Star.
London, England, 1822-09-27 00:00:00

demand of payment, I had had to apply to him for my 'carotin!,
that I had asked hint at times if he wanted money, and that he
bad answered in the negative, or as he afterwards desired to
qualify it, that he did net want it immediately, that be was in
no great hurry.
Will this evidence, Gentlemen, admit of the constructive dis-
obedience with which only in-the present month, September,
am charged to have been guilty in June, 1821 ? In the lapse of
time, and with an utter unconsciousness of having ever been
eroilty of any act unbecoming the character of an Officer or a
Gentleman, you niust he aware there may have been many facts
and incidents that I might have adduced in my favour, which
are now lost to me it was upon this wise principle that his Ma-
jesty has been pleased to signify his displeasure against,. and the
Duke of York to prohibit, in General Orders, charges being
tvithheld till they should accumulate, for the purpose of being
eetlectivi ly brought forward at a distant period.
It will, I ant sure, Gentlemen, he borne in mind by you, that
Quartermaster Speed proved 'that I was not in debt to him in
any way at the period of instituting these charges. He said my
last payment was on the 19th of August. I think I can prove it
was even much earlier; so that, in fact, I ant not charged with
the evil, if any, till after 1 have evinced its entire remedy, and
that without bring conscious of any necessity for it.
On the second charge, Gentlemen, I shall trouble you but
my shortly. The Messman, Corporal Bell, after a very inco-
herent testimony, proved, or rather I admitted my having given
him a draft upon the Agents for my mess account, amounting
to £25; that the Agents declined paying it; and that, on my
being informed of it, I gave hint another for £52 (it was for
£3l. 7s ), which included the £25, and what had occurred sub-
sequently ; and was not therefore, as would appear from the
charge, two separate hills for two separate sums and separate
accounts: that I expressed my surprise, and aconnmanied the
new draft by a letter to Messrs. Greenwood and Co. Corporal
'Mayor, the Mess Clerk, besides something he had heard from
the Messman, proved his hiving presented these at the Agents',
and that their clerk said he would see Mr. Cox upon it, so that
any application appears evidently to have been grounded. He
did so, when :qr. Cox desired him to present Messrs. Green-
wood and Co.'s compliments to me, and that they regretted they
could go no further. On being cross.examined, the Messman
acknowledged that I had paid him, but with a legal precision of
opinion, equal to that of the Quartermaster, had not done it in
time, according to the order of the Mess Meeting; being pressed
as to how long after,he answered at once, only about half an hour.
—Gentlemen, the spirit of such evidence will be too obvious to
you to require that I should obtrude any observations upon it;
• you will, I dare say, be led to inquire, as I have done, whence
such an extraordinary Regiment
could have arisen against an Officer
telso has served in the Regiment little less than fifteen years, and
nearly arrived at the rank of a Field Officer. I can only account,
for it by that strange misconception which, as was observed on
soy part on the commencement of these proceedings, would, it
was hoped, be proved to.have alone produced the charge against
me; and which would naturally act and re-act on their prmluc-
tian. Gen:lnnen, me. Pyle, a Clerk from Messrs. Greenwood
rod Co.'s was called, and has confirmed what I admitted ; and
1 a 1 you alto, on my interrogating him, that I had previously
sh posited with them two bills, to the amount of nearly £550,
tt hielt bills remain still in their possession, not having yet been
Laid, and that I had not received any money from the House
on these two securities, and that my account with them was
nearly balanced; at a rough guess, there probably might be
esainst me ten or fifteen pounds.
In regard to the third and last charge, it is of a more important
character in its militaty application. It has been proved by Ad-
jutant Hirst, andsadmitted by me, that I was absent without
leave on the 2d and 3d of March, from the 16th to the 19th of
April, (tom the 30th of June to the 18th of July,, and from the
6th to the 9th of August, all in the present year. On being
cross.examined, though tie could not recollect quite so clearly
for the defence as he did for the prosecution, yet he did not
lrn:Av of my ever having been absent without leave before,
durit.g the whole time I have been in the Regiment, and must
/lave known it if I had, from the official situation he holds; nor,
its the same capacity, did he know of my having asked leave,
from the time the Regiment left Windsor to the time at which I
wrote hint, on the 29th of June, on an occasion which It appears,
from the letter he produced, was one of the most important that
can influence the human heart and mind. Of these periods of
absence you will observe, that on one only does the prosecutor
(Sir It. Hill) lay any stress, viz. that on the 30th of June.—
Gentlemen, it is my duty to explain to you the whole. The
first occurrence, of two days absence, arose simply from my
having rode nut to St. Albans, intending to return the same day,
when I was unexpectedly detained to the amount of time stated.
rut I have nu doubt Sir Robert hill will admit that I *pole-
tized for my having been so detained, that be admitted my apo-
I /y, and was perfectly satisfied. This was the first occurrence
of the kited that had taken place during my whole service. On
the second occasion, under the circumstances as I have already
sated, I, on account of my friend, was suddenly taken into the
custody of the Civil Power ; and as soon as I arranged matters,
1 .mmediately returned to my Regiment.
