Chapter XXV: THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (continued) (1)

The Quietness of Europe--Debate on Poland--The English Prisoners
in Abyssinia--Mr. Newdegate and the Encyclical--Visit of the
French Fleet--Conclusion of the American War--Sherman's victorious
March--Sheridan's Campaign--Lee's last Efforts--Evacuation
of Richmond and Petersburg--Lee's Retreat--The Surrender at
Appomattox--Grant's General Order--The Death of Lincoln--Inflated
Prosperity of India--The Canadian Defences--The Maori War
continues--Mr Cardwell's Policy--The Jamaica Rebellion--Grievances
of the Blacks--The Trespass Laws--Governor Eyre--The First
Riots--Excesses of the Negroes--Their Extent exaggerated--The
Rebellion spreads--Governor Eyre proclaims Martial Law--"The
Suppression"--Anderson the Informer--Colonel Hobbs--The
Maroons--Elkington's Letter--Gordon Ramsay--Some typical Trials--G.
W. Gordon--The Court-Martial--The Evidence produced--Gordon is
hanged--The total of Deaths--Excitement in England--The Jamaica
Committee--Eyre committed for Trial--The Chief Justice's Charge--The
Bill thrown out--Recovery of Jamaica--Reform again--It becomes a
Government Measure--The Bill of '66--Mr. Gladstone's Speech--Mr.
Lowe and Mr. Horsman--"The Cave"--The Easter Recess--The second
Reading--Lord Grosvenor's Amendment--A brilliant Debate--Mr.
Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone--A Majority of Five--The Government
perseveres--The Redistribution Bill--Its Details--Mr. Bouverie's
Amendment--It is accepted--Captain Hayter's Amendment--Mr.
Disraeli's Strategy--Lord Stanley's Attack--Mr. Walpole's
Amendment--Amendments of Mr. Hunt and Lord Dunkellin--Gross
Yearly Rental and Rateable Value--The Debate on the Dunkellin
Proposal--Defeat of the Government--Their Resignation--Mr.
Gladstone's Statement--Earl Russell and the Queen--Lord Derby's
Conservative Ministry--The Refusals--Mr. Disraeli's Election
Speech--Peace in Parliament--Indian Finance--Prohibition of the
Hyde Park Meeting--The Procession marches--Destruction of the
Railings--Mr. Walpole weeps--Discussion on his Conduct--The Queen's
Speech and the Rinderpest.

In European history the year 1865 will always be looked upon as an interregnum, a breathing time, between the two eventful years that preceded and followed it. It was the interval between two wars; and its history is the history of passions that smouldered and of intrigues that worked in secret. The underground records of diplomacy have much to tell of it; but as for events, there are none. Nor, so far as England is concerned, is there very much to record under the head of foreign policy. The dullness of such foreign debates as Parliament saw in this year contrasts sharply with the keen excitement of the debates of 1864, when Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone flung in each other's face their opposing views of what constitutes the honour of England. Schleswig and Holstein were irrevocably gone now; rightly or wrongly we had stood by and seen them taken; and it was of no use to protest after the event, or to debate about our duty. On the other hand, the quarrel about the division of the spoil had not yet broken out; so we have few despatches from Lord Russell and few scoldings by the _Times_. The only debate on European affairs that need be chronicled was one on a motion brought forward by Mr. Pope Hennessy on the treatment of Poland by Russia. The terms of the motion referred to Russia's palpable violation of the Treaty of 1815 and entered a protest against it. But Lord Palmerston, and the good sense of the House with him, refused to entertain the resolution; for such a resolution means less than nothing unless it means war if its request is not complied with. Neither Mr. Pope Hennessy nor any one else thought seriously of a war with Russia. In this matter of Poland, in this year at least, we escaped the blunder which we had committed so often and so ludicrously in 1864; as we did not mean to enforce our opinion, we kept it to ourselves.

It was in this year that the public began to hear stirring accounts of the British prisoners in Abyssinia, who were, a short time afterwards, to be raised to a position of such national importance. The full story of their captivity is perhaps better deferred till the time comes for treating of the Abyssinian War, set on foot to rescue them; but the points at issue may shortly be recorded here, as they were told by Lord Chelmsford in the House of Lords during this Session. In July, 1862, Captain Cameron had been sent to Abyssinia as consul, with flattering messages and presents to King Theodore, a half-savage chieftain professing a kind of spurious Christianity. He was well received by the King and treated with honour; especially when, on the breaking out of a war between Egypt and Abyssinia, he attempted to mediate in favour of King Theodore. But this mediation was ill received by the Egyptian authorities and Consul Cameron was induced to desist. This made the King very angry; especially as he had received no answer to an autograph letter that he had written to Queen Victoria on Captain Cameron's arrival in July. With the fickleness of a savage, he turned round upon the consul and began to treat him with great indignity; and matters were complicated by the action of certain missionaries, Mr. Stern and some others, whom the King and his grandees considered to have been acting against the interests of Abyssinia. One of Mr. Stern's interpreters was beaten to death; he himself was also beaten very severely; and then first he and the other missionaries and afterwards Consul Cameron himself were imprisoned and loaded with chains. So they continued for a long time: the British Foreign Office found itself in the difficult position of having either to leave British subjects to take their chance, or run the risk of rousing to fury an African chieftain renowned for his fierce temper, and of arming him against the lives of the unhappy captives. Matters had been in this position about eighteen months, when Lord Chelmsford in the House of Lords, and Sir Hugh Cairns in the Commons--both great Opposition lawyers--questioned the Government very severely about the whole circumstances of the case. Lord Russell and Mr. Layard both made the same defence of the Foreign Office--that it could literally do nothing without sending the captives to certain death. It is well known that the event proved the Foreign Office wrong. But we shall give at a later stage an account of the war of release undertaken by Mr. Disraeli's Government; and to that chapter we must defer the rest of the romantic story.

