The Sun.
London, England, 1825-01-03 00:00:00

ARMY-INDIA.

COURT MARTIALS.
Head Quarters, Choultry Plain, lOth August, 1824.
The tbllowing are extracts from the proceedings of a general
Court Martial held at Fort St. George, on the 23d day of July.
1824, on Ensign O'l•Halloran, of His Majesty's 69th regiment
of Foot.

" For having, in his Excellency General Sir Alexander
Campbell's office in Fort St. George, on the 19th instant, made
use of violent and insulting language to Major Leslie, of His
Majesty's 69th regiment,. his superior officer."
FINDING AND SENTENCE.—" The Court finds the prison-
er, Ensign O'Halloran, of llix Majesty's 69th regiment of Foot,
guilty of the charge preferred against him : does therefore, in
virtue of the Articles of War, established for the better govern-
ment of His Majesty's forces, adjudge him to be placed next
below Ensign Thompson, of His Majesty's 69th regiment.

sAPCPARo v.if.:BDE.
A. M
-r, L ,
D l
(signed) General.
-- -- Commander-in-Chief.

His Excellency cannot allow the publication of of a sentence, so
indequete to a crime of such magnitude, without the expression
of his .entire disapprobtion.

The following are extracts from the proceedings of a Genera
Court Martial, held at Fort St. George on the 2d day of Aug.
1824, on Lieutenant Charles Stuart, of His Majesty's 69th re-
giment of Foot, placed in arrest by order of his Excellency
General Sir Alexander Campbell, on the following charges :-
Ist. " For having replied to an official letter, under date
17th instantraddressed to him by order of the of4cer oninuAnd.

ing the dep.:St at Poonamallee,in terms highly disrespectful and
insubordinate."

2d. " For contumaciously persisting in the expressions used
in the aforesaid letter, 17th instant, after having been told, by
the Fort Adjutant, to withdraw the offensive communication,
and forward another of a different tendency."
FramlNG A2fD SEITTENCE.7.:" The Court finds the pri-
soner, Lieutenant Stuart, guilty of the charge preferred against
him, and does therefore, in virtue of the Articles of War, esta-
blished for the better government of his Majesty's forces, sen-
tence him to be placed next below Lieutenant Sargent, of his
Majesty's 6,9t11 Regiment ; date of rank 14th Sept. 1823."

DISAPPROVED.
• (Sig - A. CAMPBELL, General,
Commander-in-Chief.
Circumstances have occurred to prevent his Excellency Ge-
neral Sir Alexander Campbell from re-assembling the above
Courts-Martial, and it only remains for him to pronounce his
disapprobation of the sentence, and to dissolve the Court.
Lieutenant Stuart has been found guilty of using highly dis-
respectful and insubordinate language, in a letter addressed to
his immediate commanding officer, Captain Edwards, and for.
contumaciously persisting in such conduct. For this crime, so
subversive of military discipline, and the well-being of the ser-
vice, he is sentence to be placed one step lower in the list of
Lieutenants; a sentence, under any circumstance, inadequate
to the crime • but, in the present case, not involving the
slightest punishment ; for, besides the officer next below whom
the prisoner is placed having gone to England for the avowed
purpose of being placed on half-pay, the eight junior Lieute-
nants of the 69th Regiment will, on their arrival in England,
be reduced to the same state, thus rendering it immaterial to
Lieutenant Stuart whether he is for the present to be junior of
that rank, or standing one higher on the list.
His Excellency General Sir Alexander Campbell trusts, that
had an opportunity been afforded him of pointing out these cir-
cumstances to the Members of the Court-Martial, they would,
on revision, have passed a sentence commensurate to the serious
offence of which the prisoners have been convicted.
His Excellency takes this occasion of promulgating to the
army, that if Courts Martial, composed as this was, principally
of senior officers, will not support their own authority by duly
estimating such trangressions, and marking them by adequate
punishments, they must not look to him for aid. His exertions
must prove ineffectual, and his interference unnesessary, when
even the appeal to such tribunals is, as in the present case,
futile and unavailing. These remarks apply equally to the
Court Martial on Ensign O'Halloran.
The sentences awarded to Ensign O'Halloran, and to Lieu-
tenant Stuart, of the 69th regiment, are remitted, and those
officers will return to their duty. His Excellency, considering
it less injurious to the service that crime should go unpunished,
than that he should sanction what is held up as a punishment,
though in fact only an evasion of acquittal.