valry under the duke of Wellington, is a compensation for the injuries which have been inflicted on them; a protection from the disgrace which was intended for them; the safeguard of their character; the consolation of their misfortune; it will stand for ever a monument of honour to them, and of reproach to the Court, whose total disregard of such testimony must present to your lordships a strong argument for revising the construction and the proceedings of these tribunals. On the other hand, what is the evidence for. col. Quentin? Campaigns at Hounslow, and at Ipswich; generals who never heard a shotted gun; a captain who remembers col. Quentin, but forgets col. Leigh at Majorca; but not one officer who had been present at the events which are the subject of this Court-martial. But from this nonsense, only fit for the Mayor of Garrat, there is one brilliant exception -the noble lord who'commanded the cavalry under sir John Moore in 1808, and whom I shall ever respect for that gallant spirit which at the first call of his country's danger tore him from the charms of a society, where every thing conspired with his own personal qualities, to allure him from the paths of glory to those of pleasure, and who, as well as another noble friend of mine, in circumstances somewhat similar, whom your lordships must be proud to see among you, by the native energy of their own characters, have at tained the highest celebrity in a profession to which they had not been destined. But to what indignity was that noble lord exposed, by the blunders of this Court! no less than to have the testimony which he gave on one day, expunged from their minutes on the next; a testimony not voluntarily given, but extorted from him, and by whom? no less than the President himself, and in these words, « Will your lordship relate the particular circumstances of the conduct of col. Quentin in the affair of Benevente? They have been related to me as particularly meritorious," -and, as if every sort of absurdity was to attach to the proceedings of this Court, it so happens that this affair at Benevente was the only thing which it was unnecessary, and therefore improper, for the noble lord to describe at all, not only upon the new and unintelligible principle, respect ing the cross-examination of witnesses to character, broached for the first time upon this trial, but upon the soundest principles of evidence in our courts of law-for there is now extant the official document, the letter of that noble lord, as commander of the cavalry, detailing all the circumstances of that engagement; published in the Gazette, accessible to all your lordships, and open to the prisoner; who might have produced it in his defence if he had thought proper; and the authority of such a letter, written at the time, and upon the spot, must be infinitely beyond that of the best recollection after the lapse of six or seven years. I should not have mentioned what I am now going to say, if the Court had confined themselves to the bare sentence, whatever it might have been; but as they have added mitigations, founded upon a variety of circumstances, I cannot but think that they ought to have given due weight to all the circumstances connected with the transaction; and is it a circumstance of no consequence, that col. Quentin subpœna'd for his own witnesses, officers of the regiment who were present at these transactions-major Howard and col. Wyndham;-both friends of his own, but men of honour, and who would have spoken the truth, but whose mouths, though present and in attendance, he did not think proper to unseal, but trusted the defence of his honour to the varying and contradictory testimony of non-commissioned officers and private soldiers. Major Howard had been present, and close to him upon most of the occasions which are the subjects of the charges; and col. Wyndham had served with the regiment under col. Robarts, and for six weeks afterwards, under col. Quentin, and must have known if any change had taken place in the discipline. Is it of no consequence that he refused the production of the Duc de Guiche's letter of explanation, in answer to a letter of his own?-the Duc de Guiche, whose absence (compelled by the orders of his Government) is much to be regretted, for considerations of infinitely more importance than the value of his testimony, great as that would have been. Is it of no consequence that, after having told the Court himself, that col. Palmer permitted him to remain in perfect ignorance of a medical report, stating drunkenness, want of necessaries, and inattention to personal cleanliness, as causes of an increase of sickness in the men of the 10th, which might have seriously affected the character of the regiment, and of himself as commanding it, if not inquired into and answered-he then, when col. Palmer proposes to him to call the author of that medical report, Mr. Morrison, into Court, to give an explanation upon this subject, which he (col. Quentin) had introduced himself to the Court, refuses the evidence of Mr. Morrison, upon a technical objection, that his name was not upon the list of witnesses. I now come to the subject of the letter, upon which I shall state nothing but what I saw and know; and I say that this letter ought never to have risen in evidence against the officers; that it ought never to have seen the light; that it was suppressed almost as soon as written, and that it is to the indiscretion of col. Palmer alone, that its