The National Register.
London, England, 1809-08-06 00:00:00

FIFTH DAY.

The Pri-4ident observed, that if there were any witnesses pre-
sent, it wa, t e pleosto e of the Court that they shuttid withdraw.
Good Corlira,:e immediately came forward, and submitted to
the Court. 6irtt accordln4 to thi. c,,tahlished custom oc Courts
Martial, it was not usual. to exclude witnesses during the read-
ing of defence.
Pre,ideut —" "Nt.' Lord Cochrane, it is the with of the
Court in the ptezcat instance, that the witnesses should be ex-
euded."

Lord Cochrane.—" I hvg to, oly,Trve, that in the cafe or Ad-
miral Harvey, is hie!' is it) point, the vritacises were al-
lowed o rennlin in Court •Turrog readiog of the defence.
rzibmit therefoto that, witho::: 417) irregularity, the witnc:-...ses
may remain in Court."

e.-eaident.—" My Lord Coritinne, the Court have deli-
berated upon the subj:ct, anti have reso!ve,l that the wiznes?Ts
shall not he present ; your I.oE.ltip %%ill therefore have the
goodness to withdraw."
Lord Cochrane then retired, and .use Prer.ilent intimated to
Lot d Gambier, that Ws I.ordAip was at liberty either to read
bi, defence himself, sr appoint any person he pleated for that
vut pose.

DEFENCE.
Lord Gambier being called upon for his defence, the Judg-
Advocate was permitted to read it as follows
Mr. President—l thank sou, Sir, and the rest of the Mem-
bers of this Honourahle Court, for having complied with my
request, that ashort interval night be allowed toe before I en-
tered on my defence. I have a:so to express my satisfaction,
that the whole of my conduct and proceedings in Basyae Itoads
is now under your consideration, in cons, queixe of my having ap-
plied for this Court .Martial. Tite ncees,ity of this must be
evident; either I had to adopt this measure, or !:y a tacit ac-
quiescence in the insinuations thrown out again:a me by Lord
Cochrane, have compromised not only my own honour, but
also that of the brave officers and men under Inv command.
The proceedings of the Court will Chew whether any miscon-
duct has existed in the .execution of the service under considera-
tion; if any has existed, of which I am perfectly unconscious,
It is right that the nation should know it ; not as resting on the
unsupported opinion of an individual, but on the unprejudiced
judgment of this tribunal. I was prepared, when I first came
before you, with what appearetil to me a complete justification
of my conduct and proceedings as Commander in Chief of the
Channel F.' - 'ween the 17th
of March 'our inquiry is
directed; testimony that
wits to be rge which their
Lordebips been induced
Oc

S•
AUG. 6.

