The Sun.
London, England, 1811-02-27 00:00:00

CORN)! AL CO R T s.

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Colonel WARDLE rose, tot use purpose of callinl
the attention of the House to the case of Corporal
Curtis, of the Oxfordshire Militia. Before he en-
tered into the merits of the case of the poor man,
lie wished to state, that be lied never seen him, nor
had any comMunication whatever with him. The
Officers composing the General Court Martial were
wholly unknown to trim, with the excepti,,n of the
Presidetit, whom he knew merely by name. At
j the same time be must dojustice to the character
of the Colonel of the Qxfordshire Militia (Colonel
Gore Langton). No num stood higher both in a
public and private point of 'view. He was, there-
fore beend to state, when lie mentioned the name
of the-H.m. Membet as implicated in the complaint,
that he must have then grossly deceived with re-
sped to,the conduct of Corporal Curtis. This poor
man was ill in the Isle of Wight, and wishing to
see hint upon the subject of his complaint, he' (Cu!.
Wardle) had gone, down to Portsmouth, but the
wind blew at) hard that he could not cross over to the
Island. Being obliged to return to town'the next
day, he lett a friend there whom he desired in w
Upon General Taylor, and intotm him that he c tine
at the debit e of Cul. Wardle to speak to Robert Cur-
its. He saw the General, who peremptorily ie.
tosed to I, t him have access to Curtis, hult•SS he
had brought with him the authority of the Com-
mander to Chief ; and the General added thrt rear -
"it he (Cot. W.) had requested to see him, he should
have given hint a retusal. In this suet:4 things he
had applied to the Cotninander ill Chief, and seve-
ral letters.passed on ',the occasion ; the result was,"
that he found there was no chance of seeing Curtis,
unless lie chose to hive up the tarts he ha 4 ootained:
respecting the proceedings. Having reasons tor
wish-
ing to conceal these facts, which reasons he would
now state to the House, he abstainkidi from disclos-
ing them tio toe Comtnani;er in Chief. Asa Mem-
ber of Pailiaineot he conceived that he had a right
to visit Curtis without assigning his motives. How-
ever, be that as it may, the reasons 'which induced
hint to decline staling the taCts,to 'the C(' humander
in Chief, were two of the. witnesses had
been furred out of the country. The refusal of
Grp. Taylor placed Curtis in a worse situation than
is comitlimed felon, tor the latter had the liberty Of
seeing his friends. The Hon. Gentleman then ro-
ceeded to state the.case of Curtis. He is, he .said,
the, son of respectable paretos, and looked up to a
different kind of life to the one in which he is now
pia..ed. lie was induced, io consequence of the
. large bounties °tiered, to inlist inter tile Oxfordshire
Militia, as a substitute, hi the year I 08, and in
1810 was promoted to the rank of corporal: Ott
the .23‘i in, c', tin rtratitlliose complaints which Avow
the suhjeea of the present thqulry. One of these
complutow mad* to the Colvuel was ; that great

