The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1863.

which had apparently been used for the purpose of
disguise, under a straw rick near the Union work-
house, and within a short distance of Mr. Piper's

residence.
Mr, Capron having summed up the evidence and
addressed the bench at some length, their worships
consulted together for a few minutes in private.
When the court was reopened,
The Mayor intimated that the bench had no hesi-
tation in deciding upon this application. It was a
perfectly clear case, and they were unanimous in
determining that the claim should be allowed.
Mr. Capron then applied for costs, which were
also allowed, and the proceedings terminated.
We understand that Mr. Weale, who sustained
much more severe damage on the night in question,
and whose loss is estimated at upwards of £lOO has
entered into the necessary undertaking to bring an
action for the amount to which he has been damni-
fied,

THE CRAWLEY COURT-MARTIAL;

(Army and Navy Gazette.)
The great Aldcrehot court-martial has terminated in the

Full and honourable acquittal of Colonel Crawley upon

both the issues which formed the groundwork of his trial.
The court has said that Colonel Crawley did not cause the

orders for the close arrest to be carried out with undue and
unnecessary severity, thereby inflicting great and grievous
hardships on Lilley and his wife, and it says that he did not
make a false statement in attributing the inconvenience

that might have been suffered to Adjutant Fitzsimon. We
are not disposed to quarrel with this decision. The great
and grievous hardships alleged against him had become
much diminished from the proportions they assumed when
the first communications from India reached England.
Because Colonel Ci awley's offence was not so enormous, it
is held not to exist at all by the public.
Colonel Crawley, in his vigorous and very bold defence,
made some remarks upon the share of the press in the
transaction. lie designated certain writers as self-consti-
tuted social hangmen, going about, rope in hand, with a
morbid desire to practice their dreadful calling upon per-
sons in authority. But, unless a reflection of public
opinion, the dictum of this or that writer has no influence
upon the conduct of affairs. The instrument of the social
hangman is of no more value than packthread, unless he
can weave round it the strengthening support of the pub-
lic, and gain this by truthful statements and fair and
unprejudiced reasoning. In this particular instance,
the press has undoubtedly had to do with the hold-
ing of an investigation, but that Colonel Crawley
in the main has good reason for complaints against it
may well be doubted. What is the state of the case ? In
July or August, 1862, accounts reached England of a very
unfortunate state of things in a dragoon regiment at Mhow
—a tyrannical colonel carrying everything before him with
a high hand, and in a cruel manner, trying his paymaster,
and depriving him of the privilege of communicating with
his witnesses, accusing one-fourth of his officers of perjury
illegally confining the principal non-commissioned officers,
and inflicting cruel hardships, resulting in one case in
death and another in madness. This is the picture that
reached us from India. No doubt it was falsely coloured
by those on the spot, and the statements about "another
black-hole of Calcutta," and baking sergeants alive, were
quite unjustifiable. No one will for a moment dispute
that if the story were substantially true, it was a case
for prompt and vigorous action on the part of the
authorities, and as that action was only shown in the
shape of a memorandum condemnatory of the military autho-
rities in India by those at home, the press demanded some-
thing more, namely, the trial and punishment of the person
guilty of these enormities, whoever he might be. No one can
fairly say that the circumstances did not constitute a case it
which further investigation was not only justified, but
urgently demanded. After a perusal of the evidence it is
beyond all question that illegal proceedings took place in
the Inniskilling Dragoons, and that these proceedings
tended to cause the death in confinement of a non-commis-
sioned officer who had always borne a blameless character,
and who was pronounced legally innocent of any crime.
Colonel Crawley's trial was not the act of the press,
The press asked that, whoever was responsible should
be arraigned and Vanished. The authorities selected
Colonel Crawley, and their failure against bim is
not to be cast in the teeth of the press ; nor can
Colonel Crawley fairly turn round upon his journalistic
enemies. For, though he is protected to a great extent by
superior orders, and is thus legally exonerated from the
more serious part of the accusations, it cannot be denied that
his representations had much to do with the illegal
punishment to which these men were subjected. As
Colonel Crawley stated in his defence, neither General
Mansfield nor General Farrell had any animosity
against Lilley, Wakefield, and Duval. But he does
not follow up his remark and lead us to its natural
conclusion, which is, that the exercise of authority by
these generals was brought about by representations
made by Col. Crawley, who might have animosity against
the men, for he knew they were to be damaging witnesses
against him in a case in which he was vitally interested. A
piece of illegality was harshly carried out, and it was done
at Col. Crawley's instance, and with Col. Crawley's know-
ledge, although not upon his legal responsibility.
This appears to be the state of the case as established by
the evidence. We are not aware whether it is proposed to
punish Sir Wm. Mansfield for his share in the business. Sir
William says that he did not intend that his orders should
be literally mild out for the detention of the sergeant
majors in arrest, that he had reason to suppose the Mhos,
court-martial would bo over several days before it was over,
and that it was in this belief he had allowed the arrest to
continue till Captain Smales's defence had closed. Upon
this view his offence seems to have been one only of negli-
gence, arising from confidence in those by whom the arrest
was carried out, and to whom he might perhaps not un-
reasonably look for a compliance with the spirit, and not
the letter, of his order, The case is that of a man
brought before a magistrate, regarding whom the magis-
trate says there is no case to warrant his committal for trial.
but who is nevertheless kept for weeks in close confinement,
We know how public feeling would resent such an outrage
upon the liberty of the subject, but we are stating no more
than the bare fact, when we say that in a legal sense Lilley,
Wakefield, and Duval were each in the position of such a
man. Colonel Crawley is not legally responsible for this,
but surely somebody is ; and, unless the somebody is
brought forward and punished, we are forced to arrive at
the conclusion that the law may sometimes bo violated
against a soldier, provided the responsibility can be dis •
tributed between two or three officers of high rank.