to make agaiostane; namely, that on the 12th of April, the
enemy's ships being then on shore, and the signal having beets
made that they could be destroyed, I did,- for a cooriuerable•
time neglect or delay to take effectual measures for destroying
them.. I was ready to admit, that from the time of my observ-
ing, on the morning of the 12th of April, the situation of the
enemy, communicated to me also by signal &oat the lmperieuse,
.ome time did elapse b' Pore the enemy's ships were- attacked ;
but 1 was prepared to prove most incontrovertil*, , that no ne,
elect or unnecessary delay took place in efre:.-tia; the destruction
of those ships : and I have now the satisfaction to find, that Out
of all the officers of the fleet who are summoned on this trial,
eharnn rests on 'he-nnsn peo fled, I may say already re-
fitted testimony 0; hi' Ca pini.n cif the Imperieuse. I believe
there isnot a precedent to he found in the naval annals of Great
i;ritain, of an ()Nicer of the rank I have the honour to hold,
commanding a fleet which has performed so important a servive
as that accomplished under my direction—approved as that ser-
vice has been by the Board of Admiralty, and considered I,y his
Majesty's Government as even deserving the thanks of both
Houses of Parliament, being obliged, from a sense tof what is
due to his own character and honour, as well as to ii)e pr;ift7s-
siert to which he belongs, to appeal to a naval tribunal, against
the loose and indirect accusations of an officer so much ii s in-
ferior in rank. lam wat ranted in saying, that the execution
of this service was approved by the Riead of Admiralty ; be-
cause in a letter from their Lordships' Secretary,dated April 22,
acknowledging the receipt of my public dispatches on the oc-
casion, he says, he is commanded by their Lordships to con-
gratulate me on the !,rilliatit success of the force under my com-
mand, in the attack of the enemy's ships in the Isle d'Aix Roads,
by four vessels, and Subsequently by detachments from my fleet,
which terminated in the capture and destruction of four of the
enemy's ships ; and to signify their Lordship's directions to met
to express their approbation of the great exertions of Rear-
Admiral Stopford, Sir Harry IS eale, and the several other Of.
ficers mentioned by me, as having been most active': employed,
and having •partico!arly distinguished themselves upon this im-
portant service. Lord Cochrane, however, warned the Noble
Lord at the head of the Admiralty, that if this measure were
attempted, he should, if standing alone, oppose it so far ns re-
garded the Commander in Chief; thus, without specifically ob-
jecting to the thanks being given for the service performed, di-
recting his hostility personally at me, and making his attack as
publicly, though not so fairly, as if he had at once exhibited
formal charges.
Lord Cochrane, as a Member of Parliament, may most as-
, surely support or oppose public measures, as he shall thilti(
proper. In the pr.:..eut proceedings, however, he stands in
the situation only of an Officer servi:7 under my command, as
appears by the following- letter to me from the First Lord ut
, the Admiralty :

" ADMIRALTY, MAY, 29 JBO9,

" MY LORD,—liaiiing in conversation informed Captaie
Lord Cochrane, that it was the inte!:::in of his Majesty's Go-
vernment to move the thanks of both Houses of Parliament to
your Lordship, 2nd to the officers, seamen, and marines serv-
ing under your command in Basque Roads, Lord Cochrane de-
clared to me, that 'in the event of such a measure being pro-
posed in Parliamemt, he should feel himself bound, by his pub-
lic duty, to object to the thanks, as far as they should apply
to the Commander in Chief. Under these circumstances. it has
been deem.ed expedient to suspend the motion for the Vote oI
Thanks, and to call upon Lord Cochrane to state the ground ou
which he has intimated to the First Lord of the Admiralty
his intention to oppose the Vote of Thanks, as far as respects
your Lordship, that the board of Admiralty may thereby bo
enabled to judge how far the grounds to be stated by Lord
Cochrane may be of a nature to suspend the motion in Parlia-
ment, or to call forany further investigation by the Board, or
in any other way. I :have felt it due to your Lordship to give
you the earliest informfition of this state of things, and to ac-
quaint you, that a letter will this day be written to Lord Coch-
rane, In conformity to the above resolution of the Board of
Admiralty, a copy of which, together with the answer of Lord
Cochrane, will be without delay .comtunnicated to your Lord-
ship. I have, &e.

(Signed) " AftiLGßAvc."
Whether Lord Cochrane supposed he might with impunity
endeavour to lower me in the 'opinion of my country and wy
Sovereign, Signal marks of whose favour had at this instant
been exclusively conferred upon himself—whether his Lordship
thought be could exalt his own reputation at the expeuce ut'

