1866 THE JAMAICA COMMITTEE 403 



which they conceived to be endangered. A com- 

 mittee was formed to prosecute Governor Eyre on 

 a charge of murder, in order to. vindicate the right of 

 a prisoner to trial by due process of law. Thereupon 

 a counter-committee was organised for the defence of 

 the man who, like Cromwell, judged that the people 

 preferred their real security to forms, and had pre- 

 sumably saved the white population of Jamaica by 

 striking promptly at the focus of rebellion. 



The Pall Mall Gazette of October 29, 1866, made 

 a would-be smart allusion to the part taken in the 

 affair by Huxley, which evoked, in reply, a calm 

 statement of his reasons for joining the prosecuting 

 committee : 



It is amusing (says the Pall Mall) to see how the rival 

 committees, the one for the prosecution and the other for 

 the defence of Mr. Eyre, parade the names of dis- 

 tinguished persons who are enrolled as subscribers on 

 either side. Mill is set against Carlyle, and to counter- 

 balance the adhesion of the Laureate to the Defence 

 Fund, the Star hastens to announce that Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Professor Huxley have given their support to 

 the Jamaica Committee. Everything, of course, depends 

 on the ground on which the subscriptions are given. 

 One can readily conceive that Mr. Tennyson has been 

 chiefly moved by a generous indignation at the vindictive 

 behaviour of the Jamaica Committee. It would be 

 curious also to know how far Sir Charles Lyell's and Mr. 

 Huxley's peculiar views on the development of species 

 have influenced them in bestowing on the negro that 

 sympathetic recognition which they are willing to extend 

 even to the ape as " a man and a brother." 