There was considerable excitement abroad at the opening of this year, especially among the clergy, concerning the Pope and the Roman Question. It will be remembered that in September, 1864, there had been a Convention between France and Italy, under which Italy guaranteed the undisturbed possession of the Pontifical Dominions to the Pope, while France on the other hand engaged to withdraw her troops from Rome. M. Thiers spoke out boldly on the subject of this convention; he saw in it the beginning of the end, and professed little faith in the guarantees of Italy. The object of the French Government was, he maintained, to appear to Italy willing to help her to the possession of Rome, while persuading all the rest of the world to the contrary. The Ultramontanes therefore were distrustful and alarmed, and--when the Encyclical Letter arrived in France, and a circular was issued by the Minister of Justice, forbidding the clergy to distribute the letter among their flocks, or to read in public the first half of it, on the plea that it contained "propositions contrary to the principles on which is founded the Constitution of the Empire,"--several of the more prominent Anti-Gallican bishops broke out into warm remonstrance. The fame of the Encyclical Letter next reached England and created some stir among the ultra-Protestant party. Mr. Newdegate, speaking in the House of Commons on the Roman Catholic Oaths Bill, said that, in his opinion, that was a singularly inopportune moment to propose any change in the test imposed upon Roman Catholic members, seeing that the French Government were just then occupied in grave discussions on the best means of dealing with the latest Papal aggression in the shape of the Pope's Encyclical Letter, which in the interests of order and peace could not be allowed to pass unnoticed. How the Encyclical Letter could affect the question of the Roman Catholic Oaths Bill, Mr. Newdegate's hearers failed to see; it was one of that gentleman's many cries of "Wolf" in Roman Catholic matters. The Convention between France and Italy had no doubt disappointed the Papacy, and the Letter may be looked upon as more or less an expression of that disappointment; but the French Government knew very well that Rome lay too much in the power of France for any serious affront to be offered, and after a little more diplomatic skirmishing they let the matter drop.

Towards the end of August in this year there was a pleasant interchange of courtesies between the French and British fleets at Portsmouth. A British squadron of six ships, five of which were ironclads, received the French Fleet at Spithead. Eleven fine screw steamships and screw frigates, headed by the Emperor's yacht, the _Reine Hortense_, hove in sight on the morning of the 28th, and were greeted by our ironclads with a gay display of flags, manned riggings, and a succession of deafening salutes. The Admiralty yacht, _Osborne_, having on board the Duke of Somerset and the other Lords of the Admiralty, went out to meet the _Reine Hortense_, and accompanied her into the harbour of Portsmouth, the _Victory_, that gallant old relic of a bygone day, saluting the yachts with nineteen guns as they passed. No sooner were they anchored than the naval grandees on board the _Osborne_ passed over to the _Reine Hortense_, to pay their respects to the French Minister of Marine, M. Chasseloup-Laubat, and the French admirals accompanying him. The usual compliments were paid, the usual invitations given, after which the Minister of Marine, accompanied by his staff, Chief Almoner, Monseigneur Coquereau, and a splendid show of English vice- and rear-admirals, entered a State barge, and was landed at the King's Stairs in the dockyard. The day was spent by the French guests in paying visits to the different officers of the garrison and in inspecting some new barracks and forts close to Portsmouth; while in the evening the First Lord of the Admiralty entertained them at dinner on board the _Duke of Wellington_. The landsmen, not to be outdone by the sailors, illuminated Portsmouth and gave a banquet to the French officers. On the 30th of August the same round of visits and festivities was gone through. At a great dinner given at the Royal Naval College in the evening, the Duke of Somerset, after expressing the pleasure which he and his colleagues felt in being able to return the hospitalities showered by France upon the British fleet a month previously at Brest and Cherbourg, proposed the health of the Emperor and Empress, to which M. Chasseloup-Laubat responded by proposing that of the Queen in a speech marked by that French grace and ease which makes a French public dinner so much less formidable than an English one. The French Minister had hardly sat down, and the cheers were still ringing in answer to the toast of "Queen Victoria," when there was a discharge of guns and rockets from the _Victory_, and immediately the calm summer sea beyond the harbour was alive with thousands of twinkling lights; every ship in the allied squadron stood outlined in many-coloured fires, and hundreds of rockets, sent up from every deck, fell in showers through the clear air of an August evening. Again and again, just as the distant hulls were growing dark, the fairy-like spectacle was renewed. Nor was the town behind-hand; illuminations ran along the shore, and land and sea vied with one another. This magical scene lasted for about half an hour, then one by one the ships faded from sight, the sparkle on the water died out, and, peer as it might into the darkness gathering round Spithead, the eye could distinguish nothing but a distant group of black forms on a grey sea. The dinner was then resumed and a few more toasts and speeches followed; but the event of the evening was over and at an early hour the French guests returned to their ships. For three days more festivities were kept up, and balls, concerts, and _déjeuners_ followed each other in quick succession. The French squadron left Portsmouth on the 2nd of September, after a visit full of pleasure and amusement to all who took part in it.

