450 



JAMAICA. 



the circumstances attending the insurrection 

 became hetter known, and were more fully 

 analyzed. The Government deemed it neces- 

 sary to suspend Gov. Eyre, and appointed Sir H. 

 K. Storks as Captain-General and Governor-in- 

 Chief of Jamaica during the prosecution of 

 certain inquiries about to be instituted respect- 

 ing tho late disturbances, and for such further 

 time as her Majesty might see fit. The new 

 Governor, together with Mr. Russell Gurney, 

 the Eecorder of London, and Mr. John Blossett 

 Maule, the Recorder of Leeds, constituted the 

 "Jamaica Commission" for the conduct of the 

 inquiry. At the same time a private "Jamaica 

 Committee " was organized, " in order to watch 

 the progress of the official inquiry to be insti- 

 tuted by the Government ; to bring about a 

 searching Parliamentary inquiry into the past 

 and present condition of Jamaica; and to pro- 

 vide Mrs. Gordon and others who may have 

 unjustly suffered from the proceedings of the 

 civil and military authorities in Jamaica with 

 competent legal assistance to conduct their 

 several cases before the commission." Th'e 

 chairman of the committee is Mr. Charles 

 Buxton, M. P., and among the members are 

 Mr. J. Stuart Mill, M. P., Lord Alfred Churchill, 

 Mr. Bright, M. P., Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, 

 Professors Cairnes and Goldwin Smith, etc. 



In February, 1866, the English Government 

 published three Blue-books of " papers relating 

 to the disturbances hi Jamaica." The first com- 

 prises a correspondence between Governor 

 Eyre and the Colonial Office, ranging from 

 January, 1865, up to the period of the Morant 

 Bay massacre (October llth). It also embodies 

 the celebrated letter of Dr. Underbill, besides 

 certain documents of a later date than last Oc- 

 tober, but not immediately bearing on the rebel- 

 lion or its suppressipu. The second contains as 

 many as sixty-one despatches from Gov. Eyre 

 to Mr. Cardwell, with many enclosures; and 

 thirty-three despatches from the Colonial Secre- 

 tary, eighteen of which are addressed to Gov- 

 ernor Eyre, and the remainder to Governor 

 Sir H. K. Storks. Of those given in the second 

 Blue-book the first despatch from the Governor 

 of Jamaica is dated October 20, 1865 ; the last 

 December 9th. Mr. CardweU's first commu- 

 nication was written on November 17th, and 

 his last to Gov. Eyre on December 16th ; his 

 last to Sir H. K. Storks was dated January 1st. 



In a despatch, dated October 23d, Gov. Eyre 

 writes that it was evident the " rebellion " had 

 been instigated by the language and writing of 

 persons in a better sphere of life, chief of whom 

 was Dr. Underbill and some of the Baptist min- 

 isters in Jamaica. Under these circumstances 

 he (the Governor) had deemed it right to ex- 

 amine the letters coming by the last English 

 mail for certain Baptist ministers. One of these 

 letters from Dr. Underbill to the Rev. J. Hen- 

 derson, of Montego Bay, Gov. Eyre enclosed, and 

 he quoted from it the following passage : " In 

 Jamaica tho people seem to be overwhelmed 

 with discouragement, and I fear that they are 



giving up in despair their long struggle with 

 injustice and fraud." To such expressions as 

 these Gov. Eyre attributes the outbreak, and he 

 adds : " If nothing can be done to stop at home 

 the pernicious writings such as I refer to, and 

 if Jamaica is to be retained at all, it will be ne- 

 cessary to pass a law in the colony authorizing 

 the deportation of all persons who, leaving 

 their proper sphere of action as ministers 

 of religion, become political demagogues and 

 agitators." 



Extracts from Mr. Cardw ell's despatch, dated 

 November 17th (the day after the receipt of 

 the first account of the outbreak), were laid by 

 Governor Eyre before the Jamaica Legislature, 

 and published in the colonial journals. But 

 the Governor omitted some of the most impor- 

 tant passages of the despatch. " No doubt," 

 Mr. Cardwell says in his despatch, " you will 

 have much further intelligence to communicate 

 to me hereafter on the subject of the measures 

 of severity to which you have felt it necessary 

 to have recourse. If you had time, in for- 

 warding those enclosures, to make yourself 

 acquainted with all their contents, it will have 

 been evident to you that they contain many 

 passages which will require to be explained as 

 soon as there shah 1 be sufficient leisure for 

 the writers to explain fully the proceedings to 

 which they relate. ***** j 

 entirely agree with you that measures of se- 

 verity, when dictated by necessity and justice, 

 are in reality measures of mercy, and do not 

 doubt it will appear that you have arrested the 

 course of punishment as soon as you were able 

 to do so, and have exerted yourself to confine it 

 meanwhile to ascertained offenders and cases 

 of aggravated guilt. I observe with pleasure 

 the hope you express that if no further out- 

 break occurs you will, in a short time, have 

 been able to* proclaim a general amnesty, ex- 

 cept to actual murderers." 



Governor Eyre's rejoinder is apologetic 

 throughout. On November 23d Mr. Cardwell 

 writes again, asking for explanation of certain 

 statements (made by various officers as to their 

 doings in killing and flogging negroes), and 

 adding that, without satisfactory explanation, 

 " the severity inflicted will not appear to have 

 been justifiable*"- Mr. Cardwell also asks for 

 copies of the proceedings of the court-martial, 

 and full particulars generally. On the same 

 day Mr. Cardwell wrote a special despatch re- 

 quiring from Gov. Eyre the reasons for his as- 

 sertions as to Mr. Gordon, and the proofs of his 

 guilt. The fact of his removal to Morant Bay, 

 where martial law prevailed, is pointed out, 

 and the despatch concludes : " I desire also to 

 see it clearly established that he was not exe- 

 cuted until crimes had been proved in evidence 

 against him which deserved death; and that 

 the prompt infliction of capital punishment was 

 necessary to rescue the colony from imminent 

 danger, and from the horrors of a general or 

 wide-spread insurrection, and the repetition 

 elsewhere of such a slaughter of the white and 



