THE JAMAICA INSURRECTION.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 253, 7 May 1866, Page 3

THE JAMAICA INSURRECTION.

(From the Daily Telegraph.) A thin blue book of 27 pages, containing further papers relative to the outbreak in Jamaica, has been laid before Parhament. It contains eleven despatches, with enclosures, from Governor Eyre and Governor Lieutenant- General Sir H. K. Storks, G.C.B. These are dated severally from Dec. 26 of last year to Jan. 8 of the present. There are also fourteen despatches, with enclosures, from Mr Cardwell to Governor Storks, all written on Jan. 29, or Eeb. 1. Governor Eyre ceased to write on Jan., 8, on which day Sir H. K. Storks was sworn in for his hew duties. This event is officially notified by Governor Eyre, who then says : — "I shall transfer to Sir H. Storks all the documents which were being prepared in reply to your despatches relative to the and I shall, be. happy to afford. him any information or assistance■in my power to facilitate his administrations. In giving up to another a government which " I have had the honor pf administering for four years, under circumstances of great difficulty and trial, I ;would respectfully request you will be pleased to convey to her most gracious Majesty my humble assurance that in the discharge of the onerous Responsible duties which have devolved upon me, I have ever been actuated by the single desire to do my duty faithfully to my Sovereign, to uphold the honor of the Crown, and to insure, as far as practicable, the safety and welfare of the colony and people entrusted to my care. I would also venture to add my confident belief that the inquiry now being instituted will show, that when on the occurrence of the recent atrocious insurrection it became my painful duty to adopt the most prompt and severe measures to repress and prevent the spread of au outbreak which threatened the safety of the entire colony, those steps were, just and necessary under the circumstances, and that had I-hesi-tated to adopt them and accept the personal responsibility and risk which they entailed, I should have been unworthy of the high position I occupied, and of the trust reposed in me," Mr Cardwell, in reply to this letter, wTote to Governor Storks on Ist Eebruary: — "I request that you will inform Mr Eyre that I fully appreciate the readiness he has 1 evinced to facilitate your administration of the Goverriment, and that I shall hasten to convey to the Queen the assurance he desires should be submitted to her Majesty of the motives by which, he has been actuated in the discharge of the onerous and responsible duties of his office." On Ist January Governor Eyre addressed a despatch in answer to that one of the Colonial Secretary's making inquiries in reference to the publication of Dr Underbill's letter in Jamaica. The Governor says : — " In reply I have to state that I did not direct, authorise, or in any way sanction the publication of that letter, nor do I know in what manner, or through whom, it was made public." He points out that the document was forwarded in a circular letter to the custodes and ministers of all denominations, including the Baptist, to which Dr Underbill belongs. "Dr Underhill asserts, indeed, in a letter addressed to the Times" continues Governor . Eyre, " *my letter was published by Governor Eyre, in the Island Gazette, and that for its publication and the effects consequent upon it, I must decline the responsibility which Governor Eyre wishes to fasten upon me. The responsibility is his, not mine.' This is simply an untruth. I have already stated that no. such publication took place by my direction, or with my knowledge or sanction, nor did it ever appear in the Island Gazette.' " "I would respectfully bring to your notice, in proof that I am, and have ever been, most unwilling to resort to so extreme a measure unless under the most imminent and pressing emergency, the facts that I declined to proclaim martial law over the city of Kingston, when urgently requested to do so by the Executive Committee and by the Custos and Justices of Kingston, many of whom were members of the Legislature of the colony (as reported in my despatch No. 251 of the 20th Oct.), and that I again declined to proclaim martial law over the western parishes of the colony when requested to do so by the Major- General commanding her Majesty's troops in this colony, as reported in my despatch No. 264 of the 3rd November last." Concerning which Mr Cardwell, on the day after he received the despatch, wrote Governor Sir H. K. Storks : " I request that you will inform Mr Eyre that the facts to which he adverts, as showing his unwillingness to have recourse to the proclamation of martial law, have not been overlooked by her Majesty's Government." The despatches from the Colonial Office in this collection are nearly all brief.