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MUSINGS WITHOUT METHOD.

THE CASE OF GOVERNOR EYRE-THE TRAGEDY OF AMRITSAR-
A PLOT AGAINST EUROPEANS-GENERAL DYER-THREE PROCLA-
MATIONS OR FOUR-CONSPIRACY OR REBELLION-THE RESULTS
OF GENERAL DYER'S DISMISSAL-MR GEORGE AND KRASSIN-
COMMERCE OR A TREATY OF PEACE-THE PRIME MINISTER'S
TWO VOICES-FRIENDS SACRIFICED TO ENEMIES-PATRICK SHAW-
STEWART.

IN the year 1865 "the black gentlemen" of Jamaica, stirred up by the harangues of agitators and the spiritual addresses of Baptist ministers, armed themselves with bayonets, outlasses, and pikes with the kindly intention of murdering all the white men they could find. "We want the Buokra men to kill, but we don't want the women now; we will have them afterwards"— such was the amiable ory that was heard on all sides. The "black gentlemen" murdered with all their own savagery the Custos of Morant Bay; they cut to pieces a small band of volunteers, who made a gallant resistance; they beat police

at

who were but a handful, were
saved only by stern and swift
measures of repression. Hap-
pily, Governor Eyre was
man who did not shrink from
responsibility. He went
once to Port Morant with a
man-of-war and a gunboat,
the only naval forces at his
command, and made his dis-
positions to crush the rebel-
lion. He hanged those who
deserved to be hanged, he
flogged others, and with the
help of martial law he suo-
ceeded in saving Jamaica from
a far worse massacre than had
already drenched it in blood.
Wherever he went in the
island he found that a coloured
member of the House of
Assembly, who called himself
Gordon, had exercised a malign
influence over the natives.
This miscreant had taken ref-
uge in Kingston, which lay
outside the proclaimed area,
and when he saw that sooner
or later his capture was in-
evitable, he gave himself up

to death for no better reason than that they were not afraid to do their duty; they destroyed plantations, and they burned houses. As the historian says, "nothing could exceed the brutality with which the infuriated negroes perpetrated their atrocities. to atrocities. to General O'Connor. The At the court-house the eyes and hearts of some of their vietims were torn out, and the women showed themselves even more cruel than the men."

The white men and women,

Governor instantly put him on board the Wolverine and sent him to Morant Bay. There was a divided opinion concerning the treatment of Gordon. He was arrested at Kingston, where

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martial law was not proclaimed. On the other hand, his home was at Morant Bay, where the insurrection had broken out at his instigation, and his accidental escape to Kingston was not enough to shield him from the consequences of his erime. Moreover, Governor Eyre made quite clear in his despatch the reasons of his prompt action. Considering it right in the abstract," thus he wrote to the Secretary of State, "and desirable as a matter of policy, that while the poor black men who were being misled were undergoing condign punishment, the chief instigator of all the evils should not go unpunished, I at once took upon myself the responsibility of his capture." Governor Eyre had saved the lives of all the white survivors. Concerning that fact there was no dispute, and there was indeed no discussion. Even those who condemned him were forced to admit that praise was due to Governor Eyre for "the skill, promptitude, and vigour which he manifested during the early stages of insurrection." But the politioians, bereft of imagination, and packed with the futile sentimentality of the moment, took alarm. Governor Eyre had saved the lives of white men by punishing instantly and severely a band of black rebels. That was enough to set John Stuart Mill and P. A. Taylor, whose literal minds could not picture the horror of a black rising, on the warpath. They made the usual speeches in the House of Com

mons, full of inflammatory falsehood. They olamoured for the recall or suspension of Governor Eyre, and saw their baleful wishes gratified. They urged the Government to send out a commission of inquiry, and they were rewarded with one of those timid reports, familiar to us all, which are glad to wound and afraid to strike. These gratifications did not content them. They pursued Governor Eyre, who had saved their compatriots from murder and ravishing, most acrimoniously with charges of murder. In 1867 Messrs John Stuart Mill and Peter Taylor applied at Market Drayton for "8 warrant against Mr Eyre on the charge of having been accessory before the fact to the murder of Mr George W. Gordon." The warrant refused. The sleuth - hounds, hot upon the track of their victim, would not desist. The following year they made a similar application at Bow Street, and suffered a second repulse. They were these good people, who lived at home at ease, that Governor Eyre had no right to proclaim martial law. No doubt he should have written home for instructions from the Government, and witnessed while he waited for a reply, if indeed he were alive to witness, the massacre of his fellow-countrymen, He should have permitted the worst criminal of them all, the man Gordon, to complete the infamous work he had done at Morant Bay by stirring up all the disaffeeted

sure,

rascals in Kingston to rebel. Such is the fatuity of politicians, who pretend to believe that savage countries should be tried always by the standards which prevail in their own suburbs, and that the policeman at the corner should be sent to argue politely with the madman who is resolved to kill him.

