Not the least, as it seems to us, of the
gross breaches, not only of humanity, but of legal decorum, committed in this bloody business, is the trial by court-martial of Mr. G. W. Gordon, a coloured member of the Legislature, and representative of St. Thomas-in-the-East, who gave himself up. He was brought appa- rently into Kingston on the 17th of October, in the carriage of a Dr. Bowerbauk, guarded by volunteers with drawn swords, and then sent on board the Wolverene, which left immediately for Morant Bay. It seems that Kingston was expressly exempted by the Governor's proclamation from martial law, and so he was sent into the region where martial law had been declared; in order that he might be tried by it instead of by the regular civil tribunal. It is ad- mitted that he was not concerned in the murders, only in the plot for an insurrection, but Brigadier-General Nelson, after a six hours' search into documents connected with his case, authorized his trial by court-martial, and he was condemned on the 21st October, and executed on the 23rd. Most likely he was guilty, but the world, seeing the indecent haste with which a man, quite beyond rescue, and who ha 1 voluntarily trustel himself to the law, was made away with, will be apt to think him innocent, and a martyr to our thirst for blood.
