JAMAICA. 



453 



to her Majesty's Government, and those who are 

 willing to take an unprejudiced view of all the cir- 

 cumstances and events. As regards the military and 

 naval officers, I feel assured that they will be able 

 fully to explain and justify occurrences which, from 

 being insufficiently narrated, at present may appear 

 to be of a somewhat doubtful character; and if in 

 some of the details unavoidable irregularities or im- 

 proprieties have occurred, the general nature of the 

 operations will be found to have been just and neces- 

 sary, and consistent with the high character so de- 

 servedly enjoyed throughout the world by British 

 soldiers and sailors. I must ask your indulgence for 

 any shortcomings in my correspondence, or for any 

 omissions to transmit any documents which you may 

 have thought ought to have reached you, as well as 

 for the delay which must necessarily take place in 

 procuring for you replies to the inquiries which you 

 nave made. During the existence of the rebellion 

 there was no time to examine critically the hurried 

 reports which were submitted to me for a very hasty 

 perusal, and I had no reason for supposing that any 

 unjustifiable acts were being committed. I have also 

 stated in former despatches that nearly all these re- 

 ports were transmitted to you immediately on their 

 receipt, and that I had no copies of them, or any op- 

 portunity or time for referring to them again 'until 

 the receipt of your despatches made it necessary for 

 me to call for fresh copies. For the last ten weeks I 

 have had an overwhelming pressure of work arising 

 from the rebellion, and from the arrangements hav- 

 ing to be made for the safety and tranquillity of tho 

 island ; from the labors incidental to a most import- 

 ant session of the Legislature, under which a total 

 alteration of the constitution has been effected; from 

 all the ordinary current business of the island, and 

 from the correspondence- connected with the sub- 

 ordinate Governments of British Honduras and Turks 

 Island. There has scarcely been a day, Sundays 

 even not excepted, that I have not labored from ten 

 to sixteen hours, and often have been called up in 

 the middle of the night to do so also. This pressure 

 and the anxiety attending my position have seriously 

 affected my health, and I am sure that you will there- 

 fore view favorably any deficiencies which may have 

 occurred in my correspondence relative to the lato 

 occurrence. 



The third scries of despatches is less im- 

 portant than the second. Gov. Eyre transmits 

 two more addresses to himself from the inhabi- 

 tants of the parishes of Manchester and Tre- 

 lawny, referring to the riot at Morant Bay as a 

 diabolical rebellion, and his replies, in which he 

 states that these addresses will show her Maj- 

 esty's Government that the foul aspersions of 

 the English press are undeserved. He also for- 

 wards a despatch signed by five Missionaries of 

 the Wesleyan, London, and Baptist Societies, in 

 which, after expressing their unfeigned attach- 

 ment to the Queen's person, the petitioners say : 

 " We deeply lament the lawless and ferocious 

 outbreak, which, as your Majesty must have 

 been given to learn, took place in the eastern 

 district of this island in the month of October 

 last," and readily acquiesce "in the righteous 

 condemnation and punishment of all who were 

 wickedly concerned in it." At the same time, 

 however, having been pained by the rumored 

 cruel and barbarous proceedings of some of 

 those who were engaged in tho suppression of 

 the riot, the petitioners implore the Queen that 

 she " may be graciously pleased to direct a full 

 and impartial investigation, by a special com- 

 mission from England, to be made into the 



matter, and also into the reasons for the allega- 

 tion that there is scarcely a district or a parish 

 in the island where disloyalty, sedition, and 

 murderous intentions are not widely dissemi- 

 nated, and, in many instances, openly expressed, 

 and that a seditious and disloyal spirit pervades 

 the entire island." 



In another despatch, Gov. Eyre, referring to 

 Mr. Cardwell's inquiries respecting the manner 

 in which Dr. Underbill's letter obtained pub- 

 licity in the colony, denies Dr. Underbill's 

 statement that he (Gov. Eyre) published it, and 

 states that it is not surprising, considering the 

 number of persons in whose hands the letter 

 was placed for remark by the Governor, a copy 

 should have got abroad.* The despatch cover- 

 ing the memorial of the missionaries, dated 

 January 8th, is the last bearing Gov. Eyre's 

 signature. On the same day Sir Henry K. 

 Storks encloses the proclamations he issued on 

 assuming office. 



The despatches from Mr. Cardwell are four- 

 teen in number, and are chiefly interesting on 

 account of their enclosures. Among the latter 

 is a letter to Mr. Cardwell from Mr. F. A. B. 

 Vinen, complaining that he was arrested at 

 Kingston without warrant or reason assigned, 

 that not a semblance of a charge was ever made 

 against him, that he was kept in prison, his 

 health injured, and his practice broken up, and 

 all this although he had carefully held aloof 

 from public affairs. In two other despatches 

 Mr. Cardwell disallows two Acts of the Jamaica 

 Legislature, one establishing whipping as a 

 punishment for larceny, and another enabling 

 magistrates to " apprentice " persons under the 

 age of sixteen convicted of petty larceny. Mr. 

 Cardwell transmits to Sir Henry K. Storks a 

 copy of a petition to the Queen from the in- 

 habitants of the parish of St. Thorn as-in-the- 

 East, dated five weeks before the riots which 

 broke out there, and which is as follows : 



ST. THOMAS-HT-THE-EAST, Sept 5, 1865. 

 To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty : 



We, your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, the free- 

 holders of St. Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica, having 

 been ihformed that your Majesty has been pleased to 

 investigate in the state of this island by some infor- 

 mations have been laid before the throne, upon which 

 investigation the planters complain that the black 

 people are lazy, and will not work, unto which we 

 most humbly beg to implore jour Majesty's attention 

 to our humble communication. The planters give 

 us thirty chains for our day's task, which we are 

 unable to finish. We must state that when we were 

 slaves we never had such heavy work, and after hav- 

 ing finished those number of chains, with the expec- 

 tation at the end of the week to obtain the amount 

 of 6s., we generally gets Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. for the 

 whole week's pay, which can't purchase us one day's 

 food. Can this support our family ? The island has 

 been ruined, consequently, of the advantage that is 

 taken of us by the managers of the estates. Another 

 subject, which we most pitifully begs to implore your 

 Majesty's attention. Whenever we have a case 

 which may be taken before the planter magistrates 

 they gives us no satisfaction whatever, but combines 



* The Jamaica newspaper in which the letter first ap- 

 peared, stated that it had received it from one of the custodes. 



