Star. — London, England, 1810-09-07 00:00:00

CtILCUTI'di GAZETTE EXTRAORDIN4II2r. MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1810. GENERAL ORDERS. BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL. • Fart St. George, March 9, 1819. The fallowing Extraets of Letters from the Honourable the Court of Directors to the Honourable Governor in Council, dated the 15th and 29th-of September, are published. Extract of a Letter from the Honourable the Court of Directors, dated September 15, 1809. Para. 2. We have received your letters of the 20th and Slst January, 3d and 28th February, 1809, toge ther with their several inclosures, and we view with the deepest concern the transactions thus brought un der our consideration. 3. We have at all times entertained a just sense of the merits and services of the Officers of our Army, and have taken every proper opportunity to evince that sense, and our consequent regard and attach ment to their interests. 4. Of this habitual and deep-rooted sentiment, we had repeatedly given the most unequivocal proofs, and particularly in our late instructions to our Go vernments abroad, in support of the fair pretensions of our Officers to posts of honour and command ; thus endeavouring to render the periods of their ser vices in India both honourable and advantageous ; whilst the ample prevision made for their retirement in Europe, at an immense and indefinite expence, affords an instance of the regard and liberality of their employers, not t.i be paralleled in any other service. In aid of this last-mentioned object, we have very re cently, in answer to some of the last dispatches from Madras and Bengal, made liberal donations to the funds established at those Presidencies for the main tenance and support of distressed officers, their wives, and families. or trial for himself ; but an officer in eommatd of ate particular corps cannot, in the nature of things, ws. dertake to answer for the conduct of an Officer 'in command of another corps, far removed, perhaps, from his possible observation, much less for a whole body of such officers so circumstanced. 15. The character of each individual must be dis tinct and particular ; and a combination, therefore, of many Officers to repel insinuations (supposing such to have been advanced) against unnamed indi viduals of their body or class, respecting whose con duct the personal knowledge of the Members gene rally of that body could not enable them to speak, does not seem to be founded in any principle of equity; nor would it be justified by alledging that general insinuations against the whole body, but point ing to no officer by name, could not be met in any other manner ; for the obvious course to be followed in that case would still be, that every individual Offi cer who conceived his character to be brought into question should desire to have his own conduct sepa rately investigated. 16. But we are the more astonished at their pm ceeding, when we consider the expressions which have been assigned as the ground of the charge.— Detached as they have been from their context, they still appear to us to be couched in the usual style of official discussion, and to be as far from conveying any imputation against individual characters, as the minutes of Sir John Cradock and Mr. Petrie, by which the plan was supported. But when they are considered as they actually stand in the paper pre pared by Colonel Munro, forming a part of the chain of reasoning founded upon general principles, it ap pears to us that no inference can fairly be drawn from them unfavourable to the character of the Madras army. 17. While, therefore, we condemn the conduct of the officers who preferred this charge, we approve of 5. Whilst, however, we are thus attentive on the I the terms in which you have states your opinion of one hand, from sentiments not of justice and libera- t the grounds of it in your Ge n e r al O r d ers o f t h e lity only, but of attachment and esteem to the inte. i 6th of February. It was a proper attention to their feelings, and still more to the feelings o f tho s e Offi rests and just pretensions of our Officers ; we must i not, on the• other hand, lose sight of the necessity 1 cers who had no share iii that irregular and unjusti and paramount duty imposed upon us, of supporting ' fiable proceeding, to declare in a public document the authority of the Government under which those that no injurious imputations upon their previous Offieers serve. • conduct were conceived by the Governor in Council to 6. The support of the Supreme Authority of our i have been intended in the report of Colonel M unro . several Governments in India is essential to the p re - . 