To the great relief of England the long agony of the Southern Confederation was now rapidly approaching its termination. Sherman's great march had brought him and his army of 60,000 men to Savannah, the capital of Georgia; but it did not end there. His movements were delayed by heavy rains; but on the 1st of January, 1865, he set forth, moving his army directly northward, as if Augusta were the point of attack. Suddenly turning to his right, and crossing the river Savannah, he entered the swampy fertile plains of South Carolina. Devastation marked the track of his columns. Beauregard had not a force under his orders sufficient for the defence of Columbia, and he therefore directed General Wade Hampton, who was in command there, to evacuate the city. That general did so, having first caused to be brought out into the streets and set on fire all the large stores of cotton which the place contained, lest it should fall into Federal hands. A portion only of Sherman's army entered the town, in the middle of the day on the 17th of February, but before the night it was in flames. The loss of Columbia involved the fall of Charleston, including Fort Sumter and other defences; for since the sea was closed against them from behind by the blockading fleet, no hope of ultimate escape remained for the defenders, if they waited till they were hemmed in by a superior force on the land side. From Columbia Sherman advanced on the 23rd of February, but instead of marching to the attack of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, he struck off to the right, crossed the Great Pedee River, and passing the State boundary at Sneedsboro', again concentrated his army at Fayetteville (March 11). General Johnston, who ought never to have been superseded, was now re-appointed to the command of the Confederate army opposed to Sherman. As the Federal left, under Slocum, was advancing from Fayetteville towards Goldsboro', Johnston vigorously attacked at Bentonville (March 20) hoping to envelop and crush it before it could be supported; but the success of the attempt did not correspond to his expectations. Sherman's victorious march terminated at Goldsboro', for to that point a strong Federal force under General Schofield had fought its way up from the coast just before his arrival.

The last act of the great drama was now to open. The campaign in Virginia was commenced by Sheridan, who, at the head of a well-equipped and most formidable force of 10,000 cavalry, moved from Winchester in the Shenandoah valley (March 2nd) with the intention of striking Lynchburg, the town among the ranges of the Alleghanies whence Richmond now drew its principal supplies. Early met him at Waynesboro' and was utterly routed; but the intelligence that he received from his scouts led Sheridan to believe that Lynchburg was too well defended to fall to a mere cavalry force; he changed his plan, therefore, and led his troopers round the left and rear of Lee's army, intending to join Grant in his encampment before Petersburg. The Confederate arrays of cavalry, which two years before had been the terror of Pennsylvania and Washington, were now so attenuated by death and hardships that no effectual resistance could be offered to Sheridan, who, carrying blight and destruction in his train, burning bridges and stores, tearing up railways and destroying canals, moved across the enemy's country to White House on the Pamunkey river, whence he marched to the James, and reported to Grant in front of Petersburg on the 27th of March.

Seeing that the force in his front was continually being augmented, Lee appears to have concluded that the only course left for him was to deal a heavy and unexpected blow at the least guarded point about the centre of Grant's lines, which, if successful, would cut his army in two, enforce new arrangements for concentration, and perhaps leave time for the detachment of a portion of Lee's army to the assistance of Johnston, sufficient, with the troops under that general's command, to meet and defeat Sherman. The point which he selected was Fort Steadman, nearly due east of Petersburg. Here General Gordon, with two divisions, bore down at daybreak on the 25th of March on the Federal lines, and captured at the first onset Fort Steadman and three adjoining batteries, turning their guns against the retreating defenders. But an overwhelming force was soon brought up by General Meade, which not only drove the Confederates out of the works they had occupied, taking 2,000 prisoners, but, pursuing the advantage, pushed back the whole of that part of the Confederate line, thus rendering Lee's contemplated movement into North Carolina more than ever hazardous. A still more decisive success was gained on the 1st of April, when Sheridan, attacking Lee's right wing, under Pickett, at Five Forks, with a force two or three times as numerous, turned its left at the same time that he attacked in front, and, being successful in both operations, utterly broke and routed the Confederates, 5,000 of whom were taken prisoners. On the next day (Sunday, April 2) Grant ordered a general advance against the defences of Petersburg. The attack was made at daybreak, and although the exhausted Confederates stood bravely to their arms, so great was the preponderance of numbers that they could not prevent the Federals from wresting several redoubts from their hands, so that Petersburg itself stood in danger of falling before the next vigorous assault. Such was the position of affairs at 11 o'clock, when Lee, who had just seen A. P. Hill, one of the most trusted of his lieutenants, shot dead while directing a charge to regain a portion of the works, and fully recognised the imminent peril to which Richmond was exposed through the inability of the gallant army that had so long defended it to hold its ground any longer against the overwhelming masses of the enemy, felt it his duty to send a message of warning to the Confederate President. The message was in nearly these words:--"My lines are broken in three places. Richmond must be evacuated this evening." Before retiring General Ewell set some warehouses on fire and soon a full third of the city was destroyed. Petersburg was evacuated simultaneously with Richmond. After desperate attempts to evade his pursuers of whom Sheridan was the most persistent, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court-house on April the 9th.

