The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1866-02-03 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE JAMAICA INQUIRY..  The news frnm Jamaica this week, by the "Shan. non," is ot considerable intere4. The &item are tip to the 9th of the present m nth. Sir Henry Storks had arrived, attended by his aide-de-camp, Captain Baring, anti accompanied by the secretary to the Countliesion, Mr. C. S. Roundel The special carresapondent of the Times, reporting Sir Henry's arrival, says:--" There were groups eager spectators on the wharf when the steamer drew alongside. The negroes shook hands and looked triumphant. 'Now we shall have justice,' some were heard to..say, and they raised s cheer as his Excellency drove off. The whites who were present seemed 1113/LiMIS and depressed. They did not conceal their regret at what they tegarded as the 'humiliation' of Mr. Eyre, and their fear at the effect which the interposition of the Home Government might have upon the excitahle black poOlatien. This feeling is still uppermost with many, but all welc one inquiry, and agree that the experience and discretion of Sir Henry Storks, his military promptitude and known administrative ability, furnish the best guarantees for good government and good order so long as he remains in the isiand. On another point the whites with whom I have conversed are singularly unanimous. No one of them entertains the least doubt that Mr. Eyre will be triumphantly 'acquitted.' The doubts and denunciations at home find no echo here; and this nearly universal agreement —for such it seems to be—upon a subject which in England has produced such wide die. agreement its one of the first things noted by a new comer. Even those Jamacia politicians who had been determined opponents of Mr. Eyre's administration, and who at at another time would have rejoiced at his removal from the colony, now rally round him, express their gratitude for his efficient measures in suppressing the rebellion, and protest against the injustice to which they declare he has been treated in return by the Imperial Government." It meema to be the general feeling among the white populationthat any rebuke to the authorities from home will be looked upon by the negroes as a license to them to do what they please. must be confessed," says the Times correspondent, "that the negro does noteeein able to enjoy his triumph quietly or discreetly ; and I am not serpritted that their exultation and exaggerated talk should have irritated the whites, used to command, and ill able to brook what they regard as a mortification inflicted on the superior race. Yesterday the black men were saying loudly that Governor Eyre was to be banged, and that the chief aothoritieft here would be sent to the penitentiary. A negro called out to an officer who was passing, "You won't oppress the blacks any longer—new governor come ;" and similar expressions flung at the whites have not tended to allay their exasperation. Here, in Kingston at least, many of the negroes seem intelligent. They react their newspapers in the streets, when, perhaps, they should be at work; and I believe the articles in the English papers favourable to their cause are regularly reproduced here and eager'y looked for. In some cases they are read and COILIT)011:ed on in thenative chapels. The dangerous effect of .is literature upon the impressionable and ignore it blacks is strenuously insisted on here. Governor Eyre waited on Sir Henry Storks the day after his arrival, and the latter was dilly sworn in. He has taken up his residence at the King's howw. Mr. Eyre is said to be looking very ill, and it is reported that it was his intention to resign and return to England ;but he will now, of course, remain in the island till the close of the inquiry. In the midst of the controversies and discords which prevail in Jamaica, there is one point on which men are unanimous. The political suicide of the Assembly has given universal satisfaction. No one says a good word for it; there was no confidence in its measures, or in the prosperity of the island, so long as it existed to wrangle through the seesitw, and bar the road against sound and comprehensive legislation. All agree that it never passed an Act so beneficial to the colony as that by which it accomplished self-destruction. The remark ie frequently heard, "If that be the only result, the victims of the Morant Bay outbreak will not have perished in vain." The Times letter corrects two erroneous opinione which have been formed here. First, as to the total number of negroes who have been killed. " Every Englishman will be pleased to learn," says the writer, "that the number of negroes who have been put to death has been grossly exaggerated in England, principally on the atrength—it is only just to repeat- of unreliable and excited lettere written, and often printed, in Jamaica. I am aseured that, taking into account those who were hanged, shot, or slain by noldiere and NI aroma in the bush, the number of negroes who have lost their lives has not been more than 4101, and that ro, is an outside estimate. Lamentable entoigh was even this lime of life, but when mention is made of "miles of dead bodies," and "the slain are counted by  thimAands," it is right that no time should be lost in declaring these statements to be Inc only to a fertile imagination." Then as to Paul Bowie's "valet," This personage AMA not a youth, as we had supposed from the ACCMIIIt. [Wilt hue, but more than twenty-two years old, and amanita' man, with two children. He was calied ii "toy "as even old men are in Jamaica when in aervice. Bogle gave him a gun, which, according to his own account, he threw down a gully, and after being taken by our troops, Colonel Hobbs allowed him to go free. He then volunteered to accompany the detachment, and as he knew Bogle and the other ringleader., well, his services were accepted; but he was warned—in All probability, roughly warned—that, if he attempted hi mislead the detachment, or to run away, or to lie, he would be shot.