1 866.] GOVERNOR EYRE. 53 



"You will shriek at me when you hear that I have just 

 subscribed to the Jamaica Committee." * 



On this subject I quote from a letter of my brother's : — 

 "With respect to Governor Eyre's conduct in Jamaica, he 

 felt strongly that J. S. Mill was right in prosecuting him. I 

 remember one evening, at my Uncle's, we were talking on the 

 subject, and as I happened to think it was too strong a 

 measure to prosecute Governor Eyre for murder, I made 

 some foolish remark about the prosecutors spending the 

 surplus of the fund in a dinner. My father turned on me 

 almost with fury, and told me, if those were my feelings, I 

 had better go back to Southampton ; the inhabitants having 

 given a dinner to Governor Eyre on his landing, but with 

 which I had had nothing to do." The end of the incident, 

 as told by my brother, is so characteristic of my father that I 

 cannot resist giving it, though it has no bearing on the point 

 at issue. " Next morning at 7 o'clock, or so, he came into 

 my bedroom and sat on my bed, and said that he had not 

 been able to sleep, from the thought that he had been so 

 angry with me, and after a few more kind words he left me." 

 The same restless desire to correct a disagreeable or in- 

 correct impression is well illustrated in a passage which I 

 quote from some notes by Rev. J. Brodie Innes : — 



" Allied to the extreme carefulness of observation was his 

 most remarkable truthfulness in all matters. On one occa- 

 sion, when a parish meeting had been held on some disputed 

 point of no great importance, I was surprised by a visit from 

 Mr. Darwin at night. He came to say that, thinking over 

 the debate, though what he had said was quite accurate, he 

 thought I might have drawn an erroneous conclusion, and he 

 would not sleep till he had explained it. I believe that if on 

 any day some certain fact had come to his knowledge which 

 contradicted his most cherished theories, he would have placed 

 the fact on record for publication before he slept." 



* He subscribed ^10. 