The capitulation of the Army of Virginia was a signal for the close of hostilities everywhere. Sherman, on hearing of the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, advanced from Goldsboro' against Johnston, who soon proposed to surrender upon terms. Sherman was induced to sign a provisional convention (April 18th), the effect of which would have been to continue and confirm to the existing State Governments in the Confederate States the enjoyment of legislative and executive powers. Of course, this convention was instantly disallowed at Washington, and in signing it, even provisionally, it is clear that Sherman exceeded his powers. Johnston then surrendered his army (April 26th) on precisely the same terms as those that had been granted to Lee. A general order, addressed by Grant on the 2nd of June to the "Soldiers of the Armies of the United States," in thanking them for their patriotic exertions, formally announced the termination of hostilities. The armies were everywhere disbanded as soon as possible, the men returning to the pursuits of industry; by the 15th of October upwards of 785,000 men had been mustered out of the service. But a terrible crime cast a gloom over the rejoicings with which the people of the Northern States were celebrating the conclusion of the war, namely, the assassination of Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington, by the actor, John Wilkes Booth. The great President was shot on the 14th of April and died on the following day. In the course of the war recruits to the number of 2,688,523 men had been enlisted into the armies of the Union. Of these, about 1,500,000 were effective soldiers. On the Union side, 275,000 men were either killed outright or died of their wounds, or perished by disease; and on the Confederate side the loss of life must have been little if at all less.

"Her Majesty rejoices at the continued tranquillity and increasing prosperity of her Indian dominions; and she trusts that the large supply which those territories will afford of the raw material of manufacturing industry, together with the termination of the Civil War in the United States of North America, will prevent the recurrence of the distress which long prevailed among the manufacturing population of some of the northern counties." These words, from the Queen's Speech which closed the Session of 1865, give a true insight into the state of the most important of the dependencies of Britain. India was, in 1865, very tranquil and exceptionally prosperous. As the events of the next year showed, it was even too prosperous; the successful attempt to introduce the cultivation of cotton, and, partially at least, to make India take the place of America as a source of cotton-supply, had led to over-speculation and a reckless spirit of investment. It is the fault of all speculators in exceptional times to fancy that the exceptional times will last for ever. The Bombay merchants, with rashness, and, indeed, ignorance that must now appear scarcely credible, presumed upon the long continuance of the American War; they imagined an eternal blockade of Charleston and thought that the mills of Manchester would look for ever to the cotton-fields of Gujerat. Hence this year of which we are speaking was a year of extraordinary prosperity in India. The prosperity, too, affected the revenue; and Sir Charles Wood was able to present a satisfactory Indian Budget when he made his financial statement before the House of Commons. As usual, the statement was deferred till the end of the Session, for Parliament had little patience for the concerns of its vast Eastern empire; but the figures showed a surplus, and a surplus is always welcome. The most notable point was Sir Charles Wood's statement of the money that had been spent in public works during the six previous years. This amounted to no less than seventy-three millions sterling; £34,500,000 on irrigation, roads, buildings, etc., and £38,500,000 on railways. This last figure speaks volumes; some notion of the extension of the internal commerce of India may be derived from it.

It was natural that the termination, or the approach of the termination, of the American War should cause some anxiety as to the views of the United States with regard to Canada. This anxiety was not lessened by a notification that was received early in this year from the Washington Government to the effect that the United States intended to withdraw from an agreement entered into with Britain in 1817, by which both Powers had agreed not to equip naval armaments on the Canadian lakes. This intention of the United States Government was the result of certain "raids" made by Confederate guerillas from a base of operations in Canada, without encouragement of course, but unfortunately without successful hindrance, from the Canadian authorities. The two Houses of Parliament took prompt notice of the action of the United States; and the matter was linked on to the question of a grant for the defences of Quebec, moved in the Commons by Lord Hartington, Secretary at War. A good deal of vigorous language was used, not too friendly to America, not too complimentary to Government; for many persons felt that there was a possibility of serious complications, even of war, between the two countries, on the ground of supposed breaches of neutrality on the part of Great Britain during the American struggle. Events, however, have proved that Mr. Bright was right when he said that if there came a war, it would be one not arising out of national necessities, but out of Cabinet manœuvring; "and that," he said, "I consider a most improbable event." The matter ended by a vote of £50,000, part of a larger installment, being carried for the defences of Quebec; it being understood that the Canadian Government were to fortify Montreal out of their own revenues. But a few days afterwards Mr. Cardwell eased the apprehension of the House by announcing the receipt of intelligence that the Washington Government intended to withdraw its notice for the abrogation of the agreement of 1817. In the course of a few months the American War ended, as has just been described, and the relations between the United Kingdom and the United States entered upon a new phase.

