406 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XX 



side in this burning question show how resolutely he 

 set himself against permitting a difference on matters 

 of principle to affect personal relations with his 

 warmest opponents. 



JERMYN STREET, Nov. 8, 1866. 



MY DEAR KINGS LEY The letter of which you have 

 heard, containing my reasons for becoming a member of 

 the Jamaica Committee, was addressed to the Pall Mall 

 Gazette in reply to some editorial speculations as to my 

 reasons for so doing. 



I forget the date of the number in which my letter 

 appeared, but I will find it out and send you a copy of 

 the paper. 



Mr. Eyre's personality in this matter is nothing to me ; 

 I know nothing about him, and, if he is a friend of yours, 

 I am very sorry to be obliged to join in a movement 

 which must be excessively unpleasant to him. 



Furthermore, when the verdict of the jury which will 

 try him is once given, all hostility towards him on my 

 part will cease. So far from wishing to see him 

 vindictively punished, I would much rather, if it were 

 practicable, indict his official hat and his coat than him- 

 self. 



I desire to see Mr. Eyre indicted and a verdict of guilty 

 in a criminal court obtained, because I have, from its 

 commencement, carefully watched the Gordon case ; and 

 because a new study of all the evidence which has now 

 been collected has confirmed my first conviction that 

 Gordon's execution was as bad a specimen as we have had 

 since Jeffreys' time of political murder. 



Don't suppose that I have any particular admiration 

 for Gordon. He belongs to a sufficiently poor type of 

 small political agitator and very likely was a great 

 nuisance to the Governor and other respectable persons. 



But that is no reason why he should be condemned, 



