Star. — London, England, 1815-01-17 00:00:00

uxt liatit77AL. nun cnrift trrAiNERAL 101114 'MURRAY. • The o)l444at'Oill atipiiiited for the trial of Sir Jon!: IdestitAt 'yesterday assembled at Winchester, at ten o'cleck ; r ,The Court is composed as follows illfALyszp c;s:tace, President. tart of Ludlow. • Hon. Sir Edward Paget. Ler , l Chnllei Fitzroy. Hon. H. G. Giay. sir George Beasit4. Sir Brent Spencer. General H arm.. . Sir Samuel Atietuntity. General • List.-Gee. Chant: hive. Sir Charles Grua. • Limit Mantresaor. Hun. Wm. Lumley. LteGen. Ackland. and others. The Members having been sworn, and the charges, which were three in number, read, the Deputy Judge- Advocate, Mr. LARPENT, addressed the Court at great length; Sir J. Murray having previously pleaded Not Guilty to all the charges. Mr. LARPENT began by observing, that the high rank and station of the individual, the merits of whose conduct the Members of that Court were now assembled to investigate, in volvfog both his personal honour and his military character, rendered it unnecessary in him to impress upon' their minds, either by caution or exhortation,; the duty of patient attention, or the necessity of die. missing from their recollection whatever impression they might have heretofore received. The questios which they had to try, as it equally affected the ad: vantage of the service, and the reputation of Sir Jobs Murray, required that the decision should be foandod exclusively on the evidence, documeotery and oral, Which would be produCed before them. These were: considerations so important, and at• the same time le obvious, that it would be an unnecessary, and Owe. fore an idle waste of their time for him to labour any longer in enforcing them.. The. first point to .whicb he had in the outset to draw their attention, was el* letigl.ll of time that had elapsed since those events had taken place that gave rise to the present charges, both he.:ause it was desirable to be accounted for, and be. cruse, beneficial as he was convinced it had.bect to S:r John Murray, he would probably make it s a, Sub. Wet of complaint in the course of his defence. It was necessary for him, therefore, to enter into a brief nar rat:ve of the circumstances which had made the delay unavoidable, and of the manner in which, with re ference to this object, the time had been employed since the raising of the siege of Tarragona, in order to satisfy.tire Court that no blame was imputable to any nem ? ... in the second week of July, 1813, his Majesty's Mihisters first became otteially acquainted with that event, and the circumstances with which it was attended. The Duke of Wellington had received the information some time previously. as well from Captain Carroll, as from the reports of Sir John gurray himself, and of Admiral Hallowell. The first step taken by his Lordship was, to call on Gene ral Murray for a full explanation of the conduct and operations both of the force immediately under his command, and of that under the direction of General Copons. Admiral Hallowell had in the mean time forwarded his statement, and the nature of his repre sentations was such as •to render it impossible that father enquiry should not take place. It was pro .babie that Sir John Murray himself would see the Tropriety of calling for a full investigation. Lord Bathurst. immediately directed that a Court-mar -tial should be assembled in Spain with all practi cable (1040 for this purpose. Lord Wellingtop's statementi; tiontsvar,. did not arrive till the follow .liinn—riar,oselasa4a three oharges:ia Waif aweseat shape were transmitted to England. In consequence of the difficulty of assembling a Court in the Perlin sula at that time, or of sparing a sufficient number of officers of due rank, from the western army, the year 1813 expired before any proceedings could be insti rated. Sir J. Murray was, however, furnished with a copy Of the charges, and required to send in a list of witnesses to be summoned in his defence. A let ter was received from Admiral Hallowell, stating, that he was desirous of callinic, in support of the third charge, a number of Spanish witnesses of high rank; but before this could be accomplished, it was necessary to procure the sanction of the Regency. This assent was obtained, but coupled with the condi tion, that their examination must be conducted ac cording to Spanish forms, v iz. that the questions should be put in writing, and be answered in the same way, but not upon oath. A practice so injurious to the honour and character of a British Officer, and so repugnant to all the established principles of our own law, could to