The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 22, 1863.

The Story of the Mhow Court-Martial:

(From the United Service Gazette.)
As the trial by court-martial in England of Lieut.-Col.
Crawley, of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons; on charges con-
nected with the death, whilst under close arrest, of his re-
gimental sergeant-major, must now take place within a very
short period, and will necessary absorb a good deal of public
attention, we feel that we shall be rendering a not unaccep-
table service in giving such a brief outline of the line ab
ovo usque ad mala as shall enable people to form some gene-
ral idea of its bearings, and serve as a key to the more com-
plicated and elaborate details which must be submitted to
the public at the trial. In doing so we do not make any pre-
tence to close verbal accuracy, nor hope to produce more
than such a slight general thread as shall serve to connect
the detached facts which are yet to be submitted ; but we
shall endeavour to be as impartial as possible, and to avoid
saying anything which may unfairly prejudice a prisoner
who has yet to be tried for one of the most serious offences
known to the military, or indeed to the general law of the
land.

To begin with the beginning, we find that Lieut.-Col.
Crawley joined the Inniskillings as commanding officer
at Ahmednuggur, in April, 1861. At that time the regi-
ment was in the state of perfect discipline at which it had
been maintained by the skilful handling of Colonel
Shute, since transferred to the 4th Dragoon Guards, ex.
pressly for the purpose of restoring order in that once dis-
tracted regiment. The high discipline of the 6th at the time
of Lieut.-Col. Crawley's joining is proved by the confidential
reports of the local commanders, and the minutes of Field-
Marshal the Commander-in-Chief of the Army based on
those reports certifying to the satisfactory state of the regi-
ment in the most eulogistic terms. When Lieut.-Colonel
Crawley joined the regiment his reception from the officers
was of the most friendly character, and it is specially to be
noticed that none were more anxicus to conciliate the new
colonel than the paymaster who subsequently became the
object of the most relentless persecution. Capt. Smales ten-
dered the use of his house and servants, and the other
officer were not less cordial in their demonstrations, the story
about the refusal of the mesa plate being pronounced by
Major Swindley, the officer principally responsible for such
an act of discourtesy, if it had been committed, to have no
foundation except in the lieut.-colonel's imagination. Very
shortly, however, after the arrival of the new commanding
I officers symptoms began to show themselves in his deport..
ment which augured anything but an unbroken countenance
for the internal harmony of the regiment. Lieutenant-
Colonel Crawley, in the words of a competent witness, began
"to condemn everything in the regiment," and when on
parade would "rise in the stirrups, shake his whip at the
officers, and tell them that their backs were up, but he
would soon straighten them." The combustibles necessary
for a proximate explosion of discontent were thus rapidly
accumulated, when an accidental circumstance served as a
spark to the pile. A copy of the Times newspaper contain-
ing the report of a rather remarkable trial which had taken
place in one of our superior courts at home was received in
the regiment, and as that report intimately concerned one
of its officers, other officers (married ones) considered it
their duty to submit the report to the colonel. For obvious
reasons, we glance at this portion of the case in the most
distant and rapid manner. It will be sufficient to say that
the lieutenant-colonel's point of view in looing at it was
different from that of his officers, and that when the latter
appealed to him his characteristic reply was, " Look at that
box (pointing to a tin box which lay close at hand) ; if I
were to turn out the contents of that box, which is Colonel
Shute's legacy to me, few officers in the regiment would be
able to stand up against it." It is said that a certain un-
popular personage can quote Scripture to his purpose, and
it is evident that Lieutenant-Colonel Crawley had a well-
known passage in the New Testament in his mind when he
gave this discouraging reply. The consequences may be
anticipated—the " hot water" in which the regiment had
been so suddenly placed now began to boil over,
and " scaldings " became the war-cry of the regiment.
Leaves, exchanges, everything were obstructed and
interfered with, until at length the lieutenant-colonel's
rage, seeking for a single object, seemed to concentrate
itself on the unhappy paymaster. A brother officer, he whose