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Happily, Governor Eyre found true and wise sup. porters in England. Lord Derby had the courage to plead his cause in the House of Lords. And Carlyle, to his honour be it said, did not hesitate to assail "the knot of rabid Nigger - Philanthropists barking ferociously in the gutter.' He at any rate had a firm faith in martial law. "In the same direction," said he, "we have also our remarkable Jamaica Committee; and & Lord Chief-Justice speaking six hours. to prove that there is no such thing, nor ever was, as Martial Law;-and that any governer, commanded soldier, or official person, putting down the frightfullest Mob-insurrection, Black or White, shall do it with the rope round his neck, by way of encouragement to him. Nobody answers this remarkable Lord Chief-Justice, 'Lordship, if you were to speak for six hundred years instead of six hours, you would only prove the more te us that, unwritten if you will, but real and fundamental, anterior to all written laws, and first making written laws possible, there must have been, and is, and will be, ooeval with Human

Society, from its first beginnings to its ultimate end, an actual Martial Law, of more validity than any other law whatever." "

Enveloped in this cloud of rhetorio are the only security of life and the only sanotion of government. But Great

Britain is slow to learn the simplest lessons of history, and the wise courage of Governor Eyre has sunk as deeply into forgetfulness as the brutal excesses of the Nigger-Philanthropists. And now once more we are confronted with the same problem. Once more a brave man is thrown to the wolves of the ballot-box. The tragedy of Amritsar resembles in all points the tragedy of Jamaica, The two reports show the painful uniformity uniformity of the official brain, and they might have been signed by the same hands. In each is manifest a fear to acknowledge the facts, a plain determination to find the verdict which would be agreeable to a pusillanimous government. The gentlemen who examined the case of Governor Eyre applauded his resolution and approved his suspension. The gentlemen who investigated the conduct of General Dyer paid him the same barren compliment that was thrown at Governor Eyre, and by their censure made it easy for the Secretary of State to disgrace him. At Amritsar, as in Jamaica, the man who saved his fellow-countrymen from murder and his fellowcountry women from outrage, is branded 28 a felen by pedants who were never asked

was

to face anything more danger- characteristic care, the buildous than a legal quibble, and ing itself was not destroyed, the wonder is that the British because it belonged to Indians Government ever finds faithful who, having butohered the servants to do its bidding. manager, were not willing to On 10th April 1919 there sacrifice their rent. Presently, a violent rebellion at having battered in Sergeant Amritsar. A "hartal," or Rowlands' skull with a straingeneral shutting of shops, had ing screw, they encountered been ordered by the rebel Miss Sherwood, a lady misleaders. A poster, inviting sionary, peacefully bioyoling the people to "die and kill," in a narrow street on her way had been displayed in the to one of her schools. Here Clook-tower, and the invitawas too good a chance to be tion had been generally ao- missed. The intrepid mob cepted. If the people was knocked her down by blows unwilling to die, it was on the head, and when she least eager to kill; and when was safely on the ground they two doctors, efficient stirrers beat her unmercifully. The up of strife, called Kitchlew poor woman got up to run, and Satyapal, were very justly and again and again she was deported, the mob marvel- knocked down. When she lously increased in bitterness attempted to take refuge in and violence. "Where is a house, the door was slammed the Deputy-Commissioner?" it in her face, and the monsters asked; "we will butcher him desisted from torturing her to pieces." Speedily the crowd only because they thought that gathered volume until it she was dead. numbered some 30,000, and passed with little delay from words to deeds, The rebels began their work of destruction with the banks. They beat to death the manager and assistant manager of the National Bank, burned their bodies, and set on fire and sacked the building. With the greed that commonly accompanies the lust of blood, they threw open the godowns to all those who were willing to loot them. Then they turned their amiable attention to the Alliance Bank, murdered its manager, and flung his body from the balcony into the street, where it was drenched in kerosene oil and burned. With

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That the rebellion expressed from the very first a murderous hatred of Europeans is not in dispute. The mob oried aloud for the deaths, not of officials merely, but of all Europeans. What could be done to restore order was done immediately, and that the ever-increasing mob might have a fair warning, a proolamation was issued forbidding all gatherings of persons and precessions, and urging respectable persons to keep indoors. On the evening of April 11th General Dyer arrived at Amritsar and took command. That there might be no mistake concerning his policy, he supplemented the

all

first proclamation by another. because General Dyer was "The inhabitants of Amritsar," presently condemned for not said he, "are hereby warned that if they will cause damage to any property or will commit any acts of violence in the environs of Amritsar, it will be taken for granted that such acts are due to incitement in Amritsar city, and offenders will be punished according to military law. All meetings and gatherings are hereby prohibited, and will be dispersed at once under military law." It might be thought that this warning was clear enough to oheck the murderous ardour of the mob. It had little or no effect. The outrages continued unabated. The telegraph wires were out, railway lines were torn up, and a train was derailed. Accordingly, General Dyer, with infinite patience and restraint, made another attempt to recall the rebels to reason with words. On April 13th he issued the proclamation that follows by beat of drum: "No person residing in the Amritsar city is permitted to leave his house after eight. Any persons found in the streets after eight are liable to be shot.... Any procession or any gathering of four men will be looked upon and treated as an unlawful assembly, and dispersed by force of arms if necessary." The people, hearing this proclamation read, refused to treat it seriously. On all hands it was dismissed as mere bluff. "The General will not fire," said the rebels. "You need not be afraid."

It is necessary to cite the proclamations with some care,

having sufficiently warned the people. No warning would have been sufficient. The rebellion suffered no check. The day after he had made his proclamation by beat of drum, General Dyer was informed that a meeting was being held at Jallianwala Bagh, contrary to his plain order. He fired upon the mob, which, as we are told, believed that his order was a "bluff," and he achieved his object by the only possible means-the display of adequate and determined force. Had he thought more of his career than of the safety of India, he would have forgotten his duty and stayed his hand. But he is a brave far-seeing man, and he knew that in the midst of a revolution the mob must be taught a lesson. The same fate overtook him that overtook Governor Eyre, that has overtaken unnumbered servants of the Empire. The pedants who sat to try him, and who did not disdain to call him as a witness, to be used, if necessary, against himself, had no difficulty in finding such 8 verdiot 88 should be agreeable to the government. In brief, they found that General Dyer was "open to criticism (1) because he gave the people no warning; (2) because he continued to fire after the crowd began to disperse." The first plea is obviously ridiculous. The rebellious mob received not one warning, but three. It laughed at them all, and pronounced them "bluff."

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