disclosure is to be attributed. I say that col. Palmer owes it to the officers--that he owes it to his own honour, to state distinctly to the country, the manner in which that letter has risen from obscurity to the ruin of twenty-five of his friends, gallant officers, and honourable men. I say nothing of the letter itself; I do not defend it; I do not blame it; I do not blame the consequences that have resulted from it; but I did wish, and I wish still, and I believe it is not now too late, that these officers may be brought to a Court-martial for that letter, and broke, if they shall appear to have been as guilty as they have been represented: as it now stands, they have been condemned without the means or opportunity of defence; and when I have read to your lordships this letter, signed ten years ago by fifteen officers of the Blues ["The printed paper which has been exhibited in the most public manner, with the name of Mr. Goulburn affixed to it, reflecting the worst possible abuse upon an officer now in the Blues, cannot but give us much concern, as affecting the honour of one of our corps. We declare, in duty and justice to the regiment, to which we belong, that we cannot tacitly consent to partake of the blame or the disrepute, which from this circumstance may, in the opinion of the public, appear to attach to us as a military body, owing to the private conduct of one of its members. As the name of the regiment has been made use of, we think it our duty to come forward with this declaration, and most respectfully to assure our colonel, how sensibly we feel for the honour and character of his regiment, whenever its name is brought into public notice, also of our firm reliance upon his support, and of our constant endeavours to deserve it."] and when I tell your lordships, that this letter was approved by the King, whe then took much pleasure in that regiment, and that captain Horsley was in conse quence obliged to leave the regiment, your lordships will feel that there is at least that similarity-I think the simila-: rity is perfect-but at least that similarity between the outset of the transactions, and such a total difference in the results, as to afford some excuse for men who fol lowed this precedent so far as to write a letter, and then to burn it; for their intention, and consequently their real of fence amounted to no more: and I think your lordships must also feel that, when coupled with the ruin of twenty-five gal lant officers, misled by precedent, and unconscious of crime, it affords to me strong ground for intreating your lordships to rescue the army from that state of law, worse even than bad laws, the jur vagum et incognitum. And I much wish that the circumstances of the letter of the 10th Hussars had been subjected to a strict investigation, because it would have prevented a great deal of very unpleasant suspicion and discussion; and I believe the result would have been to show, that neither colonel Palmer, nor any of the parties were intentionally to blame, and that the disclosure of the letter was occa. sioned by misunderstandings in verbal conversation, by which all these parties were misled, except the officers, who intended nothing, and expected nothing, except that the letter was to be burnt, and was burnt. With respect to col. Palmer, I do not believe, that there ever existed a braver officer, or a more honourable and better man; and in this I have the good fortune to agree with the Court; and if any thing could add to my conviction of the necessity of giving some better mode of reference for the Military Courts to the law officers of the Crown, it would be the anomaly in this trial, by which causes directly opposite have produced precisely the same effect: the signing the letter, and the not signing it, are made equal crimes, and the moderate but unjust censure of the officers by the Court, and their high and just commendation of colonel Palmer, both as to his conduct in the regiment, and upon the trial, are productive of the same bad effects to both, the same destruction to the parties unjustly censured, and to the party justly praised. There is not one of the articles that requires revision more than that which relates to the subject of this letter of the canse he refused to surrender his sword, a sword highly valued by him, because a present from his colonel, received from the very hand which has since signed his ruin? Is it not a severe punishment to the second captain, captain Harding,-a name which it is difficult to pronounce without indignation, when I think how he has been sacrificed, and to what he has been sacrificed,-a name never heard without distinction, and never mentioned without respect; of long service, repeatedly wounded, who, already a soldier, saw the safety of India fixed, under the auspices of a noble marquis, by the fall of Serin Blues,-duels ;-if the prerogative of the Crown is not already sufficient to prevent it, and I very much wished it to be exercised upon a late duel, not only on account of the impropriety of that duel and its absurdity, (for there is not such a fool in the army, who could suppose that it could be useful to any purpose, except the chance of destroying colonel Palmer,) but much more to put an end to suspicions which naturally arose from the circumstances, very imprudent, both as to the persons, the time, and the place, from which that duel is supposed to have originated: and even now since col. Quentin's trial, a young and gallant