The Sun.
London, England, 1810-03-13 00:00:00

and desperate at some of the most considerable sts-
tops,- as well a.; at some subordinate posts of the
A• my. These measures had been undertaken in
connexion with a-Auilty• combination and concert,.
the .e;ct:.-nt of, which- I cannot contemplate without
the deepeit concern.

I hate cherished as long as events would jet allow
me to-do so, that cordial esteem for the army of the
coastat large, which 3 long and uniform display of
et ery frlititary virtue had, till this calamitous season,
so well justified, and which had led me, perhaps too
perlinacinusly, to ascribe the prevailing disorders
rather-to a partial than to a general defeEtion from
duty.
This habitual regard for the army of Fort St.
deerge, has much embittered the necessity of re-
nouncing even for an interval, and I 'trust I-may
pow- say a short one, sentiments which were once
so just, and are still so grateful to my mind.
t is matter of satiscapAior(to reflect, that I have
yielded these favourable impressions to the evidence
of faCts alone, and that it has required those scenes
which have been ajted in open day,• without affeet-
, Ile. even the decency of concealment, to 'extort
,from we the relu6lant -acknowledgement of a too
general participation in the late criminal confede-
racy, which, while it casts a wider shade over the
tormer reputation of this army,• has also given to
their proteedings a more serious and awful charac-
ter, since the blow which the contest alone, but
which success, even without contest, would yet
more certainly have struck into the bosom of their
country, must have been proportionally the deeper
and more incurable.

Tile anxiety and grief which would have attended
the.necessity of such a contest as this,state of things
appeared likely to require,, has however been spared
me, by the return of the Officers to their duty, a
final renunciation of the criminal design's which had
diretied their late condu6l, and an unqualified sub-
mission to legal authority before my- arrival at
Madras.

The leading and principal fa6ls had been placed
so entirely heyond.doubt or question, by the bold,
undisguised chara&er of the revolt ; and the general
principles of the deliberation on which I was enter-
ing,
,are so plain and manifest in themselves, that a
resohr iot might perhaps have been safely taken w ith
lit, le rt.fle,Aion or delay:
have not negle&ed to look back once more to
the origin of these troubles, and I am constrained to
rereat'llii sentiments I, have already delivered, •on
•that branch of the subjetit.-r-Nothing can justify the
-revolt of an army ; but I have been disappointed in
my search • even for circumstances of mitigation in
this revolt. No injury has, in my apprehension,
been done to , the army, in any stage of a confliti
which began in a fa6tious attack on Government.
But if, in the necess•iry vindication of authority,
any point may have arisen whiCh might be thought
interesting to the military body at large, the regulPt
and legitimate recourse to the ultimate authorities
wos uc,l only open, .out was .actually in progress.
Seditious combination, therefore, can find no apo-
' logy ire the case, neither can punishments. inflic:-ed
-on individual acts of sedition, furnish a just provo-
cation to general confederacy.
The cominission crimes draws after it the

penalties attached to them, and ih this prucesi it is
Government which is driven to repeat punishments
and multiply restraints by the growth and repeti7
tion of offences—it does not lie in the Offenders
mouths to say, that they have been driven into the
commission of crimes by the tepetitton of punish-

Mews.
Such however appears to' have been the-false
and inverted principle by which this contagion has
;Spier Ow a parttal beim) to a general revolt.
The later excessei of revolted Officers ap-
Fear to have sought a justification, and perhaps to
found support, from -an errol- extremely si-
milar.

e n cessaiy, b cause the only effectual means
;;ence which G crntnent could employ against
the siolence with which it was threatened, have
been converted into arguments of greater violence;
have been treated as crimes; and as new provocations
to t het very rebellion, by which thesepeasures were
th-anselVeS retidered indispensable.
On the other hand, 1 have examined with more
than inapriliality, that is to say, with an earnest de-
sire to establish the most favourable conclusions for
the 011icers of th's army, all the circumstances
which attended and might be supposed to have in-
Otent.ed the sudden return of the army to its duty.
I am little inclined to pronounce an adverse -and
ungracious judgment, on that interesting point.
will net, however; either on this or any other occa-
sion, sacrifice truth to the indulgence of my per-
son d disposition and wishes, 'and I have to regret
tliat eeither the particular circumstances of the mo-
ment, nor the specific information which has fatten
tirder my observation, can warrant as clearly as I
sish the opinion I am desirous of entertaining, that
the submission of the army to legal authority may be
exclusively ascribed to a returning sense of duty;
and the were operation of public principle—l am at
the same time unwilling to probe that question more
deeply than the occasion requires, and I am entire-
lv disposed, amongst the complicated moti%es of an
action good iu itself, to discern at: least the co-ope-
ration of worthy and honourable inducement. The
latter seutunent' has not been excluded from the
considerations on which judgment has been
formed, and has been allowed a most welcome and
Acceptable influence on the final measures that have
been adopted.
It is nut my intention to enlarge onthe grounds of
the opipions I have now delivered, and I have touch-
ed upon them only for the purpose of explaining one
of the principal foundations of 'my decision—The
acts being in themselves highly criminal, I have dis-
covered neither in the motives that led to them, nor
in the immediate inducements to submiSsion, suffi-
cient -palliation to entitle offences-.so dangerous to
Our country and the world to simple impunity and
pardon. .-Clear and incapable of doubt as this pro-
position, is, I have not yielded ,my implicit and
nnal assent to it without 3 repeated review of every
consideration' that could oppose that conclusion, nor
without many struggles of private sensibility and
feeling against the lamented consequences which
must practically rest* from it. But these are que.,,
l.ions not of private sensibility but of public (rust.
Imo jn ciloge the: discipline of future armies- s ,

u.nawN : Prpted by 1(.1 (jilt
thc STN-oFFicE, N