admitted only by consent of Sir John Murray, who would still be entitled in his defence to urge the ob jection of its illegality to testimony so delivered against him. This brought them to the month of March, 1814. Lord Wellington had sent away. the eastern army, and none of the delay, certainly, which had occurred, was attributable to Sir John Murray, who, .in the following month, acceded to, the offer of the Spanish Regency on one or two equitable condi tions, Lord Wellington then ordered a Court to be itsetoNed at Tarragona; but on fi nding the reluc tinrA esstertainetr kr Ge neral Cole, and • others, to try an officer so much senior to themselves in the ser vice,: and on their representations of the impropriety of holding a Court-martial on a British officer of such high sank in a foreign garrison town, all parties were Ordered to return home, when Sir John Murray glig!rt have the advantage of an enquiry before a competent tribunal. The time had been since occupied in col lecting the various military and naval witnesses, and in endeavours which had not, hoWever, been attended with success, to obtain the consent of the Spanish Authot'ities to allow the atter.dance of the Officers named by Admiral Hallowell. He should now pro ceed to describe what the position of the army under the command of Sir John Murray was, at the period alluded to in the first charge; what the intentions of Lord Wellington bad been; and what were the ,proceedings of Sir John Murray under those instruc-. trim s . He should submit as the best evidence on this in the first place, Sir John Murray's own account ot the ciperations referred to in the first and second charges. The third charge was in the hands of Admiral Hallowell, and was founded on that Officer's report to Sir Edward Pellew. This report, he conceived it tizetssary, should be read at the outset. It was dated On bolid his Majesty's ship Malta, and o represented that he bad been directed to embark the whole army !tuna before Tarragona, and was-sorry to say it had been done with great precipitation, leaving behind than 21 pieces ot ordnance, which had been spiked, and their carriages burned. That he bad offered to secure them in the coarse of the night, and that the hilses and baggage were removed the next morning .. Without molestatton. 'Mit the garrison consietkd' or about 1600 m.', sighthe_ INlnkkhitaavgdvancing from Barcelona, as he undaszoo4 of 5000, with two field.pieces, two'beary gens, and tsyro howitzers.— That he ascribed the orders for inkal.ediata embarka tion to the indecision of ,Sir Jobn blarrayj and that the British arms had been more dirraord, than 411 f ever were on any former oceasioni rhat heirad oat an officer with the intelligence to Lord Wellington and that he anticipated, under .. the sanie cointnand, only a repetition of the same disasters and depinrable consequences which he had already !described." He (the Deputy Judge-Advocate) should rest his own charges on the statements and assertions of Sir John Mnt ray himself ; which. however. it would be com petent to Admiral Hallowell. if it should be neces- sary to his purpose, to controvert and disprove. The third c h Irge, though not contradictory to, was per fcctiy lu:c.)nnected with, the two first. The first re- 1 tteki to the sicge of Tarragona, and the delay in r it, r veil after, in Sir J. Murray's own former opinion, the success of the enterprize had. becoMe hopeless. The second was, that he had disobeyed his instructions in embarking only a part of his army, and in subsequently disembarking them. The third charg ed, that the force, when embarked from before Tar ragona, was embarked in a hurried and precipitate' manner, so as to sacrifice the. object panted out in Llrd Wellington's lettei; and to disgrace the mili tary character of the country by'abindotiing various trophies to an approaching enemy. The position of the army was suppnied to be enettong, as to enable ,the British Commander' to operate-against the flanks k of the enemy's forte, eitherinitnediately or by means 'of a naval ezpeditibn j and accdrilingry Me= moranda of Lord Wellington, which would be read to . the Court, these objects were distinctly recom mended to the attention of Sir John Murray.