Star.
London, England, 1814-11-18 00:00:00

Aehast became Regaitt4pitiwai talk% whir aollbe
mender, that the offiseki had applied..Mtieh had
said Of the letter written *en the occusitiv—he would
read it that the Hauseotilght tee whether, Event if it
were contrary to the' orders' olthe Reese Gaards,,ill
was at all heated or inflammatory. (Me. T. trite
read the first letter, in which the officers stated that it
was their bounden duty to his Royal Highness, as
their Colonel, to remove any impressions to their pea.
judice, and hinting at reports of Colonel Q.'s military
incapacity.)t—Thisarat theletter for which theetaett-
tlemen were sentenced to ruin, if they had no other
'resource than their pay. It was said that they had
thus passed a judgment on their superior officer.—
But they did not pass the censure on him —Lord Com-
bermere and the Duke of Wellington had investigat-
ed Colonel Quentin's conduct, and he had been already
pronounced incompetent by the first military charac-
ters in the world. Had they wantonly and malici;
ously stepped forward to throw the first ttone—to
peach a character before unspotted ? ft was because
Colonel Q. had been censured that they came forward.
No course could be taken but to apply to their Colo-
nel, and it was to their Colonel, and not to the Crown,
that they had applied, to a Colonel to whom they had
so many reasons to be grateful. Yet the letter was in.
tended to be suppressed,andCol. Quentin haddettiand-
ed it. He (Mr.T.) denied that Col. Quentin had any
right to demand it. The officers were not compelabie
to give up evidence vrhich. was to have been their own
sonilemnatien. The Judi"! ,a4Lerate‘ ate lawirm
tourist not maintain it. The Lreeteitant:Colonel
(Palmer) might have done that for which (he sup.
posed) he would not be severely punishable.—pat it in
the tire—(a laugh.) Was it to be supposed, that be-
cause they had once set pen to paper they could not
revoke—that fritera 'triplet mand—and they were to
have no chance of salvation in this world ? The
Right Hon. Gentleman hoped the Hose would bear
in mind the circumstances • under which the letter
was obtained-from the officers, which letter had been
so emphatically dwelt upon. This letter, it appeared,
when written by the officers, *was shewn to Colonel
Palmer, who deprecated the intention of presenting
it to the Colonel of the Regiment, and they left it
to him, to use it according to his discretion--(lfrar )
fie (Colonel Palmer) therefore communicated the,
substance of it to the Regent, as Colonel of the regi-
ment, and immediately afterwards Colonel Quentin,
applied to the officers at the mess, demanding, as he
stated, by authority of the Regent, that the letter
'should be delivered up to him, out this demand was
not complied with ; and upon reference to the Re.
ens; it was found that no such authority had been
igranted by his Royal Highness as Colonel Quentin
had stated. Yet, upon a subsequent Bi:diem*, the
Regent demanded this letter from *Colonel Palter,
and it was accordingly surrendered to ,his Royal
Highness, through wham it found its way to the Horse
Guards and Colonel Quentin. Thus the Regent,.
naturally forgetting the distinction between hi; 'cha-
racter of Regent and Colonel of theregiment, gave
up a letter which was not originally meant to be pre-'
sented to him,' and hence it operated againtt the offi-
cers by whom it was subscribed. This letter, then,;
was evidently not intended to convey any offeftee,'
but merely transmitted to their Colonel ih order that
he might, as Colonel, in the ordinary way of the sir-

Slit the officers did not demand arty Court Ma
They complained, but it WB,l for the Colonel to use
hit own discretion. • Yet the letter containing 'this
complaint, and whichlwas never addressed to the
Horse Guardi, was stated to be the ground of
the charges which produced the Court Martiat.—
—Hence the Officers inclined military censure, and
were sent to the right about. He did not mean to.
say that this letter was not originally the cause of the
Court Martial, but he was prepared to maintain that
a letter so obtained from these Offi.ers could not be
legitimately used as a weapon against them, or made
the ground of military punishment. He would in.
deed maintain that no censure or punislutrut should
attach to these Officers which was not warranted by
the evidence adduced before the Court, independently
of the production of the letter alluded to. and that
the production of that letter against the Officers was
an act of peculiar harshness. The Right Honour.
able Gentleman, on the whole of the case, declared
that he felt himself justified in supporting the motion,
not from any view to question 'the integrity of the
Court'Martial, but in order to question the conduct
of the Horse Guards. He would support• the mil.
tion because it appeared to him the only way of in.
vestigating the subject to which it referred, and of
ascertains 'g the merits or demerits of those unfor-
tunate Officers who had been treated in such an
extraordinary manner. He did not hope that by
the course of proceeding he recommended, the
House would grant any redress to those Officers in
a military point of view lc all be wished or looked for
was. that the House, wlisn'the whole case was laid
before it, shouldeo.act as to prevent the recurrence of
similar cruelty and injustice towards ocher deserving
Officers; and he would implant the House so to am.
Hi had no right or inelination to esk the House tek,'
decide upon ,this ;abject without ftity unglantandint
it, but its acquiescence in this motion was essentially
necessary to that understanding. Seeing that the
Court-martial expressed no opinon against the Officers
who had been so severely punished—sesiet that
nothing but compliments were beard from the bran.
hers ot that Court towards the conduct and tharacnw
of the prOsecutars—seeing, in fact, that there was
nothing in the sentence ot the Court to tall for the,
punishment inflicted—to call fet the dismissal from
the regiment of twenty:six Officers, many of whom
bad long and eminently served their country. he
'thought it due to public justice, to the character of
those sufferers, and to the character of that House, to
ascertain upon what grounds such deserving Officers
had been transferred to other regiments, in order, as;
the sentence' of punishment prescribed, they might
learn the principles of subordination and =Okay dis-
eipline.-1 Loud and long continued cieeriq).
Mr. WELLESLEY POLE.—The speech of the
Right Hon. Gentlenian who speke last was, upon the
whole, much* to the same effect as that of the Hon.
Officer who opened the discussion ; far the Right Hes.
Gentleman said that he bad attended the. Crtst Mir°
tial, that he bad heard the evidence, and that his COn•
elusion was' different frog that-sto which. the Court-
Martial had come, though he did not aria to im-
peach the integrie for ,thitiateliisame ef dos ann.
it was, then, because thdlielanion fawn that
of the Court Martial that they ortriskiai to Woo