The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-01-09 00:00:00

Colonel Capper and Major Boles are to be consi.
dered as partaking personally in this act of Lleot—
Gen. Alacdowall, anti as deeply responsible for its
pernicious and criminal tendency.
76. Before this order was prepared, it was not
only known to those two confidential staff officers
of the Commander in Chief, but it was notoriou
to the whole army and settlement,
.that there was
a warm and 'e htwell. dissension between the Com-
mander in chief and the Governmeot. These
officers were aequ 'lusted with the Proiecution of
Lieutenant-Colonel Munro, and the part which
Lieotenant.Gcneral Macdowall had taken in that
proceeding. They knew that every step in that
extraordinary transaction was a studied insult to
the Government. They knew that Lieutenant.
General Macdowall had become the patron and
Channel of a Memorial to the Court of areetors;
hig:ily disapproved by the President in Council of
Fort St. George, which he had himself, at the in.
Malice of that Government, and at no distant pe-
riod, written circular letters to discourage and
mippress, but which, in a riper stage of hostility
towards the person and authority of the Governor,
be had countenanced and pro noted. It ix, in fine,
aupertluuts4 to proce what iv beyond doubt, and
Is not denied, that a warm, passionate rupture had
broken out between these two high authorities. ,

77. The Commander in Chief of All artuy, ini
au open and ardent odposition to the Governmemi
which be serves, is no trivial event, and consti.
toles a state of things from which 'some conse-
quences applicable to this question, bare appeared
to us to follow.
78. We consider these circumstances, there-
fore, as furnishing a nen nvitlifiration of the mi-
litary principle first asSci led ; and n e are of oei.
*ion, that in %urn extraordinary and mom •ntous
emergencies, it is fit and necessary to require, that
.an officer whose duty it is to give cu. reitcy to the
criers of the Commander in Chief, should, con.
trary to the general principle of blind obedience
wheat ought to prevail in ordinary times, carefully
consider these orders, and deliberate seriously law*
their nature and purview, before he publishes
them. Toe circulation, in heated and factious
times, of a seditious address to the army, has no
an elegy to the principle of military obedience, to
o military order in the common dispatch of bu-
siness, and cannot lie governed by the same rules.
79. We are, after much and s..rious reflection,
decidedly of opinion, that this restriction of the
military principle, the general importance of
which we nevertheless feel most sensibla, cannot
impair ,the .obligatiuns of military subordination
and obedience, in any manner or degree, prcjii.
dal to the natural and le4itimate objects of Will.
tary caminmid ; And 'oat iii times of trouble, it
may aff 411 a most salutary and necessary plot
to the piivernment and people, ag 'buil the
possible perversion of military supreinaizy to the
purpoics of seditian tar fac.i.m.
SO. Iu a natural and wieolesoine state of things,
the obedience of subordinate Officers is to be

plicit ; admitting of d liberation, and subje, t
to no responsibility, except for plain and manifest
crimes. In such distempered seasons of open
contention with Governments as are now in goes.
Non, 'Once-6es from Comman.lers in Chief to their
Artnits, having reference to such debates, are a
At subject of deliberation to those whose I Ace it
way be to transmit them; sail a responsibility be-
longing eselnstve'y to such occasions, must attach
even to their official and ininisterill acts.
Si. In conformity with these runtimeots, we
have no doubt of the riiiiuns.bilitv of the late
Adjutant and Deptity.Aoj.itaiii.General of yuiir
army; on the occasion of 0114.1,1101 g the General
Order of the 28th of January ; and we are of opt.
tb*t if the author of that Order is himself
guilty of sedition, as It esteem him th,le
confidential Officers of the Staff, who cOniented to
be the instruments of his crime, are, mitt all the
circumstances, implicated in the guilt and subject
to the penalties of the offence.
82 I f there is ere doubt, ho wevero pot* this ques.
tion, which, as weighing general and fundamental
principles against particular modifications of them,
most always be a delicate one, wt cannot quit the
subject without repeating, that it is not a fit mat.
ter for the interference of the army itself. Its
what particulars sedition may consist—tinder what
circumstances the official inorumentality of an
Officer in the crime of a superior shall subject him
to personal responsibi:ity, are questions to be dis.
cussed in colder blood, and by a different descrip.
tion of counsellors than are always to be found in
numerous bodies at a period of heat and irritation.
They are worthy of the informed and impartial
deliberation of his Majesty's coufidential Servants
and Advisers, and of the Supreme. Rulers of the
Army of India, the Honourable the Court of Di.
rectors.
83. To snatch a question of that nature and

importance horn the dreision'of those authorities,
at the very womcnt of itadoemol reference to their
jitTgment, and to cast it as a source of discordant
violence into the midst of an army already warmly
agitated, is the put of incendiaries and not of
friends,, either to the army or the state. It is a
great crime, and being that of which the officers
who have lately exprriencod the 'harks of your
displeasure have apperred to you tin a careful in-
vestigation of the facts to have been guilty, we
have no hesitation, although we deeply lament the,
occasion of this necessary severity, in approving
and commending the vigilant energy with whien
you have, in a season of great difficulty and din.
ger, asserted the legal authority of your Goren,:
ment, prevented the factious contagion 'frunr'
spreading throngh the honourable' and hitherto
ustainted ranks of the Coast Army, and provided
for the security and integrity of the British Empire.
in India.
84. You will perceive that much of what has
been said on the Memorial, is applicable to the
address to Major Boles.
85. This is also a untass.re committed with a Mi-
litary combination. It assumes the cognizahei
a question which belatige to fitter and higher en-
bunals. It pronounce', in the name of an 'Any,
open censure of the Geeerninent, which the army
is bound to obey.
to these respects it stands nn the same foot-
ing, and putakee in .11 the crimioalil ot the pc.

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