The Sun. — London, England, 1815-02-06 00:00:00

_ . tee L tie Tril ii,ihrt h This di fil et' !ty.- lie -chtieeive;l to tra, not froth *the tn:antier the'elearae . .-; evere bat fitto :oWn 'Con duct. Ife e l ute! conceive that one hliim and dh reet answer might have been given to bro:h 't'bese _ charges. Suppose-that Sir John Murray 'had been io a coudition to give this answer, '" previous to the Ilthe I had not heard of the advance of Sa chet, halt only oVecaen, whom I was 'prepahed ; en that day ; however ; 1 was informed of the rapid advance and proximity of Suchet, ml rah :iev that it was not possible to save the ‘Nrole; if I had staid, without giving battle to, a review enemy, which would have risked the wiette." Such an answer would, in his opinion, hare been perfectly satisfactory. If Marshal Sachet had descended from the clouds at Perillo, on the 12111 of Sone, with 12,000 men, when Sir J. litte r.: had every reason to believe hies on thehlluccair, Liao Valencia,t hat would have been a sufficient justifi cation for retreating at that particular time, add for leaving the gaits behind. Sir J. M. had, however, proved, both by his own letters, and by the evidence he brought forward,. that be did know of the ad vance of Sachet long before the 11th. It was tle-refore-his, duty to' have calculated, previous to that time, on the means of saving his army, with its guns and stores, in the very probable case of his being obliged to raise the siege of Tarragona. Sir J. Murray had stated, that he had brought no evidence in support of the first and second. . charges. _lie thought, however, that he had brought sufficient, evidence in producing Sir John's own letters'. His case was, 'that after Sit John had formed a decisive opinion that Tarragona could not he taken, he still cnntintrod to Jain' gaits and stores. All that were exposed to risk, after this conviction was formed in ilk i ijud , was, exposed iu vain. As to the approach olDecaero. it John appeared to be perfectly a: ell in formed of it ; and by his letter of 'the 2nd, he . stated that Sachet had left the Huccar on the 2hh, and arrived at Tortosa on the 9tlt. When' he - had heard of the actual arrival of 1000 at Tortosa, and Of 200'J at Lerida, be could have no doubt bat that those were advanced corps of Sit-, cliet, corning to raise the siege of Tarragona. By the 9th all doubts of the nom: neat of Suchet to the North were removed from Sir John's mind. What other object could Suchet have in this thoVe went but to relieve Tarragona ; alit! when Sir John was well informed of this movement, and 'firmly believedethe infOrmatioa, why did lie htot sooner calculate the time that Sachet wool(' pro tidily arrive, and carry off his army with all their gnus and storra ? While there was a chance 'of i e l;in t a Tarragona, the stay of Sir John Murray in Catalonia might have been excusable ; but why should he stay there when every rational prospect ttiaing it had vanished ? Previoas to the 10th, enough had been done to draw Decaen from his phsitions in Cataloaia. Enough' had been done a:so to make a diVersion in favour of , the Duc del Parque in ValenCia. He could not see any practical or moral effect that was. produced by continuing the siegelooger. Ile could really not discover tier imagine any bad • moral effect that _ was to result from pursuing a different line of con duct. But Sir John Murray bad endeavoured to shell?, and as he'thought fallaciously to shoe, that lie had no other alternative than that of pushing on the siege as late as the night of the II th, or of suddenly abandoning it. if he (Mr. Larpent) were reduced' to make his choice as to which of these measures he approved,. he should certainly choose the latter, and refer to the evidence of Ge neral-- Donkin for an ample justification of this opinion. But there was another and a third course, which; in his view of the question, ought to have presented itself to the judgment of Sir J. Murray. Why was the aka r. continued till the 12th, after all hopes of success had vanished, and the certain approach of a superior enemy had been known for several days before ? During these proceedrags on the eastern coast of Spain, an en terprise was going on in the west, precisely simi lar in its objects, and in all its circumstances, ex cept the conduct of the different Commanders. The siege of