abuses had taken place in the regiment in respea to
the tiniiishing 'of necessaries for the'inen-.tilat an
truer for turnialling to each man three pair ot shoes
was not complied with. Another abuse was-that
ate iniproper detention of pay' had taken plice—that
the Men were put under stoppages from the o 4 th•
November to the e4th March, 18 to—!hat they bad
not been supplied with the necessary regimental
breeches; that on one occasion, cr,.;tit' months atter
the complaint was made, one,of the men r‘ceived -
two 'pair of &toes, and five shillings for tree:her.
With resped to the stoppages of pay, that was an
anpre.eedented thing, and contrary to the articles of
war; for one of the clauses of the:mutiny 41,1. i pro- \
vides, " That if one month's pay is detaitred from
any Officer or private, such privateshall, upon givs.
informatiou, be entitled his discharge and iuol,
re.v are." To prove that Curtis was not treeted with•
justice at
.the Collet Martial, lie had toe ;eatitotity of
t Gentleman who attended for the purpoae of tAiug
the depositions; and he would prime at the Bar, if
ire( essary, that when Curtis made the complaint,
his Colonel was an4ry, and told turn he' won'd try
him for mutiny ; to wlech Curtis teplie.l.-" You
cannot do th:e, Sir; for I AID a single man making
a complaint ," and for ti ing this complaint' the
redress which he had was, bring conlieed on the
'2Olll. The charge upon which he was coutinei
was that of being seen-in brown clothes at the dis-
tattoo of one mile from his eu triers. Ori this charge '
'the Court Marti II reduced hiat to the ranks. Now,
with respect to %sea' ing the broNti clothes, Cultis
was aetiog Clerk to the Paymaster, and when elf
duty was permitted to wear brown (lathes. At the
time lie was so seen, the feet a (IN, that 'he was em-
ployed to carry a letter to lite General ii the as-
till: It was also hwurious, that the dt eitum r. sod
privates were ellowid to go asa tar as Arundel with-
out It-ave. From this sentence of the Court
he appeal,d, and irenested the General of du: Dm.
'riot t Lord Chirtes Suinvrset) to grant Meet a General
Coliit Martial, on the ground its tt all abuse of the
Mut Iv Act had taken place, in detiOning the subsiat.
eine moor) ; and all he wished was tor an oppor..
ti,,it) to p, ove that fact against the (st .arter-Nl.ister.
he answer e loch the Colonel ;aave t , . afget
'' that ht- w.t, not aware of any charge against the
Quat ter-Master, and that the ta....ectie, %tem, reedy,"
The Hon. GClnielnan theft insta,,ced the case of
Governor Wall,- to chew that the Learned Jude,
on that trial, complained that the Court- IVJarnal
'which had tticd the unfortunate 0:1411 %as Hut le-
vity assembled. All that Curtis desired
to- have a regul sr General court Al :noel. Of
this' he complaint d, that tire (.1 merit!, from.wrong
represemarisma, Was.induczd tri refuse the* appeal,
froth she Regimental to the General Court Martial,
and thereby injustice arose. It was well known
that Militia Courts Nl.:rtial wete composed of
G.utleinen who held together by 'connection--
(Here there Was a general exclaniatian 'tg* Nu!
no .1).-.What lie meant was, that in a g.meral point
01 view it was S ), for all perrous had' tiitit
mid might be biassed. Weil the,), he would put
tit in another point of vii!w; that it would his
better that the charges `bete hearth n•lore a Gene.
ral Court Martial, because ilia Mend) a ere nut
SO well. known to each other. When Curtis w.aA
brought up for sentence, claimed it's right of be-
ing heard in his appeal, but that r was refused to him,
amid lie was tried on three new charges. SO much
did the inhatntants of 'Brighton partake of his leel-
lags, that they entered into 3- litinSClipOon to defray ,
the expences of his trial, and to procure ham legal
advice. A Gentleman of the profession of the law
• was employed to condud his defence, but the Cdurt
refused tp permit his witnesses to have communica-
tion with him, ,arid they even refused his Solicitor
admittance to hith; the gteat-coat which be had
was taken from him, and tteo Or bit; witnesses lidi•
Las and Greenwood, who gave in a statement of the
abuAes, were taken care of by the Colonel, and the
result of the inquiry on their conduth, was a sett-
tense of .500 lashes each. The two men threw
themselves on the mercy of the Court, anti that
mercy awarded the punishment which be had
jest stated. They, rather than undergo the punish-
ment, volunteered into a foreign regiment, Sn
much did the enentiqr of Coro* wish to oppress
hits, (Ivo Qoarter-master-sedeatit Cox intimidaied -
the witnesses as they caw up the pairs ; and,t,
one occasion called out,," Curtis is 'a
cal and any one wise, says the contiary is it
rased too." He added, that he was a fool, 1e,,,. its
Nuking he Should get a verdict." Under these
circumstances, some of the witnesses errs afraid
to go into Gtti. It wea stated, too, tit,t.thle of •
them a as offered his'discharge and 20 goineaam
woeld prove that Curtis spoke in diirt:Spceatil tern's
of 4iB Colonel. With respect to the flew uiarges,
they were for having, on the Ist .tod 17th June,
endeavoured to promote discontent unlotig 1110 sot-
deers ; for having spoken in disrespectful Lerner
of his Colonel, in declaring. that " had in trill,
pocket something that would cashier the etbeett.;
that he would take the Colonel's coat off his [reek,"
&c. For these charges he was sentenced to re-
ceive one thousand lashes ; a sentence mitre se-
vere than that' upon a gallant Admiral, whom of-
fence was ten thousand times greater than the Cur-
potal's. The Han, Gentleman then made .sevetal
observanotis respeding some German soldiersiWilOili
he charged with deserting, and drew a comparisun
between the line Of conduel paneled with respect to
them and the British soldier. When Curtis had le-
eeivrid coo lashes he could not receive, any more, I;ir
during the lofltttion of that portion of the punish-
'ment he fellet for
torture
udoriniereewfaami fainting
rlfieetativn
tot
hot
au anodise
hoe
ett
41 re:Lir
into)
itun:ggtiiiiaittllanbtlTefor t purpose of rotting itt the Wesa
t

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