302 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xx 



he is an evil and troublesome person, an English court of justice 

 will certainly find that virtuous person guilty of 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 pris- 

 oner took his trial. (Report, p. 37.) 



And again that they 



Cannot see in the evidence which has been adduced, any suf- 

 ficient proof, either of his (Mr. Gordon's) complicity in the out- 

 break at Morant Bay, or of his having been a party to any 

 general conspiracy against the Government. {Report, p. 38.) 



Unless the Royal Commissioners have greatly erred, there- 

 fore, 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 au- 

 thority as a crime. And I have joined the committee which 

 proposes to indict Mr. Eyre, in the hope that I may heana 

 court of justice declare that the only defence which can be ^t 

 up (if the Royal Commissioners are right) is no defence, ana 

 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^um Clue, Oct. 30, 1866. 



Two letters to friends who had taken the opposite 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, JVov. 8, 1866. 

 My dear Kingsley — The letter of which you have heard, 

 containing my reasons for becoming a member of the Jamaica 