SoSebastian bad been brought to that crisis when every preparation wasanatured for the assault. The French General, the Duke ,of Dalmatia, sea lected this period for the purpose of making a des perate effort to relieve Pampeluna, by turning the right of the Allied army ; well knowing that it he succeeded in that object; the left, which sup- ported the investment of St. Sebastian's, must be compelled also to tall back. What was then the conduct of the Duke of Wellington, atlealtted to. lie one of the first Generalsof thiS or a ny other age -? He immediately ordered all his heavy ord nance to be removed to a place of safety, lest -he sh6ultl be obliged to abandon the siege; and al though it considerably retarded hiseoperations, he did - not deem it advisable to expOse to : possible loss or capture any part of his battering train: — And yet if ever there was a Commander juS third in calculating on the favours of fortune, or in drawing on that ample stock of character Which he had previously ace:tire:l h it certainly was the Duke of Wellington, who felt that he dared not do that at Sc. Sebastian's which Sir J. Murray had done at 1 arragooa. General Donkin's testi mony Inrnisted ample confirmation' of the indeci sion of Sir John Murray ; for how could he have been induced, unaccustomed as he was to disclose ltis intentions to others, to have communicated ti a design of raising the siege so early as the 9th to General Donkin, unless his mind had actUally been made up as' to that measure, which he,' ne vertheless, delayed carrying into execution until tie Ittorning of . the 12th ? flow could he have contemplated such a proceeding, utiless assured of the certain approach of Marshal Sachet's army, it brin' his resolution _not to \ raise. the siege,' as stated inehis defence, in consequence of Decaen's cc, but to risk in this event an' engagenteht with that column of the enemy ? Gen'eral Dunkin, it appeared, had also then forewarned Sir John Nurray respecting the possible loss of 'the gaps ; alai vet no l repareo ioas were made, no steps taken, precautions cased tip to the morning of thel 2th, aoard against that disaster. On the I Ith, Marshal Sucdhot was' . .k.e.O.wn to he at Tortosa ; hnt his cettain' advahee in force lot' the obvionsi purpose fit re:lu',ii n Tarragona bail been known three day s bz,•tnt C by confidential and authentic connuu nicAtio, ti!c ,Mille at which he might arrive w:istl i erdThc.a matter of oak:111%0cm tor the Qudi : tcv-Mast4,:r-fic.iieral's ()thee. lay, tlicti, (lid was destitute of inforisiation ; or where Was the dithenity of cal culating the ordinary rapidity of a Freoch army, so as to prevent the necessity of leaving any thing behind ? 1 1 Vhy in, one case give the enemy credit for ati althost preteenatinal activity, and in the other Act on the suppositiOn of a dilatoriness not to be expected from the most sluggish foe ? Instead of governing his proceedings by a rational calculation of probabilities,- . ; Sir John Murray seemed to-rely altogether on chance, and he who chose to commit hituself to such direction, must stand, the 'liaz'ard of the die. Another ground taken in the defence was, that aft this was done feoth 'an excessive care for Sire Edward l'ellew, and a fear that his operations in the Bay of Rosas might be impeded by not lea'ving the guns behind atTar ragona. If this real;' was one of the motives, he must really say that it was paying too high a :compliment to Sir Edward.Pellew, at the expence of the honour and character of the country. He had bee'n not a little surprised, in the course of the defence, to hear a British General speak of the loss of his buns, as if it were merely the loss of so much old iron ; and as if it was a matter of pecuniary value, and not the wound inflicted on the national honour which was alone in question. He now came to the second Charge, at which Sir John Murray had described himself to be e‘iitalis; shocked and astonished. The charge con sisted of two parts—first, :wit; t respect to the dis obedience '(;1-' instrection ; and, secondly, of a ne glect of ditty.: Sir 7. Murray had overlooked this distinction, and .confined his defence to the accitsa tiou of disobedience. He had c;snsidered it to in voiye merely a question of policy, which question was riot all before the Coart. I'rOm this doctrine he must beg leave entirely th