The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-08-12 00:00:00

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 11918-

We have not yet the official communication of the
facts of the conduct of Mir. A nauynNoT and his un-
fortunate companions, for which they were made to
pay the penalty of their lives by the sentence of the
American Court-Martial held upon them, but we
insert in another column some statements relative to
Mr. A. and one of the Indian Leaders, who was
doomed to a similar fate, which profess to be found-
ed upon correct information, and are certainly cal-
culated to add to the horror which such transactions
naturally excite. We have repeatedly alluded in
terms of disapprobation to these military executions,
and whether the proceedings of the Court-Martial,
before whom the persons charged with violating every
obligation of nature and of law, were or were not
grounded upon,and justified by facts, we have uniform-
ly condemned such hasty and arbitrary punishments.
We have already said, that we disapprove of hasty
military executions, even on the most irrefragable
testimony of guilt, and maintain the popular right
of freely investigating and judging of military ope-
rations and conduct, as inseparable from the right
of suffrage, by which those who bestow military
rank are themselves clothed with the power to
do so—we therefore need not be very prolix in ex-
pressing our opinion as to the discretionary powers
assumed by the American Generris. We think the
execution of the sentence upon the persons in ques-
tion, without reference to the Government at
Washington, if the powers assumed were not
authorized, is deserving of reprobation, 140 though
the American warfare has afforded other ex-
ample, of military executions equally reprobated, and
demising of execration, both the Court that passed
the sentence and the American Government
must know that the punishments have been In-
flicted at their peril—at the peril of their na-
tional character, which, es an American Paper
justly observes, is worth a hundred Florid's.—
There is no reason to suppose, that the truth respect.
ing the unfortunate sufferers and their connections
Kith the British Government can be finally concealed.
The affair is likely to be strictly investigated even
in America. The Court-Martial which condemned
Mr. ARBUTHNOT, consisted of thirteen Members, of
whom General GAINES was the President.

The decision which the Privy Coencil has made
in the case of the Reform claimed in virtue of an in.
dubitable Constitution by the inhabitants of Aber-
deen, in the Election of their Magistrates, empower-
ing the very men Who, by their mai-administration,
have destroyed the property end credit of that city
—the parties chiefly complained of, the old Magis•
trates, to elect the new. is a proceeding so strange,
so much at variance with every idea of justice, and so
contrary to the more liberal and jest piecedent lately
afforded in the Constitution granted by the same body
to the Borough of Montrose, that we do not wonder
the indignation of the People of Scotland should be
strongly L.:pulsed at such an oetrage upon common
sense and justice, at such a pitiful attempt to check the
progress of a peacefulandinostwholesomeand necessary
reformation. A decision, however, se unconstitutional,
will not have this effect. The evils of the self.elect.
Jug a►twl corrupt system, have become intolerable, and
neither can nor will be borne. Nothiug•is so iniqui.
boas as deliberate contempt of public right and jos.