The many scenes of violence which ensued are fully detailed in a pamphlet entitled ' Recent Events at the Mauritius,' which he published in vindication of his conduct. It will be sufficient to mention that the governor thought it advisable, for the security of the public peace, to order him to return to England, ho having previously declined to do so except a written command were given him to that effect. On his arrival in London he immediately reported himself to the colonial office, adding, that he was ready to resume his journey back to the Mauritius at an hour's notice. His request, though delayed, was vaulted, and his return to that island preceded by an additional mili tary force. The feelings however originally excited against him did not easily subside, and his residence there, which terminated in 1835, was embittered by a series of painful events, arising from the fearless advocacy of his opinions.
In 1836 he was appointed to the office of puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Ceylon, stud during the same year a valuable piece of plate was presented to him by the Anti-Slavery Society in testimony of the great service he had rendered to the cause of slave emancipation. His residence during four years at Ceylon was the only tranquil period of his eventful life. Early in the year 1840 he published a 'Letter on Negro Emancipation and African Civilisation,' addressed to Sir T. F. Buxton, in which he described the present and showed what he con sidered will be the future effects of emancipation in the colonies, and gave a short outline of the practical steps which might be taken in order to advance the civilisation of Western Africa.
It was to carry into effect the measures which had been suggested for ameliorating the condition of the liberated slaves that, undeterred by the perils of a pestilential climate, he accepted in October 1840 the important office of governor and captain-general of Sierra Leone and its dependencies, and he received at tho same time the honour of knighthood. On the 23rd of April 1841, only four months after his arrival at Sierra Leone, he fell a victim to the prevalent disease of the climate, while engaged iu a government mission at Port Lego. His
only son, John Robert Jeremie, a young man whose talents promised high success in a career of honourable utility which had been opened to him in Europe, had at his own earnest request accompanied his father as private secretary, which appointment he held under the succeeding governor until 1843, when he likewise fell a victim to the climate. The inhabitants of St. Lucia, when the news of his death reached them, marked their regret for his loos by a general mourolug ; but perhaps the highest tribute to his memory is to be fonud in an address made on that occasion to the Roy al Court of St. Lucia by Dr. Reedit. who had succeeded him as chief justice of that colony. The following passages are contained in it :—" To say that Sir J. Jeremie was 11 o ablest judge, was the most useful judge, who ever presided at St. Lucia. is saying little indeed. For the laws which he enforced, and the reforms which he Introduced into the legal system of the colony, giving stability to commerce and security to the investment of capital, the planters and merchants recogniso to him a deep debt of gratitude. Wherever you turn your eyes you meet the proofs of his activity in the dischargo of the administrative duties which at one time devolved on the first president t—tho high roads opened up and levelled, the paving and drains for the salubrity of the town, the erection of the Protestant church, all attest his unwearied and zealous labours. His memory will long be cherished by that class of the colonists whose equal rights he secured, and whose social position he upheld and vindicated both by precept and example, when, to nee his own striking language, after having submitted to the minister of the crown (Sir George Murray) an argument on the grave colonial question, the distinction of colour, that eminent statesman recognised the policy and justice of a change, and the ' curse of heaven disappeared front the face of the western world.'"