The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-28 00:00:00

to put whatever they succeed in wresting from the
Ottoman's hands. Let them make the best of what
they have before they ask for more. The one among
the emancipated races which may succeed in dis-
playing the greatest aptitude for self-government
will certainly have the start of its rivals in the great
race for the Bosphorus. Greece has not much to
boast on that score. Neither had Roumania, so
long as she had only Stirbeys and Ghikas and
Couzas at her head. May we hope that Charles I.
and the Hohenzollern dynasty will bring her a better
chance ?

POST.—The prosecution of Mr. Eyre appears to
have been definitively fixed upon by the Jamaica
Committee, and a slight passage of arms between
it and the ex-Governor has already taken place in
regard to the services of an eloquent advocate which
each was equally anxious to secure. The decision
pronounced by the Attorney-General in reference
to the several retainers offered to Mr. Coleridge by
Mr. Eyre and his prosecutors has been in favour of
the former, and we have no hesitation in expressing
the hope that this minor success may be the herald
of a still more iinporiant one in receiving at the
hands of his countrymen an acquittal of the crimes
which have been laid to his charge. In matters of
this kind it is almost universally the duty of the
journalist to abstain from anticipating the probable
result, but the prosecution of Mr. Eyre stands on
such an exceptional footing that we might possibly
be excused for venturing on a forecast of the con-
clusion at which a jury would arrive. It is not our
intention, however, to discuss in detail the merits of
the evidence which will be adduced on the part of
the prosecution, much less to pronounce an opinion
how far that evidence could justify a verdict of wil-
ful murder. This will be a matter for a jury to de-
cide, and with their province we have no desire to
interfere. But although, when an issue comes to be
tried, the journalist should abstain from comment
on the probable result, he is not precluded from ex-
pressing an opinion as to the expediency of raising
such issue, or from calling in question the ground
on which it has been submitted for the adjudication
of a particular tribunal. There are those whose sym-
pathies are with Mr. Eyre, and who not only wish
him, but anticipate for him, a " good deliverance,"
who nevertheless think that his prosecution is a wise
and politic proceeding, and that great good will
result from placing him at the bar of a criminal
court, eves though his acquittal may be in the minds
of his judges a foregone conclusion. There are others,
again, who, whilst entertaining similar feelings to-
wards Mr. Eyre, conceive that his arraignment may
afford the opportunity of settling some doubtful
questions of constitutional law and for defining with
greater clearness the limits of executive authority,
and who, whilst regretting that a gentleman who
held the position of Governor of an important de
pendency of the British Crown should he placed in
a felon's dock, are nevertheless of opinion that, in the
interests of the community, he should be made a peg
on which to add a new code of regulations for the
guidance of future governors when placed in circum-
stances of similar difficulty and danger. We throw
out of account the opinions of those who conscien-
tiously regard him as an atrocious criminal, and
who demand that judgment shall be passed upon
him according to his deserts ; because, assuming
their opinion to be well founded, they have the
fullest justification for the course which they pursue.
But the grounds on which persons who. do not as-
sociate themselves with the proceedings of the Ja-
maica Committee justify the prosecution of Mr.
Eyre are, we must confess, far from being equally
intelligible. It would be strange, indeed, if we had
arrived at the present stage of our national existence
—an existence of which some centuries were passed
in an almost continuous struggle with the Crown
for the establishment of political rights, and the re-
sults of which struggle are embodied in what we
term the Constitution—without having tolerably
well ascertained the limits of the executive power.
What the Sovereign and his advisers can do and
what they cannot do are prescribed by several
positive legislative enactments, as well as by
that no less imperative, though unwritten,
law which is known as constitutional usage. If,
however, the power of the Sovereign is well defined,
that of his Viceroys and Governors is even still
more so, and it is needless to say that the agent can
exercise no more extended rights than the person
whom he represents. The sovereign is hedged
round by an-inviolability attached to his royal cha-
racta, whilst the Governor is personally responsible
for his acts. That this is so is well known to every
educated Englishman, whilst lawyers are aware of
particular instances in which the amenability of
the Sovereign's representative to courts of civil and
criminal jurisdiction has been conclusively estab-
lished. Thus far, then, we fail to see what good
can arise from the arraignment of Mr. Eyre, since
it is universally conceded that he can be made ac-
countable if he has overstepped or abused hii au-
thority as Governor-General of Jamaica. If his
innocence be assumed, it is a cruel and unjust
thing to arraign him on a capital charge, and if his
innocence is ultimately established by the verdict
of a jury, every one will admit that no advantage
has been secured by exposing him to a fruitless
prosecution. Bdt it is suggested that his arraign-
ment will afford an opportunity of solemnly de-
ciding whether, notwithstanding the Petition of
Rights, the Sovereign or his representative may
proclaim martial law. Those who have taken the
trouble of reading the provisions of that celebrated
statute can entertain no doubt that the martial law
there referred to was an anomalous species of juris-
diction created by Charles I. by virtue of com-
missions issued for the trial of military offen lers,
and which was, in fact, intended to serve the same
purpose as that procedure which is now annually
provided by the Mutiny Act. The Commons ac-
cordingly required that no further commission of
-a similar nature should thenceforth be issued,
" lest by colour of them any of his Majesty's
subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary
to the laws and franchises of the land." The mar-
tial law proclaimed in Jamaica was of a very diffe-
rent kind, and was rather a suspension of all exist-
ing law than the creation of any special law than
the creation of any special method of procedure.
Whether the Sovereign or his representatives can
thus suspend the action of the laws ordinarily in
force in times of great peril, when it is ncessary to
trample outsedition and insurrection by brine force,
can, however, scarcely be considered an open ques-
tiOn. The Executive in this, as in every other civi-
li4ed State, is entrusted with the amplest powers to
secure the preservation of order, and may do any-
thing which is deemed expedient to afford security
for the lives, the rights, and the property of the com-
munity. But, whilst
.the Executive is entrusted
with there powers, the people are entitled to demand
that they shall be exercised with judgment and dis-
cretion, and the adviser of the Sovereign in this
country on the one hand, or his representative in a
colony or dependency on the other, are responsible
either to Parliament or to courts of law for the
manner in which such exceptional powers are em-
ployed. On this point, then, no legal doubt exis's
which will be solved by the arraignment of the ex-
Governor of Jamaica. That he is accountable for
his conduct in proclaiming martial law, and in send-
ing Gordon from Kingston to Morant Bay to be
tried by court-martial, must be evident to the
meanest understanding ; but whether circumstances
existed in the colony to justify him in adopting
such extreme measures must be a question of fact,
the solution of which necessarily rests with a jury.