1865. within the limits of the law. He forgot that The Government would indeed have been wanting in regard for the rights of Her Majesty's coloured subjects, to say nothing of public opinion at home, if they had allowed such a category of horrors to pass unnoticed. Nearly four hundred and fifty persons had been shot or hanged, six hundred had been flogged, and a thousand houses had been burnt, in a rebellion, if it deserves so grandiose a name, of which Governor Eyre said that "no stand had ever been made against the troops," and that "not a single casualty had befallen any soldier or sailor." Mr. Cardwell, the coolest and most sagacious of Colonial Secretaries, while giving 1 Eyre to Cardwell, 20th October 1865. 1 Jamaica sion. the Governor full credit for his promptitude in 1865. measures of suppression, as well as for the high character he had hitherto borne in respect of justice and humanity, reserved, after the receipt of Mr. Eyre's first despatch, his opinion upon what occurred when the rising was over, and as soon as the whole truth had become known at the Colonial Office a Royal Commission was sent to make in- The quiries on the spot. Thus the condemnation of a Commispublic servant without a hearing was avoided, and proof was at the same time given that black men, equally with white, enjoyed the protection of the law. The Commissioners were well chosen. They were General Sir Henry Storks, Governor of Malta, formerly High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands; Mr. Russell Gurney, Recorder of London, and Member for Southampton, a Conservative in politics; and Mr. Maule, Recorder of Leeds.1 The authority of Governor Eyre was superseded, Suspension and complete executive authority throughout the stitution. island was vested in Sir Henry Storks. As soon as Parliament met, a Bill was passed to suspend the Constitution of Jamaica, and make the island a Crown Colony, for three years. A similar measure had in 1839 nearly caused the defeat, and actually led to the resignation, of Lord Melbourne's Government. But in 1866 there was no opposition, and Mr. Cardwell was able to say that the Legislature of Jamaica itself desired the change. Lord Derby, in the the debate on the Feb. 6, 1866. Address, attacked Lord Russell for not standing by Governor Eyre, as Lord Palmerston would have done. It is likely enough that Palmerston would have taken that course. But Lord Derby, if we may judge from the case of Sir John Bowring, would have been his most unsparing critic. 1 Afterwards Sir John Maule, Director of Public Prosecutions. 2 Cardwell to Storks, 16th December 1865. of the Con 1865. Report of the Commission. At all events the Cabinet of Lord Russell were completely vindicated by the Report of the Commissioners. This able and impartial document, written in a spirit of studious fairness and moderation, acknowledged the services of the Governor and his military colleagues in preventing the spread of the seditious movement. The Commissioners found that there had been nothing like a general conspiracy throughout the island, but that there was abundant evidence of a premeditated rising at St. Thomas-in-the-East. The cause of it was in their opinion not merely a desire to obtain land free from rent, but also a natural distrust of the planter magistrates, who, being themselves employers of labour, decided questions between employers and employed. The proclamation of martial law they held to be in the circumstances justifiable, and in accordance with the terms of the local statute. In the great majority of cases the Courts-Martial were pronounced to have acted justly and sufficient evidence. But some grievous abuses came to light, and showed, in the opinion of the Commissioners, that the evils of martial law were extremely grave. Thus at Port Antonio two men were executed because each said that the other had confessed to a murder, though there was no corroboration in either instance of the alleged confession. The affidavits of persons who might have been produced in Court were accepted as evidence. Five persons were convicted on the simple testimony of a man who had himself been sentenced to death as a spy. The Court which tried Gordon consisted of two naval lieutenants, and an ensign in the West India Regiment. "The evidence, oral and documentary," appeared to the Commissioners "wholly insufficient to establish the charge upon which the prisoner took his trial," upon namely, high treason. Governor Eyre, however, 1865. concurred in the justice of the capital sentence, and the necessity for carrying it out. The Commissioners held that martial law had been enforced too long, that proper instructions had not been given to the officers administering it, and that many suffered from it who had nothing to do with the disturbances. They visited with just reprobation the flogging of women. Finally, they found that the punishment of death was unnecessarily frequent; that the floggings were reckless, and at Bath positively barbarous; and that the burning of a thousand houses was wanton and cruel. The Report, which was drawn up at Spanish Town on the 9th of April 1866, is a standing monument to the equity and courage with which English gentlemen, whether soldiers or civilians, can decide an issue between their own countrymen and men of inferior races. It of course necessitated the recall of Governor Eyre. It also involved the just censure of some naval and military officers. "We cannot conclude our inquiry," the Commissioners wrote, "without expressing regret at the tone of levity which is to be found in the letters and language of some of the officers while engaged in serious and responsible duties." These words are certainly not too severe for men like Lieutenant Adcock and Captain Ford. Adcock wrote to Colonel Nelson, "On returning to Golden Grove in the evening, sixty-seven prisoners had been sent in by the maroons. I disposed of as many as possible, but was too tired to continue after dark." Ford wrote, "We made a raid with thirty men, flogging nine men and burning their negro houses. We 1" It was painful," they said of the mixed wires and cords used for flogging at Bath, "that any man should have used such an instrument for the torturing of his fellow-creatures." 1865. The Cattle held a court-martial on the prisoners, who amounted The Government of Lord Russell had to deal with a larger number of difficult questions in six months than had come before the Government of Lord Palmerston in as many years. While Palmerston was yet alive the first symptom of a great calamity appeared in England. The Cattle Plague, otherwise called the rinderpest, and sometimes, from the place of its origin, the steppemurrain, broke out in a cow-keeper's shed at Lambeth on the 24th of June 1865. A few days afterwards it appeared at Islington, having in both cases been brought from the Metropolitan Cattle Market at Smithfield. Early in July, Norfolk was visited by this terrible scourge, the centre of infection being Norwich Hill. Suffolk and Shropshire were next attacked, after which the disease rapidly spread, until by the middle of October it had extended to twenty-nine counties in England, |