With the exception of the events in Jamaica about to be related, nothing of much importance seems to have taken place in the remaining colonies of Great Britain during the year 1865. The Maori War, however, in New Zealand still dragged on, and formed the subject of a debate in the House of Commons, which called forth from Mr. Cardwell the views of Government as to the proper policy to be pursued by Britain. Mr. Cardwell's statement indicated that there was a disposition on the part of the home authorities to consider whether the time had not come for taking a new departure. He said that "the former arrangement, by which the colony could command the services of a large force of the Queen's troops on paying a merely nominal contribution to the expenses incurred for that force, was at an end." It was decided, in other words--and this with the willing acquiescence of the Governor, Sir George Grey--that the best policy for the interests of the colony was to leave it pretty much to take care of itself. British opinion declared strongly against a war of extermination, in the outset of which the natives had, by the confession of the British Governor, been in the right; and it was thought that, by teaching the colonists that they could not always look to Britain to fight their battles for them, a more pacific mode of dealing with the natives would be entered upon, to the benefit both of the colonists and the Maoris.

It was towards the end of October in this year that the alarming news arrived of an insurrection of the negroes in Jamaica, which was at once seen to be the most serious event that had happened in any British colony or dependency since the Indian Mutiny. Few, however, suspected that the importance of the event itself would be lost in the still greater importance of the secondary issues which it raised--the questions of the duties of Colonial Governors, of the legality of martial law, and so forth. These, as will appear in the sequel, were the questions to which the Jamaica insurrection, or riot, gave rise. They were argued in the newspapers, in Parliament, and in courts of law, with passionate earnestness on both sides; for both those who approved of the acts done in the suppression, and those who disapproved of them, felt that a crisis of great magnitude had arrived, and that a proper settlement of the points at issue was essential to the welfare of the colonies, and, through them, to the welfare of Britain.

Jamaica, as everybody knows, is the largest of the British colonies in the West Indies, and has been in British possession since the time of Cromwell. Commercially and socially, the island had never recovered the collapse that followed the abolition of slavery in 1834. Thus, while in 1830 the amount of sugar exported was 100,000 hogsheads, in 1850 it had fallen to 40,000; while in 1809 the coffee exports were 52,500,000 lbs., in 1850 they were 5,120,000, or not quite one-tenth. This state of things, distressing to every one, and especially to those who regard the emancipation of the slaves as a right act, is clearly shown by a comparison of the accounts with those of all the other West India Islands to have been the result of some cause not operating in them. That cause was bad government. Distress was very prevalent in 1865, especially in the eastern part of the island; wages were extremely low; capital was withdrawn from the country; everything pointed to such legislation and such administration of the law as should conciliate, and even relieve, the great and growing poverty of the labouring class. Instead of this, new "Trespass Laws" were made, creating offences out of what the negroes had always as their right--gathering yams, picking occasional sugar-canes in passing by a field, and so on; and also converting into a "trespass" the occupation of certain lands, to which the occupiers thought they had a right rent free. Popular opinion, naturally warm enough on points like these, was roused to great heat by agitation, especially by a letter directed in 1865 to Mr. Cardwell, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Dr. Underhill, a well-known Baptist. This letter was taken up by the local Radical party, led by Mr. G. W. Gordon; meetings were held in many places, and, as is natural from the character of the negro, the language used was often not over-wise. Still there were real grievances; and it is an undoubted fact that these grievances were met in a scandalous manner by the Government of the island. Mr. Gordon was treated by Governor Eyre, not as the representative of a suffering class, but as a firebrand whom it was right to extinguish. The magisterial benches--badly constituted, as the Royal Commission afterwards declared--were filled up by unpopular men; the complaints of the blacks were hardly noticed; memorials sent up to the Colonial Office through the Governor were tampered with in transit; obnoxious laws remained unrepealed; the "piccaninny gangs," or gangs of children for field labour, were not discouraged;--in a word, nothing was done to remedy a very serious condition of affairs; they were left to break out in a violent explosion--the natural result.