18. We cannot dismiss this part of the subject with servation of those Governments, to the maintenance out observing that the circumstances of the case be of civil order, to the protection of society, and even I fore us involve a question of the greatest importance to the well being and existence of the army itself. I—the1 —the claim of individuals who may think themselves 7. We are at all times desirous to pay due regard, aggrieved by the opinions or reflections of an Officer to the representations of our o ffi cers, and extremely •of the Government, communicated by him in O f he r to impute censurable or unworthy motives dience to the orders of his superiors, and in discharge to any of their actions ; but it is impossible for us to : of his official duty, to bring such Officers to trial for consider their conduct, in the transactions brought! those communications. now before ns, otherwise than as highly improper and I 19. If persons holding responsible situations were unmilitary. plable to be exposed to the vexation and ignominy of 8. It appears from the papers now brought under public trial, whenever they may, in the,discharge of our consideration, that about the month of June, ; their official duties, have delivered opinions adverse to 1807, your Quartcr Master General, Lieutenant. ! the sentiments or even the interest of any part of the Colonel Munro, in obedience to the orders of our service, it will be impossible for such persons to do then Commander in Chief, at Fort Saint George, ' their duty to the public in any instance which may Sir John Craddock, (which orders were. communi. interfere with these sentiments or interests ;or to give sated - to the Quarter Master General by a letter of , upon any question a fair and honest opinion, it that the 7th of February, marked n private and confiden. opinion may, by inference or constrained application, tial," submitted to his consideration and approval b.! construed into a criminal insinuation against the n paper, purperting to be a plan for the provision of : character and conduct of individuals. If such a claim tents, and the carriage of the tents and stores of na- could be maintained—if the practice which it inctil tive corps, which articles had previously been suppli- , sates were to prevail—it would put an end at once to ed by a contract with the Commanding Officers of all official confidence, and leave the Government those corps respectively. without the means of obtaining information respecting 9. This Paper was soon afterwards laid before the existing errors, defects, or abuses, or of forming plans Governor in Council by Sir John Craddock, who sta.' for the correction of any arrangements which have ted in the Minute which accompanied it, fa that it a tendency to produce them. We thought it neces. would be superfluous in the extreme to urge at any ' sary to state these principles generally and broadly, length the validity of the arguments set forth in the' because we are deeply impressed with a sense of their Quarter Master General's Report, as h e m i g h t sa y i until and importance. With respect to the particu ey conveyed the result of their joint reflections upon , lar case of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, it may be ob. ;et, and were the issue of that experience : served, that the communication was not only official' . \rose from their respective situations." It was : but confidential—its insertion in the records of Go-' by Mr. Petrie, then President, who observ. vernment, was no act of his, but the act of the Corn minute, on considering that paper, that the mander in Chief. By wha t means the paperbecame pub , many of the statements which he had deliver- lic, we have no authentic information; no reason what -803, when he opposed the opinions of General I ever has appeared for supposing that. its publicity was lo brought forward the measure of the tent : owing to the Quarter-Master-General. Were we ac had been by the experience of past years ' quainted with the channel through which it became' ly verified, as well as the apprehensions he public, and was afterwards circulated through the that both the public and individu a l s w ou ld '. different stations of the army, at the possible hazard that arrangement. i (though we trust not with the direct view) of crea- The plan, so approved, was, together with the ting discontent, we should think it necessary to mark which stated the ground of it, t ransm i tte d to l such a breach of confidence with our high approba. 7 ernment of Bengal ; and, being returned with. ; tim- Iplete approbation and s a nction , was adopt- ! 