The National Register. — London, England, 1815-01-29 00:00:00

1111 4 114 . ,A.T10NAL REG ISTER. ~+l .y DEFENCE. The defence then commenced by'remarking. that however oppres sive it might be to the feelings of a military officer, : t iter a long ea leer of st t vice, to be compelled to establislt his character befort pisl ; iic lithium), in opposition to popular prejudice and a;•ising from popular disappointment, Sir 3. Murray congratulated I.::,:. elf, that the time had nt length arrived, which fitroislit 41 him with the opportunity of entering upon that vindicatimi. Sofferatv es I:c had by public . delusion, maintaiiied and created by the joint thAts of malice and ignorance, And inflamed as the minds of the tit °plc had been against him by personal hostility and ationymmis i , eensaihnsis, he hailed the present occasion of sobtoitting his coo. fleet to the judgment of Dien whose honourable lives were a gua t alder to him a; u 1 to the w mld, of the rectitude and justice atilt-it decision. On that decision fie should now place a fearless reliance, cooli,lent t :at it would vindicate him from every aspersion with ,thick his military reputation had been assailed, and support hint ngaitist that tide of pi rsecution against which he had been obliged Ail long to contend. If any thing could, indeed, compensate hint for the calumnies to which he had been exposed, for the ungenerous arts which had been employed to exasperate, prejudice and circulate slander against him, it would be the consideration of the rank, to it uts, and integrity of the officers who composed the Court, and the persuasion that their judgment must at once silence the voice of fac t ion, and carry conviction to the minds of the Ileitis's people. .1-rt . alooild say no more with respect to his assailants, but must be al lowed to advert to the conduct of Admiral Hallowell, to whose dis approbation he was lebted for all the abuse which hae bees, la visited open him, for his suspension front his military command, into for the sl • uatiou in whit h he now appeared of pleading his own Call.e before a piton • military tribunal. The accusation of Admiral Hal lowell col si•ted of the official and recorded sentiment' of an offices • to whom the naval branch of the expedition had been confided, and regularly ad& essed to his commanding officer. He alluded to his prosecutor's letter to Sir Edward Pellew, which letter conveyed a direct attack upon his military reputation ; and in uo very met+ cured terms not only condemned his past proceedings, bid pro notinced him by anticipation, as ...Hilly of 'Wore offences, and wholly 'unfit to discharge the duties of his situation. Of the transmission and contents of the letter holding him up to his Sovereign and his country as a degraded individual, unworthy of the trust reposed in hint, and unfit to 'coedit* any longer in command, he remained in nthr ignoraece for se% veal mouths. He knew not during this interval of the existence of stich a document. Ile had shewn his own dispatches to Admiral Hallowell. and en - (piked whrtl,r r there was anything in theni from which he diner tad. To this, it WhEI replied, that he (Admiral Hallowell) disagreed with Lim only on the point of leaving the guns behind, but that the nar rative of tacts was, he believed. perfectly correct. This eircum brance Isis prosecutor could nor fail to recollect, and that at the, con versation on this Flibit'et no third person was present : and yet be. fine the ink with this dispatch had been written was dry. Admiral Hallowell's letter was sent to Sir Edward Peliew. How, Ender these c vuinsta , Tt r, was it yossib:e for Ilion to have cantor. • plated Fuel) MI accusation, or suspected such a design? In the tem . t,er of mind in whin h the Admiral then appeared, he certainly did • 1..4it look for all tuatirankuess which might have liccome his charac ter as an officrr. and of which, in his own conduct, he believed. he Lad shewn the example ; yet ; he did think that his candour, for which he kid during Lis prosecution taken credit to himself:might have al lowed huts to communicate the charges Which he had sent In me be fore flit T7th of July, that is, thirty seven days after the dotannent in qttestion had been trausinitted. Even tiii• communication was, however accidental and was innate to him at Alicaut, after the letter leached its destination, and have produced its desired effect. It v‘ as stated to him by Admiral Hallowell, in a moment when h e was on the point of entering a boat to go ots board a vessel under weigh for Sicily, anal he could have, therefore, no immediate opportunity of writing house in consequence, that he (Adwiral Hallowell) had .JAN. 29. written home strongly against him." This was the %%hole of the c nu; inication then made, - and they %%Vie ar4 that inn: li% ing an 4.1 Ins of private harmony and personal friendship. Hr was I•kewi , e tin n led to understand that it was not so much himself as his ,idvi•ers who had incurred his disapprobation, and vet by the letter it waft he alone attainst whom the Admiral's animadversions were di rected. Then followed his prosecutor's letter to Lord Wt. Ilington o a step he would inidert..ke to say, entirely without exaleple in the anrals of expeditions This letter room! its way into the public pion...and furnished matter for all that astir., ity of observa i lion