Mr. Charles Buxton explained in a letter to the Times
of last Saturday why he could not approve of a prosecution of Mr. Eyre for the murder of Mr. Gordon. It would make a hero and a martyr of a man who deserved serious blame, and of whom therefore he did not wish to make a hero and a martyr. That is a very fair and a sensible answer, if the proseeution be under- taken by the Jamaica Committee on their own account,— for that might seem, to a public which has never estimated the gravity of Mr. Eyre's unscrupulous conduct in that matter aright, vindictive. But if Mrs. Gordon thinks it due to the memory of her husband to prosecute Mr. Eyre, and asks the Committee to help her to pecuniary means, we do not think they could properly refuse. That would, then, be a vindication of law and justice by one deeply wronged by Mr. Eyre's contempt for law and jus- tice in the matter, and though the public might not on the whole side with Mrs. Gordon, they would be quite willing to let the law tyke its course. If Mrs. Gordon wishes to prosecute Mr. Eyre, we think it ought to be done. If not, leave him to enjoy the suffi- ciently penal position in which even Mr. Cardwell's lukewarm praise and lukewarm censure, only half expressing the feeling of all clear-minded men, has placed him.
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