20. It appears, further, from the 30th paragraph Government of Fort St. George, and was of your letter of the 29th January, 1809, that the fence published to the army, and carried " Officers who had preferred the charges against the ,ct in May 1808. i Quarter -Master-General of the army, had, in conse. On the 20th of September, 1808, a charge. quence of the declared sentiments of the Judge Advo- Ismitted to the Head-quarters of the Army . sate-General regarding their illegality, requested that Lieutenant Colonel Munro, signed by the of. the Commander-in-Chief would suspend the prosecu. then in command of five regiments. of Native don of them." We are induced from this statement, and twenty-three battalions of Native In; to indulge a hope that the Officers who had given in (Or 41 conduct unbecoming the character of those charges against the Quarter-Master-General, and a gentleman, in having, in his propos.. had become sensible of the impropriety of having for the abolition of the Tent Contract lately . preferred them ; and this consideration, if it should ' officers commanding Native Corps, ma d e turreflut to be well-founded, may relieve us from the Ise and infamous insinuations, the/0)y tend- • disagreeable necessity of taking further notice of their ijure their characters as officers, and other- misconduct in this respect. curious to their reputations as gentlemen ;" ! 21. Having considered the proceeding of the Offi , this charge Lieutenant Colonel Munro was, cers who preferred the charges against Lieutenant 20th January, 1809, ordered into arrest by Colonel Munro ; we come now to notice the conduct cant General /stacdowall. of Lieutenant-General Macdowall, our late Com- The charge thus preferred against the Quarter mander-in-Chief at Fort St. George, in relation to General appears to have been founded on cer- this affair. :pressions,in his report which had received the 22. We enter upon this task with extreme concern, and approbationof all theauthorities in India not only because we feel reluctance in passing any ;t to decide upon it. Admitting for a moment animadversion upon an officer who has, after long - expressions had been exceptionable, defer- services in India, filled so high a squation ; but be those authorities ought to have iniposed for. cause it has been urged by some of his friends, that Ice—Officers who thought themselves aggrieved we ought to wait for any justification he might wish were at liberty to adopt a litre of conduct to oiler of his own conduct. To this last suggestion, ight have afforded them an opportunity of although his proceedings at Fort St. George du not ing their own individual characters, without indicatelany mention of appealing to us, we should ig from their respect for those autlioritieswhich have been willing and even anxious to attend, if we were bound to obey. did not consider that his case was fully before us, by ' any Officer thought himself alluded to or his own public documents upon record, and if we did aggrieved by any thing that - Colonel Munro had said, not deem it essential to the peace and authority of our _ easily have repelled the supposed imputa. Government, that no time should be lost in declaring ly demanding that, if he were suspected, he our sentiments upon points which have been brought be brought to trial upon it; Government would into question by the public acts -of this officer ; to either have granted a Court-Martial, or would those public acts alone, and chiefly in respect to the : officially and publicly declared that no imputa- bearings they have upon our present and future in rested upon such Officer. terests, our attention will be directed. ..___ Each individual Olhiser would have had an 28. It appears that Lieinenant General Macdowall, let4mithte4l right to hags demand ed such a clearance, _notwithstanding he had been o ffi cially informed by . in Europe, affords an employers, In aid of t cently, in Madras an funds estal tenance an and famili 5. Whil one hand, lity only, ' rests andj not, on th and par= the author Offi.:ers sei 6. The several Gc servation of civil on to the well 7. We. to the reps unwilling to any of t consider tl now before unmilitary 8. It ap our comic 1807, yet Colonel N then Corn Sir John cated - to the 7th of tial," subs a' paper, p tents, and tive corps, ed by a cc those corpi .. This Governor i ted in the would be s length the Quarter M ey come the subject which aros approved ed in his n result of In ed . in 1803, Stuart, wh contract, I completely exec essed t suffer by tl 10. The report whi, the Goveri their comp ed lay the in consequ into effect i 11. On Was transn against Lii Seers then Cavalry, a fantry, for an officer a ed plan for held by of Itse of false ing to injui wise injurk and upon t on the 20t