dissent;'' He denied, too, that the case was nudeour,, admitting the• trusts committed to Sir John Murray to have been as discretionary as he rePresented. It had been urged that there was no precise titne fixed in Lord Wellinaton's instructions for proceeding with the army to Valencia, and that it was kit to his own jUdgment as a question of tiiue and means. He would put it, however, to any General present, whether if he were ordered by the Prince Regent to take the command'ofaui tepedition for the ac coniplishmeut. s of a n'etific Objtiet, 'he would not conceive it to be his duty to proceed to execute it with all possible dispatch, Or Whether he would feel himself justified in staying some tittle lie way to trya little experiment of his own ? That the question- was one of means, or, in other -words, of practicability,' he could • undeistand butt he did not sae the force of the' logical distinc tion between tnean .- and time on this oecasion.— The fact was, any positive time - Was tittelly out of the question ; but Sir J. Murray haling been compelled to raise the siege of Tarragona, which was the first object of his expedition, had only to refer to hi. 4 instructions to discover that his next and immediate consequent object was to land the army at Valencia. If in not thus acting Sir J. M. was not guilty of positive disobedience,be was still liable to the charge of a neglect olduty. It it was said that any advantage was to be derived by remaining, why was the embarkation from before Tarragona so hastily executed ; and why were the gnus alma- . I l (loved lest .an action with. the enemy might be hazarded ? What, when this was once the state of things, what was left to Sir John Murray but to proceed immediately to Valencia, and carry into effect the otheteohject 'of ;the expedition ? In not so doiug; it vas evident that the plan of Lord 'A r ellington was frustrated, and every end of the campaign on the eastern' coast of Spaia . s6 tar counteracted. Sir John Murray has supposed a case in his own exculpatiOn, which case was, hOWever, not founded in fact. He had supposed the possibility, that after the battle of Vittoria, which happened to occur at this period; Sachet's retreat into France might have been inter cepted by the. army under his command. He could hardly suppress a smile when he thus heard this little -army, which Was unable to Yen:knit at Tarragona, or to move anyway except towards their transports, by a species of pantotnittrical meta moiphosis, suddenly converted into a force com petent to fight'Stiefict, with an array swelled in its nambeYs•by the United strength of all its gar .risons: Without, however, adverting further to any such sanguine hopes or schemes - of visionary success, he should proceed to another topic of the defence... It.had been said, that a!great latitude 'of construction had been left tO Sir John Murray, in order thathisdiscretion might remain unfet tered; and his judgmentalependent on events and circumstances. This ,Was described as what in a law would be called condition precedent. Un doubtedly, Lord Wellington never had supposed that Sir John Murray possessed arty dominion over the elements; that he was endowed with any supernatural attributes, or bathe could achieve 11-alimpossibilities. the 'elements,' however, interfered to prevent hint Iron; embarking his 4rinoni Was it 'so imperinusily' necessary to leave his guns behind bins on account of the near approach of the enemy, and yet to send , his cavalry forward to the Col de Balaguer, on the very road on which that enemy Was advancing, to be exposed as cavalry must always be when contending without support against a column of infitnery '"?' 'Sir John Murray had inStruction to proceed to Valencia as only a casual observation, anti a kind of anticipa tion of what was probable, by L or d W e lli ngton. This construction he differed front altogether, and Was satisfied that a simple reference to the letter of his Lordship would justify his interpretation. Here the Judge Advocate remarked 'on Sir John Murray's observation, that' the second charge would never have been framed but for Admiral Hallowell's letter. This statement was quite itt• correct, the charge having been framed without any teference whatever to the complaint oy opi nion'of_that (M!. ice on the subje c t o f t h e embark ation. S:r John Murray scented