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

DEFENCE.

The defence then commenced by'remarking. that however oppres-
sive it might be to the feelings of a military officer, :titer 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 he 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. Ilingtono
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
proskition 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 peculiar 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. motives 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 dispatch 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