Whatever doubts may exist as to the antecedent events, and the state of the island before the outbreak, the facts of the outbreak itself, and of the measures taken in suppression or retaliation, are clear beyond all question, and may be told on the authority of official documents, and of the statements of witnesses before the Royal Commissioners. The early stages of the riots have been recorded by one of the victims of the 11th of October, Baron von Kettelholt, custos of St. Thomas-in-the-East. They comprised the beating and illegal imprisonment of some policemen by the mutineers, and further outrages were anticipated. His letter was dated the 10th of October, and was received by Governor Eyre on the morning of the 11th, and he immediately ordered Major-General O'Connor, the senior military officer, to send off 100 men in a man-of-war to the scene of the disturbances. Meanwhile, however, the regular attack which the custos had dreaded had been made. The magistrates and others were in the court-house at about three o'clock in the afternoon; the volunteers, thirty or so in number (according to the evidence of Mr. Rutty, who was one of them), had been drawn up for two hours or more, when a bugle was heard and a large mob was seen approaching. They were armed with "cutlasses and bayonets fixed on long sticks, muskets and pistols, and various kinds of weapons." They advanced irregularly; once they halted; a bandsman went forward extending his arms as if to make peace, the custos from the court-house shouted "Peace," and then, when they were within a few yards of the volunteers, there came a shower of bricks and stones. The order was given to the volunteers, whether from their captain or the custos is uncertain, to fire and a volley was poured in. The mob was roused to frenzy; the volunteers retreated into the rooms under the court-house and into other shelter, and the people fired in upon them and upon those assembled in the court-house, through the windows. Presently the school-house was set on fire and soon the burning spread to the court-house, in which the whites were assembled. Mr. Georges, who was one of them, tells us that he leaped out of a back window and got into the committee-room underneath, and that while there he saw Mr. Walton leap out after him and run for his life, but to no purpose. Baron Alfred von Kettelholt, son-in-law of the custos, just escaped; but his father-in-law was killed. Mr. Georges, with three gunshot wounds in his thigh, lay hidden in some shrubs till midnight and so escaped. Dr. Gerrard was allowed his life, "because he was the doctor;" but the negroes kept him among them by the expedient of taking his boots off. Mr. Rutty, a volunteer, tried to pass for his assistant, but was beaten almost to death, stripped to his shirt, and left to die or recover as he might. Mr. Price, a negro, was with the custos and the magistrates, so he was pronounced "a black man with a white heart" and was killed. Lieutenant Hall, Captain Hitchings, Mr. Herschell, a clergyman, and many more of the whites assembled, were killed.

Many charges of revolting barbarity were made against the rioters; but it is only just to say that nothing more atrocious than murder has been proved against them. For instance, in Governor Eyre's first despatch to Mr. Cardwell he mentioned numberless rumours of horrible deeds--how Lieutenant Hall had been pushed into a building which was set on fire, till he was "literally roasted alive;" how the fingers of the custos were cut off "and kept as trophies by the rebels." It was proved, however, by Mr. Rutty, who was present, that Lieutenant Hall was shot dead in the heat of the struggle, and the hand of the custos was mutilated, but not, apparently, with any specially barbarous intent. He and many of the rest were put to death with "cutlasses," that is, the knives or bill-hooks used in dressing the sugar-cane; and cutlasses in the hands of a mob are likely to be wildly used. These facts it is important to bear in mind; for half the criminality of the proceedings of the soldiers afterwards springs from the fact that they were done upon hearsay evidence, upon rumours of barbarities which, dreadful as the original murders had been, were enormously exaggerated. Neither during the attack on the court-house, nor in the plunder of Amity Hall, nor elsewhere, were any women or children injured, though, in many cases, the rioters had them in their power. This fact, at least, happily distinguishes the deplorable Jamaica outbreak from such carnivals of savagery as the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

During the next day or two there was undoubtedly great excitement among the negro population throughout all the east end of Jamaica, and the white residents were in danger. The Morant Bay rioters broke up into parties, and dispersed in two or three directions--up Blue Mountain valley, towards Manchioneal, towards Golden Grove, and elsewhere. In some parts they were joined by the negroes of the neighbourhood; many excesses, almost entirely in the way of plunder, were committed. A mob attacked Hordley estate and wrecked the furniture and set fire, but without effect, to one of the "trash-houses" (a house used in sugar-making); but something may be learned of the absence of the worst kind of ferocity from the fact that the ladies of the house were in the other trash-house and were never looked for or discovered. The great cry was "Colour for colour," but more energy was spent in shouting the cry than in seeking out whites to wreak vengeance on.

These events were, of course, enough to move the white population of the island to a high pitch of excitement and to call for prompt action from the Government. Governor Eyre's proceedings may be told nearly in his own words, as given in his report to Mr. Cardwell and in his evidence afterwards before the Royal Commission. His official residence was Spanish Town, an inland town, fourteen miles from Kingston. His private residence was at Flamstead, fourteen miles from Kingston and twenty-three from Spanish Town, where, according to the Opposition papers in the colony, he spent a good deal of time rearing chickens. How Mr. Eyre wrote to General O'Connor, requesting 100 men to be sent to Morant Bay, has been already told. After that order had been sent, Mr. Eyre returned to his residence at Flamstead, "to be present at a dinner-party which was to meet there the next day." This was Thursday, the 12th, the day after the riot; and the news came just in time to spoil the Governor's dinner-party. At half-past five a letter came from a magistrate with the news and the Governor at once rode off to Kingston, to concert fresh measures. It is enough to say that 200 men were immediately despatched to Morant Bay; a detachment of white troops was ordered to march from Newcastle to intercept the march of the "rebels" into Blue Mountain valley; and the Governor himself took measures for proceeding to the scene of action. Just before he started, that is, between eight and ten on the morning of the 13th, he presided at a council of war and, on the advice of the Attorney-General of the island, drew up a proclamation of martial law.