name had occurred in the newspaper report which had firs
thrown the regiment into a ferment, was set on to watch him,
and a demand was made and refused for troop-money, at 8
o'clock in the evening, when his office had long been closed
and locked up for the day. This was the opening of the
first parallel. The recusant paymaster was put under arrest,
a court of inquiry was held, and the result submitted to Sir
William Manefield, who gave Lieut.-Col. Crawley a severe
wigging for his pains. The syatem of espionage was still
carried on by the same persons, who were alone the colonel's
confidants and advisers. A second charge was got up against
Capt. Smales about sending his clerk beyond the limits of
the cantonment ; and this time Lieut.-Col. Crawley's pro-
ceedings were confirmed by Major-General Farrel, although
the clerk had been sent beyond the bounds in order to get a
cheque for Lieut.-Col. Crawley himself. The system of
worry continued. Lieut. and Adjutant Fitzsimon was
sent to Capt. Smales's quarters to see what he could find
out, and even the bandmaster was required to report such
broken scraps of conservations as might come to his know-
ledge. There is a curious bit of evidence in the proceedings
of the court-martial about an officer who, by accident, was
was hid behind a pillar whilst the paymaster chatted
with his commanding officer ; and a coincident
accident, through which an exact written report of the
conversation thus overheard was produced by the prosecu-
tor. We select the above from scores of similar facts, as
showing the circumstances which led up to the writing of
the now celebrated letter for which Paymaster Smales was
finally brought to court-martial.
That letter, which charged Lieut.-Colonel Crawley with
systematic absence from the monthly musters of the regi-
ment, was written on the 26th Feb., 1861; but it must be
noted that Capt. Smales, as was perfectly competent and
proper for an officer in his regimental position to do, had
previously reported Col. Crawley's absence from parade to
the War-office. Lieut.-Col. Crawley kept the letter a month
in his possession before he took any official notice of its con-
tents ; but, in the meantime, it is alleged, took frequent and
intimate counsel with Col. Payne, who was subsequently
president of the court-martial. At the end of that time the
paymaster was placed in arrest, without the intervention,
as is usual, of a court of inquiry, and finally was brought to
a court-martial on the charge of making false and mali-
cious charges against his commanding officer. The charges
he had made referred to Lieutenant-Colonel Crawley's
frequent absence from the monthly musters, and the
paymaster's statements on that point were confirmed by
an overwhelming mass of evidence on the trial. Daring
the court-martial, which lasted for two months, and which
during its progress threw public opinion in India into a
perfect hurricane of excitement as against the prosecutor,
five or six witnesses were found to depose to the general
amiability of Lieutenant-Colonel Crawley, and two officers,
Renshaw and Davies, deposed to having seen their lieu-
tenant .colonel at one or two musters. On the other side, 13
witnesses, including field officers, regimental officers, non-
commissioned officers, and private soldiers, deposed to his
systematic absence, and amongst these latter witnesses were
Lieutenant and Adjutant Fitzsimon, whom the lieutenant-
colonel has since benevolently endeavoured to deprive of his
eyesight, and the three non-commissioned officers, namely,
Regimental Sergeant-Major Lilley. and Troop Sergeant-
Majors Wakefield and Duval, whose unmerited persecutions
have concentrated English public opinion on the proceed-
ings at Mhow, and compelled the government to grant a re-
opening of the whole case at Chelsea.
When it became known to the lieutenant-colonel that
these non-commissioned officers were to be called as wit-
nesses for the defence, he immediately ordered them all
into close arrest, on the following very grave and definite
charges :—Unhappy Lilley was accused of having, in
familiar conversation with brother non-commissioned
officers, applied an offensive epithet to his colonel ; Duval
of saying that he had not heard the epithet applied ; and
and Wakefield for saying, over his beer, that he would do
something to Morton [another non-commissioned officer] for
having reported him." Lieutenant-Colonel Crawley had
repeatedly and extrajudicially examined these men at his
own quarters, in the presence of his friends Renshaw and
Davies, whilst the field officers present with the regiment
were excluded, and the adjutant was obliged to remain out-
side in the verandah. Lieut.-Col. Crawley having somehow
obtained the sanctionof Brigadier Farrel for his proceedings,
placed the three non-commissioned officers in close arrest,
under circumstances which in Lilley's case produced the
premature death of a brave, honest, and high-charactered
soldier ; and, secondly, disturbed Wakefield's mental balance
and induced him to escape from the regiment by obtaining his
discharge. Notwithstanding a positive Indian military order
to that effect, there was no inquest held on poor Lilley ;
but the whole circumstances of that awful case are too
familiar to a shuddering public to require further detail in
so brief an outline as the present. There will be time
enough, as the trial approaches, to give it in all its dark
and tragic proportions, and no attempt to narrow the
charges into petty technicalities will prevent a full and
searching investigation of the whole affair.
The trial and Mhow terminated on the 21st of June, and
the finding was read to Captain Smales on the 13th of July,
when he was :formally cashiered and taken off the
strength of the regiment. He thus became, of course, a
free man, left the cantonment, and at once started for Eng-
land vice Bombay, with a view of applying to the ultimate
court of appeal for redress. Lieut.-Col. Crawley had not,
however, quite done with him yet. The paymaster was
overtaken en route by a telegram ordering his arrest by the
civil power on a charge of having absconded from his regi-
ment, was subsequently released, with the information that
the arrest had been a mistake, and finally thrown into pri-
son at Bombay on charges connected with his regimental
accounts, although immediately on his reaching that place
he had waited on the military paymaster, and was informed
bY Qta*glOt ltd tAeyr hothiug to his prejudice. Cap-

