JAMAICA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 376, 14 May 1866, Page 1

JAMAICA.

TESTIMONY OE THE DISSENTING MINISTEES. The following address to ex-Governor Eyre has been presented by the Dissenting Ministers of Jamaica, and is published, with his Excellency’s reply, in the ‘ Times’ of the 13th Feb. “ Sufficiently removed from the more immediate scene of action to be able with some degree of calmness to judge of its real nature, whilst sufficiently near to feel the emergency of the case, we cannot but express our most solemn conviction that to your Excellency’s prompt, energetic, and decisive measures we owe it that the scenes of Morant Bay were not enacted throughout the island. Unbiassed by political feelings, and with no party to serve, we feel ourselves the more free to express our conviction, from the evidence of our own observations, as well as from the official and other sources of information open to us, that a spirit of insubordination to law has long existed among a large portion of the population of this island, and that lately the teachings of ignorant and wicked men have served to fan the flame into sedition. We know not what evidences there may be of an organised conspiracy, and if there were any, we are satisfied that it was by no means universal among the laboring population; but in the state of our community we feel convinced that the slightest indecision, delay, or miscarriage in dealing with the first spark of rebellion, as exhibited at Morant Bay, would have caused the spread of civil war throughout the island. Under such circumstances, we would record our firm conviction that the most energetic and stringent, and even severe measures, which the Constitution placed within your Excellency’s power, were necessary for the protection and safety of her Majesty’s peaceful and law-abidiug sub-

jects in this colony, and we would gratefully recognise the hand of Providence in placing at the head of affairs one who So vigorously and effectively determined to do his duty to the utmpst in that time of imminent peril. Without expressing any opinion on isolated acts, and regretting the great loss of life that has occurred, involving, we fear, to some extent, the innocent with the guilty, we would, nevertheless, cordially express our conviction that the general policy pursued by your Excellency was absolutely necessary to meet the exigencies of the case, and was dictated simply by a sense of duty, and of the responsibility which rested on you at a period of such alarm and extreme danger. At the same time, we would also express our regret at the unqualified censure pronounced by a large portion of the British press, arguing at a distance from our island, and manifesting deplorable ignorance of its population and condition; and while we would sympathise with your Excellency as to the unfair criticism of your acts, and the improper imputation of motives, we cannot also recording our feeling that the sentiments so expressed in England are already producing a most mischievous influence on our population, and are likely, when fully circulated, to go far not only to reproduce the scenes of massacre, which we all deplore, hut also to paralyse the efforts of those in authority. “ We have the honor to be, your Excellency’s obedient servants, — “ Jonathan Edmondson, General Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions, 31 years in this island. “ James Watson, Presbyterian Minister, East Queen-street, forty years in the island. “ Samuel Oughton, Bapt’rt Minister, East Queen-street, 30 years in this island. “ John Thompson, Baptist Minister, Mount Charles, 26 years in the island. “ William Holdsworth, Wesleyan Minister, 19 years in the island. “ William James Gardner, London Missionary Society, 17 years in the island. “ William Griffiths, Methodist Free Church, five years in the island. “ John Radcliffe, Church of Scotland, 17 years in the island. “ A. J. Milne, M.A., Assistant Minister of the Church of Scotland, Principal of the Collegiate School, and Inspector of Wolmer’s Schools, 10 years in the island. “ Enos Nuttall, Wesleyan Minister, three years in the island. “Elisha Penrose, Methodist Free Church, 12 years in the island. “ January 6, 1866.” Mr Eyre’s reply was as follows : “Rev. Gentlemen, —Accept my heartfelt gratitude for the sympathy you extend to me under the difficult aud trying circumstances in which I have been placed, and for the valuable testimony you bear to the necessity for the most prompt and decisive measures being taken to put down a rebellion, which in three days and a half extending from Morant Bay forty miles in one direction and twenty in another, required but a few days longer to overrun a great portion of the ' colony, spreading destruction and desolation in its course. In crushing out so formidable an outbreak, it became my painful duty to ■ exercise a severity which, while justly punishing the guilty, might terrify the seditious and evil-disposed of other districts, and restrain them from making any similar attempts ; and if iu the steps taken to effect this object some isolated acts of wrong or i injustice have occurred, I can only say they ' were unknown to me, aud could not be coa- . trolled by the Executive, aud I trust, too, : that they will be found to be ouly such as are inseparable from a state of warfare and the existence of martial law —both great evils in themselves —but forced upon the s Government by a peril which, if not promptly i arrested, would have endangered the entire i colony. I can only assure you, gentlemen* s that i have been actuated by the single desire f to do my duty to my Queen and to the • people ot this island , and, amidst all the

misrepresentations and censures which have so unsparingly and unjustly been heaped upon those who., being at a distance from the danger, could neither realise its magnitude nor the smallness of the means available to meet it, 1 have the innate satisfaction of Jet ling that I did that duty faithfully, and the proud conviction that in doing it I averted from Jamaica a general and sanguinary war. For your good feeling towards myself and family personally, I tender you my sincere thanks, and I do assure you that whatever may be my future career, my best wishes will always be with you for the welfare and prosperity of the colony, and for the individual and general happiness of all connected with it.—l have the honor to be. Reverend Gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant, “ E. Eyre. “ Flamsteacl, January 22, 1866.”