The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-12 00:00:00

Articles of War, for punishing disobedience,
cowardice, negligence, and disaffeCtion.
"By the I Ith Article, Every person in the
fleet who shall not duly observe the orders' of the
Admiral, flag-officer, commander of any squadron
or division, or other his superior officer, for assail-
ing, joining brittle with, or making defence against
any fleet, squadron, or ship ; or shall not obey the
orders of his superior officer as aforesaid, in time of
action, to the best of his power, or shall not use all
possible endeavour, to put the same effectually into
execution,—every person so offending, and being
convicted thereof by the sentence of the court-mar-
tial, shall suffer death, or such other punishment as
from the nature and degree of the offence a court-
martial shall deem him to deserve.'

"By the 12th Article, Every person in the
fleet, who through cowardice, negligence, or disaf-
fection, shall, in time of action, withdraw, or keep
back, or not come into the fight or engagement, or
shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship
which it shall be his duty to engage, and, to assist
_ .

and relieve all and every of his Majesty's ships, or
those of his allies, which shall he his duty to assist
and relieve—every such person so offending-, and
being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court-
martial, shall suffer death:
« And from the great severity of the 12th article,
denouncing death, without admitting of mitigation,
as was the case of the unfortunate Admiral Byng,

who, by its rigour, in March, 17.57, suffered iu his
Majesty's ship Montague, in this harbour (and it
may be, that ship was anchored at the time in the
very spot where we now ate), had you been ordered
to try me tinder it, and were it not for the provision
subsequently made by the statute of the 19th year
of his late Majesty's reign, (and which the fate of
that unfortunate Admiral very soon led to the en-
acting), giving. in such cases a discretion to the
Court; I must, even if negligence only were to be
proved against me, now suffer as he did,l though it
were, as in his case, contrary to the unan►mous feel.
ing of the Court, and I must be placed in a si-
tuation similar to him, and to others found in the
annals of our navy, whom the voice of the country
and an impartial posterity has pronounced were as
undeservedly accused as they were prosecuted.
" But it is necessary, and as I think at present
it is not clearly understood by the Court, that I
should advert to what immediately led to the pre-
sent imputation against me.
" It happened that after the battle of Nayarit),
two distinct Russian orders were transmitted to me,
—that of St. Ann, through the Secretary of the
Admiralty, and that of St.Wkidimir, through SirlEd-
ward Codrington. My own Sovereign had also
graciously conferred on me the Companionship
of the Order of the B th, as his Most Christian
Majesty did the Cross of Saint Louis; these, with
the Russian Order of St. Ann, my Sovereign per-
mitted me to wear. The Order of St. Wladimir
came to me when I was in the Mediterranean, in

the command of his Majesty's sloop Wasp, and was
sent to me by the Vice-Admiral himself: and after
my return home, on my suiting on the sth Juste
last to the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty for
permission to accept and wear it, their Lordships
directed an application to Vice-Admiral Sir Edward
Codrington, to explain why it had been sent
to me in addition to that of St. Ann, which, as I
have just noticed, the King had already permitted
me to wear. This was answered by the Vice-Ad-
miral's letter of the 14th June last to Mr. Croker,
in which the first breath of imputation appears
against me, and therein be says there was a mistake
of two Russian orders having got into my possession,
and that it appeared to him to have arisen from one
having been sent to the Mediterranean through
Count Heiden, without its having been known that
another had been conferred on me in England through
Prince Lieven ; and he then takes occasion to say he
thought the commanders serving in the Asia and the
Albion were more entitled than I was to either, and
he had every reason to approve, as he did most
highly, of the conduct of those commanders, but
had no reason to approve of the conduct of the
Genoa from the time of the command of her having
devolved on me. To this, however, I can only say,
by the way, that no man can be more disposed to
do justice to the merits of those officers than I am :
but, Sir, I should never have paid so ill a compli-
ment to them as to suppose it necessary that my
character should be lowered to bring it on a level
with theirs.
" I here at present pass over the other part of
this first letter from the Vice-Admiral, reserving to
myself to notice it in the sequel. But their Lord-
ships then intimated to me by letter, that the order
which, from the Vice-Admiral's representation, ap-
peared to have been sent by mistake, they could not
sanction my wearing, and therefore required of me
to return it, that the mistake might be explained to
the Russian Ambassador, and with which I imme-
diately complied.
" Here I have to observe, that their Lordships
since returned the order of St. Wladimir to me to
produce to tit Court, and which I now do; and it
is no small feature in tills case, that this very order,
which the Vice-Admiral thinks I was not entitled
to, and which, by mistake, he says had got into my
possession, he himself officially, by his secretary, ad-
dressed to me in the envelop now produced, under
his own seal, transmitting it to me eight month s
after the battle, as I shall again have presently to
notice. But their Lordships then, by their letter
of the 22d June to the Vice-Admiral, desire him to
state the particulars in which he saw reason to dis-
approve of my conduct, in order that they might
judge whether it would be necessary to take any
further proceedings with regard to me. On which
the Vice-Admiral, in answer to the directions of the
Admiralty, addressed his letter to Mr. Croker, of
the 24th June, last, which is but a re-statement,
with additions, of his charges. And, on being again
requested by their Lordships to state specifically all
the points of my conduct with which he was dis-
satisfied, he at length addressed another letter to
Mr. Croker, of the 17th July last, and which is in
more specific but extended terms than either of the
two former, yet at the same time omitting some of
the charges which the former two had contained.
And though I might fairly say he ought to be con-
cluded by his third letter, arid be deemed to with-
diew every thing in the shape of accusation in his
two former letters, which his third does not con-
tain, yet, as I canr.ot allow even the breath of an
imputation to be made without at once courting its'
investigation, I do not hesitate to treat the whole of
these letters as containing together all that the
Vice-Admiral would in any shape impute to me,—
the result, as I presume they were, of his deliberate
and cool reflection, but the inaccuracy and incon-
gruity of some parts of them, even in point of
fact, it will remain for me hereafter to show. And as
to the additionthat of the round robin, as he calls
it,—whieh is a petition of the petty officers and crew
of the Genoa, it is only to be found in the third let-,
ter, and is a charge entirely distinct from those which
relate to the battle, and no connexion with it, other
than as the writers of that petition referred to the
battle. 1 shall have to submit to the Court, it
ought never to have been noticed, being contrary to
the honourable pledge existing between us. From
'these three letters, however, Sir, are to be gathered
the whole of the charges against me, and in such
general terms, for the must part, are actions thereby
imputed, which, if really constituting any offence at
all, can only come within the scope of one or other
of those repugnant epithets which the Articles of
NV4 I have alluded to embrEe2. I rej e .of
disobedience, cowardice, negligence, or disaffection.
" The Slice-Admiral, in his eaipatelus to the
Lord High Admiral, from Navarin, dated the 21st
of October, 1827, with a staterreat of the battle
(and the original of which the Lora of the Admi-
ralty have et my request sent down to you for your
perusal, and to which I beg to refer you) noticed
tho conduct and bravery of those be had the extreme
good fortune to command, in terms which I need
not here recite, as you have his letter itself before
you. Adverting to the circumstances which pre-
ceded and provoked the battle, and after showing
the excellent, well-arranged, and formidable posi-
L tion of the Turkish and Egyptian ships, and which