— By these instructions he was directed, in the event of being unable. to storm Tarragona, to get possession of the open part of Valencia, and to advance his po sition so as to compel the esemyto retire to the other side of the Lower Ebro. If Sachet should be ton strong, and Tarragona should still be enabled to hold out, this was to be the object which Lord Wellington expected to see accomplished. He was alas directed 14nd as Ea to the north as possible, in order that Suchet's force hiving been weakened by the diver sion of part of it to Tarragona, the other purpose might be facilitated in its execution. Every thing chewed and illustrated the clearness of Lord Wel- lington's views, and the distinctness with which it was pointed out to Sir John Murray, to return to Va lencia as soon its he should be convinced of the im possibility of taking Tarragona. Translated copies of these instructions had been sent by his Lordship to the Spanish Generals, the Duke del Parque, Elio, and Copons.— [ Here Mr. Larpent read at length these memoranda drawn up by Lord Wellington.] They intimated his Lordship's surprise at the alleged want of artillerymen, particularly as there were the two companies which had been found sufficient at the storming of Badajoz, and expressed the impossibility that existed of advancing further supplies to the Sp.i. ' nish troops. The nature and component parts of the entire force under Sir John Murray was described, and the success of the plan marked oat stated to de pend on the circumstance of none of the different corps being dispersed. Sir John Murray was direc ted to take with him as many cavalry as could be couveyed in the transports, and the rest to remaiti sahibs sioniskQemernb, be reinforced tram Galicia, and the t anniii were to 'keep op. a constant communication. As soon as Tarragona had fallen, and thiiplan was in a course of active execntion, Sir John Murray was to establish the kingdom of Valencia, leaving General Don Mar tin behind with one division. He should not now enter into the question, whether or not Tarragona ought to brie been taken, or whether a general ac titin ought to have been fought with Marshal Suchet, but he conceived it to be quite clear that if the siege was to be raised, and on the reasons alleged and set forth in Sir John Murray's own dispatches, the delay which he suffered to intervene ought not to have taken place. The next letter which he should read was Sir John Murray's own account, dated the 7th tit July, 1813, in the camp before Tarragona. This 14- ter intimated to Lord Wellington, that he (S;r John) had, he feared, undertaken more than he could per form ; that Sachet had a force of 24,000 men at his disposal ; that he had himself but 19,000 men, and of those only 4000 Germans. and British that he could rely on ; that though willing, his army was very .weak, and greatly in want both of clothes an money. --41 y this letter, therefore, it appeared, that so early as the 7th, he Wad despaired of the capture of 'Tarra gona. Had he immediately sailed, as above directed, for the coast of Valencia, the Other object was still to be gained. The second letter, dated the 9th, men tioned Colonel Prevost's success in the attack of Fort St. Phillippe, and that the enemy's approach to Tar. raguna was then impeded : praised the gre,at alacrity of Admiral Hallowell in his co-operation, and stated, that he was credibly informed that Suchet was aik proaching in great force. The next, dated on board the Malta, 14,h of July, described the necessity that had obliged Sit John Murray to embark; Suchet, having collected about twenty-five thousand men, and no :her alternative being left but to fight a general .:ction under every disadvantage, and scarcely the possibility,of a retreat. That the embarkation, if any longer delayed, might be prevented by . a change in the weather, or by the activity of the enemy. That he haJ, after deducting two thousand to cover the states, only sixteen thousand men in the whole, to onet an army of the best French soldiers in the ser vice. That, as it was impossible to storm Tarragona, and so much depended on the safety of his army, he had deemed it prudent to rain the siege, and only' re. gretted that he had not done so at an earlier period. That no blame whatever was imputable to Admiral Hallowell, but that he had thought the risk too great to adopt his suggestion, of waiting another day to bring off his ordnance, the importance of which he did not think ought to be put in the scale with the safety .of the force under his command.