The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-03 00:00:00

THE LATE COURT MARTIAL AT

PORTSMOUTH.

A Court Martial was last week held at Ports-
mouth, which painfully recalls to recollection the
very worst periods of our naval service. The facts
of the case are, as usual. on such occasions, some-
what imperfectly reported, but enough appears to
show that a great and scandalous wrong has been
done, which ought not to be permitted to r. st where
the Admiralty has left it, in the simple pziva'e re-
primand of the offender.
Ti e prisoner was Mr. Hugo Beaumont Burnaby,
First Lieutenant of her Majesty's ship June, which
has recently returned from the Pacific and Aus-
tralia, and the prosecutor was Captain S. C. Fre-
mantle, his commanding officer. The charges on
which Lieutenant Burnaby was brought by Cap-
tain Fremantle to trial were :

1. For having on the 27th of March, 1856, behaved
himself with contempt towards Captain S. C. Fremantle
his commanding officer, by performing au impertinent
and provoking action after receiving from his clmma-ld-
ing officer instructions relative to certain visitors then
on board the said ship, and by procrastinating the de-
parture of the said visitors, he having been previously
warned and porfect.y aware of his commanding officer's
anxiety to _have the ship cleared of strangers and pre-
p tred for the duties of the fon )wing morning.
2. For haviaz, on or about the 2nd of June, 1856,
behaved himself-with disrespect toe ards hia command.
ing officer by going into his cabin with a frivolous
grievance, and attempting to enter into altercation with,
and to criticise the conduct of his commanding officer in
a manner unbecoming a junior offia,r, with reference to
a Tainted handkerchief, and to his own duties as a
senior lieutenant of the ship.

3. For having, oa or about the 11th of January,
1857, behaved in a manner unbecoming the character of
an officer by brtaking his patrol.
4. For having, on or about the 15th of January,
1857, acted in violation of the general printed iustrue-
tions and the custom of the service by forwarding to his
commanding officer a remonstrance upon uejustifisble
grounds, addressed to the Commander-in-Cuief in a
covering letter unnecessarily hasty and dictatorial.
The cccasion out of which the first charge arose
seems to have been one of tho=e entertainments on
board the Juno, by which British officers endeavtur
to repay the courtesies and civilities they reo.ive
from British colonists when in colonial ports. The
Juno's visitors, among whom wero several ladies,
were being regaled by a nautical theatrical repre-
sentation, when the evening's amusements were
cut short by Captain Fremantle ordering the ship
to be cleared. Lieut. Burnaby executed this ex-
traordinaryand sudden order with all thespeed that
attention and consideration for the ladies permitted
—so ranch so, that there is no imputation against
him that the Captain's directions in this respect,
however unnecessary and disagreeable, were not
obeyed as became the first lieutenant of the ship.
Tie order was given by Captain Fremantle in his
own cabin, when only himself and Lieut. Burnaby
were present ; and Capt-tin Fremantle charges the
lieutenant with contempt towards his commanding
officer " by performing an impertinent and provok-
ing action.' What the alleged action was, is
neither stated, nor did it appear on the trial.
Lieut. Burnaby, however, pledged his honour as
an officer and a gentleman to the court martial
that he committed no act of impropriety ; and he
is, we shall see, entitled to full en dunce.
This occurrence took pl tce on the 27th March,
1856. On this pretence Captain Fremantle imme-
diately placed his first lieutenant under arrest ;
situ in at rest Lieut. But naby remained anti the
231 November, 1857, when he appeared a prisoner
before the court taiftrtial assembled on board the
St. Vincent, in Port:unouth harb•lur. Daring
these eighteen month, whc n Lieut. Burnaby was
suspended from the performance of his duties, hell
up to the odium of his ship and brother offic,rs,
and deprived of personal freedom, Captain Fre-
mantle managed to get up three other charges
against 11 m, a!1 of a frivolous and vc xatious kind ;
and on these four charges he was brought to trial.
Of course C‘ptain Fremautlo was, or ought to
have the prncipal witnes.. He bud pref., rred
the charges, and presented himself as prosecutor
before the court martial. On being directed by the
President to stato to t'ie Court what he knew about
the charges, the following extraordinary and pain-
ful scene took place :
Cap' ai n Freman tie —I know nothing. I am prepared,
sir, with your permi-pion, to aban ion this prosecuti I
am prepared to indemn fy the prisoner by " corporeal
pal s. "
The Court at this point stopped the prosecutor and
cleared the cabin. Oce its being re-opened,

The President said—The Curt bits been cleared to
give you time to consider. You have been swt rn, &e.
The prostcutur replied— I feel myself totatl7 uuable at
the present time to collect my ideas to give the required
evidence as to matters which transpired so hog ago ;
feel Fo impressed that my views of the service have been
mistaken and wrong.
President—Captain Fn mantle, you are there as a
witn.s., and roust t',niccer a plain question.
CAptain Fremantle—Thete is a confusion in my hear',
and I cannot proceed.
President—ilespectirg coat has been said about the
views I

Cart,:tin Fre,nanll,:—l feel EC, confused that I cannot
attetnpt•to recount upon oath with any degree of fidelity,
and agreeably to the words of the oath, what transpired
so long ago. I request the president wilt allow me to
.it down.