which usually f flowed the disappointsuent of the politic hopes. Hot it was not the dater tit popalai feeling, or the extent of public delusion, that he reel., tied; the nine was to ill Iwe for the as el tion of troth and the disappointnit lit of malignity. He hail, too, the sa tisfaction to know by the letter of Loud Bathurst, that the peseta pros k ition was institnted, not because the Prince Regent felt any dissatisfaction at his conduct, but because it must be desiiable tv himself after all that had passed to vindicate that conduct born the imputation which his enemies had (hiowu upon it. (Heir the let ter 0: Lord Bathurst and the inclosed copy of the enarges were read.) It was, therefore, the proceedings, the micandid, and he might say, the ungenerous and unfair ptocre,iiogs of Admir..l Hal lowell which had alone led to this prosecution. The two first charges had been framed by Lord WellingtiAt solely in the diselialt;e of a pnolie duty prescribed to him under special circum-tend es by bit ;:overinnent, for he haul it iu a letter from The Duke him•elf, that hut for Admiral Hallowell's letter he should sot have thought enquiry necessary, and be trusted the high mind of his Grace would excuse this slight allusion to his private sentiments. He was now brought to trial, therefore, not by an individual (and he meant no disrespect to his professional set vices and talents) as ignorant of his plans and instructions, as of the difficulties whirl) he had to encomiter, and lie might be permitted to add from his own expel ienee,ns little calculated In form a rit;it judgement on those plans, or the finest mean.' of car ying them into effect as might be expected from his pecul i ar habits and pursuits. He spoke this without any of that feeling of animosity and resentment which had cLaracterised the prosecution. nor did he allude to the conduct of his accuser as indicative of motives that could either acquit or condemn him : but vvas the dispatch of-Admi ral Hallowell the letter of a person entertaining a strong sentiment I , f personal futility, or the letter of an lacer coolly sitting down to communicate necessary and important information to his Govern ment ? Which of these suppositions did the evidence of the dispatch •sl fully sustain? If the homer, would not the Court ettaliiiic it with alonsey el The letter to Lord Wellington, pronouncing ono to be wholly unfit for contiminig in the command, was not trans mitted to the Admiral's but to his superior °dicer ; and a duplicate of it carefully dispatched to England at the same time, in order to, give greater notoriety to the arciplation and prepossess the popular mind against hint. Was flue Admiral the proper person to inform Lord Wellington of these transactions? It' be was, why had lie con, ecaltd the missions? The information was sent, not by au ordinary . courier, but by Captain Carroll, in the Hyacinth. He should prove in evidence, that the Admiral had resolved on this step so early as the evening of the 12th, and that this resolution had been expressed in language not remarkable for its decertun. Who, but himself, was the proper pertain to communicate to Loid Wellington the events which,had just then taken ' , lace? Admiral Hallowell must have been aware of this ; but then lie was also aware that an adherence to this principle would deprive him of the oppor tunity of standing forward the uninvited champion of the honour am, interests of the army. He hoped he had been nii•taken in the 46. motive s to which he had ascribed the premeditated secrecy of his accuser's proceedings ; and he believed sincerely, that in a dispas. sionate hour he would not have thus acted, but, tin the contrary, would'have been among the first and loudest to el'ilde Inn it in others. It occurred, however, at a time when eveiy angry feeling was in flamed, and when the little circle whin looked up with blind devotion to their chieftain were employed in chcrisjaing aid sttengdieniiit: those prejudices which he had already adioitten into his Ad " - miral Hallowell had put in Isis chasm to the credit of candour. Let those admit it who were unacquainted with the studied concealment with la he had now described. It was to a disp a tch planned in se cret, mid instigated by personal enmity, and dictate d by a desire to blast tbr ever his military reputation, that he had to ti ace not only his present situation, but tlnd abuse, calumny, and prejudice wader which he had since been a patient but an indignant sutlerer. Ile would venture to say that no paper ever was scut home more cal culated to mislead the Goveroment of a country, or to fix erroneous impressions — on the public mind. Here Sir. John Alurray himself continued the statement. He had now conic to the cunsideratien of the six c!fie charge:4 70 '• COURT 31.41117 AL LIIXT,GiNERAL SIR JOHN MURRAY. lk ( AMSTER, JAN. 27.—The Court this day re-assembled at ten n't lock, tor the purpose of hearing the defence of Sir John Murray. ti-ir John Murray being then called on for his defence, applied tt. thy Court for their indulgence in pei milting his friend (Mm)• , i Cialitk) to read the preliminary (Oise' vations, and reserve to him.' It the readirg of those parts which more inunediately related to tlo particular. of the first and second charges, which, alter some objec lko by the Deputy Judge Advorate, was agreed to.