The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-18 00:00:00

WI% -31TZ

LONDON, TUESDAY. SEPTENIBER 18, 1849.

seeing that the Lords of the Admiralty have officiall)
withdrawn the words " with disgrace," unwarrant-
ably appended to Mr. SMITH'S discharge from the
service, has resolved to commence an action at law
against Mr. PITMAN. Than this nothing can ix
more justifiable. Here is a master's assistant ruined
for life by the appending of the words " with dis-
grace " to his discharge from her MAJESTY'S service :

the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty expunge
those two words from the discharge, declaring them
to have been unwarrantably appended—and the vic-
tim does what every one is empowered to do in this
free country under similar circumstances, namely,
proposes to enter an action at law against the party
who has thus fraudulently injured his character.
Meanwhile Mr. GRAHAM, the lieutenant, and Mr.
ELLIOTT, the master of H.M.S. Childers, are at this
very time undergoing the miseries of a cruel and
undeserved incarceration, although the correctness of
their representations with regard to Mr. PITMAN has
been testified beyond all gainsaying, :by the fact of
the ignominious dismissal of that person from the
service of her Britannic MAJESTY. No one, we
take it, will have the temerity to deny that
had the trial of Mr. PITMAN been anterior to the trial

of Messrs. GRAHAM anti ELLIOTT, the sentence pro

noanced upon those unfortunate gentlemen would a
any rate have been very materially mitigated. Ai

the least, they would have escaped a year's imprison

ment " as felons" in the county gaol at Exeter—for
it would then have been manifest, as it is now, that
although unquestionably culpable as having corn
mitted the high crime of desertion, they had been
goaded on to that offence by extraordinary, and, w,
trust, unparalleled circumstances, by treatment
such as no officer could brook, by insult,
such as no gentleman could passively endure, and by
itnessing a systematic tyraony, such as would have

been disgraceful on the part of a pirate, a bandit, o;

a buccaneer. Unhappily, however. for the service,

and for these two ill-starred victims of Mr. PITMAN

their trial preceded that of their persecutor. Their

offf-nce WaS view( d through a false and exaggerating

medium, and they are now subjected to treatmen

the timple announcement of which must, we are sa
tisfied, call forth the generous and indignant prote,

of the community.

To dernonstrate as clearly as

possible the nature of the extreme punishment whit:

they are now groaning under, from incarceration, we
transcribe as follows the letter addressed by one of

these young officers 'to his legal adviser at Devon

port :••••

"Exeter County Gaol, Sept. 15.
"My dear Sir,—l beg •to acquaint you that we are
here confined as felons, and should feel grateful if you
could in any way ameliorate our unfortunate position. I
consider there is a mistake altogether in placing us in
this gaol with the wretched beings who constitute the
prisoners here. I leave everything to you, because I
consider that you will not permit me to be treated in a
manner more severe than that which our sentence was
intended to express.
My daily allowance of food here is:—Breskfast and
supper, 1 pint of gruel and 8 tz of bread; dinner for
lour days, 3 oz. of dressed meat and 1 lb. of potatoes;
dinner for three days, 1 pint of soup and 1 lb. o•
pot ,toes.
We aro not permitted by the rules of this gaol to
have anything we can pay fur. Wo ale. pin a cell,
and unless we mix with the poor unfortunate creatures
in the yard we have no place in which we can take
exercise.
" The Governor of the gaol is an excellent
.man, and
is very kind, but he cannot
kept herohisre
u.thuis state
regulations.
" God knows, if we tire to be
am sure we shall both die. I ask you to take some steps
to help us out of this unenviable position, and
"Believe me, my dear Sir,
"Ever yours truly and respectfully,
" A. B. ELL.t•TT,
"Late Master her Majesty's ship
Childers."
Such is one of the consequences of the unmanly,
dastardly, unsailor-like, thoroughly un-gng
and lish

Although disgraced in the eyes of his countrymen,
and ignominiously dismissed from her MAJESTY'S
service as one who had tarnished the national flag by
unexampled cruelty, by false entries in the log book,
and by something very like embezzlement, Mr.
PITMAN must not flatter himself that he has yet
drained the bitter cup of expiation. He cannot slink
away into unenviable obscurity yet awhile; he can-
not as yet shut his ears against the roar
of popular execration ; he cannot for some-
time to come console himself with the thought
that his heartless and tyrannical proceedings
are passing into oblivion. So long as one of his
ictims shall continue to suffer unjust punishment, so
ng will his name appear as a byeword in the leading
articles of the journals of England. That at least we
promise him as far as we ourselves are concerned. At
present there is unfortunately too much reason fur
our continued reference to the miserable transactions
with which the bete Commander of her MAJESTY'S ship
Childers has become associated ; for several of the
officers whose evil fate it was to be subject to his in-
solent and contumelious authority, several of thus.
gentle-men who were driven to actual desperation by
his proceedings, are still undergoing the unjust sen•
tence of the court- marti,d whose decision i•_
proved to have been egregiously false and exag-
gerated by the very wording of the subsequent
sentence pronounced by the court-martial since
Bolden at Plymouth. It will have been observed
doubtless by many, from a statement made in ou,
naval intelligence yesterday evening, that Mr
SMITH, the master's assistant of H. M. S. Childers ,