The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-22 00:00:00

His Lordship further instructs me to point out that
itself
should a sentence of capital punishment the Court
should specify the particular mode of infliction, because
of one mode of death being more ignominious than the
other, its specification becomes a necessary part of the
judgment of the Court, in which the Commander-in-
Chief, who has to direct the execution of the Court's
award, can take no share, or he would have an union
of powers incompatible with the British constitution and
of justice. His Lordship is aware that there are one or
two precedents within the last twenty years, in which
the Court has left the manner of inflicting a capital
punishment to the confirming authority, but for the
reason stated, he considers such precedents are bad,
and trusts that the C ,urt will not add to their number,
and by that means establish a usage in this army, not
supported by any precedent for the last thirty-four years.
His Lordship has accordingly directed a revision of the
sentence in this particular.
The proceedings of the trial are addressed to the Pre •
silent of the Court-martial, and will remain with you
till the assembling of the Court, when his Lordship
directs that the seals may be broken in the presence
of the Court.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
THOS. B. CHALON,

(Signed)

Judge-Advocate-General of the Army.
Judge Advocate-General's Office, Fort
Saint George, 23d Oct., 1844.
[ln pursuance of this direction the Court re-assembled,
J. C. Boulderson acting as Deputy Judge-Advocate, and
on the 26th of October, returned their revised finding
and sentence, which were similar to their former finding
and sentence, except that private Mahomed Jainaul, first,
was found guilty of the first and second instances, in-
stead of the second and third, in accordance with his
Lordship's view, and that those capitally convicted were
sentenced to be shot to death by musketry. It is unne-
cessary to repeat the document.)
In promulgating to the army the proceedings which
have been lately instituted against the 6th Regiment of
Light Cavalry at Arcot, I will accompany them by a
concise detail of events which render them necessary.
In October, 1843, the 6th Regiment of Light Cavalry
was suddenly required to proceed on field service from
Kamptee to Bundelkund, the regiment having previously
been informed that, on the termination of the service,
they were to move down to Arcot.
Subsequent events, however, required the services of
this regiment, at the advanced post of Jubbulpoor, to
form a part of the Bengal division of observation at
Saugur, and orders were received for the regiment to re-
main at the former station.
This movement appears to have occasioned consider-
able dissatisfaction in the regiment, and, while in this
state, it was announced to the men on the Ist of De-
cember, consequent upon orders which had been errone-
ously promulgated by the pay department, that their
field batta was discontinued.
Acting, as there is reason to believe, upon a determi-
nation which had been previously formed in anticipation
of such an order—a rumour of which had been in circu-
lation for some time before—a large portion of the men,
instigated by some evil disposed persons, that same even-
ing were secretly bound together by an oath not to turn
out for parade the following morning, nor do any more
duty.