tain Smales then declared his intention of proceeding to
England, and on the following day went openly on board
the steamer. He was then again arrested in consequence
of another telegram, and imprisoned for two months, at the
end of which time—he having made no defence—the grand
jury ignored the bills which had been sent up against him,
and he proceeded on his voyage to England. Wo should
here mention that, pending the court-martial, Captain
Smales's accounts had been carefully examined by a com-
mittee, consisting of Lieut.-Col. Prior and Captains Ren-
shaw and Garnett, all of whom were witnesses for the pro-
secution; and that this committee reported "the paymas-
ter's accounts to be perfectly correct, with a balance standing
in his favour."

or Ash Church stations, whereby the whole of the
material and commissariat stores from Chatham,
Woolwich, and the Tower will be conveyed direct
to the government stores by rail. The capital cal-
culated as sufficient to complete the undertaking is
£75,000, which it is proposed to raise in 7,500
shares of £lO each. _ _ _

The squadron of the 18th Hussars, which, under
the command of Captain Peyton, has been stationed
in the North Camp since the departure of the head
quarters and six troops to Norwich, removed on
Friday into the cavalry barracks at Aldershott.
The D, E, F, and G batteries of Horse Artillery,
comprising the entire portion of that brigade at
present at headquarters, were yesterday drawn out
on Woolwich Common for the inspection of Ueneral
Sir Richard Dacres, commanding the garrison.
The General was attended by Major Reilly, aide-
de-camp, Major Milward, brigade-major, and Cap-
tain Mangle, deputy assistant quarter-master
general. The strength of the batteries consisted
of 750 men, 550 horses, and 24 guns, the whole in
command of Col. D'Aguilar, C. 8., in the absence of
Col. Sir David Wood, K.C.8., on sick leave. The
inspection commenced at 10, and terminated about
1, upwards of an hour being occupied in marching
past and undergoing a general and searching exami-
nation. The batteries afterwards formed in various
positions, and went through a number of movements,
firing 15 rounds of blank ammunition, the steadi-
ness and regularity of which could not be surpassed.
At the close of the evolutions, the General expressed
his satisfaction with the discipline and efficiency of
the brigade, and informed Col. D'Aguilar, that he
should do them justice in his forthcoming half-
yearly report to his Royal Highness the Field
Marshal Commanding-in-Chief.
MTwo regiments of infantry, the 55th and 76th,
will very shortly embark for India. The 55th will
be succeeded in their present quarters in Ports-
mouth garrison by the 26th Cameronians, from
Gosport, the latter regiment being relieved by a re-
giment from Aldershott.

