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

no doubt they assumed from the skill of a great
number of French officers among them, he detail;
the dauntless exertions of the allies which accom-

)lished the victory ; and whilst treating of the part
his own ship the Asia bore in it, he says that the
manner in which the Genoa and AlbiOn took their

stations was beautiful ; and he adds, that this so
bloody and destructive battle was continued with
unabated fury for four hours, when the scene of
wreck and devastation which presented itself at its
termination was such as has seldom before been wit-

messed ; each ship of our opponents becoming effec-
tually disabled, such of her crew as could escape
from her endeavouring to set her on fire, and that
it was wonderful how we avoided the effects of their
successive and awful explosions.
" And when treating of the damage our ships had
sustained, he says, ' The Asia, Genoa, and Albion
had each suffered so much, that it was his intention

to send them to England as soon as they should have
received at Malta the necessary repairs for their

voyage.'
" I thus merely glance at the Vice-Admiral's
public despatches of this battle, and in which not a
word but the highest encomium is bestowed by him
on the Genoa in common with the Albion. And if

the proceedings of the Asia were, as he says in those
despatches, applicable to most of the other ships of
the fleet, surely I may at least say it must be more
so to the Genoa, who was so conspicuously placed
in the fore front of the battle, and suffered as I shall
in the sequel showi-you, more than any other ship
did. But immediately after sending these despatches
to his Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral, the
Vice-Admiral issued a general order on the fourth
day after the battle. It is dated Asia, the 24th of

October, 1826, in the port of Navarin,' and was sent
in an envelope under his seal to me, as Commander
of the Genoa, on service (which date, by the way,
is a material feature in my case for the Court to have
the goodness to bear in mind), and which I now
produce and read to the Court.—

" GENERAL ORDER.
" Asia, 24th Oct. 1827, in the port of Navarin.
" ' Before the. united squadron remove from the
theatre, where they have gained so complete a vic-
tory, the Vice-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief, is de-
sirous of making known to the whole of the officers
seamen, and marines, employed in them, the high
sense which he has of their gallant and steady con-
duct on the 20th instant.

" 4 He is persuaded that there is no instance of
the fleet of any one country showing more complete
union of spirit and of action than was exhibited by
the squadrons of the three allied Powers together in
this bloody and destructive battle.
" He attributes to the bright example set by
his gallant colleagues the Rear-Admirals, the able
and ardent support which the ships of the several
squadrons gave to each other during the heat and
confulion of the battle.

" 4 Such union of spirit and of purpose, such
coolness and bravery, under fire, and such conse-
quent precision of their guns, insured a victory over
the well prepared arrangements of greatly superior
numbers; and the whole Turkish and Egyptian fleets
have paid the penalty of their-treacherous breach of
faith.

" The boasted Ibrahim Pacha promised not to
quit Nayarit), or oppose the allied fleet, and basely
broke his word. The allied commanders promised
to destroy the Turkish and Egyptian fleets, if a
single gun was tired at either of their flags, and with
the assistance of the brave men whom they have
had the honour of commanding, they have performed
tlreir promise to the very letter. Out of a fleet
composed of 60 men of war, there remains only one
frigate and 15 smaller vessels, in a state ever to be
again put to sea. Such a victory cannot be gained
without a great sacrifice of life ; and the Comman-
der-in-Chief has to deplore the loss of many of the
best and bravest men which the fleet contained.
The consolation is, that they died in the service of
their country, and in the cause of suffering humanity.
" TheCommander-in-Chief returns his most
cordial thanks to his noble colleagues, the two Rear-
Admirals, for the able manner in which titey di-
rected the movements of their squadrons, and to the
Captains, Commanders, Officers, seamen, and Royal
Marines, who so faithfully obeyed their orders, and so
bravely completed the destruction of their opponents.
(Signed) " EDWARD CODRINGTON,
" 6 Vice-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief.'
" After such encomiums, beginning and endiif►g
with thanking all, without the least exception any
where even hinted at,—after I myself, as well as my
officers, had also in the evening of the battle received
from the Vice-Admiral himself personally, when lie
came On hoard the Genoa to visit Captain Bathurst,
as it is already proved in the evidence before you of
Captain Smith and several other officers, the warm-
est and most unqualified expression of approbation,
passing, as he then did, the highest encomium on
all of us;—notwithstanding all these accumulated
expressions of satisfaction on his part,ar►d when more
titan one Year and eight months had elapsed with-
out the slightest imputation in the interval being,
insinuated even by him against me on the contrary,
and when military honours of the Bath, of St. Louis,
and of St. Ann, had been conferred on me by theie-
Mjesties, our most gracious Sovereign, the Em-
peror of Russia, and the King of France; and when
I had retired from the din of war, to repose in the
bosom of my family, and in the esteem of my friends
and companions in arms, with these distinctions
which I have now the honour to wear, I could not
but be astonished that charges should at length be
adduced against me, diametrically the reverse of the
Vice-Admiral's public despatches, and of his general
order, and so incompatible and contradictory to them.
But if the public despatches and the general order
must be true (and it is utterly impossible they can
be otherwise), then they alone present a perfect and
complete two-fold negative to these charges (such
negative being previously prepared, as it were, by
the Vice• Admiral himself), and I submit that in a
like sense this also is an observation well applying
to myself—first, as having gone into action as com-
mander of the Genoa, and next, as succeeding Capt.
Bathurst as captain in the temporary command of
her for all the remainder of it. If the Vice-
Admiral could at the end of three days after
the battle, with all the means of reference he. had
or might choose to make to others, as well as
from his own personal observation, and with full
deliberation on the merits of all engaged, and when
the conduct of every one was fresh in his apprecia-
tion,—if, I say, he then felt he had the least grounds
for charge against any, but owed to all to say that a
zealous execution of the service was their charac-
teristic, how incompatible is it, that, notwithstand-
ing all this, he should—at the distance, too, of 20
months—venture to hold me up as the only indivi-
dual amidst the whole of the combined squadrons
who was a fit subject of the -charges he has now
brought, and should at length say he had no reason
to approve of the conduct of the Genoa from the
time the command had devolved upon me. And how
still more incompatible is it, that in his evidence he
should now have even gone so far as to say, that it
was at Nayarit) he reproved me for my neglect of
duty, in not using the springs, when at that very
instant I received from him, under his own seal and
signature, the high testimonial I now produce of his
approbation, without the least qualification► or ex-
ception introduced into it, which he issued to every
commanding officer in the united squadron, and ad-
dressed to myself personally ; and it is not the least
remarkable, that this should be at the same moment
when he would now say he was complaining of my
tardiness in refitting the Genoa, and of n►y inatten-
tion in suffering her mizen•mast to go by die hoard
for want of being properly secured ; and all this is
what I alluded to when I asked the Court kindly to
bear in mind its date, And to this I would add,
that the Genoa was actually reedy for sea on the
24th, at the very hour of six o'clock p.m:, at which
I had engaged with the Admiral she should be, as I
shall further show Yon in evidence, and we sailed
from Nayarit), as it is alrtady proved to you, the
next day, at seven a.m.; an iving at Malta, not-
! withstanding the slackness imputed to me, 20 hours
even before the Vice-Admiral himself did.
" The importance of all these observations, if in