The Express. — 1867-03-30 (London, England)

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.  (THIS DAY.)  The Daily News describes it as a simple mockery of common sense that men of the calibre and knowledge of the unlearned and prejudiced squires of Shropshire should be empowered to entertain such questions of law as are invol►ed in the ease of Mr. Eyre. Sir Baldwin Leighton deems himself equal to the discharge of functions from which Sir Thomas Henry shrank. A body of English country gentlemen have not been 'Aimed to imitate the conduct of the grand juries of Jamaica, who threw out bills against Ramsay and Woodrow in defiance of facts and law, and in contempt of the charge of the judge. Their conduct has been since condemned by the Governor of Jamaica and by the Colonial-office. A similar censure must fall upon the Shropshire justices. They have placed the institution of the unpaid magistracy of England upon its trial. Their verdict simply means that if they bad been in Mr. Eyre's cam they would have done just as he did, of which, we suppose, nobody has any doubt. Mr. Eyre was well advised, it appears, in taking cover in Shropshire. But in consulting his safety he has sacrificed what remained to him of his reputation. The man who dragged Gordon from Kingston to Morant Bay—from a region in which his victim would have the protection at least of the forms of justice to a district under martial law—hides himself in Market Dray. too, not daring to come to London to share the fortunes of his subordinates, and to submit his case to the adjudication .of the highest tribunals of the land. Market Drayton and Morant Bay will henceforth be pendants. Mr. Eyre sent . Gordon to a place where he knew he was doomed ; and has remained himself in a nook where he knows he is safe —in both cases dreading equal justice and a competent tribunal. The Jamaica committee have the best legal ad, vice, and will doubtless be guided by it. Mr. Eyre can still be indicted under the Colonial Governors Act, not indeed for murder, but for the misdemeanour of instigating to the commission of murder, and tried in London on that charge.  Mr. Eyre's sole fault, according to the Times, was the Brat and grievous one in a governor, that he shared in a general panic and yielded to a public clamour. How anyone could believe in Cordon's guilt on the evidence taken at his trial it is difficult for us at home to under. stand ; but in Jamaica every eye viewed the conduct of the unhappy agitator through a lens which distorted and discoloured all the acts. The Times approves, in short, of the decision of the Market Drayton magistrates, and gods it difficult to imagine how any tribunal can hold a deed to be criminal which is performed in bond fide obedience to an set of the legislature.  The Telegnspit, while ►pproving the result, adds that the acquittal at Market Drayton does not of caves bar other proceedings elsewhere, and the Star makes a similar remark, observing further, that the proceedings will strike a blow at the whole system of administering jollities by unpaid, unprefemionsl, and necessarily prejudiced persons. The Timm does not dims the penitence which hes been expressed ►y some of the leading authors of the Boded• adios' Titles sin. The ease use one of the usurpation by a former prism of some of the highest attributes of so►ereignty in a foreign and friendly country, and what was dose, wee to vindicate the dignity of the nation,