Star.
London, England, 1827-03-23 00:00:00

„,,,or (WON 29 every possible exertion bad been made
withto the usual conveniences. and, in faci,
Ipp hirnish ks than)
were actually in the lines of this regimens,
allowing ten bullocks to each company. the
sti"”' aI
Memberti had said, that it the Officers had gone
• ogstthem and asked what were th -it grievances,
▪ informed them that they should have an ingot's,
h been so moifoy—.4h4l very thing was.
tbele wsuand 92t day before the nautili, broke
l" r'l and
Court of Inquiry was ordered, they were hi•
est.
sited to
send delegates to appear nelore it; Ind when
g I eased a suspicion as to th- Wets of•sueti
deithlgitle":rif they should be sent. Colonel
:Caw...right
egered io remain with them as
he
Hoo, bfewber had represented this mutiny as being one
doe oddest stature, and that the tin .ps fia a merely re.
*alto march; but, in f.ct, the mutiny was of A much
wer(alarming description, the mops not only viole .fly
pried sway their colours: bu. fog cibly dove their
Often from the parade. What the Hon. Member ha t
Awed respieting the Commander in Chief only
,bewwiltliat that gallant Officer had acted with vie most
'amiable promptitude 0.1 that trying occasion, in ors
*may collecting together so strong a body of troops
is an against the mutineers; nor. indeed, were there
asp ns left untried to make the ieisritgen•sfuily seam
silk of their danger; indeed, delegates fr• m then) wart,
actually conducted through the lines, and >hewn there-
to** die (nice .which was prepared to act rgainsi
sbeicConlli any one say how far such a mutiny, if
.it battbeen allowed to go on, might have spread
A cssch44l9see been tried. before Lord Ma afield,
in which the chief question was. whether the Captain
bad or bad not abandoned his vessel without sut-
king cause? Amongst others, that celenratod Na-
tal Officer, Sir Charles 13osiglas. was called as a
witness, *DJ ,asked Irii opinion as to the conduct o'
the Captain? His reply n;as, that sitting there uti a
foe day, from what be had heard, be might probably
be iecliped to think that the Captain ought not ter haw
nutted the, vessel, but if he were to have been placed
io the sameaituation as the Captain was, with the waves
sod the wind raging around him, he did not kno N but
be mitt have :toted as he had done. The H .n. Mem-
ber for Montrose had not made sufficient allowance for
the difficult situation of the Commander in
Indeed, had that gallant Officer acted otherwise. he
might have had to answer for endangering the peace of
the country ; and as to the employment of artillery, it
was much the nest propel and julcinus course sof sup-
pressing the mutiny ; nor was the conduct of the muti-
raers•to patient as it had been representet. When the
Royals w ere advancing, the muun ens fired upon them.
The Hon. Member had been much mismf rimed as to
the extent of the time taken up in suppressing the mutiny.
The fact was, that after hall an hour not a shot was
fired. The loss also had been greatly ex iggerated ; it
did not in reality exceed 160 or 180. The report of
the Court of Inquiry related to various other matters
besides the mutiny, which were not yet in a sufficiently
forward state to make public, and the pub!. -fling them
at present might only have the effect of exciting ex•
pectations which could not be gratified. From that
report, however, it appeared that the mutineers bad
been tried not by an European court-martial, but by
one composed of n itive Officers ; that 140 of them had
been capitally convicted: it was, theref,re, the opinion
of.* natives that the troops had not been driven by
arcessiie to mutiny. 'Of the 140 convicted, only 12
had beep exectiteri ; j4e remainder had been sentenced to
work its irons on the roads, which punishment was by no
MUM an unusual punishment, and had been undergone
by many persons of high caste ;And indeed the very first
proper opportunity had been seised to remit the punish-
ment of these .last.mentioried persons, not merely in
compliance with the orders which had been sent out
from the,Government here, for such remission had been
directed before those orders had arrived. As to the dis-
missal of t he Officers,it was somewhat difficult to imagine
that this motiny could have proceeded so far, and spread
through three tegiments. _without. the Officers having
beard something of it; but if it had done so, it at any rate
evinced that the Officers must have been most culpably
aegligent and inattentive to what was going on amongst
the troops under their command, and that confidence
could not safely be reposed in them. And as to the cir-
cslar which bad been sent to the newspaper,editors. he
considered it a highly proper one, for every one must be
aware of the degree in which reports are sometimes exag-
gerated, and it might have happened that someone cone
cerned in exciting the mutiny might have furnished a
highly-coloured report of the manner in which it bad
originated, and beenimppressed, and which might have
done incalculable mischief in that country. He had
saw, he believed, gone over as shortly as be was able,
most of the points in the Hon. Member's address' whiCh
seemed worthy of observation. He must, .howeier,
declare, that he could not see what good consequences
would result from reviviag discussion upon this subject
(Cheers). The stain which the transaction in question
had cast upon the character of the natiie troops. had
already been removed by their subiequent good con-
duct. They were now perfectly contented; as a proof
of which he might state. ,that a great number of regi.
ments had voluntarily altered the terms of their engage.
runt, in order to have an opportunity of emending
their services beyond the Bengal territories. This was
a case in which the executive Government had a right
to expect that a certain degree of confidence should be
reposed in it...(Hear). . Prom the reason; which he hid
before gated, be considered it inexpedient to produce
the report of the Committee of Inquiry. .All the other
documents, consisting of the orders of Government. had
been published in the newspaper, and were matters of
• public notoriety. On these grounds he felt it his duty
to oppose the motion—(Hear, hear).
Sir C. FORBES contended, that the Ateport of the
Cornmissioneensef Inquiry ought to be produced. in jus-
tice not only to the native Officers, but to the Cortn
• mender in Chief, whose character was implicated in the
transaction. He had been informed by persons in that
House that the Report contained matter of a crimina.
tory and recriminatory character, and that, he sup-
posed, was the reason it was not brought forward.—
He then stated, that transactions similir to that of
Bamtckpoor were of common occurrence amongst the
native troops, and they did not deserve the name of
mutinies. The Honourable Member mentioned se-
veral instances, in which they h .4:1 been put dew.
without the shedding of a drop of blood. He regretted
very much that such harsh measures had been adopted
at Barrackpoor. Our empire in India must depend upon
the affections, and not upon the fears of the natives. II
the House looked to the details of the famous mutiny
of Madras, they would find that, on that occasion, not
one drop of blood had been spilled, and that not an
Officer had suffered deprivation, unless by the sentence
of a Court-Martial. The Hon. Member concluded by
declaring, that he would never cease as long as he bad