1866 THE JAMAICA COMMITTEE 405 



murder. Nor will the verdict be affected by any 

 evidence that the defendant acted from the best of 

 motives, and, on the whole, did the State a service. 



Now, it may be that Mr. Eyre was actuated by the 

 best of motives ; it may be that Jamaica is all the better 

 for being rid of Mr. Gordon ; but nevertheless the Royal 

 Commissioners, who were appointed to* inquire into Mr. 

 Gordon's case, among other matters, have declared 

 that: 



The evidence, oral and documentary, appears to us to 

 be wholly insufficient to establish the charge upon which 

 the prisoner took his trial. (Report, p. 37.) 



And again that they 



Cannot see in the evidence which has been adduced 

 any sufficient proof, either of his (Mr. Gordon's) com- 

 plicity in the outbreak at Morant Bay, or of his having 

 been a party to any general conspiracy against the 

 Government. (Report, p. 38.) 



Unless the Eoyal Commissioners have greatly erred, 

 therefore, the killing of Mr. Gordon can only be defended 

 on the ground that he was a bad and troublesome man ; 

 in short, that although he might not be guilty, it served 

 him right. 



I entertain so deeply-rooted an objection to this method 

 of killing people the act itself appears to me to be so 

 frightful a precedent, that I desire to see it stigmatised by 

 the highest authority as a crime. And I have joined the 

 committee which proposes to indict Mr. Eyre, in the hope 

 that I may hear a court of justice declare that the only 

 defence which can be set up (if the Royal Commissioners 

 are right) is no defence, and that the killing of Mr. 

 Gordon was the greatest offence known to the law 

 murder. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 



THOMAS H. HUXLEY. 

 THE ATHEN.EUM CLUB, Oct. 30, 1866. 



Two letters to friends who had taken the opposite 