The events which followed, and which had their support and authority in this proclamation, are commonly called "the suppression." From the time when Captain de Horsey, of the sloop _Wolverine_, wrote to Governor Eyre that he had landed a company of soldiers at Morant Bay, and was preparing to detach 114 of his own sailors to co-operate with them, to the time when "Martial Law" expired, not only was all law suspended throughout the east of the island, but all the guarantees of evidence were dispensed with, and the life of every negro man and negro woman hung upon the will of an angry soldiery and an excited Provost-Marshal. Hence the Morant Bay disturbance--which, grave and shocking as it was, has been proved beyond question to have been a local riot and not the first outbreak of a rebellion--was seized upon without question and at once as a rebellion, and to be punished as such. The soldiers, sailors, and marines acted in three or four directions at once; from Morant Bay, from Port Antonio on the north-east side, and from Newcastle towards the mountainous region in the centre of the country. The towns were all occupied and their inhabitants, who were as much frightened as Governor Eyre had been, were not much injured by the soldiery; but the whole of the country districts were scoured with troops; negroes, unarmed as well as armed, were shot down as they ran from soldiers, or captured, tried by summary courts-martial, convicted on the evidence of informers, or on no evidence at all, and hanged or flogged, or flogged first and hanged afterwards. It was enough that a man should have been unpopular with the authorities of his district, or that he should have a bad character, or that a witness should inform against him, or that he should have been "seen with Bogle," and he was forthwith hanged or flogged as a rebel. This last charge, in fact, touches the root of the whole matter. Paul Bogle, the leader of the attack on the court-house, was a dangerous man and a rebel. Undoubtedly he was guilty of high treason and his life was forfeit. But by all the evidence given before the Commission, and notably that given by William Anderson, the informer, it appears that the only real "rebels," that is, the only persons who intentionally and of their own free will took up arms against the Government of the Queen, were Paul Bogle, M'Laren, and perhaps half a dozen more. The rest were on the first day a riotous mob, who thought that, by making a demonstration before the court-house, they would obtain the repeal of a burdensome law and the removal of an unpopular custos; and afterwards they were a mob afraid for their lives, herding together for defence against the "white men," and still acting, without power of resistance, as Paul Bogle bade them. The part played by this William Anderson, from whose evidence that statement comes, is typical of the nature of the "suppression." He was one of those who went with Bogle, on Bogle "calling for five tamarind switches to make a rod, and for guns." He ran away on the first opportunity; he was taken up by a constable, tried by court-martial, and was offered his life on condition that he would be a guide to the soldiers. It was Colonel Hobbs, commanding the 6th Royals, who undertook the task of acting upon the evidence of this Anderson, who, of course, was careful to ensure his own safety by handing over a sufficient number of his countrymen to the colonel's justice. Nor were the soldiers of Colonel Hobbs alone or exceptional in their method of vengeance. The "black soldiers," that is the maroons, descendants of the old Spanish slaves, and the enemies of the African negro population, shot one hundred and sixty on the road to Manchioneal. One thousand houses of the natives were burnt down by the soldiers. And how these acts were regarded by the superior officers at Kingston, cannot be better shown than in the words of the afterwards celebrated letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Elkington, Deputy Adjutant-General, to Colonel Hobbs. "I send you an order," he wrote on the 18th of October, "to push on at once to Stony Gut, but I trust you are there already. Hole is doing splendid service with his men all about Manchioneal, and shooting every black man who cannot account for himself (sixty on the line of march): Nelson, at Port Antonio, hanging like fun by court-martial." Nor was it the officers alone who had life and death in their hands--it was the soldiers individually; above all, it was the Inspector of Police, Gordon Ramsay. For instance, some soldiers, accompanied by the same Dr. Morris who fired two shots with his revolver into the body of the negro Donaldson as he was hanging, dragged out of his cabin one Ned Bryan, tied him to a tree and forthwith shot him. Bryan and his brother had been at Kingston all through the riots, and only landed at Manchioneal on the 15th of October! That is one instance, literally taken at random from a mass of evidence. To illustrate Ramsay's proceedings is easier still. He owned to the hanging of 184, six of them females; to the flogging of 237, eight of them females--but in this last respect he was perhaps outdone by Captain Hole, who owned before the Commission that he had flogged sixteen women and among them one woman twice! Those who care to read of Ramsay's brutality, and of the nature of the "cat" frequently used--whipcord mixed with knotted wire--had better consult the evidence of R. Clarke, of P. Bruce, and of Ramsay himself.

