stood side by side in many
controversies, they came to be regarded by the public as a pair of
Great Twin Brethren, the Castor and Pollux of many a scientific battle
of Lake Regillus. Odd confusions sometimes followed. In 1876, not
long after Tyndall's marriage to the daughter of Lord Claud Hamilton,
Huxley was described in a newspaper paragraph as setting out for
America "with his titled bride," and even, on Tyndall's death,
received the doubtful honour of a funeral sermon.

True that they did not see eye to eye on some of the most fundamental
matters of social and political principle, and where they did
Tyndall's vehement enthusiasm would sometimes sweep him into
activities where his friend could not follow. But these things were
no bar to their mutual affection and esteem, and in token of this two
letters of 1866 may be quoted, when England was sharply divided on the
question of Governor Eyre's action in suppressing an incipient revolt
in Jamaica.

In particular, a negro preacher named Gordon had been arrested,
court-martialled, and summarily executed. A Royal Commission appointed
to inquire into the case declared that the evidence given appeared to
be wholly insufficient to establish the charge upon which the prisoner
took his trial, and that in the evidence adduced they could not see
any sufficient proof of Gordon's complicity in the outbreak, or of
having been a party to any general conspiracy against the Government.

To many thoughtful and law-abiding persons such a proceeding
appeared to be no better than judicial murder, constituting a hideous
precedent; a committee was formed to present a formal indictment
against Governor Eyre and obtain a judicial pronouncement on the
question, quite apart from the two other questions persistently
confused with it--namely, was Gordon a Jamaica Hampden or was he a
psalm-singing firebrand, and was Governor Eyre actuated by the highest
and noblest motives, or was he under the influence of panic-stricken
rashness or worse impulses?

With this high constitutional end in view--the protection of
individual liberty--Huxley joined the committee. To Charles Kingsley,
who confessed to taking the hero-worshipper's view of Governor Eyre,
Huxley replied:--

I dare say he did all this with the best of motives and in a
heroic vein. But if English law will not declare that heroes
have no more right to kill people in this fashion than other
folk, I shall take an early o