write to my friend, J. H—, in Brisbane, who promised to I
send my letters to me if 1 sent him my address. I sent it to I
post by Mr. D---- when he again went for the drays. Be-
fore the drays came we wont short of flour and sugar, so that
we were living on nothing but meat and tea. I would rather
be without meat than flour; but the want of water is worse
than anything. I have felt the want of it (water) often.
When at last the drays got up I was glad to see some men
with them, one of whom took my place, and I left the next
day to look for shearing. You may remember that I told
you in my last letter that I had bought two horses, one of
which I left on the Downs with Mr. F—; the other (the
one through which I lost myself in finding) I brought with
me, and sold him when I got employment for £l5, making
£5 on him. I bought another from Mr. D—, when
I was leaving, for £3O. She is nearly a full-blood mare,
but too spirited for me. She threw me three times, and
went back to Mr. D---'s; the third time she threw both
me and the saddle off. I walked back to Mr. D—'s, but
she was not there, and I have not heard anything of her
since, and I am here (at Mr. S---'s) about three weeks. I
bought another horse here, a young one, for £l2, intending
to look for the mare with it, and as also q man requires two,
one for himself and another to carry his swag,' having to
travel so much ; but he has got such a bad cold he is not fit
to travel, so that I cannot go shearing yet. I did not shear
much here, as my fingers got sore, but I cooked for the
shearers, for which they gave me 4s. a week each. There
were eight shearers. They also allowed me to shear what
I could.
" Mr. S— has offered to send a black fellow (a native) for
my mare if I will stop and lamb down' for him, which will
be about six weeks; so I think it is the best thing I could
do, as it will give me time to get both my horses right, and
I will be able to get another shed before the shearing is done.
You ask me if Igo to church. My dear mother, there is
not a single one nearer than Rockhampton, so it would be
hard for me to go—and as to keeping Sunday, I have not
had six Sundays to myself since I left Brisbane. Sheep
have to be fed on Sundays as well as week days. As to the
land order, I found that the smallest allotment you could
• get was 40 acres, of which the order wouid buy but 18.
Well, as I did not want the land, I sold the order for £l2
108., which I spent in Brisbane and on my way up the
country, when I first landed."