Year: 1868

4


70" O'' Wv" LONDON. June l3, 1868


The exposure of the trick by which Mr.. Justice
blackburn persuaded the Grand Jury to ignore the
bill against Mr. Eyre, occasions great scandal l
don't know how it happened that Mr. Justice Black
burn was chosen to deliver the charge. 1t was con
sdered at the time that his address to the jury was
very able and adroit argument for Eyre. Its ehect
On the Jury was great and greatly increased by the
emphatic statement of tho Judge that ils
associates on the bench agreed with him In
all his propositions Of law How came W.
tben that the views of the ChicfJustice had under
gone a complete transformation since his menoraoie
charge in the case of Nelson and Brandt They had
not nor is the ChiefJustice the man to sit quietly
while his learned brother affirmed that they had


There must have been an explosion in private which
one would like 10 know something about but before
II cot to thc public the contradiction took decOIous
shame Some days after the charge, the Judges came
into court The Chef-JustiQe read paper declaring
ihat his brother Blackburn, in asserting his concur
rence with the views of the Eyre charge had fallen
into great mistake. He did not concur. He dis
scented with great pOsitivoness. He had not changed
his opinion since his own charge was delivered. de
stiu held that the forcIble bringing of Gordon into
district under martial law was Illegal lie denied
hat martial law as now understood, was ever legally
nut i'm force in England against civilians not taken
in arms lie denied that the Jamaica statutes au-
horized martial law, except in the very limited
sense Of enforcing military service from citizens On
these three cardinal points, the opinions oil MI
Justice Blackburn. and majority of his brethren on
the bench, were completely at variance MI Ju'uce
Blackburn had substantially prohibited the Grand
Jury from finding a bill The majority of the court
would have directed them to present an indictment
against Eyre


What had Mr. Justice Blackburn to say in expla-
aationl Almost nothing He had drawn up paper
covering certain points in his charge-scarcely more
5han single proposition and that not controverted
This paper he had read to portion of his associates
IN private. The Chief Justice was not present When
he came in the substance of it was stated to him.
and he eoncurred. Then Mr. Justice Blackburn went
before the Grand Jury with his three other propO-
stons not one of which he had stated to the Court
and affirmed that the Court sanctioned them all!


Well. Mr.. Justice Blackburn carried his point. No
Indictment was brought against Eyre. His charae-
teri mean Backburns- stands so high that men
prefer to think he committed no fraud, that there
was a misunderstanding, that he was carried away
by an excess of zeal in behalf of Mr. Eyre The Chet
Justce could not have been silent without an utter
forgetfuncSs of duty yet there is more comment on
his plain tuth-telling than on the prevaricaton OF





character of an English judge have but one thing to
urge in his behalf They say he led into an in
discretion by his desire to shield from prosecution
man who put to death S5Omen and women by martial
law after his own proclamation had declared the
island restored to tranquility II that is the charta-
BILE view let us take it, for we could not on our side
urge anything much haTsher.


All this has damaged Eyre a little with the public,
but nothing can damp the zeal of his admirers They
started a subscription in the clubs to enable him to
contest Mr.. Mills seat in Parliament, but men had
got tired of giving money and that fell through
Mr. Hamilton Hume, Secretary of the Eyre Defense
and Aid Fund finds it convenient to say to-day that
it was never seriously entertained. The Govern
ment have intimated that they mean to pay Mr.
Eyres expenses, though not to protect him by an
act of Parliament against further prosecution Nat
urally enough, one of the subscribers to the fund
thereupOn writes to the papers to know why the
public should also be asked to pay. He begs Sir
Roderick NIurchison who has soiled his venerable
name by lending it for Eyre's defense, to say
what is to be done with the $4,000 and more which
long since were said to have been subscribed. Sir
ROderick does not answer but the irrepressibe Mr..
Hume does. The object of our fund is TO aid Mr..
Eyre as we'll as to defend him" The money may be
wanted to pay damages in civil actions But that Is
not all The committee will meet in a day or two to
consider whether the time has not come for an ex-
preston of public sympathy in the form of a national
testimonial to be presented to Mr.. EyTep That, ap-
parently, is what Mr.. Hume has been wanting
money for since the friends of Mr.. Eyre had I'M
doubtedly been informed in advance that the Gov
ernment meant to pay the bills for his defense.
hope they will 90 ahead and try. They can easily
give Mr. Eyre large sum- and they will at the same
time compel the Jamaica Committee to 90 on with
70 fba cttI
eleven or twelve different complaints and processes
which can be brought against him. Before they are
all exhausted Mr. Eyre may, if the committee is
thus challenged to use its weapons, need AL the
money the admirers of wholesale murder and woman
logging can raise for his defense.


Mr.. Shaw Lefeyres bill to secure to married
women the control of their own property, has had
great triumph. A strong minority was all its friends
expected and they are agreeably surprised by tie
vote The casting vote of the Speaker carried it to
second reading not because that wigged function
airy is on the side of the women, but because he al
ways in case of tie vote, so votes as to leave the
question open. In this case a vote would again be
taken on the third reading but the bill has gone to


Select Committee and will stay there. Legislation
is so much behind hand this session that what mem
ber choose to call fancy have no chance Of
becoming laws. The House must adjourn in August
or September at latestfOr the grOuse-shOOtng-whch
is much more important business than securing to a
few hundred thousand women the earnings of which
their husbands now have legal right TO rob them.
When Mr. Lefeyre first brought in this BILL The Times
attacked it and him with its usual courageous igor
against weak minority. The 1913 votes this week in
the House have convinced the leading journal that
there Is much to be said for the measure the adop
tion of which it would now see without regret"
few months more, and another strong vote, and
we shall have The Times denouncing as it ought to
denounce the rank injustice of the existing law. 1t
To hoo into