THE WESTERN STATES.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, Sept. 6.
A great Republican Convention, or monster meel
ing was held last Thursday at Springfield, the poli
tical capital of this State. Hopes were entertained
for some time that Mr. Lincoln would attend the
gathering, but he acquitted himself of his promise
by a letter which has already been before the public
for several days. Deprived of the prestige of the
Presidential presence, the Springfield meeting sank
to an affair of second-rate importance, and was not
even remarkable for a very numerous attendance.
The power of the masses in this democratic country
lies exclusively in the ballot. Any meeting which
is not intended as the immediate preliminary to an
election is mere waste of breath. It is idle to con-
sider its resolutions as the manifestation of the popu-
lar mind. The people here do not know their own
mind ; they echo the sentiments of those two or three
cracked fanatics or designing politicians who under-
take to be their mouthpieces. There is a prodigious
amount of bawling, ranting, pushing, drinking, and
rioting ; but when the crowds go asunder there are
very few indeed who have taken the resolutions to
heart, who care to treasure them up in their
memory, who consider themselves bound to act up
to their import.
I have said from the outset, in one of my very
earliest letters, that the Americans do not under-
stand their own affairs any better than the stranger
who, upon his first arrival, will be at the trouble to
take a careful and dispassionate survey of what lies
before him. The Americans never knew what they
wanted—their wishes have been perpetually swayed
by the various phases of the war into which they were
most unwittingly drifted. There were a thousand
of the most relentless Republicans at the outset
who subscribed to Mr. Edward Everett's principle,
" that if the Southern States were unwilling to abide
in the Union, they should, in God's name, be al-
lowed to go asunder." That slaves and slave-
owners should quietly take themselves off was the
wish particularly of those black Abolitionists to
whom at that time no other means of a thorough.
going emancipation presented itself. The war that
broke out did not for a long time materially affect
this general disposition. The Southerners had in-
sulted the flag, they had set up the standard of
rebellion ; they must be taken to task for it, they
must be soundly beaten, severely punished, but
then, when enough was done for the honour of the
Federal arms, they must be left to "fry in their
own fat," to wallow in their own ground with their
unwholesome negro, and the great Republic must
wash its hands of that hereditary guilt, it must
cease to be a partaker of that liberticide iniquity.
Slavery, no doubt, was a very sore subject with
many a noble and honourable man of the North. I
have lived in Boston in the days of Channing—the
days in which humane, moderate, and truly benevo-
lent men were turning: in their minds if there was
indeed any possibility to wash out that foul blot of
negro slavery from the American escutcheon. I
have known abroad, at Geneva, at Florence, at
Rome, distinguished citizens of the States who
wasted away an existence which might have been
most valuable to their country simply because they
would not sanction with their presence the con-
tinuance of an institution which was in their opinion
at war with all the laws of God and man. But
then, again, I have seen many equally virtuous
and well-meaning men who weighed this matter
of negro slavery with the vital interest of the
Union, who looked upon the condition of the South
as a disease which admitted no cure, and who, in
the alternative of lopping off a member which,
however corrupt, was essential to the existence
of the body, decided that the sore subject of
nei
noe
mgg rpo r
Abolitionismo smlai vs
eerys
h o u
lshouldshould
be
boshould
ld
established
bh eu
thed up
abooewd t
ht thathat
the
aysaotuuantethi
and the interests of so many millions of whites
should never bsyp eoocufisooseturihobl pediora rl
rinot dney
Southerners
ysdai
neafeoioxtnnrhisetseteht the
eyest
daag
bktrt
States
that
tsfgl
tbatheuvhxeteei:: ryaupi
ungeshfhcioavutrase:
of a few million of blacks.
btl
pecu-
liar oa mtaerel
y am ne
theriinstitutioneml
i
ainianddt
has
epg
rgmer
aae
due s,aigveem.
they e
tooknl management of
order
ofm
porueb
than
a apn
ffr
toahmi
er
affairs.
t eal
PI toas t increasertteyd s h are
spirit
was mixed up with what was originally a mere
social controversy ; a moral question assumed all
the
of 6
bitternesslB oand
of
thepolitical
h o
hostilities
ti
litiesof
animosity,
IhBe6nl.c e the elec-
tions
The war, however, exasperated the parties, but it
did not change or displace them. From the begin-
ning there was a large Democratic party, to which
a very great many of the Republicans joined them-
selves, who were anxious above all things that the
war should be a short one—a kind of tournament
for the honour of the stars and stripes rather than an
arrangement which either should bring back the
South on the old conditions, or should allow it to
go its own way without further contention.
These two parties, the War Party and the Peace
Party, have been leading the Northern multitude
to and fro ever since. I see nothing about me but
a vast passive mass, say of 99 men out of 100, who
have been yielding to the impulse, now of one side,
now of the other, as ready to shout far the Demo-
crats et the Springfield meeting of June last as
to bawl with the Republicans at the Springfield
meeting of last Thursday.
In the month of June of this year the Democrats
of Illinois visibly had the upper hand. General
Lee had crossed the Potomac; his cavalry threat-
ened Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburg, or Phila-
delphia; Vicksburg and Port Hudson held out
against all odds. There was no hope of speedy vic-
tory, no chance of a happy termination of the war
The peace men had it all their own way. Enough
had been done for the honour of the Federal arms,
and those who had so signally mismanaged the war