— But why had. Sir John Murray, after receiving the in formation of which he had been in possession for some days On good authority, delayed so long to raise the ,iege, and even cootiaued to the last hour toland artil lery and stone Another letter of the same date served to shew the fluctuating opinioa of the Commander-in- Chief, and admitted that the enemy had not acted with . the expected rapidity. Then followed the dispatch to Earl Bathunt, and a long explinition, addressed to Lord Wellington, in obedience to his request to here tviieept ;ofeemation of the progress of the dep. awl. the Whale open tit tbit.diferOnt corps unce the time _disembArkation.. All. these documents he (Mr:Eiipeut) - submitted pi - the Collet furnished - no justification for the delay of the General in coming to Decision of such vital moment both to the safety of Ole army and the ultimate success of the other object of the expedition. Neither did they exculpate Li• conduct in not returning immediately to Valencia, where the French were then reduced to 11,000 men. Sir John Murray had in fact, in his letter to Lord B ithurst, written his own condemnation, for he there aslribed to a misplaced anxiety the defect of all the plans which he had been entrusted to execute. Ano ther letter to Lord Wellington contained a still more detailed statement of an the circumstances which had influenced Sir J. Murray in the course which he had pursued, viz. that there was no point d'apui to which, in case of a r e ve rse , h e cou ld retreat ; w hilst the ene my had strong fortresses behind him, and was much superior to him in every respect, except in ordnance ; that General, Copons had been unable to afford him any assivance ; and that he had delayed to raise the siege so long. :in the confident expectation of rein forceMents,./.c. thathe had also been disappointed in the hope of reetivin some additional strength from Lord William Bantlnck, and had, under such a com bination of disadvantages, taken that step that pru dence appeared to him to prescribe. • Hi then read the statement of General Sachet's rot* as k appeared from the pipers - of 'Kin Joseph, which fell into the hands of Lotd Wellington. By this statement, which was drawn up by the French `Ordeal St. Cyr, it appeared, that the grand total of Sachet's army in Valencia, including a corps of 3,000 Which had been sent to Tarragona, and many small ,garrisons, amounted to 26,800 men, of which 2,817 were cavalry. Upon the documents which had been read, it WAS his duty to submit to the Court, that, al though it did not appear that any thing more could have been done on the Bth or 9th, yet, that upon the 10th, every effort should have been made by him, and every preparation made for removing the artillery- arid stores. That was the more incumbent upon him, from the knowledge he had of the difficulties of the embarkation; and the consequent danger of delay. dir John Murray had been fully convinced in his own mind of the impossibility of taking Tarragona, be fore lie had been landed 24 holm. The principal en gineer had given his opinion that the place could not be takerrin less than fourteen or fifteen days, and this was a length of time that it would be evidently imprudent to venture to remain there. After lie had made his resolution to raise the siege, the days of the. lt;th and 11th ought to have been employed in providing for the safe embarkation of the artillery and stores, us well as of the army. On the contrary,, it appeared that Sir J. Murray permitted the landing of artillery, ammunition, and stares up to the very momnit when be ordered the re-embarka tion of the t; oops. From the details of the operations of the 3d of June, it appeared that the disembarka tion . could be completely effected in one day ; and he was, therefore, at a loss to see what it was that made the impossible, without leaving the artillery and valuable stores behind. He should not make many observations upon the detailed ac counts given of the siege, but should simply observe, that no artillery had been brought to bear against the body of the place till the night of the 10th. As Sir ,J,..teitgraymnst havelcp_p_wn at that time r hat with. , out the , asststaneelireirareoptairc . COrpi of Spa . - niards, he could not bring more than 9000 men against Suchet,. he must have then known that it was impossible for hint to take Tarragona, and should have immediately taken measures for the safe re-em barkation of the artillery and stores, as well as of the arm/. He had also to state, that, in point of fact, the French had not advanced as far as Vendril, but bad fallen back upon hearing of Sir E. Pellew's arrival in the Bay of limas. He should now proceed to the con sideration of the second charge. As to the conduct of Sir J. Murray after the siege' was raised, be had been positively directed by his instructions to return immediately to Valencia, for the attainment of an ohjlct specifically pointed out to him. It seems that Sir John Murray was not sufficiently impressed with the importance of adhering to his instructions. He violated both the letter and the spirit of