to have forgot ten that his letters expressly stated the object of embarking the whole of I.IIC infantry to be to cut off a nieision of Sachet's army at Vanddlos. That . attempt appeared to hint' to be most idle and hope less. He !mist contend that Sir J. Murray had acted contrary to' the instructions 'of Lord Wel lington, to embark and return to Valencia, and attediately join the right of the Spanish' army there,' in case of failure on Tarragona. He sob oiitted to the Court that the word immediately: must apply to time, and not to his place• in the pilnht, ling,, a., oho rav ccitistrtkd In that sense, the word w"ould have been quite superfluous and void of nieanitir. Sit •3ehn ap peared to rely hi his •tleleoce, 'Ol4 the kvord " mitten orders" being introdt*”..ed in the Charge. It the Court were, hOWever, of opinion that the word " express" couldliot' be proved to •be the proper deseriptinu 'of these orders, they might find him guilty on part of. the *charge. If even no orders had, been disobeyed, they viirltl have another part of the charge to consider; and that was " neglect of dirty." Sir John Murray's successes in Catalonia and Valencia were certainly not of that description that could ha've,warranted him in departing from the nwanin..c of the Duke of 'Wellington's histructions. It certainty did appear to him that Sir John Murray Was apt to form his decision on the iotelligence . of th'e last hour, without pursuing any consistent plan. If the Court were of opinion that he had acted con trary to a plain intimation given him by the Duke. of Wellington as a guide for his conduct, he thought that they must find. him guilty on this part of the charge. IVhat he conceived to be Lord Wellington's motive . for giving the order was this :—The Spanish armies had gene rally fancied that . their defeats were owing to not luiving a sufficient proportion of cavalry in their army: The Duke of 'Wellington, therefore, 'thought that it would give 'great confidence to the armies of tte Due del Parque and Elio to have with them in Valencia, that small but well up -p'oilocd cavalry that teas attached to the army of Sir John, Murray. Altera variety of other obser vations," the -Judge Mew:we concluded, by ex pressing- his entire . convictiott, that from the high ch.aracter of the weathers whocomposed this CoUrD, their decision, whatever it might be, would he stud) as to give perfect satisfaction ip every think iug man in the eommunity: Court thA..b adjourned till ten o'clock on Monday, when Adm. Hallowell is to make his reply. SALFORD QUARTER SE•;SIUN.S. THE KING V. 4ntrAliD MAYSTON Atirs Wll. MAYSTON, rot A CoNsPiRACY The trial of the defendant; in this prosecution carne on at t hese Sessions. Edward Mayston was formerly a resident in Loudon, but. had from.the month of November last carried Ott business in Miuteliester, as a. calico-printer, to a considerable extent. 'William Mayston was a Manchester wace, houseman, in Friday-street, London. The chalfges against the two defendants, as made out in cri . 7. deuce, were, ft?). having conspired together, on the 11!th of December last, to defraud the. creditors ofEclwattl Mayston, creating fictitious debts, and giving fraudulent securities; for having on the,sanie day conspired to obtain goods, with an intent to•delraud the owners ; and for having, on t! , e 13th of. December, obtained goods to it Consi derable amount from a number of country manu facturers, under the pretence of giving good bankers' bills, when, in fact, no such hills were. meant to be given ; the bills actually given being nothing more than bills drawn by the defemiants, upon a banking-house: where they had no ellects, and were not even known..lt appearedalso in evi dence, that for some time•past Edward Mayston had been in the habit of sending goods to a large amount to %lint. Mayston, the other defendant; of Which no account had been kept, except in the carrier's delivery hook ; which book Wtn. May stun had attempted to bribe a servant of Edward Mayston to get into his possession: And, that the defendants had proposed to pay it creditor a large,debt of 3000 H, and uwards, it he would sanc tion a propos:lV tot a composition to the creditors .it large, of u hat would appear on the face Of the book., knowing that the gicatest pat t at the pro perty bad not been entered. Atter a trial of eight