The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-08 00:00:00

ei-J. i!lentilit Int

1A SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1849.

Courts martial both naval and military—are
doomed. Whatever the authorities may dream of in
regard to the perpetuation of a system already de-
cayed to very rottenness—whatever may be the san-
guine views entertained upon this subject, either at
the Horse Guards or at the Admiralty—the assertion
is not the less emphatically true that both naval and
military courts-martial are doomed. We know well
enough the supercilious feelings with which an assu-
rance of this character will be regarded by a class so
long invested with &most irresponsible authority.
We know how 0,12 rn: rr pronunciamento of a man of
the pen is consiilertai by the man of the sword—gene-
rally, or, at least, apparently. Yet, in spite of this
we reiterate with implicit cGnfidence our warning to
the h'gh and mighty personages at the Horse Guards
and the Admiralty. We speak thus as journalists,
as an organ of public opinion, and we speak without
the shadow of a reservation, from our knowledge of
the unconquerable and irresistible force of that same
public opinion of which we are the exponents. Pre-
sidents of naval and military tribunals may shrug
their shoul lers with an expression of scorn-
ful
incredulity, but such is the doom of their
unnatural and abused supremacy—Lieutenant-
Colonels, Deputy Judge-Advocates, Post-Captains,
an' Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue to the
contrary nevertheless notwithstanding. After such
examples of glaring and gigantic injustice as those
afforded by the court-martial, at Guernsey, on
Captain DOUGLAS, and by the court-martial, at
Plymouth, on Lieutenant GRAHAM, the destruction
of those absurd hut cruel tribunals has become a
matter not only of neces'ity, but of absolute cer-
tainty. England will no longer consent to witness
the degradation of her national character through
the medium of a system rather suited to the feudal
ages than to the middle of this century of enlighten-
ment. England will no longer submit to the con-
tinuance of this blot on her escutcheon. Everything,
indeed, of late has served to indicate that the people
of this great country revolt at the least vestige of
those obsolete formulas, the remnants of which are
still adhering to our institutions. Whereas formerly
soldiers were not unaccustomed to receive so many
hundred lashes at the triangle—when the thongs were
again brought into play, not very many
months back at Hounslow, the whole land
shook with execrations. Again, it is yet
warm within our recollection how the fanaticism
of a clergyman, as evinced towards a poor wretch under
sentence of execution excited the loathing and indig-
nation of the whole community—although our an-
ceators regarded an auto.da fe with less inconvenience
to their nervous system than was caused to ourselves
and our contemporaries the other day, by hearing of
the blister raised on the palm of an unfortunate
murderess's hand by the flame of a tallow candle.
The truth is, civilization has done its benign work
with the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. The
English people abhor the semblance of injustice, and
are exquisitely intolerant of cruelty. They will per-
mit the existence of neither the one nor the other in
any one of the classes of the population ; much less
will they submit to its continuance in the administra-
tion of our two glorious and noble services. For
although civilians, the people of Great Britain are
sensitive to a degree as to the honour of those illus-
trious professions. Nor will they behold the
degeneration of the British army or the
British navy in this manner with indifference,
even though the sticklers for the retention
of the old system of brutality be led on by his Grace
the Duke of WELLINGTON. Very fortunately for the
country the judgment of the Duke of IVELLINGTON
is anything rather than infallible. Otherwise we
should have little chance of social, political, religious,
or constitutional reform. His Grace with his pro-
verbial stubbornness may cling to the old prerogatives
of courts-martial and the like, as though they were
the most sacred of all sacred institutions, but in
defiance of his opposition down those preposterous
and insufferable institutions will come, leaving behind
them a memory more contemptible but quite as odious
as those of the Council of Ten, and the Star Chamber,
and the Ecclesiastical Commission, and the Spanish
Inquisition. For Public Opinion is somewhat
stronger
than the Duke of WELLINGTON, aye, than one hun-
dred thousand Dukes of WELLINGTON.

Reading the particulars of the court-martial held
on Captain DOUGLAS at Guernsey, we are reminded
cnly of the crass and egregious stupidity of another
quite as rational tribunal, ramely, that of Goodman
DOGBERRT and his brother dolt Master Constable
Reading on the other hand the details of
tial held on Lieutenant GRAHAM, and
on Commander PITMAN, we fancy our-
1g the records of the British navy—not
,w, hut as it was in the days of TOBIAS
That so much brutality could be perpe-
hrd one of the war vessels of her Majesty
4IIA, is almost beyond the limits of ore-
,re is an officer commanding one of the

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