those instruc tions ; for. instead of immediately returning to Va lencia, lie relanded the army at Balaguer on the 13th and 14th of June, and was still in that neighbourhood when Lord W. Ilentinck arrived on the 17th. The question then would be, had he any sufficient motive for thus deviating from his instructions Sir John Murray had stated, that Suchet had the advantage lof being able to retreat in safety whenever lie pleased. What, then, could be the object of relanding the whole army at Balaguer ? He was himself, from experience, fully satisfied of the difficulties and dan gers of re-embarking them. Why, then, did he again txpose them to this danger, when, according to his opinion, nothing could be done against Sachet, who had a secure retreat ? If he had obeyed his instruc tions, he would have been in Valencia on the 17th, whereas he was then at Balaguer. As to the expecta tion of further reinforcements from Sicily. this did tritappear to him to be a sufficient excuse for his not having made early preparations to save his guns, if a retreat becaMe necessary. As to the third - charge, he should leave that to the gallant Admiral who was the prosecutor in it. The facts were, however, proved, of a very precipitate embarkation of the army, with the loss of the artillery and stores. It remained for Sir John Murray to shew that this pre cipitation was necessary, and the loss unavoidable.— He believed that the fact was, also, that General Co pons had no notice of his intention, until the guns were already spiked, and.a great part of the army on board. It appeased that he had sent off the field artillery at Balaguer, and left the heavy artillery and stores be hind him, notwithstanding that Admiral Hallowell bad promised and engaged to bring them safely off,, if sufficient time were allowed him. • Whether the shiny proposed by the gallant Admiral was consistent with the circumstances in which Sir John Murray was ?laced, or supposed himself to be placed, was a sub. l int for the most serious consideration of the Court. It had been already observed ) that the Duke of Wel , Izon, not satisfied with the details furnished by Sir Murray, had also ordered the Spanish General Oupona to give his account 'of the operations at the siege of Tarragona. General Copons had sent a diary of the operations, which was then in his possession ; hut as be feared that he could not make this legal evidence, - be should, at present, abstain fees tit* ob . !.': 4 nervations tents . It was impossible for him eel foresee minner Sir . -MurieifzemesVii shape his defestiQ; but from the litiurs - athich had ;il - ready been read, he thought it evident th tt he relied a good deal on the 13th paragraph of Lord Welling. too's general instructions, in which his Lordship said, that he would forgive any thing,except having the Cite • of the nett campaign risked by any of the corps of the army being defeated and dispersed. It did not appear to him that Sir John Murray should have cemidere I this part of the. instructions as directed particularly to hine.elf. It would rather appear that this was meant for the Spanish Generals, who, from a too great reliance on the quality of the troops they commanded, had frequently exp.ced their divi,icas to the danger.of being defeated and :testroyed.— Lord Wellington cocceivod tlaat the preicipal advaatage of the Spanish troops over the . Fresch.could only km from having a superiority of numbers, and be wishodthein always to preserve this superiority... How conlet.that paragraph ben defence to him for,.perseveriog in the siege of Tarragona, when he could have no hopes of. taking it, or for relending his army on the 13th .at Balaguer ? This paragraph was SO Fu from being a defence to him, -that it being evident that Lord Wellington attached so melt to the not suffering any of the corps to be defeated or dispersed, it was clear that next to the loss of the men themselves, there was nothing which could be more distressing than the loss of all that heavy artillery, without which, the corps could not be effective in any sieges that 'he might direct. The loss of this artillery was peculi arly important, from the great difficulty 9f replacing , it in Spain. Admitting that from this paragraph, hi was jiastified-in refusing a battle, .and. making a pre cipitate retreat, how could he be justified le re-land ing the army, and exposing it again to the same diffi culties and risks, when acre, was no apparent object for such conduct, either for any advanta:;e to be ex pected against the enemy, or for supporting the honour of the British arms ? After a few more observations, the Deputy