Mr. Hamilton Hume, the impetuous Secretary to the Eyre Defence
Committee, has rather come to grief in a correspondence with the solicitors of the Jamaica Committee, Messrs. Shaen and Roscoe. Mr. Hume, in his advertisements for pecuniary aid, -drew upon public compassion on the ground that the Eyre prosecution had commenced, and that four actions had been brought against Colonel Nelson and Mr. Eyre " by Messrs. .Shaen and Roscoe, the solicitors to the Jamaica Com- mittee, for alleged illegal arrest and imprisonment." The solicitors to the Jamaica Committee pointed out that the Eyre prosecution had not yet commenced as a matter of fact, but was waiting for evidence from Jamaica ; and that the four actions actually commenced were private actions by Dr. Bruce and Mr. Phillips, with which the Jamaica Committee had no concern, though the same solicitors were employed. The Government are themselves going to defend Colonel Nelson, so that those actions commenced at private expense certainly form no further ground -of urgent appeal by the Eyre Defence Committee to the public's generosity. Mr. Hamilton Hume, however, will not be convinced. He intimates very plainly that he does not believe what the soli- citors to the Jamaica Committee say about the actions being com- menced at private expense, and generally conducts his correspond- ence very angrily and foolishly, and not like a man of the world. He declines to alter his advertisement "to suit the tastes of your clients or yourselves," which, as the taste in question appeared to be only a taste for accuracy, was not very wise in Mr. Hamilton Hume. It will be bruited abroad that the Eyre Defence Committee regard the taste for accuracy as an indecent self-indulgence.
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