. .
Fleet, employed in Basque Roads, hetv
and the ' '., A ,ril • st, to which y(
71 jj• 44
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mine—and whether he expected that his threat would fititni-
date me to silence, L know not:. .But if these were his ideas,
assure myielf the result wilLprove to him that they ere found-
ed in error; for I will never permit any Man to proceed
as Lord Cochrane has done, without availing myself of the
Means which the laws of the country afford, to show the futility
and injustice of such an attack. By the letter of the SleretarY
of the Admiralty to Lord Cochrane, after mak ins; his it: defined
aocusatioo against his Admiral, he excuses himself f:aim expla-
nation by a general reference to Abe log and signal books of the
fleet,w ithout knowing, if It may judge from the imperf.-.. !state of
his own log, w hat that general reference might ;mottle... There-
fore, because he does not accord pith me in opinioo,
Cochrane, whose extent of responsibility has perhaps never
exceeded the charge of ft single ship, and to whom in judgment
I will not reduce my experience to a comparison, becomes my
accuser ; whilst, from situation, Lam responsible for every act
of my fleet, and for the fate of every ship composing it. lam
so confident, and I hope it is already evident to the Court, that
Lord Cochrane has no cause whatever for accusing me of any
dereliction of dutya that it might almost be supposed something
had occurred in my personal conduct towards his Lordship
which afforded him grounds of dissatisfaction. The contrary,
however, is the fact. More liberality could not have been
ahewn than Lord Cochrane received at my hands; and although
a considerable degree of disappointment was manifested through-
out the fleet on his arrival to conduct the tervice to he performed
by fire vessels, yet every Officer in the fleet rendered him the
most steady assistance, not only in valuable suggestions, the en-
tire credit of which seems to have been assumed by his ordship,
but by every other means that zeal and courage could afford.—
Lord Cochrane, on presenting himself to me after the action,
was general in complaint of the officers who commanded the
other ships engaged at the some time with himself, in the attack
("he enemy ; but having equal means with his Lordship of
judging of the conduct of those officers, I do aver, that it was
highly meritorious. At the time Lord Cochrane made this ge-
neral complaint, I had not the smallest suspicion that there ex-
isted in his mind those sentiments of disapprobation of my con-
duct, which, by his proceedings since his retorts home, I ant to
suppose he then entertained. It would, in such case, have been
liberal, ands I think, also his duty, to have made a communica-
tion to me to that effect. I shatild then have been enabled to
have guarded in some measure against his attack upon my cha-
racter, en his arrival in England. I scarcely need observe to
the Court, that boo ever highly courage is to be valued in
an Officer, it is always incomplete in its consequences without
tla: equal excercise of judgment and discretion; it being the
duty of a Commander not ouly-to destroy his enemy, but to :le
coaplish that destruction with the least loss on his part ; and,
I submit to the Conrt, whether there ever was a service which,
under all circumstances, more required the exercise of Chose
qualities than the one in question. The effect produced exceed.
ed say most sanguine expectations ; and, I believe, the expect-
ations of the whole fleet. The points under the considerattot of
the kocurt appear to he the following : Whether the lapse of
time het weeo the discovery in the morning of the enemy's ships
being on shore, and the attack, was not, under all circum-
stauces, absolutely necessary I;v the advantageous accomplish-
ment of the neended service; whether it was not my duty, as
Commander in Chief, to be governed by a generill view of the
whole of all those circumstances, rather than yield to the sug-
gestions of one, and that a very junior officer ; and o 'tether an
earlier attack would have been attended with greater advan-
tages ; in short, was there not accomplished, at the time the at-
tack was made, all that could at any time have been lafected.—
It is in support of,these propositions l undertake to shew, as
indeed is already in evidence before you, that had I not delayed
sending in•the shins to the attack, until the toue 1 did, the loser
of ships, and of the lives of valuable seamen, w ould, in the o pi-
nion„of all the officers in tile fleet, have amounted to a large pro-
portion of the fume so employed. And yet-it seems that lam
stow represented as deserving of censure, for having prevented
that wanton destruction ; but I am satisfied the Court sv ill, by
the result of their investigation, find, that not a single additional
ship of the enemy would have been destroyed by a .more early
adoption of those measures which. it is imputed • to ate I. dekty-
aed or neglected.,
I shall now proceed to the direct matter of inquiry and charge
to which my letter to the Lords. Commissioners of the Admiralty
of the 10th of May partly applies. This letter was written on
my being informed that my public dispatch of the_ 14th of Apr.l
kad tiemconsidered as not sufficieutly explanatory ; but event hat
:.fetter proves Otani of what hat now become necessary to sttJhn-t