Advocate G.meral coacluded, by apples. gizing for the 'engin of his statement, and for any errors in it proceed from his own inex perience. I-le had stated ii.e;ling against Str John Murray more strongly than he ‘o.:ceir;:d himself bound by his dtlty. [The only %slow.: which he called was Captain Zentbenin. The objvc: ut cslllcy l:i.u. was to prove the eatninunie.niuns with Gateral Copot..l CHARLES JOSEPII ZENTIIESINI, being examined, said that he was a German by birth, and a Lieute nant in the regiment of hleuron. He acted in Cata lonia in the capacity of Military Agent. Ile was dispatched on the night of the 11 di, to infotrn the Spanish General Copons, that in the morning Sir John Murray would s•!nd him six battalions, and to point out what position he was to take. He was to place his troops in the Idt. General Copons simply answered him " Very well." He had afterwards forwarded a letter to him on the 15th, ! g ut had no copy of it, and did not know its Cu:itenlii. Sir JOHN NitatßAY desired tl,e witness to he asked, whether he had not desired him to inform General Copons of his intentian of raising the siege? ' Captain Zeeriteeta answered—" He did not, ac cording to the best of my recollection." The DEPUTY ADVOCATE GENERAL then closed the case on the first and second eiarge.s; and said that he relied on the evidence of the letters whic.ch had been read, and which had been admitted by Sr. J. Murray. • Ca' t filen askpdA4rair4l.ll3llovivikakligiiier he was prepared to make any statement respecting the third charge ? Admiral HALLower.t said, that-ass he had never before heard of the second letter cot Lord We&ing ton, which had been read this day, nor of the detailed answer to it by Sir J. Murray, which answer appeared to him to throw some reflections on the naval part.of the service, he wished to have copies of these letters, or to be allowed to peruse them, and take extracts be fore he made his statement. Sir Jane Meunav said, that he did not know hew far it wculd be in legal form to communicate this evidence to the Admiral. He should suppose, Chat as a prosecutor it was his business to have come pre pared. He, howeves, never had intended to throw the slightest.reflection on tile conduct of the Naval part of the service: all he had meant to state, was, that from the limited number of gull-vessels, and some of them having been left at Balaguer, there had been no actual co operation of the naval part of the !oice in the attack of Tarragona until the 10th. He had no objection, however, if the Court thought pro. per, that hose letters should be communicated. lie Court then permitted Admiral Haumvxm. to peruse the letters which had been given it) evidence, and adjourned. Admiral HALLOWELL, will,next snake his statement, and enter upon th -.• third ch6se. RAttnv D'lNinEitr.—Yesterday morning. 11.1 ton D'l rib rt was brought up on a writ of alba isClrpus before Mr. Justice DAMPI cit, at his Chamb:!rs, Ser. jeant's Inn. Mr. Botot;;;ii.‘si attended as his Counsel. and stated the grounds on which the application . was made. The Juige having taken the case into consi deration, remarided the Baron into the custody frOm which he had been brought ; anA the Baron will therefore be sent out of the country immediately. - To-MORROW, Wednesday, the first Ticket drawn a Prize above 125 will receive Ten Thousand Pounds, and may be entitled to Twenty Thousand Pounds be. sides; this may well account for the extriord.n.iry concourse of people who are flocking to the To-morrow being the thy of Drawing. The Public, within the range of this Paper, are respecrfully_informed that, on Tuesday, the Slat instant of the Bristish our Fair Journal, liberal The Society to be at present snip maintenal to defend rests. in Eni it, will be published. and may be had of any • e Newsmen, No. 11. (for February,) of the :A Lady's Magazine, which is recommended to air Readers as a specimen of a comprehensive at, aspiring to their patronage and support by ' I 1 exertion and literary desert. 71 e French Journals announce the formation of a • 't ty in Paris, under the title of Liberaux (Jai:, said • .‘ composed of several distinguished Englishmen :sent in France, of Spanish refugees, some Fle- sor Belgians, and Frenchmen attached to the tenance of the constitutional charter, arid Anxious fend and propagate the principles on which it It is added, that some personages of high rank gland, and on the CJiitinent, mean to join this :ty, and take part in its labours. The Society, laid seem, will have a weekly paper devoted • to the defence of the principles of consdta- liberty. - • _L. _ Society, it woulii olely 110011