THE LATE JAMAICA OUTBREAK.

Grey River Argus, Issue 61, 2 June 1866, Page 3

THE LATE JAMAICA OUTBREAK.

The Royal Commission of* Inquiry commenced their labors on January 25, and were expected to terminate their sittings on March 7. They have examined a great many witnesses, and among them his Excellency Governor j Eyre, whose testimony was looked for- j ward to by the whole country with i great anxiety. So far, however, the ' oi-al and documentary evidence he has given before the commission has not advanced him one step beyond the position in which he was placed by his despatches to the Secretary of State. The commission have declined to allow the barristers, Messrs Gome and Payne, to, cross-examine witnesses. These gentlemen appeared on behalf of M§3 Gordon and others. The occurrences of the first three days, that is the outrages commenced by the negroes, have bsen fully established, with the exception that many of the stories about the mutilation of the bodies of the murdered gentlemen have not been supported — such, for instance, as the Baron Kettelhodt's brains having been scooped out, mixed with rum, and drunk by some, of the rebels, the ripping up of the bowels of Mr Price, and the cutfciug out of the tongue of the Rev. Mr Herschell. The witnesses appearing -before the commission in the first instance' were those for the most part who testified to the measures of reprisal adopted by the Government. They' brought to light some rather startling facts, among others that the whips used for flogging rebels were made partly of piano 'wire, thrt with these instruments of torture women were flogged, that in some places people were hanged and shot without any form of trial whatever, and that the provost-marshall and others were 'apparently guilty of acts of wanton cruelty. The Attorney-General, in his evidence •before the commission, having referred to the circumstances under which the news of the disturbances first reached himj and the authority under which martial law was proclaimed in the island, went oil to speak as follows :— " As to the outbreak, my own opinion is that there was a great deal of personal ill-feeling in St. Thomas-in-the-East, arising from the different views parochial, political, and otherwise — among the gentry, which by sympathy was communicated to the lower ordei-s ; then there was a law suit between the baron and Mr Gordon, and in my opinion that was the spark that set the fire blazing. I believe there has been a general discontent throughout the whole island for the last four or five years among the people, and disaffection to the government — not disloyalty to the Crown, but discontent with their betters as to their condition." Mr Jackson, a stipendary magistrate of St. Thomas-in-the-East, stated in his examination that the people in St. Thomas-in-the-East were most assuredly dissatisfied with the. administration ofjustice. The dissatisfaction, in his opinion, was well-grounded. Whenever there was for hearing a case in which the evidence unfavorably affected parties .possessing the sympathy of the local magistrates, the latter prevented justice being done by declining to attend in numbers sufficient to form a court. The complainant, after attending day after day, and seeing no hope of obtaining a hearing, eventually . absented himself, and the charge fell to the. ground through w/ "~vof evidence. Similar testimony' ven^^Hßtakce -Keiv

The arresfc of Provost-Marshal Ramsay on the charge of murdering a man named Marshall, by ordering him to be hanged for grinning while he was being, flogged, has taken place. The " Times" correspondent thus describes the arrest: — • ' " A wairant for the apprehension of Mr Gordon D. Ramsay Avas issued by Mr Russell, Registrar of the Court of Chancery, and a magistrate of the county in which Spanish Town is situated, at the instance of the friends of the deceased man, and upon an information sworn by Mr Lake, lately reporter of the "Colonial Standard," who was present when the execution took place. Mr Ramsay was arrested the same afternoon, and was taken, not before the magistrate who had issued the warrant, but before another justice, named Dr Land, who immediately admitted him to bail, requiring only his own recognisances in £400 and that of two sureties in £200 each, and merely binding him over to appear oii*i^rcu 6 next, without fixing any place at'\skich he is to appear. The course which was adopted by Dr Land has excited a good deal of observation." . The report founded on the voluminous evidence taken before SirH. Storks and his colleagues will be a work of time, . and the royal commissioners arc not expected back in Englaud before the middle of May. Upon the whole, it is believed that the fact of unnecessary cruelty on the part of the authorities i§ established by the evidencp-i The special commissi/ oyer aud terminer, sitting at X? J for the trial of political prisoners, has disposed of the charges against several persons. Mr Sydney Levien, the editor and pi-o-prietor of the " County Union" newspaper, who had been convicted of the publication of a seditious libel in tho form of certain articles in that journal, has been sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, and Thomas Harry, a shoemaker, and the Rev. J. H. Crole, a Baptist minister, who had been found guilty of the use of seditious language at the Underbill meetings, have each been sent to prison for six weeks. The Rev. Edward .Palmer, also a Baptist minister, in connection with the societv in London, and Goldson, an ex-sergeant of police, have been convicted of similar offences, and have been sentenced, the former to fourteen days, and the latter to two months' imprisonment.