The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1834.

tenced to be flogged :he was flogged. In the French
service he would have been shot. He subsequently
deserts, and,
.as we suppose not even a Grey Bennet of
the present day would deny, is proved guilty of the
desertion. In any service in Europe except ours he
would be shot for desertion ; it is in our military code
a capital offence ; yet this man, who is simply found
guilty, upon whom no sentence is passed—this insu-
bordinate bad soldier, is held up to the pthlic eye as a
martyr, and a victim not only to the system which the
Right Honourable " disreputably-known" (as the
Times says) Secretary-at-War upholds in Parliament
and decries in his newspaper, but to the cruelty and
cold-blooded severity of Colonel Bowater, who, ex-
cept as commanding the battalion, has just as much
to do with the Court Martial, or the punishment
awarded, as Mr. Edward Ellice's brother, General
Ellice, the was to have been Governor of Ports-
mouth,
and the " is at present writing" one of the
Noodle and Doodle corps of the Dublin Castle House-
hold. But look at the effect of this Grey Bennetisin.
These dear lovers of the soldiers' backs spread abroad
their tender sympathies—for whom ? Drunkards,
thieves, and atheists. It is in the army as in society.
The gallows, the gaol, the whip are all ready for those
who choose to qualify. So it is in the army. It is a
community, like civil society, regulated, it is true, by a
code of its own ; but where was there ever an instance
of a member of that community being punished with-
out deserving it ? Thurtell found people to sympa-
thize with him ; Thistlewood had his admirers ; even
Corder was wept for by some ; but nobody will deny
that these scoundrels died justly. Well, what then
exists to militate against the justice of a punishment
of crimes infinitely more dangerous to the country
than either the sanguinary destruction of a friend, the
infatuated attempt to overthrow a Government, or the
deliberate murder of a deluded woman. We dis-
tinctly state that the two crimes of which this much-
injured vagabond Hutchinson has been proved
guilty are infinitely more dangerous to society than
those for which the three inferior scoundrels whose
names we have mentioned were hanged. Oh 1 says a
dirty-faced retained of Mr. Cutlar Fergusson, the con-
- victed and imprisoned rioter, now Judge-Advocate-Ge-
neral, " Oh," says this fellow, " what is the crime ?
What does it signify a sentinel's being drunk on his
post at night—pish—arn't I drunk—drunk every
night? What signifies threatening his superior offi-
o'er ? Hav'nt I bullied the Bear over and over again ?
What signifies desertion ? Havn't I run away from
my lodgings twenty times and done no harm ?" Well
and good, these may be very fine arguments for the Mi-
nisterial Press-gang, but they will not do for the sol-
dier. As it is said of a woman, the army that " deli-
berates is lost." It is all extremely well while we are at
peace, but see the consequences of insubordination on
service. A drunken sentinel may cause the loss of
thousands of lives ; a deserter may betray the cause of
millions ; contempt of a superior officer would settle
the fate of a campaign ; and yet, although day after
day great brawny-shouldered fellows, quite as amiable
as drunken grenadiers, are whipped up and down the
Sessions House-yard in the Old Bailey pursuant to a
magisterial sentence, yet the Ministerial Papers are
straining their nerves to explain to the soldier, who
is better paid, better fed, and better clothed than
any soldier in Europe, and than half the civilians
in England, that he is an oppressed and brutalized
creature. The last result of this infernal system of
misrepresentation occurred only last week in the
Tower, where a soldier, having taken offence at the
just control of a sergeant exercised over him, took the
ivory snapper out of his musket, fitted the flint, loaded
the piece, and fired it at his superior officer. The
murderer will be tried for the double crime of murder
and mutiny ; and we have no doubt we shall hear a
piteous tale of his sufferings, because, perhaps, he
may not be sentenced to what the civil law would doom
him—Death. It is really dreadful to see the efforts
making, under the sanction of that portion of the Go-
vernment which exhibited itself at the dirty dinner at
Edinburgh, to co-operate with the Revolutionists at
present out of office. We lightly touch the subject
to-day, but we shall resume it, in order to awaken our
readers to the peril in which the country is placed,
when the most disreputable persons are placed in the
Ministry, and when the King himself is driven by an
odious influence, which must be unmasked, to endure
the domination over himself of a set whom, personally,
he hates and despises as cordially as do his loyal and
affectionate subjects.—Morning Post.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS.