rts of evil
surmises as to his motives and purposes; letters have been received from
Jamaica from persons in every position in life; and still no new
facts,--not so much as one clear accusation of any further fatal
violence. The conclusion is irresistible, that this was a riot, and not
an insurrection; and that it began and ended, so far as armed force was
concerned, at Morant Bay, on that unhappy day, the 11th of last October.

It cannot be denied that the occurrences of that day were marked by
some circumstances of painful ferocity. Men were literally hacked to
pieces, crying for mercy. One man's tongue was cut from his mouth even
while he lived. Another, escaping, was thrown back into the burning
building, and roasted to death. The joints of the hand of the dead chief
magistrate were dissevered by the blacks, who cried out exultingly,
"This hand will write no more lying despatches to the Queen." But the
events of that day were marked also by instances of humanity. The clerk
of the court was rescued by his negro servant, who thrust him beneath
the floor, and, watching his opportunity, conveyed him to the shelter of
the woods next morning. A child, who happened to be with his father in
the court-house, was snatched up by a negro woman, who, at the risk of
her own life, carried him to a place of safety. But admitting the worst
charges, any one who remembers the New York riot of 1863 will be slow to
assert that this black mob exhibited any barbarity which has not been
more than emulated by white mobs. Shocking enough the details are; but
human action always and with every race is ferocious, when once the
restraints of self-control and the law are thrown off.

* * * * *

With a people so excitable as the blacks of Jamaica, and among whom
there existed so many causes of disaffection, the greatest promptitude
of action was a virtue. Had Governor Eyre marched with a military force
into the district, had he crushed out every vestige of armed resistance,
had he brought before proper tribunals and punished with severity all
persons who were convicted of any complicity in these outrages, he would
have merited the praise of every good man. What he did was to let loose
upon a little district, unmuzzled, the dogs of war. What he did was to
gather from all quarters an armed force, a motley crew, regulars and
militia, sailors and landsmen, black and white, and permit them to hold
for fourteen long day