Accordingly, the next morning, the men refused to
turn out when ordered, and it was not until nearly half
an hour after the second trumpet that they yielded to the
exhortations of their officers, and consented to proceed
to their duty.
On the close of the morning's exercise, Major Litch-
field addressed the men on the subject of their miscon-
duct, and warned them against its repetition.
His address was received by many in the most disre-
spectful manner, and consequent upon his refusing to
listen to them, on their calling out to him from the
ranks, and his requiring them to be silent, and to make
their representations through their troop officers in the
regular course, they shortly after stabling proceeded in a
body, and in a most tumultuous manner, to the quarters
of Capt. Byng, the second in command, where they de-
clared their determination no longer to serve under Major
Litchfield, who, they asserted, had no sympathy with
them in their distress.
And in this determination they persisted until the
morning of the 4th of December, when, at a parade
which had been ordered by Brigadier Watson, a sepoy
from each troop presented an urzee, stating their alleged
grievances, and demanding that another commanding
officer should be appointed to the regiment, for that they
would not continue to serve under Major Litchfield.
With the presentation of these urzees the excitement
commenced to subside, and an order which had been dis-
patched by Government, the moment the error which
had been committed by the pay department was known,
having been published the same day, cancelling the pae-
vious order for the discontinuance of the batta, the men
gradually returned to their duty.
Immediately on receiving Brigadier Watson's dispatch
of the 10th of Dec., reporting these proceedings, and in-
timating that although the regiment had returned to its
duty under Major Litchfield, he did not consider it in a
state to be employed on service, I issued orders to with-
draw the regiment from Jubbulpoor, and two other regi-
ments, without loss of time, were put in motion to effect
its relief.
I then had to determine upon the measures to lw
adopted towards the 6th Regiment of Light Cavalry,
suitable to the military position in which it was placed.
I might at once, without further inquiry, have
punished the whole corps. Besides, however, that such
a course would have subjected all alike to one common
penalty, which would have left not only the men, but
their wives and children with them, in destitution and
distress many hundred miles distant from their homes,
there were other very serious considerations which de-
cided me to bring the regiment within the frontier, and
there to institute a thorough investigation into all the
circumstances of their misconduct.
I felt perfectly certain that all had not been equally
criminal. I believed that the majority of them were
good and faithful soldiers. I was fully convinced that
they had been misled by a few mischievous and design-
ing individuals. I felt it was due to the regiment, and
to the army, to satisfy myself on that point, that I might
be enabled to discriminate between the really guilty
parties and those who had foolishly allowed themselves
to be their dupes.
To carry this purpose into fall effect, I at once deter-
mined upon ordering the regiment to Arcot, where this
important inquiry could alone be made under my own
immediate direction, and Major Litchfield was simulta-
neously instructed to use every exertion for the detection
of those who had been the instigators of those mutinous
proceedings.
Circumstances over which the Madras Government
had no control, prevented the removal of the regiment
from Jubbulpoor until the end of March, and it did not,
in consequence, reach Arcot before the middle of July,
when a special court of inquiry was immediately as-
sembled, and after a month's investigation, made its first
report.
Upon the information elicited by that Court, I selected
seventeen of the privates for trial, as having been con-
spicuous for their misconduct—and these have been found
guilty, upon the clearest evidence, of the crime laid to
their charge.
Had these misguided mew remembered their duty as
soldiers, and had they been satisfied with respectfully re-
presenting their case, all would have been welL
Had they even been guilty of refusing to turn out for
parades, though their crime would till have been great,
yet if they had gone no further and had shown contrition
for their offence, it might hare been possible for the
Commander-in-Chief, under all the circumstances of the
case, to have dealt leniently with them.
I was, unfortunately, prevented from taking such a
view of their case. In the first place, before ever making
an attempt to represent their grievances to their officers,
they were induced to combine together with an oath not
to do their duty ; and then, because Major Litchfield,
who believed that the batta had been discontinued by
order of the Government, showed himself determined to
carry the order into effect, and would not allow them to
make their complaints to him upon parade inan irregular
and unsoldier-like manner, they followed up the oath
they had taken, refused any longer to serve under hi,.
orders, and dared to give in urzees for submission to the
Commander-in-Chief, demanding that their commanding
officer should be removed.
Tho individuals who have been selected as leaders in
these mutinous proceedings, have justly incurred the
penalty of death which has been awarded. I have, how-
ever, considered it sufficient for the purpose of example.
to limit its infliction to the two men who are proved to
have been the parties actually engaged in administering
the oath to the rest.
I should have been glad to think the whole guilt of
the regiment rested with the ringleaders amongst the pri-
vates. But it is clear, from all the information that has been
obtained, that many of the native officers and non-com-
missioned officers were deeply implicated, and failed
most culpably in their duty, and, although the fact has
not been distinctly proved, there is good reason to be-
lieve that so:ne of the number were, in secret, the in-
stigators of the men.

They have indeed asserted that previous to the actual
publication at evening stables of the order for the dis-
continuance of batta, they had never heard any mention
whatever of the subject, and they have declared they
were perfectly ignorant of what was intended by the
men, until the whole combination on that night had been
actually formed.
._..

But this is altogether incredible and impossible.
It has been proved that the subject was talked of
amongst the men for some time before—that the order
itself was known to the regiment some hours before
evening stables--that though the native officers were
at
some short distance from the men's tents, they did hear
shouts of " deen, deen," and must have known what
those shouts meant, though they pretend that they sus-
pected nothing ; while, as to the non-commissioned offi-
cers, they were most of them actually living in the same
tents with the men, and must have both heard and seen
all that was going forward.
Further, it has been proved that they used no real
exertion either to prevent the combination at the first,
or to support the authority of their officers afterwards.