Lieutenant 12. The Master Gel taro eipres sanction an competent that these ence to the Ibearance— by them, which mig vindicattni departing i they were IS. If aggrieved be might tion by di should be I then either have offici ;ion rested 14. Eai laisdoOte4 . the Judge Advocate General, tis constituted legal adviser, that those charges were ht their nature ille gal, did, on the 20th January, 1809, put Lieutenant- Colonel Munro under arrest, with the intent that he should be brought to trial upon them. 24. The obvions reasons on which we have groun ded our censure upon the officers for bringing for. ward those charges, might well be expected to have occurred to the mind off' Lieutenant-General Mac dbwall, and to have determined his conduct with re spect to them. But, in addition to those reasons, the report which had been made upon them by the Judge Advocate General, on the 7th of November, 1808, proved so unanswerably their impropriety and illepk lity, and furnished such strong greunds for consider ing them as an unwarrantable attempt to controul the Councils of Government, through the medium of bringing one of its official advisers to trial, that it be. came the clear duty of Lieutenant-General Mac dowall to have returned those charges to the Officers who had signed them, with marks of his high dis pleasure. 25. The officers who gave in the charge against Lieutenant Colonel Muaro having in their subsequent Memorial desired that the Commander in Chief would postpone the prosecution of them, you have, in the 30th paragraph of your letter of the 29th of Ja nuary, 1809, remarked, that it furnided additional General in aid of all the other objections to Lieutenant General Macdowall's refraining from bringing Colo nel Munro to trial upon them. In this observation, we entirely concur. It would indeed have been a high aggravation of the impropriety of Lieutenant- General Macdowall's conduct, in putting Lieutenant Colonel Munro under arrest, on charges which the Judge Advocate General had declared to be inad missible„ if he persevered in subjecting the Quarter. Master general to a trial, after the authors of those charges had themselves acquiesced in the opinion of the Judge Advocate General, and requested that the procCedtngs might be suspended. 2G. But we observe that Lieutenant General Mac dowall, in his letter of the 28th January, 1809, cover ing that Memorial of the officers, took occasion dis tinctly to remark, that it was not before him when he put Lieutenant Colonel Munro in arrest on the 20th of that month. 27. As, however, a !leper of that description, which was to be circulated for signature, was likely to be come known whilst in preparation, it would have been more satisfactory to us to have been informed, that no intimation whatever concerning it had retched Lieu tenant-General Macdowall, when be put Lieutenant- Colonel Mulro under arrest. 28. Waving this circumstance, however, we pro ceeded to observe, that Lieutenant-General Mac dowall, instead of censuring and suppressing those charges, as we think it was the duty of the Com mander in Chief to have done, adopted them and pursued their object, by subjecting Lieutenant-Colo nel Munro to the ignominy of an arrest, with a view to his being brought to trial upon them. —Tt became then, in our opinion, the buunden duty of our Governor in Council at Fort St. George to interpose the direct authority of Government for the protection of Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, by re quiring the Commander in Chief to release that Offi cer 'ront the arrest in which he had placed him. 29. To have permitted Lieutenant-Colonel Munro to be brought to trial, for sentiments and statements delivered by him in his official capacity, in obedience to the orders of our former Commander in Chief at Madras, Sir John Cradock, by whom they were adopted as his own, as they were also approved, sanc tioned, and enforced by the local and supreme Go vernments, would have been, not merely to withhold protection from a meritorious Officer, in the discharge of his indispensable duties, but to have brought into question, and in fact subjected to trial, the character and acts of the former Commander in Chief, Sir John Cradock, and even those of the Governments them selves. 30. We consider the General Order left by Lien tenant-General Macdowall for publication, on his quitting Madras, as a high aggravation of his pre vious misconduct, of having put Lieutenant-Colonel Munro under an arrest, upon charges in so many ways objectionable; which his constituted law ad viser had told him were illegal, and which the accu sers themselves had desired to withdraw. 31. This order, left by Lieut.