The Court here informed Captain Fremantle that in
consequence of his statement of his inai,ilitv to give evi-
(hue, lie might retire and give ericieLce "by and by,"
when the Court had examined the other witnesses.
The ewe proceeded, other witnesses were 'called,
but the anticipated "by and by" did not come
round, Captain Fremantle presurved the silence
he thus inaugurated, and Licut. Burnaby was com-
pelled to make his defence without bearing the pro-
secutor utter one word aigairst him. He made it
with complete success, and, SO far as it was pothhle,
he suppoitei his own personal statement with evi-
dence. The result was the following finding by the
Court Martial :

Cmirt acquits the prisoner, and further expresses
its otieion that the evidence before it does not show
suffic!elt grounds for preferriug such charges against
the s ii Lieutenant, some of which are of so serious a
naT ure.
And this was all I

Out of the June, under Captain Fremaulle'S
command, two other Courts Martial Lave been held
" on officers," the report stated " who had long
keen imprisoned iu their cabins, as it were, and.
suspended front all duty, and nearly from inter-
course with their messmates." One of those charges
aLo came to nothing, and the other ended only in a
eprimand. " But," added the repot ter representing
the naval feeling aed experience of Port.imeuth, " it
is questionable whether the captain, who is so power-
fully connected, will receive any censure from the Ad-
tnii airy." No doubt powerful comic* t !ens have great
influence at the Admiralty, as when, for exau)ple,
the Honourable Captain Pedram was the other day
made a Loid of that precious Board, he was in.=
stantly succeeded in the command of the Blenheim
by the Honourable Captain Hastings--but there is
a decency which not even "powerful connections"
can venture to trespass ; and in the case of Captain
Fremantle, which ontrivals any of the deeds de-
scribed by Smollett in "Roderick Random," the
Admiralty has actually ventured to " reprimand"
this m In of " pewcrful connections."
The public, with whom such mine tions have no
influence,- will probably think that for such au
offence as Captain Fremantle committed a repri-
mand is a wholly insufficient punishment ; and th
public in so thinking will come to a perfectly sound
conclusion. Because of his family influence the
eon:inland of one of her Majesty's ships on a dis-
taut station was entrusted to Captain Fremantle,
and knowing how powerful at the Admiralty that
influence wag, he appears to have very grossly
abused the power and authority confided to him.
He appears to have rendered the lives of his officers
insupportable by a long course of vexatious tyranny;
for a period of eighteen months he degraded,
insulted, confined, and punished his First Lieute-
nant ; at the end of that period he brought
charges against him which, if substantiated,
might have lea to his dismissal from the Queen's
service in a manner that would have consigned
that officer to disgrace, if not ruin and destruction ;
finally, when called on to prove those charge?, he
was paralysed by a sense of his utter inability to
do so, his spirit sunk within him, and his tongue
clove to the roof of his mouth. There, before a
court of officers of rank and reputation, stood Cap-
tain Fremantle, when called on to establish h7s
case, unable to say one word in support of his own
accusation ; admitting and confessing that he could
not prove one tittle of the imputations he had
framed,aoffn de;
offering,
andti on
with
hgo
anwbyhj
eioccfht
ahaens
ecialsfki
neeode
nofhvoeirertaeenCd o uc
arult
1-miMmilnarari attritair:
to "indemnify the prisoner by t corporealh pains
Was there ever before, in the wholecn there possibly
be course of y
navall"
history, anything halt so bad 7
be anything worse ? Yet for this unparalleled
.
offence, commit ed by a man who has " t owerful
connections," all the punishment that the Admi-
talty—all that Sir Charles Wood, at the head of
the naval service of this great maritime country—
has thought proper to inflict, is a "reprimand,"
and even that "reprimand" is privately, almost
secretly administered to Capt. Fremantle. This,
we undertake to tell the Admiralty, is not justice,
or anything like justice ; and the public. will only
see in it another and a more audacious example of
that detestable spirit of favouritism it, the Admi-
ralty which disgusts a noble profession and injures
the British Navy.—Daily News.

Amongst the paseengas on board the steam( r Tamar
which is now on her voyage to Southampton from
Alexandria with the gold :nd mails taken to Su-z from
Australia by the steamer Simla, is Sir William Beckett,
;ate Chief Justice of Melbourne, and Lady Besketr.