There was bad news yesterday of a negro insurrection in
the eastern part of Jamaica, that is, the part of the island on this side of Kingston. Nothing is said of its cause, for the news only came in the shape of a telegraphic request, forwarded apparently through Charleston by way of New York to Nova Scotia, requesting
Major-General Doyle, governing that settlement, to send troops or ships to aid. Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope was to leave Halifax on Saturday week (28th October), in his flag-ship, with the 2nd Battalion of the 17th Regiment, and the Galatea had sailed a fortnight earlier,—it was believed for Jamaica. Some fear is felt that the insurrection was got up in Hayti. No doubt the war in the United States, the termination of slavery there, and the successful military service of the negro regiments, must have had a fevering effect on negroes wherever they have chronic dis- putes with the whites. But in Jamaica they are absolutely the equals of the whites before the law, and the insurrection is not im- probably purely political, or connected perhaps with some unwel- come land law. The two African regiments are, we believe, stationed at Kingston. One would conjecture that they must have mutinied if the Government is wanting troops.