But the story would only be half instructive were we to omit the record of the quasi-judicial proceedings by which some of the barbarities were guaranteed. Three memorable reports of trials are printed at the end of the Commissioners' blue-book, and to them, as showing what a court-martial may be, what a foregone conclusion, what a mockery of justice, we may refer any curious readers. The cases are those of William Grant, George M'Intosh, and Samuel Clarke--all of whom were sentenced to death by court-martial. The case of M'Intosh is, perhaps, the most instructive of the three. He was sentenced by Colonel Lewis--and General Nelson approved the sentence--literally for no crime at all, except for having spoken at a public meeting in the house of Mr. George William Gordon, whose friend he was. The evidence which hanged the others was about equally valuable.

But the case that was the most outrageous, and rapidly became the most famous of all, was that of Mr. G. W. Gordon himself. On his trial and execution was based the greater part of the attempt to obtain legal redress in the English courts of law; around his body, so to speak, was fought the question of the legality of martial law, of the responsibility of officers and colonial governors, and of the rights of colonists. The story need not be told at great length. It is sufficient to say that Mr. Gordon was a negro gentleman, a member of the Jamaica Assembly, a prominent Baptist and leader of Opposition, the friend of the poorer classes of negroes, and in high disfavour with Governor Eyre. This gentleman was residing peacefully at Kingston at the time of the outbreak. Governor Eyre's own words show how little he cared for legality. "Throughout my tour in the _Wolverine_ and _Onyx_," writes the Governor to Mr. Cardwell, "I found everywhere the most unmistakable evidence that Mr. George William Gordon, a coloured member of the House of Assembly, had not only been mixed up in the matter, but was himself, through his own misrepresentation and seditious language addressed to the black people, the chief cause and origin of the whole rebellion. Mr. Gordon was now in Kingston, and it became necessary to decide what action should be taken with regard to him. Having obtained a deposition on oath that certain seditious printed notices had been sent through the post-office, directed, in his handwriting, to the parties who have been leaders in the rebellion, I at once called upon the custos to issue a warrant and capture him. For some little time he managed to evade capture; but finding that, sooner or later, it was inevitable, he proceeded to the house of General O'Connor, and there gave himself up. I at once had him placed on board the _Wolverine_ for safe custody and conveyance to Morant Bay."

(_From a Photograph by J. Valentine and Son, Dundee._)]

Now, even supposing the proclamation of martial law to have been legal, which we believe it not to have been, it expressly excluded Kingston from the operation of martial law. What Governor Eyre did, therefore, was to seize a political opponent, to carry him off in a ship of war from a district under civil jurisdiction to a district under military jurisdiction, and then to hand him over to the tender mercies of a court-martial. The court was composed of two naval lieutenants and an ensign lately gazetted; one of the lieutenants being the same Lieutenant Brand who with a couple of "dingy boys" from his ship, had "had the pleasure" (his own words) of hanging the first "rebel," and shooting him with his own revolver as he hung; who had openly said that "nothing would give him greater pleasure than hanging this----Gordon." Mr. Gordon was an old man; he had been barbarously treated; he was wretchedly ill. Before his trial he was called out by Ramsay, the Provost-Marshal, to witness the execution of Grant, who had been a political friend of his. "Look there," said Ramsay; "that is your friend Grant, and you will be hanged like him." A Mr. Joseph G. Smith, a volunteer, thus tells, in his evidence before the Commission, how witnesses were collected against Mr. Gordon:--

"Afterwards I went into the guard-room, and he [Ramsay] was then swearing five of the prisoners, with their hands fastened and a rope round their necks, and he was swearing them in these words, 'You shall well and truly state what G. W. Gordon has to do with the rebellion;' and between each part of this a sailor came down with the whip over their shoulders."

On evidence of this kind, the evidence of men who had had the promise of their lives if they would accuse him, Mr. Gordon was tried. As to the taking of the evidence, we have the words of the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Alexander Cockburn, in his famous charge to the grand jury in the case of Nelson and Brand: "He could not be tried on that evidence. No competent judge acquainted with his duties could have received that evidence. Three-fourths--I had almost said nine-tenths--of the evidence upon which that man was convicted and sentenced to death, was evidence which, according to no known rules--not only of ordinary, but of military law--according to no known rules of right or justice, could possibly have been admitted." But even supposing it had been admitted, all that was proved was that Mr. Gordon had written letters to, and been on friendly terms with, some of the rioters; but none of the letters were produced except one, where he said that "the people of Jamaica were very wretched." He was proved to have called the Governor "a bad man." He was proved to have had an action-at-law against the late custos von Kettelholt. Above all, he was proved to have spoken at public meetings, and to have dwelt on the misery of the negroes and the way in which their case was misrepresented to the Colonial Office. For these offences--literally for none other--he was sentenced to death. Lieutenant Brand signed his sentence, and Brigadier Nelson approved it. "He asked to see the Reverend Mr. Panther, Wesleyan minister," wrote Brigadier Nelson; "I considered it inexpedient." Without the consolations of religion, condemned on less than no evidence by an unauthorised and incompetent tribunal, Mr. Gordon was hanged on the 23rd of October, 1865. He had been in life the representative of the negroes of Jamaica in their cry for equal government; in death he was their representative in their cry for justice.