'I he third occasion.—lt will be proved-to you that I received
inform ain't ef my father, who was in the 85th year of his age,
havirg broken his leg, in consequence of which a mortification
had ensued, and that he was in a most dangerous state. On this I
immediately applied for leave of Sir Robert Hill, for the purpose
of attending my father at Worcester. Sir Robert felt it neces-
sary to refuse me; which, under the circumstances, and being
the first 'lime I had asked leave since the Regiment left Windier,
as you have heard, I am sure he could not have refused me
without some reason. The reason, as you have also heard
given in evidence, was the absence of other Officers. Under-
standing, after my first note, that an Officer, then on pleasure
at Ramsgate was about to return, I deemed the cause of refusal
done away ; and, confident that ir R. Hill's filial feelings would
so Longer detain me under the torturous anxiety which I suffered,
I wrote to the Adjutant the letter which has been produced,
and set off to attend my father. Gentlemen, if I have, in obey-
ing such a call, erred as a soldier, I trust you will deem me
right as a man—my place was supplied, and no injury arose to
the Regiment front my absence : it is the only instance of such
a kind during my servile in the Regiment, and was, I had hoped,
forgiven ; and as no charge had arisen upon it, till the last in-
stance of which I ant about to speak.
In the decision of your hearts upon this subject, Gentlemen,
it is my duty to shew you that I do not impose upon you that in
which you are not justified by the very letter of military law.
The Articles of War, front their first regular institution to the
present moment, as will be seen by the ith and Bth Articles of
the 14th section, have even qualified the prohibition of absence
without leave, by the exoeption of cases of evident and urgent'l
necessity. A more evident or a more urgent necessity, I pre-
sume, can hardly be found, than that which I have just pub-
muted, Gentlemen, to your feelings, any more than the uncon-
troulahle arm of the Civil rower. _

The last instance, from the Gth to the 9th of August, is also
one of the latter description. As in the former one, I arranged
it as quickly as could be done, losing not an instant, and imme-
diately returned to the Regiment. Sir Robert Hill was fully
acquainted with the circumstance, and if a regimental return
had taken place, wmild, in course, not have returned me absent
without leave, but in the custody of the Civil Power.
Having necessarily spoken of being twice abstracted front my
rolimeut by the Civil I'ower, it is now necessary, Gentlemen, that
I should certain to you the cause of it, and thew you, as I shall
prove, that it did not arise front any pecuniary defect of my
own means, such as to render Me incapable of preserving the
due crytti: or an Officer in his Majesty's service. I entered that
khan with all the ardour of a young man of competent for-
tune, and always identified myself with my brother Officets, and
considered their happiness as my owfl. Among those of a for-
mer teelmait was Mr. Haetiiif, whose fortune is ample, but it
is in Jamaica, and the deterioration of such property of late
years is toe well known to nerd description. Living up to his.
income, he was not prepared for this evil, and he found a tem-
porary assistance necessary, which I was proud to afford him.
Cirtunistancee have grown worse, instead of better as he ex-
pactead4 this asaistance, at the present moment, as will be shewn
to you, amounts to ne less a sum than between five and six
thousand pounds. Having come to an arrangement with the
epulent firm of Boddington for the care of his estate, he con-
templated the speedy payment of the sums I had progressively
advanced to• him, and I in consequence became his security fur
one thousand guinea). His merchants having to make a die.
Implement of many thousand pounds, were prevented fur the
present being so liberal as they probably night otherwise have
been, and in consequence Mr. Ratliff was not able to liquidate
this security for one thousand guineas. loon after be retired to
France, and this circuu!,tance, for the first time distrustful,
made them feel it necessary to proceed against me, which, as you
will learn front one of them, was the sole cause of my having
bees so placed in the hands of the Civil 'cower for the day.;
mentioosul in the second and fourth allegations of the charge.
Pa bring than compelled, by the institution of these charges,
to mention the same and circumstances of a brothel Meer, for,