officer (lieute-gapatam; who saw that star rising in the nant Cowell) has been broke for not prosecuting a quarrel in a way that could lead to nothing but a duel, and in a letter produced in evidence from the officer commanding the regiment, which letter was the foundation of the whole proceed. ing, the Court expunge this sentence, "You must beware that fighting a duel is contrary to the Articles of War," leaving the remainder in evidence, and then they break him for not proceeding in such a manner as could have ended in nothing but a duel. The prisoner put this question to the Court," Was I to understand by this letter, that if I had fought a duel, the Articles of War would have been resorted to, and that not having done so, my commission must have been the forfeit ?" Certainly a very unpleasant question; as it made nonsense of their whole proceedings: and how did they get rid of it? They cut the gordian knot; and at once expunged, both question and answer from their minutes. But there is no end to the absurdity of these Courts. But it has been said, that because these officers are allowed to retain their rank in the army, the punishment is not a severe one, and the words of the letter imply that it is not adequate to their of fence. Is it not a severe punishment to be scattered, not over England, not over Europe, but over the world, like a gang of mutineers that cannot be trusted near each other, and to have their disgrace proclaimed to the whole army, at the head of every regiment? Is it not a severe punishment to captain Lloyd, an officer of long standing, the first captain in the regiment, reduced to the last in another; his hopes of promotion in the service retarded, till a time of life when, perhaps, he will be no longer able to serve; wounded, ill treated by the enemy, be East, to whom the Western world now looks for safety and defence. I mention these circumstances, because, among many other calumnies, it has been circulated that the officers were little more than boys. Is it no punishment to two brothers, of whose honourable principles, of whose zeal for their duties, of whose respect and gratitude to their benefactor, which no harshness can shake or diminish, I can speak with certainty, from personal knowledge, to be sent, perhaps to perish in India? Is it a slight punishment to all these officers to be placed upon half-pay, or as supernumeraries, without the hope of service or the chance of distinction-and now, when the trumpet has already sounded for preparation? I have heard it urged that this sentence is the triumph of justice to an unprotected foreigner, over personal friendship and favoritism. To my mind, there never was a greater misapplication of terms. I have understood the word favoritism' to apply to persons who owe their promotion to their private services to the Sovereign, and to his personal favour, but not at all to these officers; not to the son of a noble duke; not to the brother of a noble marquis; not to the nephew of a noble marquis, high in his Majesty's household; nor to many others of them; who, if they are as independent in their minds, as they are in their situations, are placed far above the caprices of power; and who, while they firmly support that key-stone of the constitution, the Crown, and while they respect and love the personal qualities of the Prince who now exercises its power, will spurn at the disgraceful and inapplicable term of favoritism.' I will now state shortly the objects which I intend to recommend to your lordships, as founded on these minutes : 1199] HOUSE OF LORDS, To define the crimes-To fix the highest other House of Parliament, in the Act for My lords; I shall now conclude with INDE X TO VOL. XXXI. INDEX TO DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. Address on the Prince Regent's Message re- Overture from France, 269. lating to France, 316. Alien Bill, 184, 240. Apothecaries Bill, 1143. Apprentices, 1062. Catholic Question, 273, 666. Parish Apprentices, 1062. Petitions against the Corn Bill, 617. Pillory Abolition Bill, 1121, 1142. Prince Regent's Message relating to France, Convention between Great Britain and the Prince Regent's Message respecting an Addi- Netherlands, 717. Corn Bill, Petitions against the, 617. Cumberland, Duke of; Prince Regent's Mes- East India Ships Registry Bill, 847, 885. Foreign Slave Trade Bill, 557, 606, 848, 912, 1062. Freehold Estates Bill, 846, 1036. France; Overture from, 269. tional Grant to the Duke of Wellington, 977. Prince Regent's Message respecting the Duke of Cumberland's Marriage, 1014. Prince Regent's Speech at the Close of the Proclamation of Louis the 18th, 182. Roman Catholic Question, 273, 666. France; Prince Regent's Message relating to, Roseberry Divorce Bill, 558, 580. 285, 316. Helleston Election Bill, 1, 156. Irish Spirits Duty Bill, 1134. Liberty of the Subject Bill, 216. Louis the 18th; Proclamation of, 182. Militia Bill, 653. Naples; Negociations with the Government Russian Debt in Holland, 717. Slave Trade, 557, 606, 664, 848, 912, 1062. Surgeons Regulation Bill, 1133. Thames Bathing Bill, 1073. Treaties with the Allies, 251, 269. Vaccination Bill, 183, 1120. Vienna; Proceedings of the Congress at, 287. Vote of Thanks to the Duke of Wellington, Naval Administration of the Country, 448, Wellington, Duke of; Vote of Thanks to, 942, 723. Newspapers; Stamp-duty on, 1134, 1140. Offices in Reversion Bill, 716, 881. 971. Wellington, Duke of; Prince Regent's Mes- 977. (4 H) |