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Page 39
True that they did not see eye to eye on some of the most fundamental
matters of social and political principle, and where they did
Tyndall's vehement enthusiasm would sometimes sweep him into
activities where his friend could not follow. But these things were
no bar to their mutual affection and esteem, and in token of this two
letters of 1866 may be quoted, when England was sharply divided on the
question of Governor Eyre's action in suppressing an incipient revolt
in Jamaica.
In particular, a negro preacher named Gordon had been arrested,
court-martialled, and summarily executed. A Royal Commission appointed
to inquire into the case declared that the evidence given appeared to
be wholly insufficient to establish the charge upon which the prisoner
took his trial, and that in the evidence adduced they could not see
any sufficient proof of Gordon's complicity in the outbreak, or of
having been a party to any general conspiracy against the Government.
To many thoughtful and law-abiding persons such a proceeding
appeared to be no better than judicial murder, constituting a hideous
precedent; a committee was formed to present a formal indictment
against Governor Eyre and obtain a judicial pronouncement on the
question, quite apart from the two other questions persistently
confused with it--namely, was Gordon a Jamaica Hampden or was he a
psalm-singing firebrand, and was Governor Eyre actuated by the highest
and noblest motives, or was he under the influence of panic-stricken
rashness or worse impulses?
With this high constitutional end in view--the protection of
individual liberty--Huxley joined the committee. To Charles Kingsley,
who confessed to taking the hero-worshipper's view of Governor Eyre,
Huxley replied:--
I dare say he did all this with the best of motives and in a
heroic vein. But if English law will not declare that heroes
have no more right to kill people in this fashion than other
folk, I shall take an early opportunity of migrating to Texas
or some other quiet place where there is less hero-worship
and more respect for justice, which is to my mind of much more
importance than hero-worship.
In point of fact, men take sides on this question, not so much
by looking at the mere facts of the case, but rather as their
deepest political convictions lead them. And the great use of
the prosecution, and one of my reasons for joining it, is
that it will help a great many people to find out what their
profoundest political beliefs are.
The hero-worshippers who believe that the world is to be
governed by its great men, who are to lead the little ones,
justly if they can, but, if not, unjustly drive or kick them
the right way, will sympathize with Mr. Eyre.
The other sect (to which I belong), who look upon hero-worship
as no better than any other idolatry and upon the attitude of
mind of the hero-worshipper as essentially immoral; who think
it is better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right
in chains; who look upon the observance of inflexible justice
as between man and man as of far greater importance than even
the preservation of social order, will believe that Mr. Eyre
has committed one of the greatest crimes of which a person in
authority can be guilty, and will strain every nerve to obtain
a declaration that their belief is in accordance with the law
of England.
People who differ on fundamentals are not likely to convert
one another. To you, as to my dear friend Tyndall, with whom
I almost always act, but who in this matter is as much opposed
to me as you are, I can only say, let us be strong enough and
wise enough to fight the question out as a matter of principle
and without bitterness.
To Tyndall, whose convictions were bred in Ulster and fostered by an
ardent devotion to Carlyle, he wrote in the same strain, apropos of a
friend's banter on their sudden division:--
I replied to the jest earnestly enough--that I hoped and
believed our old friendship was strong enough to stand any
strain that might be put on it, much as I grieved that we
should be ranged in opposite camps in this or any other case.
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