hours, the Jury, from a few minutes consulta tiou, declared the defendants gnilty, mid they were sentenced to three years imprisonment in Lancaster Before passim;' sentence, the Rev. W. 11. thy, the Chairtuan of the Court, addressed the pri soners, in which he said,‘‘ I never knew in the course of my c perience„so continued an exposure of meanness, ti tid, aod dishonest v, in every slope, as. this trial has afforded. lt is true„persons it+tve boeit called to speak to the character of ~gory, Mauston; -and they,have .sptiken favour-. ably of you, but .they spoke only so far as came within their knowledge. As to you Edward May • stun, no person in this. populous town has conic forward to bear testimony to : your character. Thereis, however, no difference between .you.— Yon, Edward i'slaystoti, affected to carry on busi ness, but it was in a strange manner; forbidding the clerk ,to make any regular entries respecting .the dispoSal of_the goods. All was to. be private. And upon the bailiff's ,entering the premises, you, William asked the clerk to obtain. out of the ware house, the ottlybook in which traces 'of the goods could be found.. All things ate as black as they can be, aid your conduct shows the extreme base ness of your dispositions.—With respect to the conspiracy, it is as, cleat' as the sun at noon-day. Both of you conspired. Edward got bold of the goods and probably William was. to have gone off with them.—lt is of the. utmost importance to this town, and to the commercial world in gene ral, that such conduct.should be severely punish ed. If by swindlers such as.yon are, (for neither I, nor any person acquainted with. these transac tions, can consider you in any other light), ap parently in a high and respectable situation, and one of you living 'in the fit st street in the town, persons are to be thus defrauded, who can be wife ? You had in less than two mouths procur ed goods to the amount of Five Thousand besides Sirteen. Hundred Pounds. Considering the nature o f your conduct, and ,the great importance of punishment those guilty of such procedure, the ,Court would have made public exposure in the pillory a part of your punishment ; but as your evidence will probably be called for in other .mat ters, the Court have thought proper not to inflict it, though richly deserved." Mr. BRAND, the Member for Hertfordshire, has informed his tenantry, that on account of the pre sent agricultural depression, he will cOutiuue to allow the landlord's duty out of their .respective rents; though the- Property, Tax should not be renewed, wliich, with the Tax upon the Tenant, i~ ill reduce their payment three shillings an:i six pence in tlit: pound, or iie.vente . cn and a half per cent. LAW INTEJ,LIGENCE. COUrCr 'OF r:ING S Put. 4. JohtiS'on, the late Cltt:k.of the rititee' "t the LivrpOol Docks, convicted at Lim as. er - sizes of the offence of 'embezzling the. 1)o k wAS thiS day iiroughi hie() COuri, in custody, Co assign errors up o n hi s i n di ct m ent. He accord ingly deliVered his assignments of errors to the Clerk of the Crowtt Office, and was then &sired to name the CounSa to arghe the errors on iris behalf. Hematned Mr. Scarlett and Mr. \IT limo; and the Court appointed WednetZtv next El": hearing their arguments in the ExCliequer her. TEit KING V. KEhRISOS. This Was an indictment against the defend,,ni for nGt repaisltLt a public bridge over a canal in the• nountv of Suffolk. The defendaat, had been convicted, but. a point two Teserved foc the Court on the following grounds !—The canna passed through a turnpike-road, and the proprie-. tors erected the bridge in question ; but it, vc, l .` now contended, that they were tine bbund to keeP repair, inasmuch as it, Wai erected for the service of the public, and therefore the repairing it was a tax which the public ought to 'discharge. It was further contended, that the propektely 4 were not bound even to have erected the bride . in the first instance,. no such provision being made in the Act authorising the cutting of the canal. -" Lord ELLENBOIIOIiGH observed, that the pro prietors, by .cutting the road, had destroyed the public Nvay, and were bonud to make it good again, .although no•mention was made it, the:Act of Parliament of building bridges. Iu the Acts incorporating ,the different Water-work Compa-t Ines, power was given to .them to