-General Macdowall, for publication after his departure, conveys a severe reprimand to Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, for having appealed to your Government on the occasion of his arrest; a measure necessarily imposed upon him by the conduct of Lieutenant-General Macdowall him self; this appeal had been sanctioned and acted upon by your Government. A reprimand, therefore, to Lieutenant-Colonel Munro for having made it, be came, by necessary inference, a reprimand on the Government itself. SI That supreme Civil and Military power, which in all Governments must reside somewhere, is, in the presidency of Fort St. George, vested by Act of Par liament in the Governor in Council of that Presi dency, subject to the control of the superior authori ties in India and Europe, as described by that act ; and other authorities and powers are to be held and exercised in subordination to that supreme authority. 33. To contend that any authority can exist sepa. rate, independent, and in contradiction to that su preme authority, can only be considered to be an at tempt to pervert the usual practice of conducting pub lic business, in certain specified and habitual channels, into a means of checking, resisting, and controuling the Government itself. • 34. Any Military Officer addressing himself di rectly to the Government, and otherwise than through the usual and o: Binary channels of communication, certainly does it at his peril ;• and it is incumbent upon him in his own justification, to chew either that the usual channels of application were obstructed or refused to him, or to state other and satisfactory causes for the irregularity of his Address. It then becomes the duty of the Government to decide how fair the peculiar circumstances of 'the case authorise and justify the irregularity of application. 35. It the Government shall, formally, by its de clarations, or virtually by its acts, sanction such ap plication and appeal, by acting on the information conveyed in it, and without censuring the mode in which it was received; it then becomes the duty of the commanding officer, or Commander in Chief,, through whose channel the application or appeal was originally offered, to submit his opinion to that of the Governnient.—ab continsied.4 PROM THE PARIS, Atli His Majesty, on the 26th which places at the disposal Interior, a sum of 500,000 establishing manufacturers ,enconrarng the cultivation . around it, and of promoting agriculture. It is a remarkable circumstance, and 16th a heavy snow fell in the Tyrol, while much thunder was : It was extremely cold at Augsburgh 'these days. NAPLES, AVOUST On the 2d instant, the head-q• Joachim were still at Piale, where . resided in an elegant pavilion, which days has been built there, of wood. On the Ist inst. 18 new-built, hence for Castle-a-Mare —twenty with the greatest activity. In the latter end of July, several war, some from Malta and some tered Messina. One of them, of, bore a Rear-Admiral's Heavy artillery is constantly , and by eater, from our arsenals, ther a landing in Sicily is serious" tiler the preparations for it are dem-mstration, to engage the attention and, by giving employment to - and sea tortes, keep them awa l subject on which the public opinion Royal Cunp ORDER OP THE The battle fought against the by the marine, is worthy of praise. ezprissed his satisfaction to the commanded by M. Bassan—to frigates, Bougoord, Cosa, and of the Royal Guards—and the Custom house who took part dart of the marine vessel of the set. and M. M. Visco, third Pilot, gon-boat 10.5, particularly distinguished The General of Division and (Signed) Camp of Captain Bassan, who commands a considerable p In of the Neapolitan flotilla, got under sail to.day, with the Commerce de Naples, to make trial of the currents in the channel. During two hours that his vessel was under sail, 14 or IS of the enemy's gun boats, that wished to interrupt his movements, fired upon him above 200 cannon shots, all at a short dis tance, without appearing, however, to excite his no. tice. All the land batteries and a frigate fired also upon him, but without any effect. Captain Bassan; after having completed his experiment, returned quietly to resume his place in the line of anchorage. Camp of Piak, August 7,1810. General Stuart wished this day to renew his attack. He sent fifty gun-boats and five bombs against a part our flotilla which is stationed at Pezzo. Captain Bassan went to meet than with his division, and com pelled them, after an action of three hours, to sheer off, and seek an asylum on the opposite coast. One of their gun-boats, which had been dismasted, very narrowly escaped falling into our hands. We saw several of