The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-22 00:00:00

COURT-MARTIAL AT LEEDS.

A General Court martial, consisting of fifteen mem-
bers, presided over by General Sir William Warre,
K C. 8., has been sitting at Leeds since the Ist instant,
by order of the Duke of Wellington, for the trial of
Lieutenant W. Augustine Ilyder, 10th Royal Hussars,
on a charge preferred against him by Colonel Va!ale-
leur, the Colonel of that regiment. The Court did not
conclude its sittings till Thursday afternoon; but its d, ci-
sion will not be publicly known till after the finding shall
have have received the Queen's approbation. Mr. Warren
was specially retained to conduct the defence, and the
charge would appear at first sight to be of a very stale aril
trivial character, consisting of an alleged attempt by
Lieutenant Hyder, when the regiment was stationed at
in Ireland, in October, 1842, to trick his
Colonel out of two months' leave of absence, -by proposing
to a Mr. Oliver that he should lend Lieutenant nyder
a horse, which was to pass off as his own charger, before
the Colonel, for the period above mentioned, and then to
Ibe returned to Mr. Oliver. The inquiry into this charge,
however, soon led to very important disclosures ; an an
incident occurred during the trial of a totally unprece-
dented kind in the annals of courts-martial, or, ind-cd,
of any other court. The prisoner's defence consisted
of a point blank denial of the charge, and an assertion
that it had been concocted between Mr. Oliver
Colonel Vandeleur,—the former from spite, arising out
of a quarrel about the raymmt-for a horse sold by Lim
to Lieutenant Ryder, in October, 1842 ; and the latter,
in ord. r to shield himself from a serious charge of sys-
tematic ill-treatment and oppression of Lieutenant
Hyder, preferred by that gentleman against Ct,l nel
Vandeleur to the Duke of Wellington early in April last.
The prisoner succeeded clearly in shooing that
Colonel Vandeleur did not prefer the present charge till
after he had been required to answer that against
himself Ey Lieutenant Iryder ; and in order to s'.ow
the connexion between Colonel Vandeleur and Mr. Oliver
is getting up the charge, required the production if a
letter written by Colonel Vandeleur to Mr. Oliva r,
dated the 9th of May last, $ which it appeared,
elicited Mr. Oliver's letter containing a statement of
the , charge. An order from the Horse Guords
had been obtained for the production of the
letter in question, which the witness had accord-
ingly brought from Ireland to Leeds on the morning of
the first day's sitting of the court-martial. During a tem-
porary adjournment of the court, however, it appeared in
evidence, that Col. Vandeleur took Mr. Oliver into a
room adjoining that in which the Court held its sirtirga,
and he and Mr. Oliver then actually destroyed all the
letters which the former had written to Mr. Oliver, in-
&tiding that of the 9th of May. The discovery of this
fact, which was elicited during a very severe cross-exa-
mination of Mr. Oliver, produced a profound sensation
in the Court, and excited great interest and aster i h-
ment in military circ'es. It is supposed thet very seri,.us
notice of the transaction will be taken by the authorities
at the Horse Guards, and that a second court-martial
may be speedily looked for. Lieutenant Hyder's
quittal is regarded as a matter of course, and the d -
struction of the document in question has excited gr at
public indignation at Leeds.— Tiatcs.