should
suggest an immediate change in our system of ju-
risprudence so far as the rights of individuals to in-
stitute prosecutions for public and state offences are
concerned.