their launches go to the bottom, and they were obliged to tow off three other of their gun-boats that were damaged. On eur part the canoe of the royal guard only, commanded by M. Gra.sset, was upset by a shot, but brought to land in a condition to be repaired. Our loss in this affair has been only five men in killed or wounded. SCILL A, AUGUST t. This evening a telegraphic dispatch bas announced to the King the arrival of the Queen in this kingdom on the 2d inst. GENOA, AUGUST 2. Ships which have arrived here within these days bring information that the English fleet critizing between Toulon and Corsica : a small my's squadron, of four sail, is also cruizin horn ; the navigation of our coast is, there fore, what disturbed by the vicinity of the enemy- LEGHORN, AUGUST 7. Letters received yesterday from Marseilles that the English fleet, which is cruizing off has been lately reinforced, and consists at present 'lB sail of the line. An English line of battle ship and two frigates cruizing in sight of our port, and prevent all r ships from entering the same. SEMLIN, AUGUST 4. The action fought by the Servians in the bourhood of Deligrad was very bloody, and Georges, Commander of the Servians, has demanded reinforcements, as the Turks have augmented force by all the detached corps which they haw able to collect ; new actions equally sanguinary of course expected on this side. Unfortunatel; country is much. eahansted. PEST, AUGUST f. It is repotted that the Pacha of Rudschncl succeeded in surrounding a Russian corps of men who were besieging that fortress, that 7 700 of them, and made 7500 prisoners. Other say, that a division of the squadron of the Pacha has advanced as far as Kilia, in Bessarabia, and taken possession of a Russian convoy from Oczakoff. BERLIN, AUGUST IS. The Ex-King of Sweden having been informed. that as a traveller and incognito he could Russia without a passport from a Russian at some foreign Court, has come here to ask port from the Russian Ambassador at our Court this Minister having declared he doubted whether ought to take upon himself the responsibility • ing a traveller of this importance toPetersburgh 'out first having obtained the sanction of his tJ went, and several persons having represented Swedish Prince the improbability of the success application to the Court of Russia, or the incon Fence of going in person to Petersburgh, we are ed that this Prince has determined to write a the Emperor of Russia. Hitherto he appears low no determined plan, and to have no view by this measure but the rcsolutioa of re o f Ito 81yitaxelqad. PRZATIF P4PERS. S, AUGUST tv. 26th of July, issued a decr ee isposal of the Minister of ti 1,000 francs for the purpo se urers in the city of Rome, a m i ration of cotton in the count r i es rioting agriculture. :ircumstance, that on the lsilt w fell in the mountains of th e under was heard in the vallie s . d at Augsburgh during h o o t ES, Ai;GUST 6. • the head-quarters of our Kin, Pialc, wh ere hi s Royal Majesty pavilion, which within these f ew ere, of wood. new-built gun-boats sailed from re —twenty others are finishin g Pity. F July, several English ships cd a and some fr om Palermo, en. pf them, of about 50 or 60 gun k 's flag. :onstantly going, both by land it arsenals, to Calabria. Wk. y is seriously intended, or wh e . for it are only a well-conceived age the attention of the enemy, )yment to a part of their land, them away from Spain—is I while opinion is divided. Royal Camp at Peale, August S. OP TILE DAY. against the enemy on the 4th, thy of praise. HL Majesty has ion to the divisions of gun-boats Bassin—to the Captains of the Cosa, and St. Caprais—to the lards—and to the Scorridors of o took part in it. The Lieute- .ssel of the Royal Guard, Gras. I, third Pilot, Commanding the ilarly distinguished themselves. sif Division and Chief of the Staff, igned) Count Gamest. Camp of ?late, August 6, tem rho commands a considerable a flotilla, got under sail to•day, de Naples, to make trial of the el. During two hours that his 14 or IS of the enemy's gun. . Captain 1, and cons. s, to sheer lan. One fisted, very We saw , and they gun-boats moe of the rasset, was ondition to en only five announced is kingdom these few leet is still small enc. ig off Leg- fore, some. ly. !Illes state, off Toulon, t present of frigates are merchant the ne;gh• and Czerni demanded ented their have been uinary are [lately, the ;chuck has of 10,000 t he killed :her reports le Caput* Bessarabia, oy coming informed. d not enter in Minister k this pass. Court ; but whether he ity of bend- purgh with• its unreel. fed to the :cess of this inconveni. are assure a letter to ears to to!- ) o bject ;n I rcw