The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-25 00:00:00

RIOTS IN JAMAICA.

Mr. O'CONNELL, seeing the Noble Lord the Se-
cretary for the Colonies in his place, begged leave to re-
peat a question he addressed to him the other evening,
respecting the late occurrences at Jamaica, which unfor-
tunately wero attended with loss of life. The riots to
which he alluded took place at Christmas ove or
,in the night of Christmas-day. Now he wanted to know
from the Noble Lord, whether he had received infor-
mation containing the particulars of those deplorable
events ; and if so, whether he had any objection to lay
them on the table of the House ?

• Lord STANLEY said he would just state the nature
of the information respecting this affair which had
been received by her Majesty's Government. It
was quite true, as stated by the Honourable and
Learned Gentleman, -that disturbances did take
place in Kingston during the celebration of the Christ-
mas holidays, and that unfortunately those occurrences
were attended with loss of life. In the days of slavery
a sort of Saturnalia was allowed by the planters to the
slaves in all the great towns, and their proceedings were
regarded rather with satisfaction by the masters, though
the conduct of the blacks was very noisy and even trou-
blesome to the district, for the proprietors thought that
the fact of the slaves thus heartily giving themselves up
to amusement, was a proof that their minds were occu-
pied with nothing worse. But since slavery had ceased,
there had been a general desire amongst the most re-
spectable inhabitants, -including several of the blacks
themselves, to put a stop to those noisy and troublesome
demonstrations. In the course of last year, therefore,
the Mayor of Kingston who was independent and
uncontrolled in his authority by the Governor
of Jamaica, proceeded, without the consent of the rest of
the Corporation, and contrary to the advice of the Go-
vernment—(Hear, hear)—to adopt strong measures to
repress those rather riotous celebrations. He did suc-
ceed last year, though with some difficulty, in repressing
the negroes for a time; but soon after they broke out
again, and having overpowered the Mayor and the
authorities, the whole town of Kingston was a scene
of disturbance during three weeks. In the pre-
sent yo: a 7, the Mayor, acing against the advice
of the Government again, and being uncontrolled in his
authority, resorted to the same mode of proceedings,
availing himself of a clause in an Act, respecting the
sanction of which he (Lord S.) had some doubt, but
which certainly seemed to justify some extraordinary as-
sumption on the part of that officer, and accordingly he
directed the police to put n stop to the tunlaltuous re-
joicings of the negroes. The police were molested in
their attempt to execute orders which they were bound
to obey. A serious riot consequently ensued. The
Mayor was struck in the face with a stone
and knocked down, 'anti treated with such vio-
lence by the rioters that there was very great diffi-
culty in rescuing him. Encouraged by this
success the negroes continued their disturbances un-
checked. The other Magistrates endeavoured in vain
to put a stop to them, and the rioters became at last so
violent that the police being,placed in imminent danger
of their lives fired on the mob. He was sorry to say
the result of this act was that two lives were lost on the
spot, two had since died, and several others were
badly wounded. A considerable posse of troops
were then called int., the town, and for
some days very great excitement prevailed. Ho was
happy, however, to say that nothing could have been
more moderate then the conduct and demeanour of the
troops on this trying occasion. The troops in the first
instance employed were blacks ; yet no men could have
shown more steadiness and forbearance than did these
black soldiers while acting against these black inhabi-
tants.—(Hear, hear.) The militia, also, were in readi-
ness, and behaved themselves creditably. Not a single
shot was fired, no life was lost after the volley fired lay
the police. That morning he (Lord Stanley) had a
conversation with Sir 'William Gomm, late Commandant
at Jamaica, who had just returned from that colony.
That.officer told him, as indeed he had before heard,
that in.order to allay the public mind, Sir Charles Met-
calfe, the Governor, had ordered an investigation into
all the circumstances of the case, before the Chairman
of the Quarter Sessions, and some other authorities, and
that the inquiry was going on when Sir William left ; he
added that tranquillity had in the mean time been entirely
restored to the town. He (Lord Stanley) hoped that
the next packet would bring the result of the inquiry ;
and until then, he trusted the House would agree with
him, that it would be better not to produce the papers
he already had ; but when all the documents connected
with the case were received, he should willingly lay
them before the House.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. O'CONNELL begged leave to ask whether he
was right in understanding the Nob!e Lord to say
that again this year the opinion of the Government was
against the proceedings of the Mayor of Kingston, and
that the Government bad appointed a Commission to
inquire into the ease ?

Lord STANLEY said the Government had given its
opinion against the prudence and discretion of the con-
duct of the Mayor, who :was, however, entirely inde-
pendent of the Governor ; but that the case had. been
brought under the consideration of the Legislature and
the Government.

EGYPT.
Dr. BOWRING gave notice of his intention to move
for copies of all the correspondence which had taken
place upon the subject of the right of navigation of the
interior rivers of Egypt.
' TIM CORN-LAWS.

An /lON. MEMBER on the Ministerial side of the
House, gave notice of his determination to propose an
alteration in the proposed scale of duty upon foreign corn.
LAND TENURES IN INDIA.
Mr. O'CONNELL gave notice that he would call the
attention of the House, on the first opportunity, to the
state of the Land Tenures in India.
LAW OF COPYRIGHT.
Lord MAHON gave notice of his intention to bring
in a Bill similar to that introduced on a former occa-
sion, to amend the law of Copyright.
IRELAND.

Lord ELIOT said he would postpone till this day
week the introduction of his Bill to amend the Act
1 and 2 Wm. IV., which empowered landed proprietors
in Ireland to sink, embank, and remove obstructions in
rivers.