break up the: ground for the purpose of laying down their pipes. Not a single word wa3 said of making the streets good again, by covering the pipes, and re storing a level way for the public; vet,• he ‘Va5 inclined to think, if the ravages committed by these Companies in the public thoroughfares of the metropolis -were nut -made good again, and that in a more speedy manner than bud been the case on Some former occasions, many of them would discoveri•to their cost, that though no pro vision tor that purpose was made in the Acts of Incorporation, they were not less liable for the restoration of that which they had destroyed, 'lice proprietors of the canal were •also bound, having destroyed the public highway, to restore to the public a free passage, •by building the bridge.-- With respect to the question of repairing it, who, he would ask, derived advantage from it ? the proprietors of the canal, who received the pt.( fits of that canal ; or did the public, who having; before had a solid and level road to pass over, noyY instead of it bad got is bridge ? , Those Whose plans veil - 161Tc' the erection . Of a bridge in tho-L' spot were bound to keep it in repair. The Order of Session, which called upon the defendant, as the representative of the Company., to repair tild bridge, was therefore established. POLICE INTELLIGLNCE MAN SION-HOUSE. freb4 and Jobert and Wiliianz Seant, .were brought up as% Saturday for re-examinatioof charged witl t robbing Me”rs. Magnay mid Pick ering of, a ptansity of writing paper.—The boners were remanded. LOW-STREET. Saturday Tho;l4ls Lierri.4 tvas charged with cut ting off pockets at Coyent-Garden heatre.—Mr': Smith, of 85,i Strand, deposed, that b e in g i n the Ph of the Tbeithe on Friday evening, be foin'a the skirts of ii lS coat cut ; on turning quickly round, he discovered the prisoner actively et''' played in. a simi : lar manner upon another gentle man's coat'. Ht wa3 taken into custody, and a ztOcty of . piecet of gowns , pe lli ses, and :,kirts ~ coats . found, his- possession ; toget her wit h tvo' pairs of higlay,Tpolished scissars.. 'The 'lovely 0 . the crime drew .s_everul of, the Thearical Corps to the (Mice, Ile uvas committed. UNION-HALL. '! • he prish,of :Newington ban of late been much infested by prostitutes of the lower•elass. rrid4 five of them, the oldest of whom did hot appeali to be more than 15 y ears o f age , were. torhuntte . ": to the house, of, correction,-and directed to be kel 4 ' to hard labour for otte Mont HAITON-.GAIiDEN. A small brown per parcel • came from Ayie s '. bury to the sign of the. Old Bell in Holb bY,,, the guard of the .Kidd erm i nst e r coac h , d i rect e d to Mr. BickerstalT, No, 82, Smithfield, with (Hied-7-, tiaras that it should he delivered inunediately„ its consequence of wbich it was sent by - the . pOrtcr• On Mr. Bit;kerstalf openingthe'parcel, Ile fotioL 3 Only two letters, one of Nvilith was front his Wl'', ther, advising him that he had sent him . 901. Bank-notes enclosed in that parcel. Mr. 13. - c 6l) — chiding the notes. were stolen - out of the parcel , ., had the porter taken into custody: He was • exti# mined on Saturday, and remanded for further • mination. Chisholm, • and two other prisoners in Diet . "'" gaol,, lately contrived a plan for making their escape by means of false keys. The keys 1%7 06 made from impressions, .and conveyed to them iP a reg of mutton and a foul,• but one of tbian'tiid not fit, and the plan failed. BIRTHS. On the Ist inst. at Huntingdon,the Lady of Captain rfhurar sun, of the 41.411 . Ite , , , , , Unent, of a daughtia. On Sunday se °night, the Lady of the Hun. Robert LeesOoP. of a son. MARRIED On Monday last, Paul Fr a nci s P e ll, E sq . o f ,ra Hall, IleSr Wragby, to Miss Elizabeth Waite, eldest daught e " of William- Waite, Esq.-of Boston. DIED. On Thursday, the 52 th January last, Ceorge Aitkin, late of. Bannec-square, and formerly of the Island of Croix, aged S 5. On Saturday last, after a few days illness, at his house Portland-place, Sir John Sheffield, Bart. in tht 73d year his age. At Copenhagen, the celebrated Mulish Astronomer Bugg' LONDON: - Printed by J. B. CARSTAIRS, No. 7, Cral'en ° bnildirig; and published by V.". A. SCIUPPS, of brisT" . ll ! at thq Sl , x-OryteE, N. 112, Strand; where. Adverril: meats, Ordurs, Letters (punt-paid),Sx. must be addlci,l;