The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-19 00:00:00

HOUSE:OF COMMONS.-MONDAY.

The report of supply being brought up, and the resolu-
tion relating to the pension of officers' widows being put
from the, chair,
Captain BERNAL moved for a copy of any correspond-
elide respecting the refusal of the War-office to allow a
pension to Mrs. Fawcett, the widow of the officer who fell
in the late duel. There had been a refusal some years
ago to a widow whose husband had committed suicide •,
but between suicide and duelling there was no analogy. A
law for giving damages to the relations of the deceased
against the survivor might be of some use; but not a stop-
page of the widow's pension. The articles of war con-
tained a prohibition against duelling or carrying hostile
messages; but it was a dead letter. He read the chal-
lenge addressed from the Duke of Wellington to Lord
Winchelsea, observing the writer of the letter was now at
the head of the army, and the gentleman who conveyed it
was the distinguished officer now filling the office of Se-
cretary-at-War. Captain Bernal then cited an instance
in his own regiment of an officer who had been driven
from it for having submitted to an insult without chal-
lenging the aggressor. If Colonel Fawcett had sold out
one week before the duel, a sum of between 3,000 and
4,000 would have been at his widow's disposal. The se-
conds in this very affair had been acquitted, and were still
in her Majesty's service, and he besought the house and
the Secretary-at-War, whose courage was equalled only
by his humanity, that this calamity might not be visited
solely upon the unhappy widow.
Sir H. HARDINGE defended the refusal of the pension,
not upon general grounds, but upon the special circum-
stances of the case, particularly the near relationship of
the parties, the slightness of the affront, and the precipi-
tancy of the hostile meeting. Those circumstances con-
tinued to form in his mind a sufficient reason for the reso-
lution he had taken. The consideration of the widow's
pension was the public service of the husband, and there
were several kinds of misconduct by which the merit of
that public service was considered to be so far obliterated
that the pension was refused to the widow. The case of
the Duke of Wellington was not that of challenge to
another officer in the army. Her Majesty had now au-
thorized him, with a view of repressing the practice of
duelling, to introduce an alteration in the next articles of
war, which, he trusted, would effectually discourage them.
The main scope of that alteration was, to enjoin that apo-
logies should be frankly made and frankly accepted, and
that when the matter could not otherwise be accommo-
dated, it should be referred to the commanding officer of
the regiment. If this kind of arbitration were established
in the army, he trusted that a like recourse would be
adopted in private life, and that this crime and folly would
be finally abolished. He must confess, however, that the
remedy was not complete, for it would apply only to cases
between officers being both on whole pay. It could not
be made applicable to any officer on half-pay, nor to a
dispute between an officer on whole pay and a person not
an officer; for it was obviously necessary that the control,
if applicable to either, should be applicable to both.
Lord PALMERSTON said, that the ground of the pension
was the officer's service. It was in the nature of an aug-
mentation to his pay, as relieving him, pro tante, from the
necessity of laying bp a provision for his widow. He was
inclined, however, to think that in this case the pension
might properly have been granted. Colonel Fawcett had
not been the challenger; and the seconds seemed to have
been very culpable in not having prevented the meeting.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE entered into the merits of the duel,
shoVing that the duel had not been fought until after the
opinions of several distinguished officers had been taken,
all of whom deemed it impossible for Lieutenant Munro,
as an officer on full pay, to avoid the unhappy extremity
of a hostile meeting.
Sir R. PEEL gave his cordial approbation to the course
adopted by Sir H. Hardinge in respect of this pension.
Colonel Fawcett had selected a very young person as his
second. Had the second been a man of higher standing,
his influence might have availed to stop a duel which
ought never to have taken place. With respect to the
hardship on Lieutenant Munro, that officer bad been
warned that it was necessary for him to return and take
his trial. He had declined to do so, and the consequence
was inevitable, that he must forfeit his commission in the
army. Sir R. Peel declared his hope that the proposed
alterations in the articles of war would be effectual.

After some observations from other honourable mem-
bers, Captain BERNAL withdrew his motion, and remain-
ing resolutions of the committee of supply were reported
and agreed to.
Mr. O'CONNELL moved for leave to bring in a bill for
amending the law respecting Roman Catholic charities
and places of worship in Ireland. His objects were to ob-
viate the necessity of expensive applications to courts of
equity, and to facilitate the establishment of residences
for parish priests, and with these views to give a regular
succession to the Roman Catholic hierarchy for the pur-
pose of taking grants of land.
After a few words from Mr. SHAW, and on an under-
standing that no member, by his acquiescene at this stage
of the measure, should be considered as committing him.
self to the approval of it, leave was given to bring in the
bill
Mr. HUME moved for a committee on the tobacco-
trade. to prevent smuggling.
Adjourned.